TV Talk: 'Holocaust,' hazing and rebuilding Notre Dame highlight PBS fall shows

While some streaming services have tried to make inroads in the documentary realm, the genre also remains a mainstay on PBS stations, including Pittsburgh’s WQED-TV. Here are some fall programming highlights:

ARTS

“Great Performances: Black Lucy and the Bard” (9 p.m. Sept. 16): Exploration of William Shakespeare and his muses.

“Next at the Kennedy Center” (9 p.m. Oct. 7): New series spotlighting cultural leaders from hip hop, jazz, folk, country and modern dance.

“Great Performances: New York Philharmonic Geffen Hall Reopening” (9 p.m. Nov. 4): Reopening of the fully renovated space at Lincoln Center.

DRAMA

“Masterpiece: Magpie Murders” (9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16-Nov. 20): A mystery author dies under suspicious circumstances leaving an unfinished novel and questions about what became of him. The author’s editor (Lesley Manville, “The Crown”) becomes the detective.

“Masterpiece: Annika” (10 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16-Nov. 20): Nicola Walker (“Last Tango in Halifax”) stars as the title character, a Glasgow, Scotland, detective.

Returning: “Masterpiece: Van Der Valk” (9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25-Oct.9), “Masterpiece: Miss Scarlet and the Duke” (8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16-Nov. 20).

DOCUMENTARIES

“Independent Lens: Hazing” (10 p.m. Sept. 12): Filmmaker Byron Hurt explores the rituals of hazing on college campuses.

“The U.S. and the Holocaust” (8 p.m. Sept. 18-20): A three-part, six-hour, Ken Burns-executive-produced-series about America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 20th century.

“Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom” (10 p.m. Oct. 4): Portrait of the woman known as the conductor of the Underground Railroad.

“Becoming Frederick Douglass” (10 p.m. Oct. 11): Portrait of the statesman and abolitionist.

“King Tut: Allies and Enemies” (8 p.m. Nov. 23): Two-hour special marking the 100th anniversary of the opening of King Tut’s tomb.

“The House that Norm Built” (9 p.m. Oct. 3): Master carpenter and pioneer of the home improvement TV genre Norm Abrams retires with this one-hour retrospective.

“Independent Lens: Tik Tok, Boom” (10 p.m. Oct. 24): Exploration of what it means to be a digital native.

“American Experience: Taken Hostage” (9 p.m. Nov. 14-15): Revisiting the Iran hostage crisis.

Returning: “Lucy Worsley Investigates” (8 p.m. Sept. 25 and Oct.2), “Secrets of the Dead” (8 p.m. Oct.9).

SCIENCE/NATURE

“NOVA: Ending HIV in America” (9 p.m. Oct. 5): Almost 40 years after the discovery of HIV, could the U.S. be on the verge of ending AIDS?

“NOVA: Saving Venice” (9 p.m. Sept. 28): Engineering around rising sea levels.

“NOVA: Rebuilding Notre Dame” (9 p.m. Dec. 14): Following an April 2019 fire, engineers, masons and timber workers restore the French landmark.

“Nature: Woodpeckers: The Hole Story” (8 p.m. Nov. 2): Exploration of the species of bird that lives on every continent except Antarctica and Australia.

“NOVA: Crypto Decoded” (9 p.m. Nov. 9): How bitcoin, NFTs and other cryptocurrencies work.

Returning: “Rivers of Life” (8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28-Oct. 12).