Screen Gems | Coming this week on TV and at the movies
SMALL SCREEN
Hopkins 24/7 (10 p.m. Thursday, ABC) -- You shouldn't watch this six-part peek inside Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital just because network documentary units are dying out and this might be the last chance you ever get to see one in action. You should watch it because it's fascinating and dramatic stuff: The family of a comatose little girl struggles with the decision to disconnect life support. A young doctor punctures a patient's lung during a routine procedure. And a top brain surgeon recalls how, two decades ago, he climbed over a 20-foot-fence on the border with Mexico to sneak into California in search of a job picking fruit.
Celebrity Family Feud (8 p.m. Tuesday, A&E) -- I know, I know, it's summer and documentaries are a little too heavyweight. Well, there is some entertainment programming, like this prime-time spinoff of the 30-year-old game show. It features Ice T, Joan Rivers and -- arrrrrgh! My eyes! My eyes!
Traces of the Trade (11 p.m. Tuesday, WPBT-PBS 2) -- Those searches through family roots don't always end happily. Filmmaker Katrina Browne discovered her ancestors were heavily involved in the slave trade. This documentary, airing as part of the PBS series P.O.V., describes what she found and how her relatives reacted.
When I Knew (7:30 p.m. Wednesday, HBO) -- Scores of men and women recall the moment they realized they were gay. And after one of them describes his sexual epiphany while watching television, you will never view The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams quite the same way again.
The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice (9:30 p.m. Friday, Smithsonian Channel) -- Annette Funicello to the contrary, girls in the '50s could rock. Watch this documentary about Wanda Jackson, known back then as The Female Elvis Presley, and then see if you can figure out why she's not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
-- GLENN GARVIN
BIG SCREENWall-E (G) -- The wizards at Pixar Animation Studios (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) take a gamble with this largely dialogue-free (but not silent) story of a garbage-compacting robot who discovers his true purpose 700 years after he was made.
Wanted (R) -- Russian filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov (Nightwatch) makes his Hollywood debut with this adaptation of the graphic novel about an ordinary guy (James McAvoy) recruited by the appropriately-named Fox (Angelina Jolie) to join an elite squad of assassins.
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