Nikita 1x01-1x04
Sat, Oct. 2nd, 2010 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterThis is the third fourth iteration of La Femme Nikita, the first being a French movie and the second being a Canadian TV show that aired about ten years ago. I watched the movie a long, long time ago, and I've seen maybe half of S1 of the TV show.
The set up for Nikita is that six years ago, Nikita had a fiance as a cover, but Division ended up killing him, which in turn led her to escape Division. Now she's ready to take Division down. It's an interesting amalgamation of the movie and LFN, with many of the characters named after or echoing LFN (Percy as Operations, Amanda as Madeleine, Michael and Birkoff as themselves, but so far no Walter), and some elements taken from the movie (the cover life that Nikita wishes were her real life). It looks as though they're trying to keep the romantic tension between Michael and Nikita intact, only this time with them as kind of friends turned enemy: having Michael as a trainer probably wasn't very friendly, but at least more so than actively working to sabotage Division!
I find that making Division a outright villain is less interesting than the extremely drastic measures Section One of LFN would take to protect national security; on the other hand, the switch gives Nikita a LOT more agency. Maggie Q's Nikita also reads as much colder and experienced than Peta Wilson's. Alas, there are too many scenes of Percy and Michael talking to each other about the latest scheme, and although there still is a bit of the claustrophobic atmosphere of LFN, I kind of miss Operations and Madeleine. Percy is much too blunt and not nearly twisty enough for someone running Division.
The plot of the first three episodes is mainly Division getting a mission and Nikita countering that mission. Despite the absolute awesomeness of Maggie Q, the writing and acting are terrible. You'd think a double-crossing spy show would have tons of moments of not-touching and angsty staring and whatnot, but sadly, it is largely limited to Maggie Q. Michael in particular is terrible when he tries to emote his manpain! I'm also not too fond of the possible relationship going on between Alex and Thom, and I hate that Alex and Jaden have been set against each other and that Jaden is currently just the Angry Violent Black Girl.
I probably would have watched quite a few episodes just for Maggie Q, but there's a twist in the set-up in episode 1 that also piqued my interest. And then... episode 4 isn't exactly wonderful, but it finally pulled plot twists I didn't see coming, and as a bonus, it has flashbacks! I think they still need to work a lot more to make me buy the Michael/Nikita UST.
I am still on the fence re: how they're shooting the women versus the men in the series; I wish all the recruits had the same white tank top instead of Thom getting a baggy gray t-shirt and Jaden getting a midriff-baring sports bra the entire time. I feel like Nikita's clothing has gotten more utilitarian as the series goes on, although she still has improbably tall heels, but admittedly, I have been very bad at focusing on this since every time Maggie Q is on screen I am kind of just making swoony eyes at her.
Spoilers will put you in danger
Still! Even though the writing is kind of bad right now, I absolutely love the Nikita-Alex partnership! I am hoping the show will go much more in the direction of episode four, when they really start looking at recruit!Nikita and Alex and parallels and differences between them. Also, more Amanda psychoanalyzing everyone would be good!
I also really like that many of the guests of the week have been women, although I really wish they had used Russell Wong better. At first I was all, Asian guy! Mixed-race kid! And despite being happy about Maggie Q back in Hong Kong and speaking in Canto, I always roll my eyes whenever HK triads come up.
I am hoping we see Girl Friday the Reporter again, even though I felt the actress was a bit one note.
Also, more flashbacks! I love how Nikita is actually gigglier and more smiling in her flashbacks, despite being a recruit, and her sparring with Michael almost won me over to the Michael/Nikita they keep pushing.
I also hope they start to do more ep. 4 type stuff with Alex, as sending her on missions was incredibly unbelievable, no matter how talented she's supposed to be. Also, her and Nikita typing at each other over the computer really just does not work for a filmed drama.
In conclusion: (Maggie Q + guns) - good dialogue + boring white guys + passing the Bechdel test = still watching.
The set up for Nikita is that six years ago, Nikita had a fiance as a cover, but Division ended up killing him, which in turn led her to escape Division. Now she's ready to take Division down. It's an interesting amalgamation of the movie and LFN, with many of the characters named after or echoing LFN (Percy as Operations, Amanda as Madeleine, Michael and Birkoff as themselves, but so far no Walter), and some elements taken from the movie (the cover life that Nikita wishes were her real life). It looks as though they're trying to keep the romantic tension between Michael and Nikita intact, only this time with them as kind of friends turned enemy: having Michael as a trainer probably wasn't very friendly, but at least more so than actively working to sabotage Division!
I find that making Division a outright villain is less interesting than the extremely drastic measures Section One of LFN would take to protect national security; on the other hand, the switch gives Nikita a LOT more agency. Maggie Q's Nikita also reads as much colder and experienced than Peta Wilson's. Alas, there are too many scenes of Percy and Michael talking to each other about the latest scheme, and although there still is a bit of the claustrophobic atmosphere of LFN, I kind of miss Operations and Madeleine. Percy is much too blunt and not nearly twisty enough for someone running Division.
