Nikita

Plot synopsis:
Nikita (Anne Parillaud) is a teenage junkie who participates in the robbery of a pharmacy owned by a friend's parents. The robbery goes awry, erupting into a gunfight with local police, during which her accomplices are killed. Suffering severe withdrawal symptoms, she murders a policeman. Nikita is arrested, tried, and convicted of murder and is sentenced to life in prison.
In prison, her captors fake her death, making it appear that she has committed suicide via a tranquilizer overdose. She awakens in a nondescript room, where a well-dressed but hard-looking man named Bob (Tchéky Karyo) tells her that, although officially dead and buried, she is in the custody of a shadowy government agency known as "the Centre" (possibly part of the DGSE). She is given the choice of becoming an assassin, or of actually occupying "row 8, plot 30", her fake grave. After some resistance, she chooses the former and gradually proves to be a talented killer. She is taught computer skills, martial arts, and firearms. One of her trainers, Amande (Jeanne Moreau), transforms her from a degenerate drug addict to a beautiful femme fatale. Amande implies that she was also rescued and trained by the Centre.
Her initial mission, killing a foreign diplomat in a crowded restaurant and escaping back to the Centre from his well-armed bodyguards, doubles as the final test in her training. She graduates and begins life as a sleeper agent in Paris (under the name Marie). She meets Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade) in a supermarket, and he becomes her boyfriend, knowing nothing of her real profession. Marco is curious about her past and why she has no family or other friends. Nikita then invites Bob to dinner as "Uncle Bob." Bob tells stories about "Marie"'s imaginary childhood, and gives the couple tickets for a trip to Venice as an engagement gift.
Nikita and Marco go on the trip and during their preparation to make love, the phone rings. She thinks it's the room service they just ordered, but it is instructions for her next job. She goes to the bathroom and as she prepares the rifle, Marco is attempting to talk to her though the door. The instructions on who to shoot take longer than expected and she can't answer him. She finally gets the instructions and takes out her target. She is barely able to conceal the rifle before Marco walks in, against her wishes. By then, she is distraught because she has ignored and hurt him due to her job.
Still, her career as an assassin goes well until a document-theft mission in an embassy goes awry. The Centre sends in Victor "The Cleaner" (Jean Reno), a ruthless operative, to salvage the mission and destroy all the evidence of the foul-up. When one of the operatives turns on him, Nikita is forced to take his place. They make it most of the way through the mission when it goes bad. The gate is closed and he takes on a bunch of guards before being fatally wounded, but drives them to safety before succumbing to his wounds. Marco reveals that he has discovered Nikita's secret life, and, concerned over how her activities are affecting her psychologically, persuades her to disappear. Upon discovering that she abandoned the Centre, Bob goes to their apartment where he meets with Marco. Bob says she can't be out of danger because she still has the documents, after which Marco hands them over. They agree that they will both miss her.

Tags: good versus evil, violence, murder

Review:
Well, the main reason why I love watching this is because there is so much tension between Michael and Nikita (they have amazing chemistry on the show :D).
It moves at a fast pace, but pauses long enough in order to include some character development and concentrate on the story.So from the looks of things, Nikita is shaping up to be an awesome series with everything starting to become established so far.
I never really new what Nikita was about and when it 1st came out i did'NT really think any think of it but i started to watch it in 2016 and thought i would give it a go and i have to say can't believe that i waited so long this is the great show ever and i don't think any other show will be any good after watching this and I'm in love with the show and don't mind re-watching it again thats how good it is.
But after I started watching it, I got addicted to it and couldn't help but watching all of the 22 episodes of the first season in 2 days.Maggie Q as Nikita is totally amazing, as is Michael, Alex and all the other roles.
I really enjoy seeing Maggie Q's mature and interesting face, which helps make her role as a mentor more believable than if she had some unlined twenty-year-old face.Her character, Nikita, is very passionate about love, having lost her love in the past.
