Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Tuesday, October 17. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Patton Oswalt: Annihilation (Netflix): Recorded this past June in Chicago (as part of The Onion and The A.V. Club’s fourth annual comedy festival), Annihilation is the most personal set of Patton Oswalt’s career, its middle sections devoted to material about the unexpected death of his wife, Michelle McNamara, a true-crime writer. It’s positively gutting in a distinctly Oswalt way: the sheer honesty of his storytelling bringing a sold-out crowd to a hush, his manner of digging humor out of the trauma—in superhero metaphors, in observations about oversharing kids, in metaphysical tangents about hellspawn, ghosts, and other specters of grief—eliciting peals of laughter. It’s truly a can’t-miss prospect, and if you don’t believe us, Dennis Perkins has the in-depth commentary; we’ve got an interview with Oswalt, too.
Regular coverage
The Mindy Project (Hulu)
The Flash (The CW, 8 p.m.)
DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow (The CW, 9 p.m.)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox, 9:30 p.m.)
American Horror Story (FX, 10 p.m.)
Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders (NBC, 10:01 p.m.)
Wild card
Hit The Road/Loudermilk (Audience, 10 and 10:30 p.m.): Two new comedies, starring familiar faces: Jason Alexander leads a dysfunctional family band in Hit The Road, while a surly Ron Livingston counsels the newly sober in Loudermilk.