“Mad scientist, cliché soundtrack: Perfect,” snarks Wednesday Addams (the pitch-perfect Jenna Ortega) during one of the action climaxes as the hit supernatural action comedy returns to close out its second season with four jampacked episodes. Last seen being thrown from a window at the Willow Hill mental asylum, Wednesday awakens on, when else, the Day of the Dead, her favorite holiday. With a reanimated zombie on the loose among other threats to the Addams Family and their allies at Nevermore Academy, Wednesday gets an unwelcome assist from her new spirit guide: the ghost of the late Principal Weems (Gwendoline Christie), one of Wednesday’s sharper critics. Generational conflict between Wednesday, her mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and the imperious Grandmama (Joanna Lumley) add to the campy fun as the school’s gala looms, where new enemies reveal themselves. Also on the busy agenda: a no-longer-secret cameo by Lady Gaga, an unexpected origin story for a beloved character and a Freaky Friday-style incident that reveals Ortega’s range and flair for physical comedy. It’s enough to make a dour Addams crack a smile.

The hard knocks continue in the docudrama depicting the legal ordeal of Amanda Knox (Grace Van Patten), the college student accused and now on trial in an Italian kangaroo court for the murder of her roommate. Even when the actual murderer is caught and convicted in a separate fast-track trial, Amanda (aka “Foxy Knoxy” in the tabloid media) faces humiliation and character assassination in court, and in the court of public opinion.

Sylvia (Rose Byrne) takes a road trip with her two best buds, the unattached and unhinged Will (Seth Rogen) and Katie (Carla Gallo), driving to Palm Desert as they all assess the state of their messy lives. Will is heading to a corporate retreat, hoping to patch things up with the boss lady he left at the altar. (His peace offering provides a masterful bit of slapstick comedy.) And while Sylvia brags that her life is “stable and predictable” by comparison, she’s in denial that Charlie (Luke Macfarlane), her steadfast rock of a husband, may be on the verge of a nervous breakdown after his disastrous experience on Jeopardy! (That would be my worst nightmare as well.)

After two seasons on Paramount+, Mike Judge‘s rebooted animated comedy is back on basic cable where it belongs. And it rarely gets more basic than the inane antics of these best buds who snort and chortle their way through a perpetual state of arrested development. The new series, featuring two vignettes each week, toggles between episodes featuring the duo as teens and as middle-aged though hardly wiser versions of themselves. In the opener, teen Butt-Head loses his braces and has an epiphany. In the second, older Butt-Head has a heart attack with only Beavis to provide aid and comfort. Good luck with that. Preceded by a new episode of South Park (10/9c), which takes on the hot topic of tariffs when Butters tries to buy a Labubu doll for his girlfriend’s birthday. This show has never felt more essential.

The title of the quippy action drama’s Season 1 finale is a giveaway: “Your People Are in Danger.” So what else is new for the task force, led by the wry Jensen Ackles and the fierce Jessica Camacho and overseen by a stoic Eric Dane. As they close in on the sniper known as “Todd,” they also realize that he knows who they are, having been lured to a bar where he was waiting to identify them. The series hasn’t been renewed—yet—but that won’t stop a show like this from ending on a major cliffhanger.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• The Last Wright: Building the Final Home Design of America’s Greatest Architect (8/7c, Magnolia Network): A four-part series depicts the painstaking efforts of mother-daughter duo Debbie and Sarah Dykstra to build a home using plans left behind by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright before his death in 1959.
• Mountain Men (8/7c, History Channel): The 14^th season of the reality series about people living off the grid in the Alaskan wilderness welcomes 28-year-old newbies Chance and Soraya Painter, raising two young kids on a remote homestead. Elsewhere, veteran Marty Meierotto guides daughter Noah on her first landing of a bush plane at a caribou camp.
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (8/7c, ABC): CNN anchors Jake Tapper and Kaitlan Collins try their hand at answering questions for charity, followed by monologist Mike Birbiglia and fellow comedian Atsuko Okatsuka. On Match Game (9/8c), Selena Gomez once again joins host and Only Murders in the Building co-star Martin Short, with a panel also featuring Joel McHale, Annie Murphy, Anthony Anderson, Cara Delevingne and Thomas Lennon.
• Family Law (8/7c, The CW): Abby’s (Jewel Staite) latest client is a bereaved man whose wish to spread his dead husband’s ashes is blocked by his homophobic sister-in-law.
• MasterChef (8/7c, Fox): The semifinal round is a mash-up of two challenges: “Tag Team” and “Keeping Up with Gordon,” as the teams try to make one of Gordon Ramsay‘s classic dishes as quickly as he can, while also taking turns.
• Expedition X (9/8c, Discovery): With the release of The Conjuring: Last Rites just days away, Josh Gates‘ associates Heather Amaro and Phil Torres head to Rhode Island to the original “Conjuring House” to confront a new set of malicious spirits. 

ON THE STREAM: