The three-day Memorial Day weekend is a great time to catch up on all those TV and streaming shows that you’ve been meaning to check out. (Have you watched “Tiger King” yet?).
But there’s also some television that actually serves as a reminder of what the holiday is about: honoring and mourning the military personnel who died serving our country.
With that in mind, here are a few viewing recommendations:
• “The Pacific War in Color” (3 p.m. Saturday, May 23, Smithsonian Channel): This is a re-airing of Smithsonian’s ambitious, eight-episode series that aims to capture the scale, scope and savagery of the Pacific campaigns from the attacks on Pearl Harbor to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s told via rarely seen color home movies and combat footage. The entire series runs through 11 p.m. Saturday.
• Sundance channel goes to war: Over the weekend, the Sundance Channel has scheduled several popular war films, including two airings of Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning World War II saga “Saving Private Ryan” (5 p.m. Saturday and midnight Sunday) and the 1968 Vietnam-set “The Green Berets” (9 p.m. Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday). Also airing: “MacArthur” (2 p.m. Sunday), “Midway” (8 p.m. Sunday) and “Heartbreak Ridge” (11 p.m. Sunday).