Best Of This Week

TELEVISION

THE D.C. SNIPER'S WIFE: A BARBARA KOPPLE FILM / / 9 p.m. Saturday. TruTV.

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Barbara Kopple, who twice won Academy Awards for socially conscious documentaries in Harlan County USA (1976) and American Dream (1990), takes viewers back to 2002 and the fear that gripped suburban Maryland and Virginia during a string of Beltway and Interstate killings.

Her entree to the story is Mildred Muhammad, the ex-wife of John Allen Muhammad. He, along with a young accomplice, was convicted of the serial killings.

Muhammad's home life, including a transformation that his wife says took hold of him after he returned from the Gulf War, is examined through videos, photos and interviews with the couple's children.

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[DAVID ZURAWIK]

POP MUSIC

JAMES TAYLOR / / 8 p.m. Saturday. Pier Six Concert Pavilion, 731 Eastern Ave. $72. 410-547-7328 or ticketmaster.com.

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One of the most beloved singer-songwriters in pop, James Taylor first rose to prominence in the 1970s as part of a wave of sensitive male singer-songwriters that included Jackson Browne, John Denver and Cat Stevens. His classics -- particularly "Fire and Rain" and "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" -- have been done over the years by the likes of Bobby Womack, the Isley Brothers and Natalie Cole. The singer-musician's sound has mellowed nicely. Taylor's latest release is One Man Band, a stripped-down live CD / DVD set that features 20 of his classics, all superbly rendered.

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[RASHOD D. OLLISON]

ART

AFGHAN TREASURES / / 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Free. National Gallery of Art, Seventh Street and Constitution Avenue Northwest, Washington. 202-737-4215 or nga.gov.

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In 2004, a trove of 2,000-year-old objects long thought to have been lost or stolen during Afghanistan's decades-long civil unrest was rediscovered intact in a vault hidden beneath the Presidential Palace in Kabul. The objects, which included bronze and stone sculptures, golden vessels, intricately carved ivories, painted glass and gold jewelry, testified to Afghanistan's strategic location astride the ancient trade routes known as the Silk Road, which stretched from Asia to the Mediterranean Sea.