A Man. And His Blog.

So, NIKITA returned too. But this episode was more awaited eagerly than the return of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES on the same night, since this is the first episode (it could be the second) where the writers were taking The CW’s side notes into the screenplay: Nikita (Maggie Q)  suddenly has a love interest, and it looks like that Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) has a love interest too. While the one felt forced and superimposed, the other one kinda reminds me on a LA FEMME NIKITA twist I haven’t seen in the series so far (I’m on a hiatus with the 90s show until… I don’t know).

It was actually a good episode, but the future relationship between Alex and Nathan (Thad Luckinbill), as well as the little flirting romance between Ryan (Noah Bean) and Nikita, is already a bit annoying. It doesn’t hurt for Nikita to have a bit of happiness in her life, especially since she is fighting 24/7 against Division, so I hope that the writers don’t mess these things up. But it’s the opposite with Nathan/Alex. I already don’t like him (again: I don’t have anything against a bit of happiness for Alex), so I hope that the writers plan to reveal him as a Division agent in the future (to keep track of Alex), or even a different agent, main thing he is developing to a villain for Alex. Otherwise the story would kinda repeat the Nikita/Daniel story, or every other TV show and movie with a partner, who is a secret agent (TRUE LIES comes in mind).

So, the writers have chosen to let Nikita partner up with Ryan. I was already asking myself when she will have more allies in her war against Division. It is nice that at least one of the guest characters from a previous episode has a real recurring role now (I don’t know about Owen, he seems gone again). The partnership did some good things in the episode, especially with Nikita among CIA, and the real cool scene with her and Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford, give this guy more screentime!) in the room (started with the “Hello, nerd” – I was laughing out loud). Furthermore it showed that Ryan can be kick-ass too, when Nikita really needs his help (the meet-and-greet with Michael [Shane West] in front of the door).

Other than that, the episode didn’t have much to offer. Alex being free is interesting to watch, but somehow the thrill of being discovered is missing now. And even more, those meetings between Nikita and Alex remind me of those Sydney and Vaughn always had in the opening – and they weren’t really thrilling as well. So I hope that somebody in Division will realize that Thom wasn’t the mole, and that a mole is very much active. And the whole thing with the kill chip was resolved too early in my opinion. Some episodes could have been used for it, only to show that Alex and Nikita aren’t save in meeting out in the open.

And the final thing: What was it with the intro? A scene for a later episode, or just there to shine forward to Alex’s flashbacks? I hope it is the former, but then I don’t know what the scene was good for in this episode.

It was a solid episode, and I seriously hope that the network notes won’t kill the side plots now. 7/10

Who agrees that Michael looks like "The Situation" here?

The retooled "Nikita", including a forced love story

Okay, this I call a fall finale. Lots of shit happened, even more in a usual LOST episode, and the almost 42 minutes were even more thrilling than the ending of ARLINGTON ROAD. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit now, but this episode was awesome as fuck! Minus the three or four minutes of boredom during the first part of the episode, including the useful, but time-stealing flashbacks.

It seems like the series will change its course a bit more than just the network notes. Now that the shell is blown, Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) an agent, Thom (Ashton Holmes) pretty much dead, and Nikita (Maggie Q) ”beaten” by Amanda’s (Melinda Clarke) ”torture”, there has some things to change. During the episode I realized that it was pretty much a “Phase One” light, and that Division can’t be alive for much longer. As I already said too often, Division doesn’t feel like a black ops division with the CIA, when the recruit are such losers against Nikita (this scene was kinda hilarious, besides the action, especially when Percy [Xander Berkeley] was watching it), or when nobody seems to realize that Alex is easily running through the floors, bringing some explosives to their destination and blow up half of the building. There is absolutely no security there, so the writers should think about bringing down Division, before it gets really ridiculous. Preferably in the season finale.

The mission of the week was boring at first, and it stayed boring. After all, it was just used as a plot device to let Nikita and Alex ride into shit and into the Division’s hands, as well as showing Thom his last kick-ass move, before he got killed. Even though the talk between Thom and Alex showed how he feels about killing people for the government, I never really accepted the way how the writers were treating Thom as a character. Here and there he had his moments, but he was absent most of the time, which is why I can understand that his character was chosen to be killed off. After all, Jaden (Tiffany Hines) can become an enemy for Alex later on, and maybe even a future agent, who will become the next Percy or whatever. (Yes, I’m missing the part, where one of the recruits accepts the work and kills their ass off to impress Percy or his successor, and I think this recruit is Jaden)

The second half of the episode ruled everything away though. Nikita with Amanda, and Alex running against time – it was a great thrill ride, with some great action. I loved that Nikita went emotional, when she saw the videos with her and Daniel (that’s the way how to torture a rogue agent, dear CIA!), and I totally loved her Hulk moment, after the bomb exploded to free her (as well as Amanda’s WTF face). Furthermore I liked the fight between Thom and Alex, though I was expecting more questions from Thom, except his “Was it all a lie?”. At least his death scene was nice, and I was about to waste a tear on him – it was moving, when Alex tried to say goodbye, and at the same time she made him the mole for Nikita.

