The TV Zone

Do high-art docs have to be stuffy homework assignments, full of talking heads with deep thoughts or breezy pronouncements? Of course not, and for proof check out tonight's "Simon Schama's Power of Art;" it's a gorgeous, visual romp full of (especially full of) breezy pronouncements by Schama, the brilliant history prof at Columbia who also wrote a much-lauded history of Britain that was (also) distilled into a terrific TV series. "Power's" - launching with Van Gogh - a fusion of docudrama with a detailed discussion of the art itself, though the drama part doesn't work quite as well because Andy Serkis's Vincent (Serkis most memorably played, among many roles, Smeagul on "Return of the King") often mumbles or furiously stabs at a canvass - and in one weird scene, even ingests a tube of paint. (Unsettling AND distracting.)
Reason to watch: Schama - a prose poet who slathers on verbs and nouns with all the reckless (and artful) abandon of one of his subjects. Vincent heads to the south of France, where he stages his final ascent to greatness, because "it appealed to a desire for a monkish way of life - Zen with olive oil." It's on Ch. 13 at 9 with Picasso up at 10. Next week Michelangelo, and the whole eight-parter wraps July 30 with an hour on Mark Rothko.

Simon Schama (courtesy TheAge.com.au)