Detective stories
Michael Connelly, the novelist behind the Harry Bosch detective series, would probably like it if you spent the evening buried in a book. But if you must watch TV, he's curated a terrific evening of hard-boiled films starting with "Klute," followed by a Gene Hackman double feature of "The French Connection" and "Night Moves." The sweaty-palm marathon concludes with "Shaft."
7 p.m., TCM
King of the clowns
Does anyone enjoy acting more than John Lithgow? The enthusiasm he's brought to everything from "3rd Rock From the Sun" to Winston Churchill in "The Crown" could come across as spoiled ham from a lesser talent, but the Emmy winner usually makes over-the-top work. That's certainly the case in "Trial & Error," an otherwise run-of-the-mill sitcom about a small-town murder case. Lithgow, as the eccentric on trial, pulls out all the stops. I'll have what he's having.
9 p.m., KARE, Ch. 11
How dry I am
Local journalists are the heroes in "Water & Power: A California Heist," a documentary that follows up where "Chinatown's" Jake Gittes left off in connecting the dots between political corruption and water supply. A subject matter like this can be a bit dry, but filmmakers Alex Gibney and Marina Zenovich put human faces on a bureaucratic nightmare.
8 p.m., National Geographic
Neal Justin
