If every picture is worth a thousand words, what do we make of a million pictures? “Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) profiles Chinese American photographer Corky Lee, who spent a career documenting the rituals, celebrations and daily lives of often-unseen Asian Americans, amassing an archive estimated at a million images.
His goal was to use his camera to combat what he perceived as injustices against Asian Americans and to counter the stereotyping of mainstream media and the denigrating depictions coming out of Hollywood. (See Cult Choice below.)
Lee was inspired by his father’s stories of working as a laundry man in the U.S. military during World War II, a military conflict fraught with extreme attitudes about race. While the struggle against Hitler was seen as a way to save the world from the Nazis’ “master race” philosophies, the war with Japan produced home-front propaganda shot through with 19th-century notions of a “Yellow Peril,” and feelings that the enemy was somehow less than human. For their part, the military brass of Japan had master-race attitudes of their own, exhibited by their treatment of conquered Koreans, Chinese and others.
Born in 1947, Lee died in 2021 of complications related to COVID-19. Before his illness, he had been active in patrolling New York’s Chinatown, where residents had been subject to violent attacks arising from fears whipped up about COVID being a “Chinese” disease.
— Netflix serves up the Spanish documentary series “Cooking Up Murder,” exploring the many stories and multiple identities of celebrity chef Cesar Roman. He had built a reputation for regional Spanish dishes and was anointed the “king of cachopo,” a kind of comfort food popular in Northern Spain. His reputation unraveled and his multiple identities emerged after he was arrested for the murder of one of his employees. “Cooking” heats up over three episodes.
— Also streaming on Netflix, the melodrama miniseries “Thank You, Next” follows an overheated divorce case among the rich and stylish. While hardly an unusual story for a show produced by David E. Kelly or Shonda Rhimes, this series comes from Turkey, a society divided between a desire to identify with a secular West and those who seek a more Islamic future.
— Britbox introduces the original contemporary detective series “After the Flood,” from the makers of “Happy Valley.”
The action unfolds in a quaint British town inundated by rising waters. Sophie Rundle plays pregnant officer PC Joanna Marshall, investigating a series of unusual deaths. Most of her colleagues believe that the victims died as a result of the natural disaster. But the more she digs, the more it looks like the water was used to cover up a series of well-planned murders.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— The final nine dedicate songs to a hometown audience on “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
— “Antiques Roadshow” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-G, check local listings) spends time in Akron, Ohio.
— A missing agent’s service revolver becomes key evidence on “NCIS” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Politics gets in the way of the mayor’s daughter’s trip down in the aisle in the 2023 romance “The Professional Bridesmaid” (9 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— A bold daytime bank heist shocks the sandaled set on “NCIS: Hawai’i” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— A winner emerges on the season finale of “Deal or No Deal Island” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
CULT CHOICE
TCM continues its monthlong exploration of Hollywood’s take on Asian culture with the 1958 comedy “The Geisha Boy” (9:45 p.m., TV-G) starring Jerry Lewis as a hapless magician on a USO tour. Co-stars include Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa (“The Bridge on the River Kwai”) and Suzanne Pleshette (“The Birds;” “The Bob Newhart Show”). Members of the Los Angeles Dodgers appear as well, fresh from their controversial departure from Brooklyn.
SERIES NOTES
On two episodes of “Young Sheldon” (CBS, r, TV-PG): a Lone Star misfit (8 p.m.); some things just aren’t learned in books (8:30 p.m.) … Flaming youth on “MasterChef” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … “Jeopardy! Masters” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
Contestants must learn a dance choreographed by Hi-Hat and Witney Carson on “So You Think You Can Dance” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … The season finale of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … “Press Your Luck” (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Snoop Dogg, Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Wie West and Young Miko on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Jimmy Kimmel and Nicola Coughlan visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
