WORTH NOTING ON TV

FRIDAY Great Performances (PBS, 9 p.m.-12:30 a.m.): ``Peter Sellars Directs `Don Giovanni''' offers a brutal Don who snorts cocaine and gobbles Big Macs as he prowls New York's South Bronx in what Sellars calls ``an evening in hell.'' Sung in the original Italian with updated English titles, it's the second in a PBS trilogy of radical, highly publicized versions of Mozart operas staged by Sellars.

SUNDAY

Soviets (PBS, 10-11 p.m.): First of five consecutive documentaries - aired on consecutive nights - about the huge and sometimes bloody changes going on in the Soviet Union. Soviet film crews have recorded startling talks and striking images that cumulatively suggest the changing moods in this vast, complex area.

MONDAY

A Taste of Freedom (TNT, 8-9 p.m.): Two brilliant filmmakers from different worlds - Britain's Roland Joffee and Russia's Marina Goldovskaya - have co-produced a prize-winning documentary about six weeks in the lives of a Soviet family: two journalists and their two children. Their home, a two-room flat near the Kremlin, is the focal point where national and personal issues of the Soviet upheaval swirl around their hectic lives.

WEDNESDAY

Cats: Caressing the Tiger (PBS, 8-9 p.m.): Those appealing pets - now numbering about 58 million in the US - are actually the ultimate predators, not far removed from their cousin leopards and tigers. This National Geographic special explores their history, current status, and the strong feelings they arouse.

Please check local listings for all programs, especially on PBS.

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