‘Mystery’ unveils dark comedy ‘Guilt’
“Masterpiece Mystery” (9 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-14, check local listings) debuts “Guilt,” a miniseries that lives up to its title. While driving home from a wedding, bickering brothers Max (Mark Bonnar, “Unforgotten”) and Jake (Jamie Sives, “To the Ends of the Earth”) are faced with a gruesome prospect. Driving more than slightly under the influence, they hit and kill an elderly pedestrian. Shock, panic and a certain knowledge that they might be charged with drunken driving, manslaughter and worse, leads to the rash decision to leave the scene of the accident, a “solution” that only adds to their list of infractions. As they say, the coverup is always more gruesome than the crime.
Ruth Bradley (“Pursuit”) stars as Angie, the niece and closest relative of Walter, the unfortunate fatality. And she’s come all the way from Chicago to her old Edinburgh neighborhood to see that justice is done.
“Guilt” combines slowly gathering paranoia and black humor to build a sense of imminent doom for Max, Jake and their small circle of suspicious friends, spouses and relations. Employ closed-captioning, as the Scottish accents can vary from charming to incomprehensible.
› The globe-trotting nature epic “Eden: Untamed Planet” (8 p.m. Saturday, BBC America) offers a “Making Of” episode explaining how many remarkable scenes were captured.
› Tom Hanks shares the screen with child actress Helena Zengel in the 2020 Western “News of the World” (8 p.m. Saturday, HBO), based on a 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles.
› Jodie Foster leads an all-star cast in the 2021 legal drama “The Mauritanian” (8 p.m. Saturday, Showtime), about a prisoner held at Guantanamo Bay for 14 years without being legally charged with a crime.
SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS
› College football action includes Texas Tech at Houston (7 p.m., ESPN), Georgia at Clemson (7:30 p.m., ABC) and LSU at UCLA (8:30 p.m., Fox).
› Seen recently on BET, the 2021 anthology “8:46
Films” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) presents four short films about the lives of contemporary Black Americans that each clock in at just under nine minutes.
› 2020 Tokyo Paralympics (8 p.m., NBC; 9 p.m., NBCSN).
› Prime time at the U.S. Open (7 p.m., ESPN2) returns to a late-summer tennis classic.
› A pompom tryout turns bloody in the 2021 shocker “Cheer for Your Life” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
› “Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty” (8 p.m., BBC America, TV-PG) returns from hiatus.
› Deep in the Alaska wilderness, a biologist falls under the spell of a handsome guide in the 2021 romance “Journey of My Heart” (9 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
SUNDAY HIGHLIGHTS
› Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): fighting the next pandemic;
refugees from Hitler’s Europe who returned to fight Nazis.
› 2020 Tokyo Paralympics (7 p.m., NBC).
› Florida State hosts Notre Dame in college football action (7:30 p.m., ABC).
› The Giants host the Dodgers in MLB baseball (7 p.m., ESPN).
› Directed by Spike Lee, “NYC Epicenters 9/11 Through 2021 and a Half” (8 p.m., HBO, TV-MA) recalls the efforts of boat captains to launch a maritime rescue of people stranded in the smoking ruins of lower Manhattan.
› Using a profile of aging columnist Cindy Adams as an entry, “Gossip” (8 p.m., Showtime) surveys the Murdoch media’s use of salacious news to pummel political enemies and those who would block its acquisition of newspapers and television stations.