‘Doom Patrol,’ ‘Legacies’ & More Returning Favorites Airing Thursdays This Fall

Doom Patrol Season 3, Matt Bomer and April Bowlby
Fall Preview
Bob Mahoney/HBO Max
Doom Patrol

Familiar titles are making a comeback this fall and Thursdays are shaping up to be a solid night for TV. Among returning favorites fans can look forward to this season include The CW’s Legacies and Doom Patrol among others. Below, get a peek into the Thursday lineup for the weeks ahead.

Doom Patrol (Sept. 23, HBO Max)

The trippy dramedy’s vulgar, emotionally troubled superheroes start Season 3 “up s–t’s creek,” cracks executive producer Jeremy Carver. Their botched plot to save the Chief (Timothy Dalton) and his daughter Dorothy (Abi Monterey) from the Candlemaker — the personification of her worst fear — has gotten them trapped in wax. “Their survival is dependent on Dorothy going toe-to-toe with the abomination,” Carver adds. Also, metahuman Jane (Diane Guerrero) must figure out how one of her supposedly dead alter egos has returned, and Season 1’s cheekiest monsters rear again. That’s right, the EP says: “The butts are back.”

United States of Al

United States of Al (Credit: Robert Voets/ 2020 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved)

United States of Al (Oct. 7, 8:30/7:30c, CBS)

The fall of Kabul impacts the sitcom’s sophomore season and, naturally, Afghani interpreter and Columbus, Ohio, transplant Awalmir “Al” Karimi (Adhir Kalyan). “Al branches out academically and romantically, but he’s still getting used to life in a new country,” says executive producer Maria Ferrari. Also, after struggling last season, Marine Corps veteran Riley (Parker Young) takes “active steps with regard to his mental health,” says fellow EP Dave Goetsch. We’ll meet his therapist and some of his old squadmates. We’ll also see that Riley hasn’t given up on ex-wife Vanessa (Kelli Goss).

B Positive (Oct. 7, 9:30/8:30c, CBS)

Following Drew Dunbar’s (Thomas Middleditch) successful kidney transplant, the sitcom homes in on donor Gina Dabrowski (Annaleigh Ashford) for Season 2. A life-altering event thrusts her into a position of authority at the retirement home, where she tries to do right by residents like Linda Lavin’s Norma. (Executive producer Jim Patterson reminds us Gina “has the best of intentions but often not the greatest instincts.”) Finally, Drew suspects he’s falling for Gina. “Is it related to her giving him her kidney, or true romantic feelings?” Patterson queries.

Legacies (Oct. 14, 9/8c, The CW)

Hope (Danielle Rose Russell) and the malevolent golem Malivore (Douglas Tait) square off in the supernatural drama’s first four hours of Season 4. As a tribrid of witch, werewolf, and latent vampire, she supposedly has to die and activate her bloodsucker side to win. Plus, Malivore is still occupying the body of her beloved Landon (Aria Shahghasemi). Do the tortured lovers have a future? “Fate doesn’t seem to think so,” executive producer Brett Matthews says. “[But] the core of their relationship has always been fighting that fate.”

This is an excerpt from TV Guide Magazine’s 2021 Returning Favorites issue. For more inside scoop on the new fall TV season, pick up the issue, on newsstands now.