This season, Joe Pera Talks With You about how to build a fire
Plus: Ferguson Rises in a new PBS documentary and Scott Foley takes another Big Leap
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Monday, November 8. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Joe Pera Talks With You (Adult Swim, 12:30 a.m., season-three premiere): Joe Pera takes us back to Marquette, Michigan, for more engaging and substantive TV adventures. As Brianna Wellen writes in her forthcoming review, “It’s been nearly two years since the last season of Joe Pera Talks With You aired (and a year and a half since the 30-minute special episode ‘Relaxing Old Footage With Joe Pera’). During that time Pera has remained committed to posting a tomato on his Instagram nearly every day, a bit he started when joining the site in 2015. A tomato a day hasn’t been quite the same as getting new episodes of his show every week, but it is a fitting representation of what those episodes offer us: something simple, natural, hearty, and wholesome that can be whatever you need it to be at any given time.”
Regular coverage
Wild cards
The Big Leap (Fox, 9:01 p.m.): This earnest musical dramedy may not have gained the cultural traction of This Is Us (yet), but The Big Leap is still a giddy good time on Monday nights. Scott Foley overseeing a show within a show, while Simone Recasner, Teri Polo, and Piper Perabo jump at a second chance at life on the stage—what’s not to like?
Independent Lens: Ferguson Rises (PBS, PBS video app, 10 p.m.): It’s been more than seven years since 18-year-old Michael Brown Jr. was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, an event that sparked a renewed civil rights movement. Jason Pollock chronicled the uprising in the small town after a grand jury failed to indict now-former police officer Darren Wilson in the 2017 documentary Stranger Fruit. For his documentary Ferguson Rises, director Mobolaji Olambiwonnu sits with Michael Brown Sr., shedding light on how this grieving father has coped with the loss of his son and the lack of accountability for his death. David Oyelowo co-produced the documentary with Olambiwonnu.