Revenge

“Downton Abbey" is going to look quite different when it returns for a fourth season. On Friday Siobhan Finneran -- better known to fans as O'Brien, Lady Grantham's constantly scheming, severely coiffed maid -- confirmed that she is leaving the beloved costume drama. Finneran follows co-stars Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown Findlay out the door, though it seems likely her character will do so under less tragic circumstances than theirs: In the Season 3 finale, O'Brien was jockeying hard for a new job that would allow her to see more of the world.

In the wake of Christopher Dorner's claim that his firing from the Los Angeles Police Department was a result of corruption and bias, more than three dozen other fired LAPD cops want department officials to review their cases. The 40 requests, which were tallied by the union that represents rank-and-file officers, have come in the two months since Dorner sought revenge for his 2009 firing by targeting police officers and their families in a killing rampage that left four dead and others injured.

Trial judges are, on the books, elected officials, and even the vast majority of those whose names never appear on a ballot are subject to election challenge every six years. Should voters not call them to account for their performance, as they do with any other politician, on election day? Should they not encourage opponents to challenge incumbent judges? Or are judges different from members of Congress or city councils? Judges are most definitely different. The last thing we want or need in California is trial judges who sit on the bench with one eye on justice and the other on how any particular ruling is going to play with the public.

Jimmy Carter gets revenge on Barack Obama with the help of James Earl Jones in a Chicago Blackhawks locker room.

If the revenge thriller seems like an especially inflexible genre, it might be because its founding formula is basically a biblical credo: an eye for an eye. In film after film, a vigilante hero is wronged and because of the failures of the legal system must take matters into his -- or, in some cases, her -- own hands. There is no real suspense over the outcome -- payback is exacted, in due course -- but the nominal pleasures of most of these movies lie precisely in their familiarity, in their brazen appeal to our most basic instincts.

'Revenge' Where: ABC When: 10 p.m. Wednesday Rating: TV-PG-LS (may be unsuitable for young children with advisories for coarse language and sex)

Just when we've been lulled into thinking a car is just a car and a plane is just a plane, the metal monstrosities of Cybertron are back in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Where once only 14 robots bone-crushed our world and each other, now there are 46 of them on the prowl, morphing out of microwaves, motorcycles, fighter jets and more as they ready for a screeching showdown of titanic proportions in director Michael Bay's latest extravaganza of alloyed excess.

"Revenge," a new soap-thriller from ABC, begins its life Wednesday on a beach at night, during what social power broker Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) will soon describe as "the final weekend of a remarkable summer in the Hamptons. " There's a gunshot, and a body, and just up the way an engagement party. Who's getting engaged is "the lovely and beguiling" Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp), seen wiping sand mysteriously from her hand. Her fiance, "tragically privileged" Daniel Grayson (Joshua Bowman)

'Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore' MPAA rating: PG for animal action and humor Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes Playing: In general release

"Sweet is revenge," Lord Byron wrote in "Don Juan" ? and how could it be otherwise? Who wouldn't enjoy getting even with a sadistic boss, a two-faced friend who slept with your spouse or that teacher who had it in for your child for no good reason? Most of us have revenge fantasies, human behavior researchers say, and nearly everyone believes that punishing someone who did him wrong would feel tremendously satisfying. But new studies suggest the reality of revenge is far different.

Losers, also-rans, the 99% and underachievers may have reason to cheer. Winning an Emmy, a presidential election or a spot in the baseball Hall of Fame does not mean you live longer and better, according to a new study. Researchers at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health compared baseball Hall of Fame inductees, Emmy Award winners and former presidents and vice presidents with their losing adversaries and found that their heightened socioeconomic status didn't confer a great advantage for longevity and health.

"Game of Thrones" returns to HBO on March 31 as George R.R. Martin's saga begins its third season. Judging by the new trailer, which includes phrases such as "death is coming for everyone and everything," things are going to get pretty dark. In the last seconds, we are promised: "The revenge you want will be yours in time. " But who will get revenge? Can everyone? Earlier this month, it seemed as though fans might be ready to take out their revenge on Martin. After the author signed a two-year deal to develop new science fiction/fantasy stories for HBO, online chatter seemed to signal his readers' frustration . "George R.R. Martin STOP MAKING NEW STUFF AND JUST FINISH WHAT YOU'VE STARTED!

