Culture Shock

Public TV too often likes its art tame and respectable, but this documentary mini-series–which examines Edouard Manet’s Olympia, Huckleberry Finn, 1920s jazz and racy 1930s movies–recovers what was shocking in art we have (mostly) grown comfortable with. The enlightening Manet episode unpacks 19th century French society to show how a nude courtesan roiled the salons by staring frankly at the viewer; the Finn segment examines a contemporary push to pull the book (charged with racism) from a school. The series comes down on the side of art, natch, but deserves credit for arguing, not assuming, its point.

–J.P.