Nikita (2010-2014)

I’ve been working on building up the number of shows I’ve seen with strong female leads, and Nikita is an admirable addition to the collection.  With complex characters, excellent acting, taut storytelling, and coolness through the roof, I really love this series.  Expect a bumper crop of Nikita-related posts in the coming weeks.

Inspired the 1990 French film that already spawned one previous TV series, Nikita centers around Division, an elite group of top-secret government agents.  Division takes criminals who show “promise” in one area or another, fakes their executions, erases all evidence of their past lives, and trains them to carry out operations the White House needs to keep off the books.  The titular Nikita is a former Division agent who broke out after they killed the man she loved, a man who was only supposed to be part of her “cover.”  The series opens on Nikita’s mission to avenge her lover and take down Division.

It’s hard to talk too much about the plot.  First, this show has a number of delicious, well-earned twists that it would be a crime to spoil.  Second, it’s a show whose trajectory changes multiple times over the seasons.  It mixes episodic mission-of-the-week outings with more arc-based episodes, and the overall framework is a dynamic one.  Several game-changers are introduced during the series, allowing it to evolve and take it to ever-unexpected places.  Some threads are more successful than others, of course, but by and large, it’s bold storytelling that pushes itself and its audience, never content to maintain the status quo for long.

Nikita is a tremendous character, a tactical, supremely-competent woman on a crusade.  She’s by turns cold, emotional, damaged, heroic, brave, overwhelmed, brilliant, and reckless.  I like that she’s an antihero who goes to some really dark places and sometimes struggles with doing the right thing – she fights “on the side of the angels,” as it were, but when you see everything she’s capable of, it’s a bit chilling.  Almost as engaging and well-written are the folks back at Division:  Alex, a young recruit with a bombshell in her past, Birkhoff, a snarky hacker extraordinaire, Michael, a conflicted agent with whom Nikita has a complex history, Amanda, the second-in-command with a sadistic streak, and Percy, the ruthlessly pragmatic man in charge.  Other interesting characters are added as the series goes along, and the show cultivates a number of rich relationships that make the stakes so much more compelling and personal.

I’ll be honest, it gets a little “sexy spy” at times – there’s no way that heels are practical footwear for a gun fight, and I find it hard to believe that so many undercover operations require bikinis or dresses with necklines halfway down the sternum.  However, the titillation is largely forgivable, since we also get highly-proficient women who are written as complex people, drive their own narratives, are survivors rather than victims, have amazing relationships with one another, and are all-around BAMF.  Yes, please.

Warnings

Violence (including torture and other intense scenes,) swearing, substance abuse, sexual content (including sex scenes,) and strong thematic elements.