If you tuned in last night to Fox to watch the encore presentation of the pilot episode of "Fringe," you got some nice little extras along the way. First off, there was a 10-minute preview of the big-screen remake of "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (opening Dec. 12). Looked pretty good, actually. Then we got a little peek into Tuesday night's second episode of "Fringe," followed by a glimpse into what the whole season has to offer.
But the real gem of the evening was just before 10 p.m., when Fox, after much teasing, finally gave us a 3-minute trailer for "24: Redemption." Airing November 23, just before Thanksgiving and during those all too important November ratings sweeps period, Jack Bauer returns to save the world again, this time in Africa. I don't know about you, but whenever Jack shows up and in his gruff voice speaks into the cell "Mr. President, this is Jack Bauer ...." (or in this case Madam President), my heart always skips a beat!
Of course, this is just a little peace offering for 24 fans, since we lost a whole season earlier this year due to the writers' strike. But I'll take it! "Redemption" is a stand alone 2-hour movie, and supposedly some sort of lead-in to the next season which will begin some time in January.
In case you missed it, you can watch the trailer here http://www.fox.com/24/trailer/

Ok, now on to HBO: Last night also saw the second episode of Alan Ball's (Six Feet Under) new drama "True Blood." Set in the present day in Bon Temps, Lousiana, True Blood tells the fictional tale of vampires walking/living among us. Due to a break thru new synthetic blood "drink" vampires don't have to hide in the dark anymore and the American Vampire League is all about getting vamps the same rights a humans.
And it wouldn't be drama without a love story, right? Lead vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) returns to town and meets girl-who-can-read-minds/waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin). Sparks fly and you know the rest.
Sounds silly right? Well, actually last night's episode was more impressive than the first one, even if it did include the generic girl-drinks-vampire's-blood-in-order-to-recover-from-her- injuries (eewww!). And the Internet is all abuzz today with comparisons between True Blood and that other current vampire-love-epic -- Twilight.
While I'm starting to like True Blood, I have to side with the Twilighters for now (I'll let you know for sure after Nov. 21 when the big screen adaptation of Twilight opens). Although both deal with the taboo Human-Vampire love, Twilight's author's Mormon values keep the story more about longing and resistance. True Blood's not afraid to go all the way, and I do mean ALL the way! There's a reason True Blood's on HBO and not Fox! This show's definitely adults only.
For now, I'll leave you with this -- who would you rather endanger your life with ...
True Blood's Bill Compton

Or Twilight's Edward Cullen?

I'll take my chances with Edward any day.

I was planning on catching up with the first season of the Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles this weekend, since the second episode of the second season is tonight, but I got sidetracked by something a coworker passed on to me -- Season 1 of The Big Bang Theory.
If you haven't watched this brilliant sitcom yet, you can catch it tonight at 8 p.m. on CBS. And since it's a sitcom, you don't need a whole lot of background in order to start watching. In short, it's the story of two brainiacs, Leonard and Sheldon, who are physicists at a university and share an apartment together. Beautiful girl Penny moves next door, Leonard develops a huge crush, and you can pretty much figure out the rest.
Anyway, it's hilarious, well written and instantly entertaining. Not too many shows can pride themselves on the brilliant dialogue going on here.
I watched the whole first season in two nights on DVD. You may want to rent it.
Did I mention how much I love TV on DVD? It's the best! You can watch an entire season in a matter of days, without commercials!!!

And speaking of entire seasons, attention to all fans of LOST: The Sci-Fi Channel begins airing the whole series in chronological order beginning tonight at 7 p.m. Four episodes will air back-to-back from 7 to 11 p.m. tonight and every Monday until presumably, Season Five gets underway some time in January!!
So if you want to relive the perils of the passengers of Oceanic 815, or if you never watched and want to know what everyone's talking about, make it a date tonight!

And finally, or should I say finale? Project Runway taped the current season's finale Friday afternoon at Fashion Week in Bryant Park, NYC. Yes, I know I said this last week, but I have more news ... Guest judge Jennifer Lopez was a no-show! Yes, that's right, she left Heidi, Tim, Nina and Michael Kors in the lurch! Something about hurting her foot, but she's still training for a triathlon or something ...
Ever the gentleman, fan favorite Tim Gunn replaced Lopez as guest judge and promised to show no partiality. And as reported by www.nypost.com, the audience went ballistic for him! Also spotted at the show were previous contestants Sweet Pea, former finalist Jillian and last season's winner Christian Siriano.
According to http://bloggingprojectrunway.blogspot.com/ Leanne, Korto, Kenley, Joe, Jerell and Suede all got to show their collections. Bravo did things similarly last season, allowing all the remaining contestants (that we knew of on-air) to show their collections, although only 3 were actually competing for the finale. That's to keep everyone in the dark regarding who the actual finalists are. Click on the link above and you can view the complete collections of the designers.

Till tomorrow ...