1 The exceptional way Julianne Moore plays the title character of "Still Alice," a renowned Columbia University linguistics professor with early-onset Alzheimer's, lifts the film above its morose potential. The movie's focus is how the whole family responds to the fragmenting, disintegrating illness that has invaded Alice. Moore can carry the film through ordinary scenes and make them electrically powerful. The reason Oscar conversations tend to put her as a best actress front-runner is not that she's "due," but because Moore is an artist of limitless resources, even when she's playing a woman whose human properties are draining away.
3 The Marvel universe isn't all Captain America and Iron Man. Make way for "Agent Carter," Cap's bereaved yet spunky gal (Hayley Atwell), who delicately balances clerical work for a bunch of chauvinistic government agents with secret missions for one Howard Stark (aka Tony Stark's pops). With the help of some really swell gadgets and Stark's right-hand butler, the delightfully dry Jarvis (James D'Arcy), she outspies the spies with glamour and aplomb. Did we mention it's set in postwar New York? Gorge yourself on the clothes, the cars, the Automat! 8 p.m. Tuesdays, ABC
2 Master clown Gale LaJoye's enduring "Snowflake" is an inventive, wordless look into the life of a homeless vagabond. Created from scraps and castoffs in the scene shop at Children's Theatre more than 25 years ago, the hourlong play takes place under a billboard advertising an idyllic image of family life that he acutely lacks. But the man finds entertainment among the discarded objects that he transforms and repurposes, and he finds companionship in the form of a puppet that he animates with touching emotion. "Snowflake" is a slice of life that we do not often see onstage. childrenstheatre.org
4 Always innovative, the Punch Brothers have become more ambitious on their fascinating fourth album, "The Phosphorescent Blues." Working with famed roots producer T Bone Burnett for the first time, the Chris Thile-fronted bluegrass/jazz/classical/folk/pop band uses drums for the first time, explores minimalism and delivers some choral harmonies that are somewhere between the Beach Boys and heaven. Thile goes deep inside relationships especially on the 10-minute opus "Familiarity" and the unabashedly pop "I Blew It Off." Out Tuesday.
5 Video stores, Lollapalooza and tramp stamps the size of a Cinnabon: VH1's new series "Hindsight" amusingly takes us back to 1995. Gen X protagonist Becca, questioning her life, faints in an elevator the night before her second wedding and wakes up on the morning of her first, 20 years earlier. Will she marry her moody artist all over again? Put up with her demanding boss? Learn to live without her iPhone? Tune in for the "Melrose Place" jokes, grunge fashions and vintage tunes — plus some sweet existential angst. 9 p.m. Wednesdays, VH1
