Remote patrol

I tried, honest I did, to get into "Africans in America," the beautifully sculpted PBS miniseries that chronicles the country's three centuries of slavery. (It airs tonight through Thursday on Channel 19; each episode is shown twice, at 7 and 8:30 p.m.) But after a while the scenic video, the scholarly voices holding forth, even Angela Bassett's (above) luscious narration, all reminded me of every Ken Burns movie I've seen. By contrast, the story of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss (below) on tonight's "American Justice" (8 p.m. on A&E) seduced me immediately. Sure, the subject matter is lurid, but this documentary turns on a script that's tightly written and has you guessing what happens next - something that never happens while watching "Africans in America."