Nikita
TIMESLOT
Thursdays @ 9pm on CW.SYNOPSIS
Visit the official website!When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn’t tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin. Ultimately, Nikita was betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust.
Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation. For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young people, erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient killers.
One of these new recruits, Alex, is just beginning to understand what lies ahead for her and why the legendary Nikita made the desperate decision to run. The series stars Maggie Q as Nikita, Lyndsy Fonseca as Alex, Shane West as Michael, Aaron Stanford as Birkhoff, Ashton Holmes as Thom, Tiffany Hines as Jaden, with Melinda Clarke as Amanda and Xander Berkeley as Percy.
NIKITA is from Warner Bros. Television in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision, with executive producers Craig Silverstein (“Bones,” “K-Ville”), Danny Cannon (“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Chuck”), McG (SUPERNATURAL, “Chuck,” “The O.C.,” “Charlie’s Angels”), and Peter Johnson (SUPERNATURAL, “Chuck”). The pilot was directed by Danny Cannon.
IMAGE GALLERY & VIDEO PREIVEWS
REVIEWS
Please note that these reviews may contain spoilers.| Gordon McDougall's Take |
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| In the interest of full disclosure, I never saw the previous TV series nor the original film, so this new show is completely new to me. My gut feeling is that, even though it’s a good show, it’s got a steep uphill battle ahead of it.
One big problem this show has is one of expectations. Fans of the original series will probably compare the two, the way viewers did with The Bionic Woman a couple of years ago. For me, I wasn’t so much reminded, but I also thought a couple of times about Dollhouse, the Eliza Dushku/Joss Whedon series about people whose identities were wiped clean after every mission. It never got the audience it deserved, and I can’t help but think Nikita will suffer the same fate, especially in the highly competitive timeslot of Thursdays at 9pm. The pilot lays out the premise as neatly as it can, considering it’s a show that will need intrigue to keep people hooked. There’s a nice twist at the end of the episode that made me more curious to tune in for a second episode than I was before that point....but is it enough? I'll be judging week-to-week. I'm not hooked, by any means. Nikita is a fairly straight, intense spy thriller. Every single character is earnest in their intensity and drive. While I could watch it every week and be entertained, a little bit of nod-and-wink humour might be all the show would need to entice me back for a second, third, fourth week and beyond. Invoking the name of Joss Whedon once again, that’s what brought me back to Buffy The Vampire Slayer every week. The sly humour. Nikita doesn’t need to OD on it, but a little would go a long way to humanize these characters and make them a little more relatable to the audience. Considering the competition in this show’s timeslot, and a hunch that a large segment of Nikita’s target audience is already hooked on Fringe, my feeling is Nikita fans should… |
| Rating: Watch it while you can! (Canceled early on) |
| About Gordon McDougall TVGord is a radio host at 580 CFRA in Ottawa. He does a weekly segment about TV every friday which you can hear in MP3 in the '580 CFRA Interviews' section of their website, www.cfra.com |
