Tom Jones

IT'S BEEN A while since PBS's Masterpiece has lived up to its billing by tackling, or revisiting, a true literary classic. (Overextending Jane Austen’s unfinished novel Sanditon doesn’t count.)

- MATT ROUSH

Sundays, 9/8c,

PBS (check local listings at pbs.org)

So while Henry Fielding’s 18th century coming-of-age tome retains some mild shock value in its frisky particulars, writer Gwyneth Hughes’ brisk four-part adaptation nestles snugly in the Masterpiece costume-drama comfort zone.