# Nikita **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 10, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340 "2010-09-10T21:49:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/21 "2010-09-15T19:18:45Z")
Just to keep everything straight: There was a French film _Nikita_ made in 1990. This was later retitled _La Femme Nikita_ for its American release. Nikita was played by Anne Parillaud. There was a Hong Kong remake _Hei Mao_ (_Black Cat_) made in 1991. The main character in this film was named Catherine (although that’s probably just in the dubbed version) and was played by Jade Leung. There was an American remake _Point of No Return_ made in 1993. This was retitled _The Assassin_ in some releases. The main character in this film was named Maggie and was played by Bridget Fonda. There was a Canadian televison series _La Femme Nikita_ which ran from 1997 to 2001. This was retitled _Nikita_ in some markets. Nikita was played by Peta Wilson. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/22 "2010-09-15T20:10:48Z")
I’ve seen the original Nikita, in the original French, though then it was titled L’Assassin. That was good, and the bleak ending very French. I’ve seen the American remake with Bridget Fonda. That wasn’t so good. How does this series rank compared to them? And should I be badgering any U.K. channels to get it? ETA: oh yes, does the new series have Jean Reno in it? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/23 "2010-09-17T02:21:41Z")
Tonight’s episode was a major disappointment. I didn’t even try to count how many gaping holes there were in the plot. No subtlety in the characterizations: Percy’s doing everything short of twirling his moustache and tying damsels to the train tracks. And this episode was even short of mindless action and gratuitous lingerie scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/24 "2010-09-17T02:59:05Z")
Not a major disappointment, but could have been a lot better. There’s definitely a hint of _Alias_ with the spy vs spy thing, but I fear it’s going to be a one season wonder if things don’t pick up. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/25 "2010-09-17T04:46:11Z")
Okay, some of the things we were supposed to accept: 1. The bad guy hid the uranium. For some reason a GPS unit was involved. And when the GPS unit was destroyed, nobody knew how to find the uranum. Here’s a thought - ask the guy who hid it. You know - the guy you abducted so he’d give you the location of the GPS unit that’ll tell you where he hid the uranium. I guess we don’t worry about all that uranium still being out there and anyone else finding it either. 2. Nikita needed Alex to tell her who the target was and where he was located. Alex, by a completely seperate coincidence, finds this out when the Division brings her to that location. And in the middle of what’s supposed to be a high security area, Alex is able to call out on a phone and contact Nikita. And Nikita, who had no previous information about where this target was, happened to be so close that she’s able to rescue Alex within minutes. 3. Alex gives Nikita a description of one of the kidnappers - she’s a blonde woman with green eyes. Nikita then goes through some random videos of the bad guy on a public street. And she notices that in the background of one of the videos there’s a blonde woman. Obviously this must be the woman she’s looking for - what are the odds of there being two blonde women walking around somewhere on the same planet? 4. The terrorists break into the apartment and shoot everyone there. Except for the two people who are in the opening credits - you can’t kill them even though they work for the same agency as those other people you just killed. Besides you want them to live because they saw your face and terrorists always like to have witnesses around who can describe them. In fact, let’s leave our wounded guy behind so they can torture him for more information. 5. Shadownet is this incredible computer security system that controls all of the computers in the world and can find information on any computer anywhere. Except apparently inside the agency itself, where nobody has noticed that a trainee is using an agency computer to stay in regular contact with and pass classified information to the person you’ve been looking for. 6. Speaking of computers, Division must use some unusual hardware where everything is built in to the monitor. Because when Alex was worried about somebody seeing what she was writing, she handled it by smashing the monitor. Which apparently erases and writes over all files in the hard drive. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/26 "2010-09-17T13:26:01Z")
Disclaimer: The following is based on seeing about 5 minutes last week and 10 minutes this week, but… That girl cannot act!! She has one facial expression and zero voice inflection. I was annoyed just for the few minutes I watched, and she’s the lead? Jeez. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/27 "2010-09-17T13:47:34Z")
