Weekend TV: 'Betty & Coretta,' 'Downton Abbey'

by Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Posted January 31, 2013

Betty & Coretta | Lifetime, Saturday, 8 ET/PT

Lifetime follows its lovely African-American take on Steel Magnolias with this story of two real-life African-American women, their impact on history, and the impact history had on them: Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, and Dr. Betty Shabazz, wife of Malcolm X. Angela Bassett and Mary J. Blige star as Coretta and Betty, with Malik Yoba and Lindsay Owen Pierre co-starring as their husbands.

Super Bowl/Elementary | CBS, Sunday, 6:30 ET/3:30 PT

It's TV's longest day: a sporting celebration that includes a halftime extravaganza led by the will-she-or-won't-she-sing-live Beyonce; a slew of incredibly expensive commercials; and, somewhere in the midst of all that, a football game. And when it's over, you get a special outing of CBS' highly entertaining Elementary, featuring Terry Kinney as a famous criminal and Kari Matchett as the FBI profiler who knows him best, and who is almost certain to clash with Sherlock. May your team win - and may Elementary air at some reasonable post-game hour.

Downton Abbey | PBS, Sunday, 9 ET/PT

This excellent period soap offers its best episode of the season yet, as Cora's (Elizabeth McGovern) grief over Lady Sybil's death threatens her marriage to Robert (Hugh Bonneville). Bonneville and the sometimes-underrated McGovern are both outstanding, but in many ways, the episode belongs to Maggie Smith because it allows her to show sides of Violet we seldom get to see. Yes, the great quips still ring, but we also see Violet's maternal side (in a wonderful speech about the aristocratic view of divorce), and the sad, moving, aging effect the death of the young can have on the old.