Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET
What a month for Sacha Baron Cohen. First he co-stars as Abbie Hoffman in Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, and now he returns as his most famous cinematic character, Borat, in a movie sequel to that 2006 comedy classic, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Director Larry Charles, who helped shape that original Borat movie, is not here for this one – he’s replaced by Jason Woliner – but this Borat sequel follows both the structure and the boldness of the first film. You’ve probably heard already that Rudy Giuliani is one of the high-profile people pranked by Cohen and his cohorts in this new movie. Mike Pence is another. But both those celebrity sequences are outdone by ones involving regular American citizens. These range from the unexpectedly tender (which you wouldn’t expect from a setup that begins like a bad joke: “Borat walks into a synagogue…”) to the outrageously mortifying (choose from several). Cohen is a fearless and funny improv artist – and he’s aided here by young Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, who’s more than a match for Cohen. And, pretending to be a TV interviewer from a foreign country, for Giuliani (pictured). The whole movie is spellbinding, bravely amusing – and, at the end, amazingly timely.
Apple TV+, 3:00 a.m. ET
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Also out as a new album, Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You is an intimate look at Springsteen’s creative process, with and without his E Street Band. Letter to You is his first full-length album with the E Street Band in six years, and this one was recorded, in its entirety, in five days, in Springsteen’s home studio at Colts Neck, NJ. Live in the room, with almost no overdubs. And included among the 12 new songs: “If I Was the Priest,” a song written by Springsteen so long ago that he performed it during his Columbia Records audition in 1972, but never released or recorded it. Until now, 48 years later.
Apple TV+, 3:00 a.m. ET
Bill Murray and director Sofia Coppola, who teamed so well on both Lost in Translation and of Netflix’s A Very Murray Christmas, collaborate again for this new project, a movie released simultaneously in theaters and, today, on Apple TV+. Murray plays Felix, the impulsive and eccentric father of Laura, who’s played by Rashida Jones. She suspects her husband, Dean (Marlon Wayans), of cheating on her – and Felix decides to lead his daughter on a surveillance mission, to discover whether her suspicions are justified. Their mission starts out as a sort of father-daughter road movie – then veers, as road pictures often do, into something else altogether.
Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This limited series follows a young girl in an orphanage in the 1950s, who discovers the game of chess – and also discovers that her skill at that game may be good enough to lead her life on an entirely new path. One move at a time. Anya Taylor-Joy stars.
Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight at 8 ET on Fox: Game 3. So far, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays have won one game each.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
Actually, it’s Alexandra Pelosi doing most of the shooting here, traveling across America for a 12-month period that just ended weeks ago. The filmmaking daughter of Nancy Pelosi, in this documentary, points her cameras at people taking pictures with their selfies – but also interviews people, on both sides of this country’s gaping political and cultural chasm, to discuss what they think and feel, and why they do. And the places she visits, during her real-long travelogue, aren’t exactly the usual tourist attractions. One scene is shot in Minneapolis, at the place where George Floyd died. Another is at a makeshift morgue in New York City, at the height of the first wave of COVID-19 deaths.
BBC America, 11:00 p.m. ET
Among tonight’s guests: Samuel J. Jackson.
HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Watch this. It’s too complicated to explain in a way that will make it sound as enticing as it is, so just trust me. John Wilson is the camera operator and interviewer for this nonfiction series – which means, as he films, and interacts with, people on the street and in other locations (pre-pandemically, which makes for a wistful watching experience), the only times you see the host is in the occasional window reflection. But Wilson’s conversations are liable to go anywhere… and so are he and his camera, in pursuit of one more good story. How to… has plenty of them.