The plot of the first three episodes is mainly Division getting a mission and Nikita countering that mission. Despite the absolute awesomeness of Maggie Q, the writing and acting are terrible. You'd think a double-crossing spy show would have tons of moments of not-touching and angsty staring and whatnot, but sadly, it is largely limited to Maggie Q. Michael in particular is terrible when he tries to emote his manpain! I'm also not too fond of the possible relationship going on between Alex and Thom, and I hate that Alex and Jaden have been set against each other and that Jaden is currently just the Angry Violent Black Girl.
I probably would have watched quite a few episodes just for Maggie Q, but there's a twist in the set-up in episode 1 that also piqued my interest. And then... episode 4 isn't exactly wonderful, but it finally pulled plot twists I didn't see coming, and as a bonus, it has flashbacks! I think they still need to work a lot more to make me buy the Michael/Nikita UST.
I am still on the fence re: how they're shooting the women versus the men in the series; I wish all the recruits had the same white tank top instead of Thom getting a baggy gray t-shirt and Jaden getting a midriff-baring sports bra the entire time. I feel like Nikita's clothing has gotten more utilitarian as the series goes on, although she still has improbably tall heels, but admittedly, I have been very bad at focusing on this since every time Maggie Q is on screen I am kind of just making swoony eyes at her.
Spoilers will put you in danger
Still! Even though the writing is kind of bad right now, I absolutely love the Nikita-Alex partnership! I am hoping the show will go much more in the direction of episode four, when they really start looking at recruit!Nikita and Alex and parallels and differences between them. Also, more Amanda psychoanalyzing everyone would be good!
I also really like that many of the guests of the week have been women, although I really wish they had used Russell Wong better. At first I was all, Asian guy! Mixed-race kid! And despite being happy about Maggie Q back in Hong Kong and speaking in Canto, I always roll my eyes whenever HK triads come up.
I am hoping we see Girl Friday the Reporter again, even though I felt the actress was a bit one note.
Also, more flashbacks! I love how Nikita is actually gigglier and more smiling in her flashbacks, despite being a recruit, and her sparring with Michael almost won me over to the Michael/Nikita they keep pushing.
I also hope they start to do more ep. 4 type stuff with Alex, as sending her on missions was incredibly unbelievable, no matter how talented she's supposed to be. Also, her and Nikita typing at each other over the computer really just does not work for a filmed drama.
In conclusion: (Maggie Q + guns) - good dialogue + boring white guys + passing the Bechdel test = still watching.
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(no subject)
Sun, Oct. 3rd, 2010 02:11 pm (UTC)Everytime there's a scene with Jaden, I'm all "This! This is when they'll start building up Alex/Jaden as frenemies so Jaden will be utterly devastated when Alex is revealed as a traitor!" And then they don't. They seem to be building all that emotional burden around Thom, who...well, he has you to do anything to really annoy me, but I keep being convinced that he will.
And really, I have so many criticisms of this show, like how it fails with race all over the place with the exception of casting Maggie Q and how Nikita always basically gets away because Michael can't make himself shoot her or whatever. And I really should complain about the objectification but then Nikita whips out her gun or Alex shows her baby!hardcoreness, and I just can't! Though, it could at least have the decency to be like The Undercovers and try to keep up with the reverse fanservice, too. Though, none of the men here is as nicely built as Boris Kodjoe. (He. Is. So. Pretty. And so is the actress playing his wife whose name I can't properly spell yet without looking it up.) And you really can't think about it too much or you realize that Nikita and Alex may be the only intelligent people in the whole thing. Oh, and Amanda.
But it's like large chunks of The Vampire Diaries where I have issues with large chunks of it, but when I'm watching, I can't make myself criticize (except for Damon, where even back when he entertained me, I wanted him dead before he hurt someone else) and I love it ever so much!
With Michael, I think they must have searched endlessly for an actor with no chemistry whatsoever with Maggie Q to play her Official Love Interest, because she literally has chemistry with every single other person she shares the screen with.
(no subject)
Sun, Oct. 3rd, 2010 03:22 pm (UTC)Especially the one where they were forced to work together! I was like 'this is going to be the beginning of their tentative frenemy-ness!' and...no.
(no subject)
Sun, Oct. 3rd, 2010 09:41 pm (UTC)Maggie Q with guns = love of my life, hee.
(no subject)
Fri, Oct. 8th, 2010 05:34 am (UTC)I know! I keep wanting frenemy stuff with Jaden, because why in the world are they missing out on such a great opportunity? But no....
I really want Michael to mess up on his own mission because of his emotional attachment to Nikita like every single female spy in fiction does with her love interest.
... and then Maggie Q starts shooting people or aiming a sniper rifle and I am all, "LOVE."
(no subject)
Fri, Oct. 8th, 2010 05:35 am (UTC)