I have a thirst for action and spy-type shows and especially hate it when the fights look fake and are too choreographed to even watch.
Maggie Q is a great Nikita, and Shane West is a great Michael, even the little roles such as Jaden, Thom and every other minor has been cast perfectly, and it's a great script.
After having watched all seasons of Fox's "24" series, I began to go through what I jokingly refer to, as "Jack Bauer Withdraw", and was DYING to find another action/ drama/crime show to take it's place, but, I soon discovered that anything I found, wasn't quite "there".
Unfortunately for me, almost NONE of the shows that were recommended to me, just flat out didn't have an ongoing story behind them : (Then, I found Nikita!NOT ONLY, does the show HAVE that ongoing, "forward moving" story line, but, much to my surprise, throughout the series, more than a handful of characters from '24', were also in Nikita!
'Nikita' is a fast moving, action packed series that garners glimpses of the back-stories and personalities of pertinent characters.
I know that sounds perverse, but I loved the original French La Femme Nikita and everything that's come after has just annoyed me.I watched episode 1 and 2, got my requisite fix of hate, and wrote the show off.
Right??Suddenly I cared about the characters, the story was gripping and intriguing and twisty-turny in the best possible (read: non-cliché) way, and the actors had all gelled with each other in a fantastic amalgam.These days, somehow, Nikita has become my only 'must watch' show.
Maggie Q brings with her depth of character, her fight scenes are great as well and Shane West as the tortured agent is just excellent to watch, so is Division's head, Percy.
I love it how there are so different story lines and characters included in every episode but still the plot is going on so great.
I haven't watched any of the other versions or the movie but I'm sure that they can't take the love I have for this series.
finally we have a woman is the leading role, and Action TV show .Love Maggie Q and Lyndsey F and Shane west, Really good actress and actor.
Love the story, this is a show bayou can't stop watching, because you have to now, what is going to happen in the next episode, the show is also funny to, but is a lot of action.
In my mind, though the characters are familiar, I view it as a completely new thing and (nothing against Peta Wilson) I am loving Maggie Q as Nikita as well as Shane West as Michael (which came as a surprise to me).
All in all, Nikita is the right mix of action and romance with excellent (and attractive) actors, a great storyline and a surprisingly deep underlying moral to be found in each character..
Add the SUPERB acting by all the main characters, the incredible directing, and you get an addictive adrenaline pumping show that has the feel of a good action movie.
It's like a a good action thriller movie every week - a bit of Luc Besson and Mission Impossible for the small screen.For those who remember the Bridget Fonda movie Assassin there are some similarities.
Maggie Q, Lyndsy Fonseca, and Shane West are the core of this series and their acting ability makes some of the more outlandish elements of this show believable.
the action is better than i haveever seen before(24,burn notice...) and its so compelling and suspenseful i couldn'tthink of anything else the entire time watching through both seasons.i hope they come out with more seasons soon.
Nikita is a fun show to watch, it has lots of surprises ,and twists to the story which is just getting started.
I do hope they keep Rob Stewart who plays the character Roan he does a fantastic job and let's bring him on the side of Nikita as one of her inside helpers.So far it seems they only have Alex as Nikita's inside help and think they need Roan to be able to protect the cover.Division seems to have gone astray and have taken on a life of their own.The Government is not aware of this and Percy needs to be brought down where he seems to have gotten out of control.This is were Michael and Roan should step in and take Percy out..
I love Nikita is it a well made program that has it all it is sexy, has lots of action, a good story line.
i m not hallucinating but when i go for first episode i have not expected what i found.i have never written a review before but i m a very regular visitor here.i m forced to write down this review because this TV SHOW IS HIGHLY UNDERRATTED.i have seen nearly all the action movies and all other genre but i m never exited so much.this serial has simple plot but believe me u will have never seen anything like this before.Maggie Q as Nikita is outstanding as is ALEX AND MICHIAL.all characters are well developed with excellent story,fast paced action and ever changing climax which u can never predict.its just awesome.go for it nd u will forget any other movie or action TV how seen before.10/10.
what else can they write in the plot?) but after the first few episodes, things started to turn around, and everything gets more exciting!!!People shouldn't compare the old Nikita to this one, because they have nothing to do with each other!!
