What’s Worth Watching: Ken Burns Tackles Cancer in a New Documentary

The Emperor of All Maladies, “Magic Bullets” (Monday, March 30, 9/8c, PBS)

Siddhartha Mukherjee’s astounding 2010 cancer “biography” gets the Ken Burns Documentary treatment it deserves, starting tonight. The three-part Emperor looks at humanity’s attempts to defeat its most insidious killer, filtered in this first episode through the lens of a 14-month-old girl with leukemia. Actor Edward Herrmann, who passed away from brain cancer in December 2014, provided the narration for the doc, adding another layer of poignancy to the project.