‘King’ gives ‘Lear’ a Western flare

If you think dramas are violent today, you should brush up on your Shakespeare. The Elizabethan-era poet playwright filled his tragedy and history plays with enough cruelty, sadism, murder, incest and bloodshed to fill a dozen Quentin Tarantino movies. If you like the good old ultra-violence, there’s nobody like the Bard.

Given Shakespeare’s R-rated reputation, you have to give the folks at TNT some credit for “King of Texas” (7 p.m., Sunday) a bold retelling of “King Lear” as a larger-than-life Western. Set just after the Mexican-American War, “King” stars Patrick Stewart as John Lear, an ornery rancher and veteran of the Alamo. As in Shakespeare’s play, Lear proposes to divide his holdings between his three daughters, but becomes intoxicated by the false praise of the scheming Susannah (Marcia Gay Harden) and her sister Rebecca (Lauren Holly). When the dutiful Claudia (Julie Cox) fails to join in their phony flattery, Lear disowns her. In a closely linked sub-plot, the proud land owner Westover (Roy Scheider) becomes equally blind to the scheming of his bad son Emmett (Matt Letscher) and banishes his faithful son Thomas (Liam Waite).

Patrick Stewart stars in the TNT film King

Anyone who has ever read “Lear” knows that both Lear and Westover will suffer greatly for their misjudgments. In fact, “King” just may follow the plot points of “Lear” a bit too closely to make much sense to anyone who is not well-versed with Shakespeare’s play. And speaking of verse, there t’aint none in this prosaic adaptation.

All this said, “King” is an ambitious and handsome production.

The Oscar-winning Harden almost steals the picture as the very bad Susannah. “King” also provides a great vehicle for Stewart, whose Lear convincingly descends from pride to folly, madness, rage and remorse.

Doesn’t anybody believe in editing any more? Last summer, documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple turned her cameras on Long Island’s fabled resort towns, allowing longtime residents, rich celebrities, desperate weekenders, ambitious waitresses and gatecrashers to speak for themselves. The result is “The Hamptons” (8 p.m., Sunday, ABC, concludes Monday) a very, very long portrait (ABC calls it a “reality miniseries”) of a lot of spoiled, delusional, short-tempered tourists and the people who serve them.

Today’s other highlights

The Cartoon network kicks off a 38-hour “June Bugs” marathon of 160 Bugs Bunny cartoons (7 a.m.).

A turbulent decade and its popular music are crammed into the fake-looking 1999 made-for-TV movie “The ’60s” (7 p.m., NBC).

Paul Rodriquez hosts The 2002 Alma Awards (7 p.m., ABC) honoring Latino achievement in mass media.

“Great Performances” (7 p.m., PBS) broadcasts The Queen’s Jubilee Gala marking the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth II’s ascension to the throne.

Sunday’s highlights

Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (6 p.m., CBS): an interview with a Middle Eastern terrorist; a profile of Broadway star Elaine Stritch.

Jane Seymour stars in the 1999 drama “The New Swiss Family Robinson” (6 p.m., ABC).

NBA playoff action (6:30 p.m., NBC).