Here’s a phrase you probably never expected to read: Highbrow PBS and trashy Investigation Discovery have complementary programs Monday night about race and intolerance. Neither is very satisfying on its own, but put them together and they acquire some substance.
The PBS offering is an “Independent Lens” film called “American Denial,” about a long-ago sociological study and its continued relevance today. Investigation Discovery, home to true-crime schlock like “Sex Sent Me to the Slammer,” gets serious for a change with “Hate in America,” in which the journalist Tony Harris explores three recent hate crimes. The pairing is accidental, but the programs go together, one providing historical perspective, the other immediacy.
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A version of this article appears in print on February 23, 2015, on page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: A Nation’s Unflattering Side, Past and Present. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
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