Monster Mania on Monarch, Siege in Sheriff Country, Formula 1 Revs Up, Samara Joy Sings

Why is King Kong in such a bad mood? Could it be because those pesky scientists won’t leave him and the other Titans at peace on Skull Island? As the second season of the MonsterVerse series gets underway, the Monarch team barely escapes, leaving Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) behind, trapped in the underworld of Axis Mundi. Any rescue attempt is seen as a suicide mission, but that’s not about to stop our heroes, Cate (Anna Sawai), Kentaro (Ren Watabe), their father Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira), and May/Corah (Kiersey Clemons) from trying. In a parallel 1957 storyline, young Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell) heads to a Chilean fishing village to investigate sea-serpent rumors with Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) and Bill (Anders Holm), and what they find lurking in the deep is likely to rear its tentacled head in the future once again.

Resuming the action from December’s cliffhanger, Sheriff Mickey Fox (Morena Baccarin) takes shelter in Edgewater’s police station with partner Boone (Matt Lauria), deputy sheriff Cassidy (Michele Weaver), and Mickey’s wounded ex, Travis (Christopher Gorham), as the gun-toting Barlow family lays siege on the embattled law enforcers. They want their patriarch Enoch (Michael Gaston) released from custody, but the good guys aren’t giving him up without a fight.

The rest of CBS’s Friday lineup returns from a long hiatus, including Fire Country (9/8c), where Station 49 battles a fearsome wildfire, and Boston Blue (10/9c), with the Silver family — especially Jonah (Marcus Scribner) — struggling after the release from prison of the man who killed their patriarch, judge Ben Silver, a year ago.

The trend-setting sports docuseries returns for an eighth season, covering the 75^th year of Formula 1 in a race toward the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. As six new rookies battle to upstage the sport’s established stars, and teams navigate transition amid management turmoil, it is anyone’s game.

A six-time Grammy winner, Samara Joy is a rising star in the jazz world, likened to the legendary Ella Fitzgerald for her soulful and stirring interpretations of American Songbook classics with detours into swinging bossa nova. This concert special captures her debut at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall, with a playlist that includes such standards as “Misty” and “Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?)” and Jobim’s “No More Blues.”

Stumble (8:30/7:30c, NBC): Emmy-winner Jeff Hiller (Somebody Somewhere) makes a return visit to the cheerleading mockumentary as the town’s bizarre candy-button magnate, Augustus Schlimpf, who again has the upper hand over cheer coach Courteney (Jenn Lyon) when she comes begging for funds to get her crew to the Daytona championships. His condition is that they take on his daughter, Hildebünch, who may be just as deranged as he is, complicating Courtney’s other priority of recruiting new talent to the team.

Inside Friday TV:

• Happy’s Place (8/7c, NBC): Bobbie (Reba McEntire) and Isabella (Belissa Escobedo) have different ideas on how to use the space above the bar: rent as storage or convert it into a speakeasy.
• True Crime Watch: ABC‘s 20/20 (9/8c) is the latest to explore the infamous “Yogurt Shop Murders” from 1991, when four teenage girls were found dead in an Austin yogurt store. On Dateline NBC (9/8c), Blayne Alexander reports on the 2014 shooting death of Jake Embert in Georgia, initially ruled a suicide until suspicious family members hired a private investigator to root out the truth.
• Chris Fleming: Live at the Palace (10/9c, HBO): The unconventional and merrily energetic comedian works the stage and works up the audience at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre.

On the Stream:

• The Last Thing He Told Me (streaming on Apple TV): Hannah (Jennifer Garner) and stepdaughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) barely have time to mourn a personal loss before they’re on the run again, reaching out to estranged Campano daughter Quinn (Judy Greer) for help. Also on Apple TV: the explosive season finale of the international thriller Tehran.
• In the Blink of an Eye (streaming on Hulu): Spanning eons from the Neanderthal age to the far future in space, director Andrew Stanton’s ambitious triptych stars Rashida Jones, Daveed Diggs, and Kate McKinnon.
• Crazy Old Lady (streaming on Shudder): Spanish film star Carmen Maura is the title menace in director-writer Martin Mauregui’s Spanish-language horror film, in which the senile Alicia takes her daughter’s ex-boyfriend Pedro (Daniel Hendler) captive when he drops by to help her.