I think Maggie Q does a decent job. She may not be Meryl Streep but this isn’t _Sophie’s Choice_ either. I think the problem is that her character is mainly supposed to be grim so she spends a lot of time acting that way. But there have been a few scenes where Nikita has a lighter moment and Q can handle those as well. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/28 "2010-09-17T16:01:42Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I think Maggie Q does a decent job. She may not be Meryl Streep but this isn’t _Sophie’s Choice_ either. I think the problem is that her character is mainly supposed to be grim so she spends a lot of time acting that way. But there have been a few scenes where Nikita has a lighter moment and Q can handle those as well. I’ll take your word for the lighter moments, which I haven’t seen, but her interpretation if “grim” seems to be essentially a blank stare. Anyway, sorry, I don’t mean to threadshit – this show just doesn’t look like my cup of intrigue. I’ll go away now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/29 "2010-09-17T19:42:04Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > I’ll take your word for the lighter moments, which I haven’t seen, but her interpretation if “grim” seems to be essentially a blank stare. > > Anyway, sorry, I don’t mean to threadshit – this show just doesn’t look like my cup of intrigue. I’ll go away now. 🙂 No problem. Personally it’s Shane West who I consider to be underacting. He delivers all his lines in the same gravelly monotone - I keep expecting him to start singing “Bette Davis Eyes”. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/30 "2010-09-17T22:48:28Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Okay, some of the things we were supposed to accept > > **SNIP** You’re completely right, but you’re also overthinking things. I think the show works better if you turn that logic center of your brain down a few notches and just view it as a mindless sexy action show. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/31 "2010-09-17T23:11:52Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > You’re completely right, but you’re also overthinking things. I think the show works better if you turn that logic center of your brain down a few notches and just view it as a mindless sexy action show. I agree in general. Most fictional works require some willing suspension of disbelief. But it’s possible for a work to abuse the privilege - to be so implausible that it forces you to see the flaws. And this episode was past that line for me. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/32 "2010-09-18T14:14:28Z")
Lost interest almost immediately and won’t watch again. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/33 "2010-09-18T16:05:15Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > I’ll take your word for the lighter moments, which I haven’t seen, but her interpretation if “grim” seems to be essentially a blank stare. > > Anyway, sorry, I don’t mean to threadshit – this show just doesn’t look like my cup of intrigue. I’ll go away now. 🙂 I don’t think this is threadshitting. The OP “Anyone watching Nikita?” wasn’t asking for only fan and rave reviews, he seemed to want opinions. Personally, even in those hot outfits, she was more or less just “ok” to me in the pics and previews, certainly not the super-hottie they were trying to show. I have not yet seen the show, but I’ll give it a try. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/34 "2010-09-18T21:16:42Z")
Yeah, this week’s was kinda weak. I’ll give it another chance yet. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/35 "2010-09-19T01:21:23Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Yeah, this week’s was kinda weak. I’ll give it another chance yet. That’s the way I’m looking at it. Hopefully this was just an atypical episode. I’ll give it a couple more before I give up on the series. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/36 "2010-09-19T13:33:45Z")
**Little Nemo** said: > [@](#): > > 1. The bad guy hid the uranium. For some reason a GPS unit was involved. And when the GPS unit was destroyed, nobody knew how to find the uranum. Here’s a thought - ask the guy who hid it. You know - the guy you abducted so he’d give you the location of the GPS unit that’ll tell you where he hid the uranium. I guess we don’t worry about all that uranium still being out there and anyone else finding it either. Agreed. This bugged me. > [@](#): > > 1. Nikita needed Alex to tell her who the target was and where he was located. Alex, by a completely seperate coincidence, finds this out when the Division brings her to that location. And in the middle of what’s supposed to be a high security area, Alex is able to call out on a phone and contact Nikita. And Nikita, who had no previous information about where this target was, happened to be so close that she’s able to rescue Alex within minutes. Well, it wasn’t really a high security