What’s on TV Tuesday: ‘Damnation’ and ‘The Long Road Home’

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“Damnation,” a Depression-era drama, has its premiere on USA. And “The Long Road Home” examines an ambush on American troops in Baghdad.

What’s on TV

DAMNATION 10 p.m. on USA. The place is rural Iowa, and the year is 1931. A preacher (played by Killian Scott) is trying to start a revolution among the farmers, and there’s a big-money strikebreaker (Logan Marshall-Green) whose job it is to prevent one. The premiere episode of this period drama, directed by Adam Kane, opens with a farmer firing a rifle into his chicken coop, aiming at a young woman trying to steal his eggs. “Can’t afford to lose more eggs,” he says. “Times are hard enough as it is.” The preacher asks the farmer: “Aren’t you losing both eggs and chickens each time you take a shot?” The farmer just shrugs. “A man has got to abide by his principles.” There might be echoes of Steinbeck here, but the show stays in the heartland — so no grapes, but wrath aplenty.

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THE LONG ROAD HOME 9 p.m. on National Geographic. This mini-series based on Martha Raddatz’s best seller centers on an ambush on American troops in Baghdad on April 4, 2004, a day now known as Black Sunday. In a review for The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote that Ms. Raddatz’s book “has grit and high drama.” Here, that drama and grit are delivered by a cast that includes the Emmy-nominated actor Michael Kelly, who plays the leader of a rescue operation responding to the ambush.

SOCIAL FABRIC 12:30 a.m. Wednesday on Fuse. The second of two premiere episodes of this fashion-focused show brings viewers to Scotland, Los Angeles and Kenya to learn how plaid cloth has been used by different cultures, from kilts of the Celts to clothing of California hipsters.

What’s Streaming

LEAP! (2017) on iTunes and Amazon. An animated story of two children who escape their orphanage and travel to Paris, where one (voiced by Elle Fanning) hopes to become a ballerina. In a review for The Times, Ken Jaworowski wrote: “You’ve seen it all before, though it’s pleasant enough to watch again.”

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CAPTAIN FANTASTIC (2016) on iTunes and Amazon. Viggo Mortensen stars as a father with six children that he and his wife have raised in the Oregon wilderness. When the film picks up, the mother has died in a faraway hospital, and the family decides to journey into civilization to attend the funeral. Their mode of transport? A Merry Pranksters-esque school bus, which ferries them along as they clash with society. In a review for The Times, A. O. Scott designated the film a Critic’s Pick, and wrote that Mr. Mortensen “has a way of making you believe his characters can do whatever they set their minds to: fly, leap over buildings, save the world.” This character’s most impressive — and sometimes frustrating — power is even simpler: a steadfast dedication to being radically different.

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