Reenactments Make Poe’s Gore All Too Vivid

Pondering literary masterpieces needn’t leave one weak and weary, as the Learning Channel’s “Great Books” series proves with its examination of Edgar Allan Poe’s works and tragic life. But must it be so gruesome?

That’s one question you may have after watching “Poe’s Tales of Terror” (10 p.m.), an otherwise excellent capstone to the cable channel’s four-hour block of Halloween-themed programming tonight. Interspersed with snippets of five of Poe’s most famous stories and some fascinating analysis are moments of graphic reenactment footage. How graphic? Let’s just say it looks as if the crew had to visit a butcher shop for some scenes.

Of course, taken in context, it’s not wholly inappropriate. And putting things in context is what this show is all about, as it presents the insights of Poe biographers, professors, writer Ray Bradbury and horror filmmaker Wes Craven, woven together with actor Gary Oldman’s fittingly morose narration.

“Was he paranoid? Possibly. Was he melancholy? Absolutely. Did he have a streak of perverseness? No doubt about it,” says J. Gerald Kennedy, an English professor at Louisiana State University. Meanwhile, Bradbury explains the effect of Poe’s work: “He has a tuning fork, and he hits it, and your whole soul vibrates.”

In fact, a lot of what this program’s talking heads say leaves you wanting more commentary and slightly less of the highly condensed versions of such stories as “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

But this is just a quibble. After all, the show doesn’t need any more tangents like its interview with a dominatrix who posits that Poe would have been a “wonderful client.”

Surf Report

SPORTS

In NBA action, the Clippers visit the San Antonio Spurs (5:30 p.m. FSN2), and the Lakers host the rival Portland Trail Blazers (7:30 p.m. FSN, TBS).

SPECIALS

ABC rolls out the animated Halloween classic “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” (8 p.m.), followed by “Boo to You Too, Winnie the Pooh” (8:30 p.m.).

SERIES

PBS’ science series “Nova” (8 p.m. KCET) offers a case study in gender identity with “Sex: Unknown,” the true story of a child born a boy but raised as a girl after a botched circumcision.

MOVIES

A high-strung cop (Al Pacino) matches wits with a low-key crook (Robert De Niro) and his crew in director Michael Mann’s 1995 crime story “Heat” (7 p.m. Cinemax). With Val Kilmer and Ashley Judd.

A singing, dancing confectioner (Gene Wilder) gives the fortunate few a guided tour of his super-secret facility in the 1971 children’s classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (8 p.m. Fox Family Channel).

Matthew Broderick is a Chicago teen looking to play hooky with his pals in the 1986 comedy “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (10 p.m. Turner Classic Movies).