I was wondering about one thing though: Alex is already an agent? After only a couple of months? I don’t know if there is a bigger play behind Percy’s playbook, but I don’t really see Alex as an agent now, after what has happened during the 11 episodes. Alex didn’t behave much like a future agent, and every division leader must have seen that she isn’t ready. Except Percy, it seems…

Great episode, the best so far. And at the moment I can’t imagine how the next season half will look like. 9/10

When Nikita cries, something ain't right

It's a dangerous situation for both of them

Well, I call this one a fast-paced episode. So much shit happened here, but somehow I got the feeling that it was about nothing and just the fact that there are black boxes out there, who need to be destroyed for Nikita (Maggie Q) and Owen (Devon Sawa) to bring down Division. Mixed with a simple episodic arc, the episode wasn’t really that great, but as long as it stays fast and somehow tries to develop a season arc, I’m interested.

I didn’t really want to get the full story involving Ryan (Noah Bean) and the blame he was about to get. There were a whole bunch of clichés behind the story, which could have been avoided, when the writers would have more time, like 90 minutes per episode. This is why it was fast-paced: It felt way too rushed for me most of the times. First Owen returns to Nikita, because he has a plan, two minutes later they learn about a CIA agent being framed for the murder of a Chilean politician, five minutes later they are in Chile to get the agent out of there, just so that Ryan can learn all about Division ten minutes later, when he is with Nikita, Owen and a handful of army guys in a plane, about to not have the best time of their lives. Wouldn’t the side plots be in the episode, the Chile story could have been better, but otherwise I don’t really approve of all those black holes in the story.

And the CIA part was interesting at first. Having somebody outside the carousel finding out about a “ghost unit” was nice, and could have been a minor plot throughout the season (eventually crossing with Nikita’s story at the end of the season, or even later), but it was only used for this episode. But at least I got the information that one CIA agent can find out irregularities about it – so can another, which is why I hope this story will return at a later date. Other than that Ryan was a kinda lame character. And again: How many allies has Nikita out there now? All the one-episode characters she has helped, all of them are interested in knowing about Division and eventually bringing them down, but no one returned so far (except Owen). The writers must have planned a bigger play here, or it gets unrealistic with time; at the end of the season more people know about Division, thanks to Nikita, than people working at Division.

The Division plot was alright. It was thrilling that Jaden (Tiffany Hines) goes to creep-mode, and now she knows something more about Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca). I just wonder why nobody notices Alex’ disappearing. She leaves the computer room to spy on Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford, finally he gets some screentime) and the engineer (Jon Gries), she doesn’t return for a while, but nobody asks where she went? I seriously need some paranoia in the Division house from the agents’ side. And for somebody to notice that one of the computers is being used as a communication device to the outside world. I want the mole-plot from ALIAS in this series like… RIGHT NOW!

It was a fun episode, but thinking back about it: It falls kinda flat. 6.5/10

No chance for a love story between Owen and Nikita

Two nerds, working for killers

During the first couple of episodes, NIKITA had its teething problems. Not that they were all cured by now, but the series got a lot more interesting now. It seems like the writers know where to go and how to tell the stories now, which is great. Finally I have fun watching the show without being annoyed of myself to tell myself that somebody in Division needs to realize something is up within the walls (e.g. there is a mole).

The episode was good. Even though the main story showed us stuff from Michael’s (Shane West) past (I was surprised that the writers used his family for the starting point of his Division career), which was interesting, character developing, and actually good, I couldn’t do much with his revenge to Kasim (Haaz Sleiman) – it looked too stereotypical, and again I have to fleece the writers again: Is it so easy for Michael to do his actions in Uzbekistan, and how easy was it for Nikita (Maggie Q) to get there? (Seriously, she is wanted by the Division, and they are a government agency of some sorts – don’t they check in airports or something? Are there no alerts, when Nikita enters a state or whatever?) Furthermore I don’t really like how easy the temporarily team-up was handled in this episode. Sure, Michael knows that Nikita isn’t up to killing every Division agent, and that she is actually doing some good, but I wanted a bit more with the team-up – I wasn’t getting it though.

