Standoff (2006)

Bearing witness to forced TV chemistry is like opening a gift-wrapped box of old air: It's depressing and vaguely offensive, and it gives off the stench of something completely used. And it happens all the time. Amid all the bickering, bantering couples of the new season, Standoff's Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt are, therefore, a lovely rarity. They just click: It's crisp and unadorned.

Standoff's setup is almost beside the point, but if you must know, DeWitt and Livingston play FBI hostage negotiators who are partners in more ways than one — wink, wink. The affable Livingston (Office Space) was due for a good romantic role — the closest he's gotten was Sex and the City, where he the-opposite-of-clicked with Sarah Jessica Parker. Drop the navel-gazing blonde, replace her with a confrontational brunette, and...yes! DeWitt (Cinderella Man) is the find of the season. Sarcastic and smart, her Emily Lehman seems like a good woman to share a beer with. Or a cell-phone call: ''Okay, you sound upset,'' she says to a college student threatening to detonate himself in a coffeehouse. DeWitt makes the line sound slightly patronizing, as if the kid were complaining about a scuff on his Nikes, yet genuinely concerned, as if the kid were threatening to detonate himself in a coffeehouse. Deflate the self-importance without damaging the ego: You hear her brain working with one clever line spin. Standoff doesn't re-create the genre, but it certainly refreshes it.

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