My experience with the CW network is they launch new shows with awesome pilots and then everything quickly devolves into predictable, been-there-done-that TV. I hope this is not the case with Nikita.
The spy show - a remake of a French film, an American film, and an American TV series - launched last week with a terrific pilot that moved so quickly I almost got whiplash. On the other hand, I very much appreciate a show that can lay that much necessary groundwork in the first hour and keep things moving right along.
Nikita is a young woman (played beautifully robotically by the gorgeous Maggie Q) who was a troubled child in foster care, who then became a troubled teen, who then got in trouble, who then was made to disappear by a secret government agency called the Division, who then became a trained assassin. This legion of folks perform the blackest of black ops.
The problem became that Nikita fell in love with a really nice not-assassin guy and the Division killed him. Hell hath no fury like a Nikita left alone in the world. She spent three years hiding, planning her revenge, and now she is enacting her plan. The pilot episode beautifully brought us to up date on all this and introduced us to all the major players. Fast, clear, understood. Genius. Thank you, writers.
While all of this is going on, there is a parallel storyline unfolding inside the Division, as we watch a new recruit being onboarded. (SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't watched yet, but plan to, STOP READING HERE.) Here we get to know Michael, who runs the assassins program, and Amanda (the fabulous Melinda Clarke from The OC and CSI), who shapes them. The new recruit, Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca), is actually working with Nikita - she is a plant on the inside! Bingo! Love this.
I have punched this into my Season Pass list in the hopes that it lives up to the pilot. The treachery is great, the fights, the technology, the explosions, all the stuff that made Alias and 24 and shows like that great in their early seasons.
Watched the show and all I can say is Maggie Q is kick ass and sexy but that is all. I guess if you are new to the show and never watched Peta Wilson and Roy Dupuis in the orginal TV version you would enjoy this show. This show was one of the best I seen. There was a chemistry between these two that cannot be duplicated in the new version. The Michael they have does not live up to the part. Sorry die hard fan of the USA version of LFN. Watched one show and I am done.
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