I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
I keep writing, every week, that this miniseries is one of the most depressing TV dramas I’ve ever seen – and I keep watching, because it’s so well-acted, and because its plot is so deliberate and quietly intense. Last week’s episode was painful in its dramatic revelations, and in what it threw at its main characters. As psychically and physically scarred twin brothers Dominick and Thomas, Mark Ruffalo has been phenomenal – and so, last week, was Philip Ettinger (pictured), who in flashbacks played the twins as teenagers, with so much emotional rawness that he matched Ruffalo note for note. Also, in smaller roles, Bruce Greenwood was riveting in a single scene shot mostly in extreme close-up, and Rosie O’Donnell gave a career-best performance without once grandstanding. This week, apparently, will serve as the Godfather II of this saga, spending much of its time in an extended flashback, dramatizing a previous generation… in this case, the twins’ grandfather, whose written memoirs finally have been translated from the original Italian.