Vince Vaughn in ‘Bad Monkey,’ Challenge All-Stars, Streaming True Crime, Expeditions on Discovery

Series Premiere

For pure — make that impure — escapism, you can’t do better than Bill Lawrence’s (Ted Lasso) riotous adaptation of Carl Hiaasen’s novel of sunbaked intrigue that begins when a severed arm is fished out of the ocean … with its middle finger raised. Vince Vaughn sets the perfectly sarcastic tone for this twisted caper that reaches into the Bahamas from the Florida Keys as disgraced detective Andrew Yancy unravels a tangled web of fraud and murderous corruption. The women in Yancy’s life, who all seem to be having a ball, include Natalie Martinez as a medical examiner who laughs at his jokes (who wouldn’t?) and Michelle Monaghan as a foxy femme fatale with a murky past. And yes, there’s a mischievous monkey who figures into the kooky plot. (See the full review.)

Season Premiere

8/7c

The pioneering reality competition goes big to mark its milestone 40th season, gathering 40 players from four “eras” representing each decade. The roster includes multiple winners and fan favorites, who join the game by competing in an Era Invitational contest that eliminates the weakest links from each batch, leaving the best to demonstrate whether the veterans or the relative newbies have the right stuff to make it to the end.

Documentary Premiere

A three-part true-crime docuseries puts the victim in the title and in the spotlight as director Skye Borgman revisits the shocking 2002 murder of Laci Peterson, who was eight months pregnant with her first child when she went missing. Her mother, Sharon Rocha, sits for a rare interview, as do three of Laci’s childhood friends, recalling what appeared to be a storybook marriage gone wrong. The series also features interviews with detectives, journalists, lawyers and jurors on the trial that convicted her husband Scott Peterson, who continues to maintain his innocence after two decades.

Series Premiere

From the producers of Worst Roommate Ever, a four-part series uses first-person testimony and animated recreations to tell the cautionary stories of dangerously obsessive exes who find terrifying ways to make their former partners’ lives a living (and possibly dying) hell. Murder plots and ruthless custody battles factor into these unfortunately true stories.

Season Premiere

9/8c

The intrepid Josh Gates is back for an eighth season of bizarre exploration, welcoming paranormal researcher Heather Amaro to a team that includes scientist Phil Torres. Their first stop: the presumably haunted Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. Followed by the Season 5 premiere of Expedition Bigfoot (10/9c), where researchers continue their hunt for the elusive fabled beast along the Northern California coast.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown (8/7c, National Geographic): Following its streaming premiere on Hulu earlier this summer, all three episodes make their cable debut of a docuseries revisiting the horrific mass suicide and murders at Jim Jones’ “utopian” compound in Guyana in 1978.
• America’s Got Talent (8/7c, NBC): Find out which two acts from Tuesday’s show move on to the semi-finals.
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (8/7c, ABC): A Scrubs reunion puts Zach Braff and Donald Faison on the hot seat, followed by Ike Barinholtz and his father Alan answering questions for charity.
• Good Bones (9/8c, HGTV): In a three-week mini-season, Mina Starsiak Hawk and mom Karen E. Laine pursue separate renovation projects: Mina updating a lake house north of Indianapolis, and Karen taking on an aging beach bungalow in Wilmington, North Carolina.
• Rhythm Masters: A Mickey Hart Experience (9/8c, ESPN): An offbeat documentary fuses sports and music as Grateful Dead legend Mickey Hart interviews iconic sports stars, inspiring an original score that reflects the connection between rhythm and athletic achievement. Participants include Bill Walton, Joe Montana, Laila Ali, Phil Jackson, Marshawn Lynch, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Sheryl Swoopes, Mario Andretti, Jack Nicklaus and climber Alex Honnold.

 ON THE STREAM:

• Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (streaming on Disney+): Jedi youths study the Force and embark on new adventures in 11 episodes of the animated series’ second season, with episodes also airing on Disney Jr.
• Daughters (streaming on Netflix): A moving documentary eight years in the making depicts the preparation of young daughters to reunite with their incarcerated fathers at a Daddy Daughter Dance.
• Women in Blue (streaming on Apple TV+): When a new victim of the “Undresser” serial killer is discovered in Mexico City, the veteran male detectives wonder if it could be a copycat, unwilling to admit they got the wrong man. The “women in blue” know better. Also on Apple TV+: new episodes of Sunny and Time Bandits.