Plus, dive into the Ruby Franke saga with a docuseries
From left: Sabrina Impacciatore as Esmeralda, Oscar Nunez as Oscar, Domhnall Gleeson as Ned, Gbemisola Ikumelo as Adelola in "The Paper."
From left: Sabrina Impacciatore as Esmeralda, Oscar Nunez as Oscar, Domhnall Gleeson as Ned, Gbemisola Ikumelo as Adelola in "The Paper."Aaron Epstein/PEACOCK
Your TV GPS, a look at the week ahead in television, appears every Monday morning onBostonGlobe.com. Today’s column covers Sept. 1-7.
The creative team that satirized the doings at a paper company turns its attention to … a paper. The same mockumentary principles of “The Office” apply to “The Paper,” a barbed but ultimately sympathetic look at the workers — most of them volunteers — at a Toledo newspaper trying to stay relevant and newsy in our short-attention-span age. Domhnall Gleeson, always good, plays the idealistic new editor in chief; Sabrina Impacciatore, a highlight of the Italy season of “The White Lotus,” plays the celeb-obsessed managing editor trying to sabotage his serious intentions. The series premieres Thursday on Peacock.
But wait: There’s more!
Where would the TV industry be without truly screwed-up people to feature in documentary series? The latest is “Ruby & Jodi: A Cult of Sin and Influence,” which chronicles the not-terribly-healthy relationship between mommy vlogger Ruby Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt. Both women were arrested and convicted of child abuse after two of Franke’s children were found abused and malnourished. The four-part series from Investigation Discovery premieres Monday on HBO Max.
On to a more wholesome pairing. The rebooted “Beavis and Butt-Head” makes the jump from Paramount+ to Comedy Central on Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. for its third season. Time has treated the boys well. When they first showed up in 1993, their lack of curiosity about the world seemed extreme. Now they fit right into the cultural firmament. Yeah. Huh-huh.
’Twas a time when the NFL rarely ventured away from its traditional Sunday and Monday time slots. Now the season kicks off at 8:20 p.m. Thursday, with the Micah Parsons-less Cowboys visiting the defending champion Philadelphia Eagles on NBC. Then, at 8 p.m. Friday, the Chargers host the defending AFC champion Kansas City Chiefs over on YouTube TV. And to think, Monday Night Football once seemed like a radical proposition.
If you didn’t get to catch Spike Lee’s new movie “Highest 2 Lowest” at the theater, it makes its small-screen debut Friday on Apple TV+. Inspired by the essential 1963 Akira Kurosawa film “High and Low,” the new movie stars Denzel Washington (in his fifth collaboration with Lee) as a music executive thrown into crisis when he’s targeted in a ransom plot. Jeffrey Wright lends key support as a chauffeur with hidden depths.
Brad Ingelsby broke out in a big way when he created the killer 2021 limited series “Mare of Easttown,” starring Kate Winslet as a tortured (and ethically challenged) small-town Pennsylvania police detective. Now he’s back with “Task,” starring Mark Ruffalo as a suburban Philadelphia FBI agent investigating a string of violent robberies. It looks equal parts grim and awesome. The limited series premieres Sunday on HBO Max.
Chris Vognar can be reached at chris.vognar@globe.com. Follow him on Instagram at @chrisvognar and on Bluesky at chrisvognar.bsky.social.