Louis C.K. moves on to Better Things and One Mississippi, Masters of Sex and South Park return, and more visual distractions

Thursday 9.8
A new season of Louie may not be coming anytime soon, but Louis C.K. is certainly keeping busy with FX by producing shows for his friends. Coming off the success of Zach Galifianakis’ strange and wonderful Baskets, C.K. is producing the semi-autobiographical Better Things for his pal and Louie co-star Pamela Adlon. She plays a single mom raising three kids, and it looks to have much of the same biting humor as Louie. Better Things premieres tonight on FX.

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Friday 9.9
Max Allan Collins is perhaps best known as the author of the Road to Perdition graphic novels, but he’s so prolific that he has several other hard-boiled series of books under his belt. His oldest, 1976’s Quarry, has been adapted into a new Cinemax TV series. Quarry follows a disillusioned Marine sniper (Logan Marshall-Green) who returns home from Vietnam only to be demonized and then caught up in a ring of crime and corruption. The new series, which debuts tonight, is created by two guys who used to write for SundanceTV’s subtle post-trauma drama, Rectify, so chances are good this will be one to watch, too.

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Saturday 9.10
One of the sleeper indie hits of the year, Whit Stillman’s dry and verbose Jane Austen adaptation, Love and Friendship, is new on Blu-ray now. Turn on the English subtitles so you’re sure not to miss any of Kate Beckinsale’s fast-paced withering wit as she schemes her way through 1790s Britain to find a husband for her daughter and herself. It’s rare that a filmmaker adapts such a well-known author’s work, effortlessly putting a personal stamp on it. Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona) has done just that.

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Sunday 9.11
Last season on Showtime’s excellent series Masters of Sex, fictionalized non-fictional sex researchers Dr. Bill Masters (Michael Sheen) and Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) published their controversial 1965 book, while revealing more complicated layers to their troubled characters. Tonight’s Season 4 premiere moves the story forward to freewheeling 1968, when a very different sexual climate prevails. Sheen and Caplan are perennially overlooked come awards time, but this is a program worth checking out. Stream the three previous seasons on Hulu, iTunes or Google Play.

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Monday 9.12
Amazon Prime dropped Season 1 of One Mississippi, the best-reviewed show of its last batch of pilots, on Friday night. After a busy weekend, you can stream it tonight. Tig Notaro stars as a partially fictionalized version of herself — and the show, which promises to have plenty of dark humor, is co-produced by Louis C.K. If you’re thinking this sounds familiar (see Thursday), it is. But if you know anything about Notaro, you know she’s not afraid to deal with the really dark stuff, and One Mississippi finds her dealing with the sudden death of her mother. Hilarious, right?

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Tuesday 9.13
Colin Hanks is a music fiend who grew up browsing the bins at Tower Records. All Things Must Pass, out on Blu-ray today, is his tribute to the independent spirit, passion and culture of record stores. Sure, Tower was a chain, but it was run with an unwavering passion for music and community rather than the bottom line. Hanks’ documentary suffers from tunnel vision (he barely discusses the digital revolution that brought down physical media), but it’s fast-paced and a lot of fun. Also available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and on-demand.

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Wednesday 9.14
It’s hard to believe that South Park has been terrorizing pop culture for 19 years and 267 episodes. Time hasn’t dulled Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s fearless anarchic-animated satire, nor their ability to skewer pop culture in real time. The first episode of Season 20 premieres tonight on Comedy Central, and there’s plenty of fucked-up shit in the world right now for South Park to make fun of. Also premiering tonight is the sixth season of American Horror Story on FX and a second season of IFC’s Bill Hader-Fred Armisen satire Documentary Now!

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Eric Melin is the editor of Scene-Stealers.com and president of the KC Film Critics Circle.