Television: Too Rich: The Secret Life Of Doris Duke

Her dad founded the American Tobacco Company. But the richest girl in the world found only domestic rancor: a hateful mother, scheming lovers and, finally, a butler (Richard Chamberlain, all oil and vitriol–a nicely creepy job) who hastened her death and gained her fortune. This mini-series, directed by John Erman, has the impulse for high trash but not the racing pulse, the quick, bold strokes; its view of the rich getting skewered by the would-be rich is curiously sedate. The reason to watch is Lauren Bacall; she has the glamour, gravity and great bones to give the elder Doris vigorous life just as she is dying from too many drugs. This is strength within stupor.

–By Richard Corliss