Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name. But what’s puzzling you, is the nature of my game. — The Rolling Stones, “Sympathy for the Devil”

Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) and her fiancé David (Naveen Andrews) are like two peas in a pod. She does a show on a New York talk radio station and he is a doctor. They are blissfully in love and planning their wedding. They fake-cute argue over things like invitations and what type of wedding they should have. On a walk through Central Park one night with their dog, they are brutally attacked. She is beaten within an inch of her life, and him six inches further. She wakes from her coma three weeks later to find that David’s funeral has already been held and she is left with nothing to do but pick up the pieces and try to move on.

Going into this movie seemed like dangerous ground to tread so soon after seeing Death Sentence just two weeks ago. Another movie about an average Joe turned vigilante killer after the death of their (blank)? And even if there will always be a spot reserved in my movie loving heart for her because of Silence of the Lambs, Foster kind of fell off the map for me some time ago. This movie surprised the hell out of me.

There are three reasons it works so well. First, the performances by Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard are incredible. Foster finally jumped off that one trick pony she had been riding through her last few movies roles and added back some of the spunk that made us love her in the first place. She’s pretty much been sleepwalking for the past five years, so it’s great to see she still possesses the talent and chops that made her famous. Watch the scene where Erica does her first radio show after the attack. She gets on air, freezes, and restarts three different times. It is painful to watch. Not only do you hear the fear in her voice, but you feel it for her. You just want to reach through the screen, take her out of the room, and end the discomfort. Not many actors could pull it off, and even fewer with such haunting effect. Terrence Howard adds the perfect counterbalance to her performance. He plays the rare good cop who still believes in the system he fights to protect, even if he has any number of reasons to have become jaded by it.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Season 3, Episodes 1-4
FX Network
Premieres Sept. 13, 2007

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia owes much of its existence to Seinfeld. The show has even carried the tagline “It’s Seinfeld on crack.” But while this show takes the basic formula and cardinal rule from its mentor (No Lessons, No Hugs), it found a way to push the boundaries of bad taste and political correctness and in the process, positioned itself to be one of the funnier shows on TV.

Charlie (Charlie Day), Mac (Rob McElhenney), and Dennis (Glenn Howerton) are all co-owners of Paddy’s, a local Irish Pub that never seems to see the light of regular business. The guys, along with Dennis’ twin sister Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson), is the head bartender and Frank (Danny DeVito), Dennis, and Dee’s father make up what is referred to as “The Gang.”

Season 3 continues to follow our group of misfits as they position themselves to become involved in even more ridiculous situations. Not much has changed for the gang since we last saw them. They are still running a bar with no discernible customer base, save for a few cockeyed schemes to bring in more business that usually blows up in their face. They all seem to be more consumed with serving their own self interests than customers. More times than not they are oblivious to people in their bar and annoyed by them when they finally do take notice.