Returning series
Of all the comedies about awful people living in Los Angeles, this is really the only one worth checking out. The third season picks up right after season two concluded when Gretchen and Jimmy professed their love for each other. The new episodes will deal with their evolving and unique relationship as well as Gretchen grappling with her clinical depression, which was a big thread last summer. To help her get through it, she has a new therapist, played by Samira Wiley from Orange Is the New Black. Music publicist Gretchen also has a new client: Ben Folds, playing a version of himself. Don’t worry, Jimmy will have some issues of his own, including the commercialization of Sunday Funday. Yes, it’s an issue important to all of us. FXX, Wednesday 31 August 10pm ET
Vice’s cable channel, Viceland, only launched this March, but already one of its shows is back for a second season. Host Krishna Andavolu travels the country meeting the people who buy, sell, cultivate, cook, smoke and love marijuana. If this can’t get it legalized, then nothing can. For all of those who want to catch up on the first season – which looked at weed in the Congo, gender equality in the pot industry, and kids who use medicinal marijuana, among other topics – it’s available online. All of the stoners out there shouldn’t puff puff pass this one up. Viceland, Wednesday 31 August 10pm ET
Premieres
Building Star Trek
Star Trek turns 50 years old in early September. To celebrate the show’s birthday, Smithsonian Channel (yes, it’s a thing) put together this look at its influence not on pop culture, but on science and technology. It examines all of the advances that the show predicted (cellphones, personal computers, leggings as apparel) and how some of its technology might actually be possible soon. While Trekkers might not find much new here, casual fans and science nerds will find plenty to beam them up. Smithsonian Channel, Sunday 4 September 8pm and 11pm ET
New on streaming services
If you want to know what happens in the second season of this show about the life of the notorious Colombian cocaine impresario Pablo Escobar, all you have to do is visit his Wikipedia page. However, that’s not nearly as vivid as watching him try to keep his grip on power as his country crumbles from narcotics-related crime and the DEA tries to shut him down. Even though we all know how the life of Pablo pans out, this is still one of the freshest and most surprising dramas around, packed with great performances and insane details you won’t believe are true. And if you don’t, well, just ask Wikipedia. Netflix, Friday 2 September
Around the web
Halt and Catch Fire playlist
You may be sick of people telling you to watch AMC’s drama about the computer industry in the 80s, but this isn’t one of those pleas. Each season, the show’s music supervisor, Thomas Golubic, provides the creative team with a vast playlist of music with tunes that were released that year. You don’t have to be a writer on the show to listen to the four-plus hours of music that Golubic laid out for inspiration, because his playlist is available on Spotify. The 1986 selections include tracks from everyone from superstars like the Smiths, Duran Duran, and Talking Heads to forgotten acts like the Motels, That Petrol Emotion, and the Blow Monkeys.
TV news
John Cleese in talks to return to TV
Marcia Clark lands a pilot deal with NBC
Lifetime gives Britney Spears the made-for-TV treatment
