That difficult dilemma is the raison d’etre of “Good Deeds,” the latest modern morality play written by, directed by and starring Tyler Perry. Avoiding his usual staples of comic relief courtesy of Madea and clownish support characters, Perry presents this sober soap opera in straightforward fashion.

It was one of those things where I was going, “What the hell?! Why didn’t I already know this?” So, to tackle that subject-matter for HBO was monumental in my life. Of course, I moved on in my career and did other things, but when I heard that George Lucas was going to make a blockbuster about the Tuskegee Airmen, I was all over it.

In the new film, Palmer plays Olivia Hill, daughter of the Divinity Church choir director Vi Rose Hill (Latifah). The problem is, Olivia is the talented lead singer of the choir who yearns to break free of her mother’s traditional ideas about the choir’s direction and her love directed at the town’s bad boy.

The New Year is off to a rockin’ start with 10 all-new episodes of “Unsung” premiering at 10 p.m. TONIGHT on the TV One network. This season includes Vesta, Cleveland's own Bobby Womack and more.

A number of excellent offerings were shot over in Africa, most notably “Kinyarwanda” (Rwanda) and “Life, Above All” (South Africa). Then there’s “Pariah,” a gritty, dysfunctional family drama ostensibly inspired by  “Precious” (2009), as it is set in the ‘hood in New York City and features a comedienne (Kim Wayans) cast against type as a monstrous, child-abusing mother.

Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law reprise their roles as Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. And Jared Harris has joined the cast to play the pair’s diabolical archenemy, the inscrutable Professor James Moriarty.