Hulu, or rather FX on Hulu, serves up a gruesome Halloween event. “American Horror Stories” streams four episodes today. Not to be confused with “American Horror Story,” currently running, “Stories” offers an anthology of ghoulish tales.
This year’s menu offers tales of implanted parasites that devour victims from within and ravenous gourmands who have developed a taste for the ultimate forbidden delicacy: human organ meat.
These latest themes dovetail rather seamlessly (and squeamishly) with the new “Story” chapter, “Delicate,” about a pregnant A-list movie star (Emma Roberts) whose condition coincides with visions of being pursued by witches as her bossy publicist (Kim Kardashian) hustles her through the leadup to the Oscars.
“Story” and “Stories” producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk have long traded in dramas about characters who have grown uncomfortable in their own skin. They rose to prominence with the FX plastic-surgery satire “Nip/Tuck.”
— A tale taken very seriously among fans of Japanese manga, “Pluto” arrives in serialized fashion on Netflix. While somehow adapted, derived or linked to the story of “Astroboy,” “Pluto” is a far cry from the crude little cartoon series that arrived on these shores more than six decades ago, ushering in an onslaught of cheap Japanese imports including “Gigantor” and “Speed Racer.”
Cinematic in scope and featuring sophisticated visual vantage points, “Pluto” offers a dark (aren’t they all?) meditation on artificial intelligence and a life-and-death struggle between humans and robots, where mankind’s enduring legacy of hatred leaves one wondering if you’re supposed to root for the cyborgs.
— Scientists travel to an island off Antarctica, where a cauldron of lava defies conventional explanations on “Explorer: Lake of Fire” (10 p.m., National Geographic, TV-PG).
— A journalist’s (India Mullen) investigation into her own mother’s murder leads to another woman’s disappearance in the Irish series “The Vanishing Triangle,” streaming its first two episodes on Sundance Now/AMC+.
Look for Allen Leech as the detective who assists her as they uncover rampant corruption in the Irish police that may have contributed to a spate of kidnappings and murders of young women in Ireland in the 1990s.
Leech is best known for playing Tom, the former radical turned chauffeur who marries into the family, on “Downton Abbey.”
— On a similar note, Prime Video streams the imported German series “Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy,” about a psychiatrist who finally comes to grips with his daughter’s disappearance some eight years after she vanished.
— BET+ streams the 2023 supernatural film “The Despaired,” about a grieving postal worker who discovers an undelivered letter that raises her late husband from the dead. Return to sender!
BET+ also streams the 2023 shocker “Stay Out,” about the heir to the estate of a distant relative, whose wealth may have been linked to sorcery.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Clint Eastwood and his serape star in the 1964 Western “A Fistful of Dollars” (7:15 p.m., MoMax) and its sequel “For a Few Dollars More” (9 p.m., MoMax).
— A witness grows unreliable on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
— A radical drug treatment goes haywire on “Transplant” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— The 2023 shocker “The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” (10 p.m., WE) presents a modern “Frankenstein.”
— A paramedic’s first night coincides with the return of a serial killer in the 2023 shocker “Vindicta” (10:10 p.m., Sho2).
CULT CHOICE
Rival cowboys (Mel Ferrer and Arthur Kennedy) vie for the attention of a singer (Marlene Dietrich) in a dusty saloon called the Chuck-a-Luck in the 1952 Western “Rancho Notorious” (6:30 p.m., TCM, TV-G), directed by Fritz Lang (“Metropolis,” “M”), like Dietrich, a German expatriate.
SERIES NOTES
“Buddy Games” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “Hell’s Kitchen” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … “The Golden Bachelor” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … “Big Brother” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “Lego Masters” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … “Bachelor in Paradise” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
“FBI True” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC, r).
LATE NIGHT
Keegan-Michael Key, Elle Key and John Carpenter are booked on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Tim Grover and Jorja Smith on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Tiffany Haddish, Jeff Ross and Tate McRae appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC).
Morgan Freeman and McKay Coppins visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Charles Fleischer, Luenell, Gilbert Esquivel and John Roy appear on “Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
