The Discovery Channel takes a hazy detour with “Weed Wars” (9 p.m.). It’s one thing to set a documentary/reality series in the nation’s largest medical marijuana dispensary. It’s quite another to depart from the exaggerated gender stereotypes that dominate the cable dial.

Discovery and its rival, the History Channel, tend to battle for the guy viewer with shows about the burly, the tough and the macho. One assumes these tales of manly men attract male audiences and the advertisers who love them.

”Weed” features a bunch of distinctly Bay area personalities, including Steve DeAngelo, a weedy man in his mid-50s who’s given to porkpie hats and pigtails. There’s a bearded guy nicknamed “Dress” because that’s what he likes to wear. Take away all of the pungent inventory, and you have the slightly nerdy staff of a high-end boutique.

But the guys at Harborside Health Center aren’t selling furniture. Their potpourri of pot appeals to folks with doctors’ prescriptions to treat ailments ranging from cancer to unspecified nervous disorders. The state of California legalized medicinal marijuana in 1996, but the federal government has taken a decidedly harsh line against it. Steve and his staff live in fear of a raid by the Drug Enforcement Agency. And much of the first episode involves Harborside’s legal battles with the city of Oakland, which just levied a huge tax increase on its line of business. Is this intended to raise revenue? Or to drive Harborside out of town? Harborside feels besieged.

If you find visits to the city tax assessor and conversations with high-tech horticulturists exciting, then “Weed Wars” is the show for you. But too often it’s a little like being the only sober person in a roomful of potheads. They’re not as fascinating as they think they are. “Weed Wars” deserves credit for deviating from the cable cookie cutter. But that doesn’t make it entertaining.

• A circus operator decides to return his star attraction to the wild in the sweet 2009 documentary “One Lucky Elephant” (8 p.m., OWN).

Tonight’s other highlights

• “The X-Factor” (7 p.m., Fox) sends two talents home.

• The voice of Fred Astaire animates the 1970 special “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” (7 p.m., ABC).

• Linda Cardellini (“ER,” ”Freaks and Geeks”) guest-stars on “Person of Interest” (8 p.m., CBS).

• Robert introduces his wife (Maura Tierney) to the gang on “The Office” (8 p.m., NBC).

• A killer sends body parts through the mail on “Bones” (8 p.m., Fox).

• Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles hosts “CMA Country Christmas” (8 p.m., ABC).

• The documentary “Keep a Child Alive With Alicia Keys” (8 p.m., Showtime) keeps the focus on AIDS in Africa.

• Chelsea Handler guest-stars on “Whitney” (8:30 p.m., NBC).

• A money run to the Cayman Islands on “Burn Notice” (9 p.m., USA).