The story inside the Division walls was, again, the most interesting part of the episode. Finally Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) is in danger of being outed, and I loved her kickass-mode, when she showed it to Hanson (Patrick Garrow, who looked like Eric Stoltz here). That he wanted to lay Alex down for keeping her secret was a stupid twist though. Hanson practically had the information of a traitor in the Division, and he only thinks about sex with one of the recruits? Umm… But it was nice that Jaden got involved in this mess, and I liked that Alex was clever enough to trap Jaden (Tiffany Hines), just so she can help her out. And I loved Amanda’s (Melinda Clarke) face at the end, when she said that it had to be true what the two girls were saying.

And one more thing: Percy (Xander Berkeley) didn’t punish Michael for working with Nikita? What the hell is going on with the Division that percy lets even such big things slide away? In my opinion (a.k.a when NIKITA would have been ALIAS) Percy would have killed Michael for what he did in Uzbekistan. These are one of those elements in the show, which remain illogical in the series world of NIKITA, where I still ask myself why Percy isn’t noticing that a mole is in the Division (and yes, I’m asking that myself for million years now).

A good episode, but somehow NIKITA just lost some steam after the almost-awesome last episode, and from what I’ve heard about the next two episodes… 7/10

A moment of happiness - without sex

If those two befriend, it means the apocalypse is coming...

What a strong episode. Though the story was too simple to be great, I loved how the episode kept the pace fast, and didn’t even stop to be awesome. One little twist after another kept the action and thrill running, and it was fun to see how Nikita (Maggie Q) became this close to death, and probably a “partner in crime” for the Russian government.

First: great writing. Probably all the other spy-action TV shows would have used the poisoned hero fighting for his/her survival for the whole episode, but in NIKITA, the writers just used it as a gimmick to bring Nikita closer to the Russians, and have her do an awesome job of getting the antidote. It wasn’t just great to have Nikita already thinking about getting back to her new enemies, but Alex’ (Lyndsy Fonseca) actions of getting the pill for her partner in crime was great too. I’m almost keen to say that the second half of the episode rocked like getting awesome Christmas presents, when you’re a five-year-old child: It was awesome.

In contrast to the second half, the first one was pretty much calm, but had some unbelievable twists leading to the second half. I could live with the fact that a senator impregnated one of his affairs, and that Anna (Rayisa Kondracki) had to be killed because of it, but I couldn’t buy that Senator Kerrigan (Spencer Garrett) was such a badass villain (in a couple with Percy [Xander Berkeley]) and that he wanted to kill Anna. Furthermore it shows that Division is actually a badass government agency, but nobody seems to know it (not even the government itself?), the young agents don’t ask any questions (like Thom [Ashton Holmes] not asking why he had to kill Anna, instead he got the answer during the episode, therefore after he killed her), and why is Nikita the only one fighting against Division? And again I have to say, when Percy asks himself where Nikita got the information for her countermission, why isn’t he asking himself if he has a mole in Division? Am I thinking too much of ALIAS here, or is it not possible for Percy (and the writers) to include the mole-storyline? Finally, the twist that Anna was a Russian spy came a bit from nowhere and felt fake, but the action scene of Nikita fighting Anna’s “parents” was cool – I didn’t see that one coming, and it reminded me again that Nikita doesn’t know everything.

Thom is an agent now – it’s a surprise that the writers didn’t wait long for that. I hope he doesn’t lose contact to the trainees because of it. I was already wondering why Thom was running around the trainee level, when he is already an agent; I thought agents were “upstairs”.

Alex’ scenes in Division were cool too. I loved her training fight, so she can get to medical, and I love how she is starting to manipulate everybody to help Nikita at the end. The little romance scene with Thom was nice too, and here’s to a little bit of hope that Alex didn’t just took the opportunity to plant the pill on him, but actually has feeling for him. The series needs a little love story for Alex to see the other picture of fighting against Division.

The second half was superb, the first half only the introduction of it. A great episode, and even though I said this episode was great writing, the stories still look kinda silly. But it’s a CW show, so I have to live with it. 8.5/10

The dog found his new girlfriend

Alex hates everybody. And gladly shows it.

