Nikita

[cactuswatcher]

I watched the premiere of the new series Nikita last night. I have to admit I've never seen any of the previous versions of La Femme so I can't compare. This one has almost all of the post-World War II spy tropes plus those that obviously belong to the L F Nikita franchise. There are many pitfalls associated with those checklists and the tangentially stated goal of the heroine here: making the world safe for Beautiful People. The action is as frenetic as a video game shoot-em-up. Despite all that, I did like it. My biggest objection is that series star Maggie Q is fashion-model skinny, which is a fairly mild objection at that.

Maybe I liked it because I saw the tail end of God-Awful-Teenage-Soap-Opera-With-Vampires and Nikita, immediately following, was a hell of a lot better. Maybe it's because one could see instantly 'This show doesn't have all of Joss Whedon's baggage.' Maybe it's because Maggie Q's range of acting skills seems to include playing women with some obvious intelligence. Nikita here is as subtle as she is dangerous. I don't know if this version compares favorably with the earlier ones. But so far I like it.

ETA. For anyone interested, the premiere replays tonight on CW.

Comments

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

FWIW, the original film is stil the best version. The American remake was staggeringly mediocre (not the fault of the actress, who did her best), but was dragged down by Hollywood's giant fear of irony and any form of subtlety. The biggest change was that in the original film, Nikita was a drug addict and a loser who was dragged into criminality. In the American versions, she was a "good girl" who was framed.

The TV series is good once you get past the first year (I have all the DVD's except that one) and gets much better-- darker, more complex and closer to the original film in many ways, although with its own distinctive style. Occasionally brilliant and thought-provoking.

If you're ever interested I can let you borrow my copies-- I'll be glad to ship 'em out and you could just ship them back whenever you're done with them. I have the original (European) film on laserdisc-- I could make a DVD copy of that.

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

I watched it last night, and I liked it quite well. It takes a different tack than the last TV series, in that in this one Nikita has already figured out what the company is up to, and has escaped. I saw some of the last series, which was also filmed in Toronto, BTW, but not all of it. Maggie Q has some good acting chops and the writing isn't bad. Hope the series continues to improve, because it has some promise.