Lisa Taddeo briefly shook the literary world a couple years ago with a nonfiction book that meant to say something about American female sexuality through the experiences of just three women. Now adapting her own book into the series “Three Women” (Starz, 10 p.m.) it seems both tawdry and soapy, even as it involves some actresses of some ability, particularly Betty Gilpin as an unloved Indiana woman who discovers the vibrator. DeWanda Wise plays an upper class swinger with pedestrian tastes; and Gabrielle Creevy is a South Dakota waitress who looks up her old high school teacher with whom she had an inappropriate tryst.
Shailene Woodley, above, unfortunately mostly stays to the sidelines as the author, except to interrupt every few minutes with voice-over narration (the scourge of writers adapting their own books). Aside from a hilarious early encounter with Gay Talese (James Naughton), she’s pretty much out of the picture. Mostly these women want to be seen, we are told. But this series is certainly makes it hard to do so.
In the dystopian future, turning 16 means automatic cosmetic surgery, but one teen chooses another direction, to her peril, in the new film “Uglies” (Netflix, streaming). Directed by McG and based on the novel by Scott Westerfeld, it stars Joey King, Laverne Cox, Chase Stokes and Keith Powers.
From Korea comes a new film about a young man who uses his martial arts skills to monitor offenders and prevent crimes, “Officer Black Belt” (Netflix, streaming). Kim Woo-bin and Kim Sung-kyun star.
The animated special “LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy” (Disney+, streaming) concerns an upending of the franchise, where good guys are bad, bad ones are good and it’s up to nerf herder Sig Greebling to get it all together.
A four-hole golf match between Jimmy Fallon and DJ Khaled, held in July, pre-empts “The Tonight Show” with the special “Cardigan Classic: Fallon vs. Khaled” (NBC, 11:35 p.m.).
“Ancient Aliens” (History, 9 p.m.) has a season finale amid some puzzling stone blocks in Bolivia.
An unusual effort to hype up the Emmys, which are Sunday, comes in the hour-long special “The 76th Emmys: A Night of Firsts” (ABC, 8 p.m.).
“Gold Rush: Mine Rescue with Freddy & Juan” (Discovery, 8 p.m.) tries to help an Arizona miner with a bum mine.
Dry is bent on taking out a threat in Carter’s organization on “Power Book II: Ghost” (Starz, 8 p.m.).
Game shows tonight include “Let’s Make a Deal” (CBS, 8 p.m.) and “Lingo” (CBS, 9 p.m.)
“Wiggin’ Out with Tokyo Stylez” (WEtv, 10:30 p.m.) has Tokyo trying to relaunch her wig line.
Toni gets ready for a Vegas residency on “The Braxtons” (WEtv, 9:30 p.m.).
On “Forbidden Love” ((TLC, 10:30 p.m.), Laurie’s conversion hits a bump.
Turner Classic Movies’ month-long Friday night survey of political films continues with “Reds” (8 p.m.), “The Parallax View” (11:30 p.m.), “Germany Year Zero” (1:30 a.m.), “Gabriel Over the White House” (3 a.m.), and “The Battleship Potemkin” (4:30 a.m.).
During the day are the films of atmospheric film producer Val Lawton with “The Seventh Victim” (6:45 a.m.), “Cat People” (8 a.m.), “The Curse of the Cat People” (9:15 a.m.), “Bedlam” (10:30 a.m.), “Isle of the Dead” (noon), “The Ghost Ship” (1:15 p.m.), “I Walked with a Zombie” (2:30 p.m.), “The Leopard Man” (3:45 p.m.) and “The Body Snatcher” (5 p.m.) as well as the documentary “Martin Scorsese Presents, Val Lawton: The Man in the Shadows” (6:30 p.m.).
Baseball includes Boston at Yankees (Apple TV+, 7 p.m.) and Dodgers at Atlanta (Apple TV+, 7:20 p.m.).
College football has UNLV at Kansas (ESPN, 7 p.m.) and Arizona at Kansas State (Fox, 8 p.m.)
WNBA action includes Washington at Atlanta (ION, 7:30 p.m.).
Daytime Talk
Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos: Laverne Cox, Jim Kwik. The View: Joe Locke, Lauren Sanchez. The Talk: Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Dana Delany. Kelly Clarkson: Jerry Seinfeld, Henry Hall, Maddie Zahn, Nick Fradiani (rerun). Drew Barrymore: Bemi Moore, Kevin Frazier, Nischelle Turner. Jennifer Hudson: Zendaya (rerun). Tamron Hall: Sanaa Lathan, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
Late Talk
Stephen Colbert: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Kaytranada with Ravyn Lean and Channel Tres (rerun). Jimmy Kimmel: Brian Tyree Henry, Douglas Emhoff, Muni Long (rerun). Jimmy Fallon: DJ Khaled. Seth Meyers: Dax Shepard, Carrie Coon (rerun). Taylor Tomlinson: Dustin Nickerson, Reggie Watts, Irene Tu (rerun). Bill Maher: Alex Karp, Kristen Soltis Anderson, Al Franken.