area. Michael makes a big deal out of it not being their safe house. Still, calling out was kinda risky - Burkoff wasn’t monitoring it just on principle? As for the timing, it runs like _24_ - everything in LA is 15 minutes apart. Must be the same in Washington DC. > [@](#): > > 1. Alex gives Nikita a description of one of the kidnappers - she’s a blonde woman with green eyes. Nikita then goes through some random videos of the bad guy on a public street. And she notices that in the background of one of the videos there’s a blonde woman. Obviously this must be the woman she’s looking for - what are the odds of there being two blonde women walking around somewhere on the same planet? I think part of the tell was the way she was leaving the courthouse after the reveal that it was Michael playing the part of the criminal. > [@](#): > > 1. The terrorists break into the apartment and shoot everyone there. Except for the two people who are in the opening credits - you can’t kill them even though they work for the same agency as those other people you just killed. Besides you want them to live because they saw your face and terrorists always like to have witnesses around who can describe them. In fact, let’s leave our wounded guy behind so they can torture him for more information. Yeah, they should have shot Michael at least. The girl I could see them ignoring - she was unarmed and they didn’t know she was a junior operative, for all they knew she was a call girl in the wrong place at the wrong time. They shot the security, but didn’t have a real reason to shoot her. Though pulling up her mask at the scene was stupid. Maybe they figured they accomplished their objective, get out before reinforcements arrive? > [@](#): > > 1. Shadownet is this incredible computer security system that controls all of the computers in the world and can find information on any computer anywhere. Except apparently inside the agency itself, where nobody has noticed that a trainee is using an agency computer to stay in regular contact with and pass classified information to the person you’ve been looking for. Ahh, but Nikita is so good she has devised a backdoor through Shadownet. Yeah, that’s it. > [@](#): > > 1. Speaking of computers, Division must use some unusual hardware where everything is built in to the monitor. Because when Alex was worried about somebody seeing what she was writing, she handled it by smashing the monitor. Which apparently erases and writes over all files in the hard drive. Maybe she just had to get the screen cleared so they wouldn’t see what she was up to. They didn’t bother to look, she was “just practicing the break in stuff like Burkoff said”. But if it had been on the screen, it would have caught attention. Reboot the machine later. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/37 "2010-09-19T19:08:24Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > [@TBG](#): > > > > You’re completely right, but you’re also overthinking things. I think the show works better if you turn that logic center of your brain down a few notches and just view it as a mindless sexy action show. > > I agree in general. Most fictional works require some willing suspension of disbelief. But it’s possible for a work to abuse the privilege - to be so implausible that it forces you to see the flaws. And this episode was past that line for me. Fair enough. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/38 "2010-09-24T04:15:22Z")
Another weak episode. Implausible story with big plotholes (How did the reporter get out from under the murder set-up? It’s not like she found any evidence to exonerate herself or could produce the real killers.) Didn’t care too much because I didn’t like the reporter much anyway - she played the part too perky, like Mary Richards in an episode of The X-Files. I’ve realized that the only thing I like about this show is Maggie Q herself. I’d be happy if she got out of this show and got cast in something better. I was going to give up after this episode, but next week’s flashback episode looks like it might be interesting. So I might give the show one more week (although I’ll be out of town next week so maybe not). ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/39 "2010-09-24T12:24:54Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’ve realized that the only thing I like about this show is Maggie Q herself. I’d be happy if she got out of this show and got cast in something better. Knowing the CW, once they cancel the show, they’ll stick her on Gossip Girl. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340/40 "2010-09-24T22:45:32Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > > > I’ve realized that the only thing I like about this show is Maggie Q herself. I’d be happy if she got out of this show and got cast in something better. > > Knowing the CW, once they cancel the show, they’ll stick her on Gossip Girl. 😉 Or 90210, lol [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nikita/553340.md?page=3)