Back on the beat
If "Moonlight" and "Green Book" didn't convince you that Mahershala Ali is one of our most intriguing and subtle actors, the new season of "True Detective" should do the trick. Try to forget the disastrous second season (except for Rachel McAdams' performance) and settle in for a patiently paced, moody tale with Ali nailing his part as a retired investigator wrestling with regret. As it did during the first season's Matthew McConaughey-Woody Harrelson arc, this feels more like a ghost story than a crime procedural.
8 p.m. Sun., HBO
Making the grade
Just because Gillian Anderson is sporting a British accent, don't mistake "Sex Education" for a sophisticated comedy. The former "X-Files" investigator plays a sex therapist whose teenage son (Asa Butterfield) decides to follow in her footsteps, taking on his schoolmates as clients. It's a clumsy, uncomfortable mess — just like young love. Emma Mackey, who plays Butterfield's "business" partner, is the best thing to happen to teen sarcasm since "Veronica Mars."
Now streaming on Netflix
Rites of passage
"The Passage" ticks off a lot of clichés in the network playbook — guilt-ridden hero on the run! Government conspiracy! The apocalypse! Precocious kid that melts your heart! Vampires! — yet somehow it all works, at least well enough that you might finally stop thinking of its star, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, as that dude from "Saved by the Bell."
8 p.m. Mon., KMSP, Ch. 9
Neal Justin