Re "For Hagel, opposition from GOP is personal," Feb. 15 Despite the fact that a Cabinet nomination has never in history been blocked by a minority filibuster, Republicans are filibustering Chuck Hagel's appointment as secretary of Defense. Alexander Hamilton, one of the most conservative of the Founding Fathers, decried minority rule in the Federalist Papers. Several Republican senators announced their opposition to filibustering a Cabinet nomination, and yet the Republicans filibustered anyway.

As the massive search for a fugitive ex-cop suspected of three slayings continued Saturday, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck announced that he was reopening the investigation into the firing of Christopher Jordan Dorner from the police department, the event that apparently sparked his vengeful campaign. Beck said he was reopening the investigation "not to appease a murderer" but to assure the public that his department is fair and transparent. He said he wanted to protect an "increasingly positive relationship with the community" that the LAPD has developed over the last few years.

On the day Christopher Dorner was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department, officials took the unusual step of summoning armed guards to stand watch at his disciplinary hearing downtown. Those present were nervous that Dorner might do something rash when he learned that he was being stripped of his badge. He was a hulking, muscled man and his body language left no doubt about the anger seething out of him. "It was clear… that he was wound way too tight," said a police official who attended Dorner's termination hearing and requested anonymity because of safety concerns.

"Identity Thief" is a larcenous bit of funny business. It probably should be locked up for its crimes and misdemeanors against moviemaking. But its stars, Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, steal so many laughs from such improbable places that the bumps in this revenge/road trip farce can be mostly forgiven, though not forgotten. Directed by Seth Gordon, the film has the same R-rated tenor of his relatively horrible "Horrible Bosses" and his really dreary "Four Christmases. " More problematic, it has the same difficulty with the connective tissue - anything but the really funny stuff sags or is superfluous.

Adrienne Ferguson had retribution on her mind as she made her way along West Jefferson Boulevard clutching a stack of papers. She wasn't reacting to a perceived injustice done to her. She was taking action for a stranger who claims to have a beef with the C&H Auto Center, a small automobile body shop down the street. Ferguson and a partner operate Alibis & Paybacks, a Los Angeles firm that describes itself as "the ultimate revenge" service, offering paybacks both large and small.

We know that Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) loves his daughter because in the opening moments of "Law Abiding Citizen," we see him happily making bead necklaces with her. Then there's a knock on the door, a baseball bat to the head and Clyde watches helplessly as his wife and little girl are raped and murdered during a home invasion. Clyde, understandably, wants justice, and when he doesn't get it from the system, he wants revenge on everyone involved. Because of that "Law Abiding Citizen" spends a lot of time paying lip service to the inequities of a broken judicial system where "some justice is better than no justice at all."

In "Girls Against Boys" two young women go on a killing spree, seeking revenge against the men who have wronged one of them. After Shae (Danielle Panabaker) is in quick succession dumped by her married lover and sexually assaulted by a young man she meets at a bar, she is drawn by her fellow nightclub bartender Lu (Nicole LaLiberte) into a psychotic spiral. Lu coughs up a series of conflicting motivations of her own, until she finally admits she's doing it simply "because I can. " PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments Written and directed by Austin Chick, "Girls Against Boys" is some odd male fantasy of what female revenge might be like, sexy and enigmatically charged rather than haunting or scary or even just weird.

As a kid, I was always disappointed at Halloween when a simple "trick or treat" was met by a well-meaning neighbor with a Bible tract in lieu of candy. Sure, I was raised in a churchgoing family, but Halloween was for indulging in sugar, not soul-saving, of all things. How I wish now that I had made good on those "trick" threats if I didn't get the treat I wanted. They were warned. This is what popped into my mind after reading at LAist about the impromptu concertos of the world's smallest violins being played at restaurants across California.