THE GREAT BEAST THAT IS THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Amazon Prime Video, 3:00 a.m. ET
DOCUMENTARY SERIES PREMIERE: This new eight-part documentary series, hosted by former House star and Obama White House employee Kal Penn, is the latest project from Adam McKay, who’s up for several Oscar awards this weekend for his Dick Cheney movie Vice. (He’s already won for Best Adapted Screenplay for his 2015 film The Big Short, which used humor to explain the origins and intricacies of the subprime crisis.) In The Great Beast, he comes to TV and uses each of eight episodes to explore a portion of the global economy by mixing information with laughs. The approaches range from former SNL player Sasheer Zamata talking about renters and residence availability to Joel McHale personifying the benefits, legal and otherwise, of businesses that deal only in cash.