‘Trees, other entanglements’ on HBO
The Christmas holidays mark the one time of the year that it’s perfectly acceptable to drag a tree into your home for illumination and veneration. The 2023 documentary “Trees and Other Entanglements” (10 p.m., HBO, TV-14) has nothing to do with yuletide evergreens. It offers poetic meditations and overlapping tales of very different people and their lifelong connection to trees.
A mother instructs her children in a sacred grove of old growth, freeing one from a vine’s strangulation. An older man recalls how a tree offered him solace and hope during his years in a World War II Japanese internment camp. A tree planter explains the “roots” of his passion and shows the remarkable resemblance of his young saplings and much more mature trees.
While this film has nothing to do with Christmas or Christmas trees, it still leaves one with a sense of reverence. Its message: Oh, come let us adore them.
› Paramount+ streams the four-part docuseries “Born in Synanon.” The film follows one woman’s memories of coming of age in a tight-knit community. Cassidy Arkin recalls her childhood fondly. Others remember it as a harsh, dangerous, all-controlling cult.
Synanon was founded as a utopian drug and alcohol treatment program. When first established, it was generally respected and received incredibly good press. Directed by Richard Quine, the 1965 drama “Synanon” depicted the center as a hope for those hooked on booze and dope. A major release, it starred Chuck Connors (“The Rifleman,” “Branded”), Stella Stevens (“The Nutty Professor”), Richard Conte (“The Godfather”) and singer Eartha Kitt.
In 1974, the year Cassidy was born, the Synanon leadership made major changes, mandating extreme measures like uniforms and shaved heads for recruits. They went so far as forcing women to have hysterectomies against their will and breaking up longestablished marriages. These moves toward cult dictatorship were accompanied by growing paranoia and the stockpiling of guns and other weapons.
Over the course of the series, Cassidy and her mother recall their years at Synanon and meet with other members who lived under much more harrowing conditions.
› Viaplay, the streaming service for Scandinavian content, presents the three-part series “WW2: Saving Norway’s Gold.” In a story worthy of a feature film, it recalls how the Norwegian government, facing invasion and later occupation by the German army, smuggled more than 49 tons of gold out of the country and out of Hitler’s hands.
› “Frontline” (10 p.m., PBS) examines how a National Guardsman leaked classified information onto the Discord platform, a social media app popular with gamers that has been used by political extremists as well as sexual predators.
The guardsman’s 2023 leak was made on Discord’s Minecraft server. It contained vital secrets about the status of the Ukraine-Russian war and is considered one of the most critical intelligence failures in history.