TV tonight: 'Suburgatory,' 'American Horror,' 'CSI'

• 'Suburgatory' returns for its second season
• Jessica Lange lights up 'American Horror Story'
• 'CSI' is well done as usual, but comes up a bit short

Suburgatory
ABC, 9:30 ET/PT

As NBC discovered back in its decades of Thursday dominance, the only downside of having a sitcom as great and as dominant as Modern Family in your lineup is that viewers then expect you to come up with a time-slot companion that's equally appealing. Tonight, ABC turns that slot over to Suburgatory, making its second-season debut. It's certainly a better choice than ABC's original idea, The Neighbors — but it's still not an inspired one.

American Horror Story: Asylum
FX, 10 ET/PT

If your only goal is to frighten people, it's not that hard to succeed. Send a young couple on a "haunted honeymoon tour" into a deserted asylum, as this FX horror anthology series does for the start of its second season tonight, and it's fairly easy to come up with enough things-that-go-slash-in-the-night moments to scare viewers. The trick is doing it in a way that's surprising and entertaining, and that's a trick this dark brew of freak show, slasher film and Grand Guignol black comedy has yet to master. It is, however, once again driven by an enjoyably outsized performance from Jessica Lange, this time as a deranged nun who mixes Cherry Jones from Doubt with a Tallulah Bankhead Die Die My Darling chaser. Drink if you dare.

CSI
CBS, 10 ET/PT

Where Asylum is too much, CSI tonight isn't quite enough. There are horrific aspects to its latest crime, a typically well-constructed but darker-than-usual tale of sexual torture, but the outing is too pat, too pretty, and too eager for a happy ending where none can exist.