Kicking balls and putting bullets into them seems to be the best thing doing for Nikita

Solid ain’t enough anymore. The writers should stop teasing all the time and give us the big treat. Nikita should stop saying that it is going to take a while to bring down Division. Nikita should stop pissing off her former bosses and finally start killing bad people working for Division. Nikita should start planning how to get into Division and kick some ass, before the story becomes boring and I lose any interest in watching Nikita and following The CW’s efforts in expanding their target audience. Okay, the fourth episode titled “Rough Trade” wasn’t so bad – again the episode delivers flashbacks to explain past actions, again the writers try to have some character moments (they partly fail, they partly were good), and again the writers forgot that they have some plot holes in their episodes. Nikita could be a fine series, but after four episodes in, it still has the usual teething problems, and furthermore I don’t really know if the writers knew at that point, where the series should go: staying a spy-actionthriller with one-episode-missions and some character development, or planning ahead for the big finale? Then I remember Alias and the same question I asked myself back then, and Alias needed half of the first season to introduce a storyline, which needed the second season half to prepare the big finale. I hope Nikita starts the gameplay a bit earlier, or the ratings fall so deep, Dawn Ostroff has no choice but talking about “Nikita was never successful with our targeted audience: the young women” and cancelling this (still promising) show.

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This won't be the last episode with a proper hand-to-hand combat between two former colleagues

The CW’s version of Nikita is still breathing and kicking some asses, but the network still has to announce a back-9 order, or at least the order of additional scripts, like for One Tree Hill and Hellcats. But fans shouldn’t wait long for the announcement, since the ratings are not dropping a lot and can still hold onto its three million viewers. And I don’t really want to see Nikita failing, as the only series on the teen-bubble network, which steps into paths completely outside the teen-bubble. The third episode, titled “Kill Jill” to continue copying famous movie titles to go at least somewhat with the stream of something cult, maintains to live up to what the producers want with this show: a little serialized plot in the background, and an all-episode arc in the center, beginning during the first minutes, ending during the last act. But this episode shows that the series still has some teething troubles to work on, especially when it comes to portraying the characters on both camps – good and evil. “Kill Jill” was entertaining though, thanks to an intriguing storyline within the Division and bringing the secondary characters more into the focus of the story.

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Lyndsy Fonseca in her spy-doll dress

Less Alias, more own story, very much less Nikita – this is the conclusion of the second episode, and it might be a reason, why it was better than the pilot episode. Having flashbacks to show how Nikita and Alex got acquainted, (probably best) friends and partners in this operation, as well as having some character moments for Alex, gave the episode a nice touch and a feeling that this spy-action show still has some character storylines for its protagonists and antagonists. Especially in a CW-own show, it is a nice and somewhat surprised welcome, despite the fact that the backstory of Nikita and Alex was a big and unsatisfying cliché, and the episode ending with one of the flashbacks. But the episode worked much better than the pilot, though it wasn’t really that much better. But this episode showed that Nikita has some aces in the hole, and that the writers want to tell a story about the destruction of an SD-6 clone and its boss, another clone of Arvin Sloane. I don’t even care that the series lets the comparisons to Alias alive, since I am looking for the next best Alias, but maybe the writers should start to forget Alias now, before they suddenly decide to include the CIA, just to prepare a perfect remake of “Phase One”.

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Maggie Q is going to kill the ratings - hopefully

One original French spy thriller, one US remake, one TV remake, and now another TV remake – Nikita rises to a real franchise these last years, and I don’t think that this adaptation of the bad-girl-turned-assassin story will be the last one, when The CW is going to have success with their version of the franchise. Let’s praise The CW and Dawn Ostroff for a few sentences: The small network has troubles in bringing the male audience to tune in, except it is Thursday or Friday night, when Supernatural and Smallville are airing. The small network never has a real and honest action series on their schedule. The small network tried to put something different on the schedule this year, since they ordered Nikita and were about to order the CIA-adventure-action Nomads (here’s to hope that nobody is forgetting this one and another network picks it up). The CW still needs a television show for a larger audience, and maybe Nikita can do it, since Maggie Q takes part of the first CW-series in the action genre, which could actually be the successful program on the small network with the male audience. At least I hope and wish that this is going to happen. Not that Nikita is a total bomb, being canceled sooner than anybody can think of The Beautiful Life: TBL, and a shame in the vitae of the participating actor (which are all good names, by the way). I can’t say much of the ratings so far, but how is it with the quality of the newest version of the sexy bride among the professional assassins?

To say it nicely: It was The CW’s take on remaking Alias, and not Nikita, and they clearly failed. The Nikita pilot was basically the bad version of J.J. Abrams’ Alias – a lot of similarities are visible, the character constellations are almost the same, the story is completely the same (just the CIA is missing so far), the action lets the pilot look like the cheaper version of Alias. But while Nikita was a bad Alias copy, it was a better Nikita pilot than La Femme Nikita. The pilot takes its time to introduce us to the characters and stories, and it doesn’t rush through all the explaining storylines. While I hated the La Femme Nikita pilot for its rushed beginning, I loved this pilot for its non-rushed beginning, even though this was due to the final twist. Read the rest of this entry »