Happy Thanksgiving. If you live in the West, give thanks that PBS stations there are indeed showing Wallander (Sunday, PBS Masterpiece Mystery!, 9 p.m.) Because the Buffalo PBS station, serving Southern Ontario, is now holding it until Oct. 17. If you're in Newfoundland, check out W5 (Saturday, CTV, 7 p.m.), as Victor Malarek examines the case of the deaths of two patients at a Newfoundland hospital ER. Possible medical errors and families left in the dark. Also on that W5, ex-Barenaked Ladies guy Steven Page opens up. Also Newfoundland-related is a great Star Portraits (Saturday, Bravo!, 8 p.m.) with Gordon Pinsent. A reminder of horror is there in Witness: Katrina (Sunday, CBC NN, 10 p.m.) one of the best chronicles of events in New Orleans during and after the storm. It weaves a highly complex but powerful narrative.
Meanwhile, your big Thanksgiving Day menu is an old HBO gem, a wonderful doc on the real tattoo craze and the great Boardwalk Empire.
Subway Stories Saturday, HBO Canada, 8 p.m.
Another gem from the HBO vault, this anthology of stories was made in 1997 after HBO invited New York residents to send the stories of odd and wonderful events on the subway there. What we get is a bunch of admittedly uneven little dramas, and some are no more than vignettes. But there is great talent at work and some sequences are glorious. The opening one, a bit of offhand comedy, was directed by Jonathan Demme. One story, The Red Shoes, was written by playwright John Guare and it has Christine Lahti and Denis Leary as the stars. It's a very sharp story, a tiny, traditional twist-in-the-tail epic. Another features a fine performance by the great Jerry Stiller ( Seinfeld, King of Queens) as an oddball codger who gives mysteriously accurate stock tips. One of the strangest is directed by Abel Ferrara and features a man and woman whose intense relationship is played out in silence, as can only happen on the subway. The final segment, meant to be uplifting, actually is that in a magical way.
Tattoo Odyssey Saturday, Bravo!, 9 p.m.
Made by Andrew Gregg, this excellent and eye-popping doc follows National Geographic photographer Chris Rainier as he goes into an Indonesian jungle to encounter "the oldest living tattoo culture in the world." The doc starts at tattoo parlours on Queen West in Toronto and establishes the recent acceptance of tattoos as something that sprang from a need for seeking identity inside the fringe world of artists, performers and musicians in bohemia. From there, we hear Rainier's ruminations on it all and on the possible connection with the tattoo cultures of remote indigenous people. We learn that, ironically, it was missionaries from the West who helped end some of the tattoo cultures, having denounced them as "desecrations of the flesh." Now, of course, in our cities they are used to celebrate the flesh. Rainier, whose mentor was legendary photographer Ansel Adams, is a great guide, and you will never think about tattoos in the same way again.
Boardwalk Empire Sunday, HBO Canada, 9 p.m.
It just gets better, this series, doesn't it? Tonight's episode, Anastasia, is summarized as this: "Jimmy forges new relationships in Chicago; Nucky fetes a U.S. senator; Chalky fingers a lynching suspect; Margaret and Lucy clash." Oh, but the rich layers of nuanced drama that exist under that. Chalky, as you'll know if you've followed it, is played by Michael K. Williams, who was Omar on The Wire. It's great to see him here in a solid, continuing role. And while Steve Buscemi has gotten all the attention for playing Nucky Thompson, something should be said in praise of Kelly Macdonald as the simmering love interest Margaret Shroeder. Macdonald is fabulous as the knowing woman who can see through Nucky like no one else. Tonight we see her anger and assertions flare. Macdonald is one of those under-the-radar British actors who turn up in U.S. productions and do remarkable work. She had the lead female role in the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men. Many will remember her most fondly, though, from the classic BBC miniseries State of Play. And if you think tonight's Boardwalk Empire is good, next week's is a masterpiece.
Check local listings.