It’s been a bad year for scientists — on television, at least. Remember that frozen pile of researchers from “True Detective: Night Country”? Well, that’s just an appetizer for the cosmic head-scratcher “3 Body Problem,” based on a three-novel series from China, streaming on Netflix and created by the production team behind “Game of Thrones.”
Ambitious, globe-spanning and insistently loud, it follows a team of frightened investigators looking into a possible explanation for an epidemic of suicides among the world’s most brilliant minds. Suffice it to say, the answer lies “out there” in all the most cosmic ways.
This is not the first adaptation of “Problem.” A Chinese-made miniseries has gained a global audience. Peacock recently announced that it would be streaming a subtitled version of that series, simply titled “3 Body.” The Chinese adaptation runs 30 episodes. The Netflix series has eight.
— Now streaming on AMC+ and Sundance Now, the U.K. import “The Long Shadow” returns to mid-1970s Yorkshire, when a serial killer, eventually identified as Peter Sutcliffe, stalked cities including Leeds, eventually taking a toll of at least 13 women.
Look for Toby Jones (“Harry Potter”; “Detectorists”) as DCS Dennis Hoban. The series does a credible job of evoking the period gloom of deindustrialized Britain. It also goes out of its way to humanize the victims, including prostitutes. A long opening scene follows the children of the first murdered woman who anxiously await her return from her nocturnal stroll and are waiting for her bus to return when police arrive with the grim news.
A hard-working character actor with understated depths, Jones may be familiar to fans of the never-ending U.K. procedural “Midsomer Murders” as one of the first medical examiners. He also stars in “Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office,” a true-life drama about an episode that rocked U.K. politics just last year, which arrives on PBS on April 7.
— Hulu streams the documentary “Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told.” It recalls the legendary street parties that began in Atlanta as modest college cookouts and eventually, over the course of the 1980s and ’90s, became gatherings of thousands, springtime events that shut down parts of the city, but also helped identify Atlanta as a cultural mecca.
— After suspecting that she’s been “ghosted” by her dating app acquaintance, a divorced schoolteacher’s resentment turns into suspicion when she stumbles upon a mystery decades in the making in the new dramedy “Diarra From Detroit,” streaming on BET+
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament first round action includes Oakland and Kentucky (7 p.m., CBS) and NC State vs. Texas Tech (9:30 p.m., CBS).
— A comedian’s subway murder is no laughing matter on “Law & Order” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— Familiar faces return to “House Hunters: All Stars” (8 p.m., HGTV, TV-G).
— A woman hires an artist to renovate a rundown shack in “The Wedding Cottage” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— An attack rises to the level of a hate crime on “Law & Order: SVU” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— A single father dedicates a home renovation to his late wife on the second season opener of “Down Home Fab” (9 p.m., HGTV, TV-G).
— Chief Bonner’s past resurfaces on “Law & Order: Organized Crime” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
A fetching insurance investigator (Faye Dunaway) pursues a criminal mastermind (Steve McQueen) over suggestive chess moves in the 1968 thriller “The Thomas Crown Affair” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-14). Directed by Norman Jewison and featuring a score by Michel LeGrand and an insistent use of the split screen, the movie is a stylish period piece. Its Oscar-nominated theme song “The Windmills of Your Mind” was covered by Dusty Springfield, Noel Harrison and Jose Feliciano, and performed by Sting for the film’s 1999 remake, starring Rene Russo and Pierce Brosnan.
SERIES NOTES
“Next Level Chef” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … A cruise ship nightmare continues on “9-1-1” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … “Farmer Wants a Wife” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … Bailey gives the interns their orders on “Grey’s Anatomy” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … Jack’s period of adjustment on “Station 19” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Gisele Bundchen, Wayne Brady and Mary Beth Barone on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Regina King, William Shatner and Dasha appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC).
Matt Damon and Danielle Pinnock appear on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (12:35 p.m., CBS, r) … Alex Wagner, J. Smith-Cameron and Baby Tate visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts Suzi Barrett, Matt Walsh and Vanessa Gonzalez on “After Midnight” (1:35 a.m., CBS, r).
