FRONTLINE and NOVA

It's the start of the new TV Season and PBS is no exception. While PBS doesn't follow a strict season like the commercial networks, tomorrow the people's network will kick off the new season of NOVA ScienceNow and FRONTLINE. Many of you are probably familiar with NOVA, the excellent science program. Well ScienceNow is simply a version with an engaging astrophysicist host that tackles a few science related stories and interviews and profiles in a very didactic way.

While I adore NOVA, it is FRONTLINE that I simply cannot live without. This is the preeminent news documentary program on the planet! And by planet I mean the United States because I'm an ugly, arrogant American (natch). Words cannot express the impact FRONTLINE has had on me as a person. Each FRONTLINE program tackles a news story, a political or social issue in exacting detail. FRONTLINE will simply blow you away. If you are at all curious, please watch. And if tomorrow's topic doesn't interest you, check out the website for upcoming and previous episodes. FRONTLINE tackles an exhaustive range of issues. The FRONTLINE website is beyond superb, many episodes can be seen in their entirety and each episode has its own sub-website.

The season premiere of FRONTLINE is titled "Return of the Taliban" and deals with the lawless Paki-Afghan region that seems to be under Taliban control. Instead of paraphrasing, here's the exact episode summary from the website:

"FRONTLINE reports from the lawless Pakistani tribal areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and reveals how the area has fallen under the control of a resurgent Taliban militia. Despite the presence of 80,000 Pakistani troops, the Taliban and their supporters continue to use the region as a launching pad for attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Off limits to U.S. troops by agreement with Pakistan's president and long suspected of harboring Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, the area is now considered a failed state. President Pervez Musharraf tells FRONTLINE reporter Martin Smith that Pakistan's strategy, which includes cash payments to militants who lay down their arms, has clearly foundered. In a region little understood because it is closed to most observers, FRONTLINE investigates a secret front in the war on terror."