TV: ‘This is Us’ returns for final season, ‘Good Sam’ debuts on CBS and more

The stage is set for the sixth and final season of NBC’s “This Is Us.” Pearson family matriarch Rebecca (Mandy Moore) is in the grip of dementia; the wedding of Kevin and Madison (Justin Hartley, Caitlin Thompson) is off; the marriage of Kate and Toby (Chrissy Metz, Chris Sullivan) is toast, and Randall (Sterling K. Brown), the most likely Pearson sibling to succeed, seems poised to fulfill his destiny. There are younger generations to be accounted for, including scene-stealers Asante Blackk and Lyric Ross as Malik and Deja. The series returns Tuesday (9 p.m. EST) for the 18-episode last chapter.

Also new this week:

• A father-daughter relationship is the beating heart of CBS’ “Good Sam,” debuting 10 p.m. EST Wednesday. A health crisis takes brilliant but testy heart surgeon Dr. Rob “Griff” Griffith (Jason Isaacs) out of commission as a hospital’s chief of surgery. His equally gifted but overshadowed offspring, Dr. Sam Griffiths (Sophia Bush) steps in and proves a natural, which her recovered dad resents. There are lighter moments between their clashes in the series from producers Katie Wech and Jennie Snyder Urman, who worked together on “Jane the Virgin.”

• A wrenching chapter in U.S. civil rights history is the focus of two ABC programs. “Women of the Movement” dramatizes Mamie Till-Mobley’s crusade for justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett’s 1955 racially motivated Mississippi killing. The limited series, starring 2021 Tony Award-winner Adrienne Warren as Till-Mobley, will air from 8-10 p.m. EST on three consecutive Thursdays starting this week. It’s paired with “Let the World See,” an ABC News docuseries that includes a detailed account of Till-Mobley’s effort to bring her son’s body home to Chicago and hold an open-casket funeral to expose the brutality of his death. The three-episode “Let the World See” will follow “Women of the Movement” each Thursday at 10:01 p.m. EST.

— AP TV Writer Lynn Elber