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So far this is the third
variation of the Luc Besson spy thriller masterpiece "La
Femme Nikita," and the more variations we see of it, the
more the actual point of the premise is loss. We had
"Point of No Return" a remake with Bridget Fonda I think
I'd rather forget if only for being a piss poor
adaptation of Besson's film and for becoming a
relatively obscure nineties fixture that put some nails
in to Fonda's career coffin. Then there was the basic
cable spy thriller starring Peta Wilson that I really
never bothered to watch mainly because it felt like a
version of "Mission: Impossible," and now there's
"Nikita." I originally approached "Nikita" with an
experimental mindset mainly because I'm prone to
watching anything that tickles my fancy and I was open
to the notion that Maggie Q had finally found her
vehicle after so many years of minor roles as the
mysterious Asian woman in forgettable films like "Balls
of Fury," "Live Free or Die Hard" and "The King of
Fighters." This
2010 series is less a raw adaptation of Besson's source
material and more just a launch off of the basic concept
building on its own path set by Besson. It takes the
general idea and just creates its own ideas and
personalities. "Nikita" is an adaptation in only the
slightest sense twisting the premise and focusing in on
a woman named Nikita who may or may not be Anne
Parillaud's character. She's Asian and not French, she's
limber and graceful and not as rugged as her
predecessor, and only bears a scant similarity in
nature. |
The hint
is that there have been different women with the
name Nikita at one time like a codename, but they do
stick closely to the character mold from Besson's
film in which Nikita is a woman who was once a
gangster and druggie is kidnapped after a botched
crime and groomed to perfection to become a killing
machine. And like the original Nikita, she
accidentally fell in love. From there on in we're
told Nikita (this Nikita apparently) eventually
decided to leave the life of a spy behind and chose
marriage. Her husband was never seen from her again,
and she rebelled against the corporation that
groomed her. The only scenes we see of Nikita's past
life are a few throwaway scenes of her and her
husband in bed engaging in goofy romantic dialogue
that failed to really strike a chord and thankfully
the writers never try to mimic the classic scene in
"La Femme Nikita" in where Nikita's newlywed husband
declares his love for her outside the bathroom door
as she sits at the window sill prepared to shoot
down a target struggling between her loyalties. I'm
still not sure where "Nikita" falls in with Besson's
original film, in the end.
We're
also told that Nikita is only one in a school of
spies kidnapped and turned in to killing machines,
and she is doing everything humanly possible to
bring them down from the inside out. She's not one
person groomed to become the perfect killing machine
but one in an assembly line of lost souls who are
kidnapped, turned in to ghosts, and given the tools
that allow them to corrupt any environment and knock
off a target of the program's choosing. And
mid-season we're told there are such a thing as
Cleaners in this variation, but it's mentioned in
passing and surely is a hint of things to come in
future seasons destined to provide a real difficulty
for Nikita and her cohorts in the heat of battle. As
we saw in "La Femme Nikita" with Jean Reno, cleaners
are silent, remorseless, vicious, juggernauts of
death who get in and get out without being stopped.
The more
you come to grips with the fact that this series is
marketing on the name recognition of Besson's film,
the more you'll find some entertainment value in
this series geared more toward women than a general
audience. The writing team only takes ideas from the
original movie as a source of series plot lines and
beyond that doesn't go any further in pressing the
European appeal. It's often a soapy, romanticized
spy thriller that doesn't really turn its female
characters in to anything more than sexy warriors,
and keeps its male characters hunky props and
villains. The show was given a bit of controversy
for its "racy" promotional posters featuring star
Maggie Q, but beyond that nonsense "Nikita" is a
series that takes a little patience to enjoy, but
elevates to a higher level of entertainment with
every passing episode shedding the melodrama in
exchange for espionage and surprise twists aplenty.
Maggie Q finally has her vehicle as a respectful
intelligent beautiful rogue spy free of Asian
stereotypes (there's mercifully very little
attention called to her nationality) who watches
from her outpost interrupting every mission her
ex-corporation the Division takes part in and she
does so with her mole Alex.
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Alex is another of her ilk kidnapped in the
midst of a botched jailbreak and brought in
to the fold of the Division being groomed
and trained to be a killing machine.
Training alongside others of her kind, she
lives within the bowels of the corporation
and secretly tracks information and codes to
her handler Nikita who intercepts every
assassination attempt botching the
Division's plans at every turn. Lyndsy
Fonseca of "Kick-Ass" fame is a genuine
scene/episode stealer as protagonist Alex, a
young woman of various personalities, cloudy
morals, and goals who is Nikita's eyes and
ears and is always on the brink of being
caught during secret missions in the
sanctum.
In one episode she is strapped down to a
pulse sensitive straight jacket where she
basically has an nervous breakdown at the
behest of team psychologist Amanda who is
convinced throughout the season that Alex is
hiding something and comes dangerously close
to discovering her crucial secret. While
Maggie Q is fantastic in her role as title
character Nikita, Fonseca manages to run
away with every episode she's in time and
time again offering up tension, suspense,
and sympathetic storylines involving her
relationship with her classmates, all the
while avoiding the likes of conniving
villains like operative Michael, computer
hacker Birkhoff, and the head of Division
Percy, all of whom are ruthless in their
efforts to protect Division. |
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And
throughout the series there is always the risk of
Stockholm Syndrome which keeps Nikita and her charge
Alex close allies, but potentially vicious enemies.
Consisting of talented character actors like Shane West,
Xander Berkey, Devon Sawa, and Aaron Stanford
respectively, "Nikita" is a constant gallery of talent
and skill with every episode tightening the noose behind
Nikita and Alex's efforts to corrupt the corporation in
the cloak of darkness. I'd be remiss if I forgot to
mention the gorgeous Melinda Clarke as enigmatic
Division master manipulator Amanda, a woman who watches
in corners always on the verge of catching Alex in the
act. "Nikita" while originally intended to garner some
female crowds is really a series that has something for
everyone and puts to use some nineties stars that fell
to the wayside including Devon Sawa who is barely
recognizable at first glance as rogue agent Owen Elliot,
a young man in the position Nikita is in who is sent on
an undercover mission and gets too close to a neighbor
of his. His sub-plot has been a very enduring strong
point this year where Sawa is completely convincing in
his skin and holds his own against Ms. Q with an
endearing and genuinely gripping series of events that
keep him capable of being an action hero while also
standing out as a character capable of his own
spin-off... if the CW/Warner is daring enough to try for
it.
And of
course Shane West is also given a chance to rebound as
morally gray official Michael, always posing something
of a slimy presence who also has much more to him than a
brooding glare and intimidating presence. "Nikita"
admittedly takes a lot of time to build-up in to
something of a respectable action thriller geared toward
the female persuasion, but once you bypass the hokey set
up of the first two episodes (that lay it on heavy in
terms of romantic undertones and love triangles), the CW/Warner
series really can grow on its viewing audience providing
some thrills, genuine shocks, and a fantastic romantic
sub-plot between Nikita and her former handler Michael,
both of whom despise one another but are always on the
verge of sleeping together when in the same room. The
heat is believable and it keeps "Nikita" on a state of
suspense every second. "Nikita" is slowly transforming
from a guilty pleasure in to a authentic quality series,
and it's one capable of acquiring a cult status and
quite deservedly.
In a year
filled with unadulterated let downs in the realm of
television, I'm sticking with "Nikita" for the long
haul. |
