1) “Accused,” 9 p.m., Fox. Whitney Cummings (shown here) gives a perfect performance – subtle, layered, deeply moving – in a strong episode. Cummings is known for fun; she’s a brash stand-up comedian, creator of her own show (“Whitney”) and co-creator of “2 Broke Girls.” She plays a stand-up comic here, but the story soon veers into dark turf. We won’t reveal any plot points, but it’s a tough and disturbing hour.
2) “American Auto,” 8:30 p.m., NBC. A fairly good show in its first season, this has improved sharply in its second. It’s been borrowing an approach that Jason Spitzer used on “Superstore,” his previous show: Pack a room with disparate voices, creating comic chaos. Last week had angry-employee meetings; now a “young designers” day goes wrong in funny ways.
3) “That’s My Jam” season-opener, 10 p.m., NBC. Maybe you’ve wondered how “Thong Song” would sound, if done in an opera style. Or the “Titanic” ballad, in the Led Zeppelin style. Moments like that – well done by Jason Derulo and Nicole Scherzinger – make up for any flaws. Like many other game shows, this has a point system that renders the early rounds irrelevant. It’s a fun show – but not as fun as the overcaffienated studio audience seems to think.
4) “History of the World, Part II,” Hulu. Bouncing between centuries, we get neatly odd humor. There’s Noah being too picky about ark privileges … and Stalin waiting for his moment … and Alexander Graham Bell absorbing the first phone prank … and a “Notebook”-style romance with Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The Bell sketch deteriorates into tackiness, but these two episodes mostly ripple with offbeat wit. There will be more, through Thursday.
5) “Under the Banner of Heaven,” 10 and 11:30 p.m., FX. Here’s one of the past Hulu successes, now getting a cable run. Andrew Garfield drew an Emmy nomination as an earnest Mormon detective, probing a murder; in flashbacks, Daisy Edgar-Jones (“Where the Crawdads Sing”) plays the victim. Duncan Lance Black, an Oscar-winner (“Milk”) who grew up Mormon, wrote the script.
— Mike Hughes, TV America