A Lady Gaga profile and rowdy country legends
Tonight’s new offerings put the accent on music.
“Gaga: Five Foot Two” (TVMA) begins streaming on Netflix. The film’s title contrasts singer Lady Gaga’s giant fan base and massive career with her petite stature. Contrasts continue as “Five Foot Two” follows Lady Gaga as she performs for hundreds at an impromptu street concert and as she gets ready for the biggest venue of them all, the Super Bowl halftime show. We also bounce back and forth between elaborate costumes and meticulous preparation for performances and the singer’s private musings about isolation and the emotional toll of life in the spotlight.
Directed by Chris Moukarbel (“Banksy Does New York”), “Five Foot Two” follows in a long line of officially sanctioned “intimate” portraits. A difficult task to pull off. Fans may find this “real,” and others a tad manufactured. But nobody, the star included, can probably say where one ends and the other begins.
PAYCHECK’S TOUR BUS
Ready for a cartoon documentary series? “Mike Judge Presents: Tales From the Tour Bus” (10 p.m., Cinemax, TV-MA) is a “Behind the Music” look at country legends. It captures the larger-than-life exploits of musical bad boys (and the ladies who loved them) in two glorious dimensions.
Judge (“Silicon Valley”) returns to his animation roots (“Beavis & Butt-head” and “King of the Hill”) to recall the hard-drinking, rowdy and often self-destructive ways of artists including Jerry Lee Lewis, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Billy Joe Shaver, Waylon Jennings and Blaze Foley.
The first excursion for Judge’s “Tour Bus” is a profile of Johnny Paycheck, famous for hits including “She’s All I Got” and “Take This Job and Shove It.” Fame, it seemed, only fed his taste for stealing cars and taking drugs, habits that landed him in jail. While Johnny Cash once sang of shooting a man in Reno “just to watch him die,” Paycheck went to trial and was imprisoned for shooting a man over a recipe for turtle soup!
It’s such details that fuel the stranger-than-fiction allure of “Tour Bus.”
Folks who complain that country music is a lot safer than it used to be should not miss these harrowing tales of wild success matched only by a failure to behave.
SERIES STREAMING
Well-established streaming series returning today include season four of “Transparent” on Amazon Prime, season three of “Fuller House” on Netflix and season two of the animated adventure “The Deep,” also on Netflix.
‘BATTLESTAR’ ON SYFY
Syfy airs the 2003 miniseries that kicked off the 2004 reboot of “Battlestar Galactica” (8 p.m.). Along with “Lost,” it was one of the more talked-about series of its era — a time when people did their “bingeing” with a DVD player. In fact, the addictive, life-stopping nature of watching “Battlestar” fueled a memorable skit on the first season of IFC’s “Portlandia” way back in 2011.
Season one of “Battlestar” will air on Syfy on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning at 6 p.m. All 76 episodes, including the miniseries, will be available through Syfy on Demand for the next 30 days.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› John Quinones hosts the season finale of “What Would You Do?” (9 p.m., ABC).
› A six-episode marathon of “Livin’ Large” (9 p.m., Lifetime, TV-PG) profiles the Stepneys, a family with plus-size affection for each other.
› Danny intercepts a cartel’s payday on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Murdoc’s murderous plan on “MacGyver” (8 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) repeats the live results finale.
› Asian fusion on “MasterChef” (8 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-14).
› A pitch rises to poetry on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, repeat, TV-PG).
› Dean Cain hosts the season finale of “Masters of Illusion” (10 p.m., CW, TV-14), followed by a repeat (10:30 p.m.).
› Saving girls from traffickers on “Hawaii Five-0” (9 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Jamie Foxx hosts “Beat Shazam” (9 p.m., Fox, repeat, TV-PG).
› Illusionists audition on “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (11 p.m., CW, repeat, TV-PG).
› “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC).
› “20/20” (10 p.m., ABC). Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.