Considering it's the Sunday before a major holiday, tonight's a pretty big one for TV. In addition to the Stephen Colbert Christmas special [1], Fox is pulling out all the stops for a special 24 event, and HBO bids a first-season farewell to a new hit drama.

24's movie, 24: Redemption [2], has been a long time coming. The show's been off the air seemingly forever, but it takes its first steps back with tonight's two-hour movie. The prequel to the show's upcoming seventh season picks up with Jack Bauer in Africa, battling an existential funk (and a government investigation) in the midst of a fictional country that's about to plunge into civil war. There's a conspiracy, of course, and a new administration in Washington, led by the show's first female president (Cherry Jones). By the end, I hope we'll have a sense of where 24 wants to go in the months ahead.

Meanwhile, I've also been totally captivated by HBO's True Blood [3], the Southern Gothic tale of vampires out of the closet brought to you by Alan Ball. The series received tepid reviews in the beginning (including from me [4]), but now I don't miss an episode — and I'm not the only one. To read more about the finale and see a preview of both it and 24: Redemption, just .

Over the course of this season, True Blood has become HBO's "most popular series since The Sopranos and Sex and the City." [5] What started as a straightforward metaphor of vampires-as-persecuted-minorities has become something bigger, with a murder mystery haunting the town of Bon Temps and its complicated, well-drawn characters. Last week set us up with a big ol' clue about the murderer's identity, and I have my guesses, but I'm impressed enough with this show that I suspect the finale will have more twists than I could possibly predict.

Will you be watching any of these shows? Here are the previews: