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We would not want to cross Viola Davis. Because if we did, we could be fairly certain that she would knock us the hell out.

Maybe the roles she's played haven't represented her real-life personality very accurately; maybe she's a pussycat in real life. But on film and TV, she is more like a tiger or a panther -- not necessarily swift to attack, but precise and brutal. And even when she's not attacking, she's coiled in wait, ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness. Staring. Watching. She's magnificent!

Because she has the no-bullshit look of a smart, tough woman who could seriously flatten anyone who makes the mistake of getting on her bad side, Davis often plays professionals in responsible positions of authority -- cops, lawyers, social workers, and others who have power over your very life. Her list of guest appearances reads like the Yahoo! list of TV's biggest legal dramas: NYPD Blue, C.S.I., The Practice, Third Watch, Judging Amy, The Guardian, and Law & Orders both Criminal Intent and Special Victims Unit. Granted, she's not always on the right side of the law (sometimes just adjacent to a criminal, if not a criminal herself, as in Out of Sight), but even as a crook, she has the fire and resolve of righteousness and compels you to question whether the wrong side isn't actually whatever side she's not on.

And even when the law isn't involved, Davis's is still the voice of reason and good sense. Like when she's sharing a spaceship with George Clooney, trying to talk his crazy ass down from the ledge when he becomes convinced that the illusions generated by the mysterious titular planet Solaris are real. Or when she's playing nearly silent maid Sybil, subtly trying to keep boss Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore) from upsetting the social order as she takes her first tentative steps toward progressive racial politics, in Far From Heaven. Here, especially, Davis plays a subordinate, ostensibly subservient role, but her innate authority cannot be denied, and she communicates her unease with Cathy and her vigilance about the situation with her strong, silent, watchful gaze. In fact, we will cop to harboring the faint hope that the naïve, breathless Cathy would finally overstep the bounds of their relationship in some serious and permanent way, forcing Sybil to haul off and plow her one in the face -- or, at the very least, shame her, with a devastating speech, into shutting up forever. Never mind the class and race disparity between them in the context of the story: Davis is the one in charge. And not just because she could break Moore in half.

Davis's role as Hannah Crane in Century City, CBS's ill-advised new legal drama set in the year 2030, suggests that the noble, stern black lady will still be a recognizable archetype even in the not-so-distant future. Not even when we're all AARP-eligible, it seems, will a professional African-American woman get much more to do than stand on the sidelines glaring and bossing people around. But even though Davis now knows that job by rote, it doesn't mean we don't still love to watch her do it. Especially when there's a chance she might kick Hector Elizondo in the balls. In space.