Arts

Director Steven Spielberg — with some help from script polishers Joel and Ethan Coen — brings echoes of our own modern day to the Cold War.

The Knick returns for its second season on Cinemax Friday night. And with it, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh seems to be making good on his vow to turn his back on the film world and work exclusively in TV. He also has a new show on Amazon called Red Oaks, a comedy set in the 1980s. NPR reviews both and says Soderbergh's success is enabling him to shift power in the TV business from writer/producers to director/producers, and that power shift has a lot of repercussions.

The new film tells the story of Agu, a young boy in an unnamed African country, who is conscripted into a regiment of child soldiers led by a coldblooded commandant played by Idris Elba.

The co-founder of the Monty Python troupe admits he wasn't "naturally gifted" at physical comedy. His memoir, So, Anyway..., covers his boyhood and early career. Originally broadcast Dec. 16, 2014.

In Lenny Abrahamson's new film, a 5-year-old boy lives with his mother in a prison fashioned by a psychopath. Critic David Edelstein calls Room an amazing and "heart-stopping" survival story.