TV picks for Feb. 9-11: Eric Clapton, 'Our Cartoon President,' 'Here and Now,' Patty Hearst

February 9, 2018 at 4:46PM
A still of Eric Clapton, from the Showtime documentary ERIC CLAPTON: LIFE IN 12 BARS. - Photo: Getty Images/Courtesy of SHOWTIME
Eric Clapton is the subject of a Showtime documentary. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Got me on my knees

Even with a running time of 135 minutes, "Eric Clapton: A Life in 12 Bars" can't manage to hit all the notes in the legendary artist's career, but director Lili Fini Zanuck smartly focuses on her subject's real-life blues that led to the creation of "Layla" and "Tears in Heaven." Clapton himself serves as the documentary's narrator.

8 p.m. Saturday, Showtime

Been there, done that

The animated series "Our Cartoon President," executive-produced by Stephen Colbert, does a fine job of parodying 45's administration, especially his sons, but almost all the jokes have been told before on "Saturday Night Live," "The President Show" and even "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert." While clever, this is just a little too late to the party.

7 p.m. Sunday, Showtime

The meaning of life

Alan Ball's obsession with mortality has resulted in "American Beauty," "Six Feet Under" and "True Blood." He's not done yet. His latest, "Here and Now," continues to wrestle with life-and-death issues through the eyes of a washed-up philosophy professor (Tim Robbins) and his mopey family. There's a an element of the supernatural at play — one son keeps seeing "11 11" references — but the most out-of-this-world draw to this ponderous drama is Holly Hunter, mesmerizing as usual as the clan's control-freak mother.

8 p.m. Sunday, HBO

Captive audience

The documentary "The Radical Story of Patty Hearst" stretches over six hours, starting with two back-to-back episodes this weekend. That may seem like overkill, but the premiere gets you hooked, thanks to segments with Hearst's ex-boyfriend and one of the Symbionese Liberation Army terrorists.

8 p.m. Sunday, CNN

Neal Justin

(NYT10) UNDATED -- Dec. 10, 2004 -- HEARST-FILM -- Patty Hearst in a scene from the documentary, ""Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst." The Symbionese Liberation Army was an aberration, during aberrational times. Its nine delusional activists murdered and kidnapped their way onto the national scene 30 years ago, before self-destructing, leaving behind barely a shadow. Yet the new documentary produced and directed by Robert Stone, now seems to embrace its subjects, romanticizing their criminal
Hearst (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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