‘Ruby Ridge’ Tells A Depressing Story

“Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy” (CBS Sunday and Tuesday at 9) takes a close-up look at an event that, along with the Waco-Branch Davidian debacle, is pointed to as a catalyst in the Oklahoma City bombing.

I don’t know how anyone can watch the two-part movie without having a sinking feeling that America has fallen upon hard times.

It’s sickening to see the rise of violent racism and anti-Semitism. It’s equally disheartening to see the way that federal law-enforcement officers mishandled the arrest of Randy Weaver, accused of arms dealing.

Though caught between conflicting accounts of what happened, the movie is an unsparing, engrossing human drama.

Part one is a revealing and disturbing profile of Randy and Vicki Weaver (Randy Quaid, Laura Dern), an Iowa couple whose fundamentalist Christian beliefs become radicalized by their fear of a “Jew-run government” and the certainty of an impending Armageddon.

They move to Ruby Ridge in North Idaho, where they build (and heavily arm) a wilderness home.

It’s a place of extreme beauty. But it’s also a place of extreme ugliness, as you’ll see when the Weavers attend meetings of the white-supremacist Aryan Nations.

After Randy is accused of selling sawed-off shotguns to an undercover federal agent, the FBI spends a year grasping for a way to make a peaceful arrest. When agents move in, fatal gunshots are exchanged.

Tuesday’s conclusion suggests that bumbling, ill-informed federal agents made a mess of things.

Quaid and Dern deliver chilling performances. Depending on your point of view, you’ll see the Weavers as deluded religious fanatics or victims of an out-of-control federal agency.

Most likely, however, you’ll see them as both.

Highlights

“Television’s Greatest Performances II,” ABC, tonight at 8: The “M*A*S*H” series finale and a “Saturday Night Live” tribute to Gilda Radner are among the memorable moments revisited.

“Saturday Night Live,” NBC, tonight at 11:30: Jim Carrey hosts the season finale with musical guests Soundgarden.

“America’s Funniest Home Videos,” ABC, Sunday at 7:30: There are plenty of laughs when the $100,000 grand prize is awarded by audiences in Cedar Rapids and Memphis in the season finale.

“Murder, She Wrote,” CBS, Sunday at 8: Au revoir Jessica. The series finale, cleverly titled “Death by Demographics,” is set in a San Francisco radio station. When a hotshot promoter (James Acheson) is killed, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) bails out her good friend Howard Deem (David Ogden Stiers), an announcer displaced by a format change.

The show goes out on a high note with an above-average whodunit. The series debuted Sept. 30, 1984, and ran for 264 episodes.

“Mad About You,” NBC, Sunday at 8: Simply marvelous is this emotional hourlong season finale that sees Jamie and Paul’s (Helen Hunt, Paul Reiser) marriage at the brink. Sensitively acted, it could be used by marriage counselors to illustrate the importance of communication.

Three cheers for series producers for this profound and affecting chapter in these lovable characters’ lives.

“The Firm” (1993), ABC, Sunday at 8: John Grisham’s best seller is filled with tension and intrigue, but, lordy, it goes on forever. Tom Cruise stars as a young lawyer who finds dirty little secrets in the Memphis firm he joins right out of Harvard. Gene Hackman, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Holly Hunter, Gary Busey and Hal Holbrook head a fine supporting cast.

“A Friend’s Betrayal” (1996), NBC, Sunday at 9: This banal melodrama stars Sharon Lawrence (“NYPD Blue”) as a woman who becomes sexually involved with her best friend’s (Harley Jane Kozak) 18-yearold son (Brian Austin Green, “Beverly Hills, 90210”).