Nuremberg, TNT, Sunday-Monday, 8 p.m. E.T.

By RICHARD CORLISS

"It's not meant to be an entertainment," says Robert Jackson (Alec Baldwin), leader of the prosecution in the 1945 trial of Nazi officers at Nuremberg. "It's meant to be a trial." But in this mini-series, written by David W. Rintels and directed by Yves Simoneau, instruction and entertainment make a pretty good match. Baldwin nicely tamps down his natural charisma to get at a good man's frustration in abiding by the stern moral rules that he set for the tribunal. In melodrama, of course, the villains always win; they're the ones who get to strut. Thus Brian Cox, as Goering, has his drollest mass-murderer role since he played Hannibal Lecter in the 1986 Manhunter; and Herbert Knaup (of Run, Lola, Run) is a handsomely conflicted Albert Speer.

--R.C.