Wednesday, September 22, 2010

How's Nikita working for you?



I wanted to give it a couple of weeks, but I still haven't made up my mind about Nikita yet.  I've dug Maggie Q since her appearance in the first season of Alias (and again in Mission: Impossible 3 and - oh yeah - Balls of Fury), so she's a plus. And my only experience with the source material is Point of No Return, so I don't have to wrestle with how faithful or not it is to that.

SPOILERS below

I've enjoyed watching Nikita try to take down Division and I like the way she's going about it: interfering with one mission at a time until Division gets a reputation for failure. That's a good story engine. It can drive the show for a long time without pretending each week like Division could fall any second now. There's also a nice balance so far between Nikita's orchestrating events Oracle-style from her hideout and showing up in the field at just the right time to kick some bootie.

I'm undecided about this whole Alex thing though. I think my unease about her is that I like her and I don't like seeing her in danger of getting found out every week. They did a nice job of presenting her as someone who needs protection in the pilot; maybe too good a job, though she seems better able to take care of herself in the second episode. Hopefully she'll reveal more toughness in the next couple of episodes and I can stop worrying about her. Though I suspect that I'll have a new reason to worry by then because they'll confirm that Nikita's the one who killed Alex's parents and there'll be the fall out from that to be concerned with. Which could be all good; I just haven't decided yet if I'm enjoying Alex's putting me on edge. I'll figure it out.

I also don't know about this Michael guy. Is it cool or lame that he thinks he can protect Division's agents from the inside? Is that a realistic goal? We're going to have to see some serious success in that area - and soon - or Michael will become a joke really fast.

I'm a little less confused about Percy. He knows a lot of secrets and that keeps him in power, but he comes off as a slimy weasel instead of menacing. I want to see Nikita take him down, but for the wrong reasons I think. If I'm going to stay interested, Percy's going to have to dial the threat level up a bunch.

What about you guys? Anyone watching it? Have you made up your mind yet?

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