RFK returns to the ’60s again

Just when you think you’ve seen the last made-for-TV movie about the Kennedy saga, along comes “RFK” (7 p.m., Sunday, FX). The film focuses on the last four and half years of Robert Kennedy’s (Linus Roache) life, the period between his older brother’s assassination and his own. This is fertile ground for great drama, covering Kennedy’s rivalry with President Lyndon Johnson (James Cromwell), his “carpetbagger” election to the New York U.S. Senate seat and his growing concern about poverty, racism and the cost of the U.S. war in Vietnam.

Unfortunately, “RFK” reduces RFK to a one-dimensional character, a hyperactive bleeding heart who is continually wracked by guilt about his privileged background and feelings of inadequacy about his ability to step into his late brother’s shoes. It seems inconceivable that you could make a movie about Robert and Ethel Kennedy (Marnie McPhail) and not acknowledge their 11 children. While it might humanize Kennedy’s character to show him playing with his brood, in most scenes he’s surrounded by eager aides squabbling about the war, poverty or his chances of challenging Johnson in 1968.

It doesn’t help matters that Robert spends a lot of time alone, mulling his options and obligations like a modern-day Hamlet. But he’s not really alone he has the talking ghost of his late brother, President John F. Kennedy (Martin Donovan), to keep him company. These scenes strive for poignancy but often border on farce. Let the word go forth: No more TV dramas about the Kennedys!

Set in the 1980s in the port town of Bayonne, N.J., the cable drama “Hysterical Blindness” (8:30 p.m., Sunday, HBO) stars Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis as Debby and Beth, two working-class women whose desperate search for love and acceptance leads them back to the same dive bar every night. Gena Rowlands plays Debby’s mother, Virginia, a longtime waitress who thinks she has found true love with a retired gentleman (Ben Gazzara).

Filled with strong performances, “Blindness” is a bleak slice-of-life drama about women who are blinded by their own limited horizons.

The three-hour documentary “Teen Species” (7 p.m., Sunday, TLC) follows several teens through their most awkward years and explains how the onslaught of hormones, the changes in brain chemistry and other convulsions make young people so mercurial. Narrated by popular TV counselor Dr. Drew.

Today’s highlights

Tom Berenger, Luke Perry, Rachel Ward and Burt Reynolds star in the 2002 made-for-cable western “Johnson County War” (6 p.m., Hallmark).

The two top U.S. teams compete in the Little League World Series (6:30 p.m., ABC).

Humphrey Bogart stars in director John Huston’s 1941 gem “The Maltese Falcon” (9 p.m., Turner Classic Movies).

Sunday’s highlights

The U.S. champion competes with the best from the rest of the world in the Little League World Series (5:30 p.m., ABC).

Reports scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): Baseball’s superagent, Bruce Springsteen and how America armed Afghan rebels in the 1980s.

Officials investigate a possible biological weapon attack on “Forensic Files” (7 p.m., NBC), the network debut of the Court TV series.

A wayward letter complicates the life of a soon-to-be married man (John Stamos) in the 1999 romantic made-for-TV comedy “Sealed with a Kiss” (8 p.m., CBS).

Chefs prepare their hottest dishes on the “Fiery Foods Challenge” (8 p.m., Food Network).

Two trials unfold on “Crime & Punishment” (9 p.m., NBC).

“Sportscenter” (10 p.m., ESPN) celebrates its 25,000th episode since its Sept. 7, 1979, introduction.