Because even though this isn't a Bond movie, even though it should be a show at least partially for women who can relate to Nikita, and even though a bikini is hardly the best outfit to fight in...we absolutely need to know that Maggie Q has a banging bod so that there's some incentive to keep watching.
Anyways, if you're worrying this is last time you'll get to see Maggie Q exposed think again- she's conveniently in her underwear later on for a completely useless shot.Perhaps the writing will get better or the network will stop intervening on shows like this (which they seem to constantly) and maybe it will stand a chance of not being completely aborted within a few episodes.
I know people work hard to make their visions come true but for me this is a joke that true fans can watch and laugh at thinking "That would never happen in the real Nikita".If you haven't watched the original I suppose you could enjoy some parts of this but I still don't recommend it.
You can't look for much truthfulness in "La Femme: Nikita" either, but all those gadgets, architecture of Section 1, tweaked computers, language (cancelation, no-contest missions...) and so on - all that was way ahead of it's time, which made up for a very convincing storytelling, along with good actors: ruthless Operations, brilliant Madelaine, emotional Nikita and somewhat psychedelic Michael, alongside Birkoff and Walter are what makes "La Femme: Nikita" what it is.
All the tension, the emotions, the gains and losses that power brings to character, the memories, the choices, the needs, the missions, the conflicts, the changes, the dares, the wantings, the missings, the forever(??) lost broken dreams and desires, the relationships, the role of Nikita's sister Michelle which was left unexplored in LFN, Michael's life and path all this time, the aftermath of her father's unbearable and unwanted "legacy", the soul searching, the future that one way or another lies ahead intertwined with the past, the chaos and twists and turns of the spy and terrorist world nowadays and the plot that could develop from all that.....It gives me goose bumps even thinking about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The original french film is stylistically superior to both.)Maggie Q is just dead emotionally - her eyes say nothing and her continuously downturned smile makes her look boring and asexual (no matter how hard her legs or lithe physique might try otherwise)I have only seen the first two episodes so far - and will check out one or two more to see where this goes - but the cast is just not strong enough.Xander Berkeley is one-note.
There is really good balance of leading women character between Nikita and Alex in the whole series, sometimes I thought that the balance was about to be lost but in the next episode balance has been achieved again.
She's a great actor and compared to other shows the good acting keeps me watching.
This is the text of an opinion I just submitted on the "official" Nikita site:Why is Nikita quickly DEVOLVING into a soap opera of the most juvenile caliber?Admittedly I am in my 50's and my initial attraction to the series was - and remains - the echo of Emma Peel from the (original) Avengers that Nikita exemplifies, both physically and persona-wise.I loved the SUSPENSE and ACTION of the first season and a half.Now, on the other hand, everything is about romantic relationships and/or long conversations about "revenge", "relationships", etc.Though I haven't seen Twilight (and very likely never will), the long lingering shots of Nikita and Michael are VERY reminiscent of the commercials.Is your target audience now ultra-focused on romantic teenagers?Seems a pity to start with an intelligent, intriguing and suspenseful action-drama and reduce it to the drivel of the last few episodes..
A show like Nikita is what we need right now, something one of a kind, with girl power, assassination, spy , secret government, A series like this is really hard to come by and i must say that the director did an amazing job.
Just watched the whole series recently (season 1-3) and I personally love it:) I think the actors/actresses do a great job and make the show great to watch!
There is also depth to the characters and it is not just action 100% of the time, there are some complex twists to many episodes, a good story line,dark/mysterious/unexpected backgrounds that unravel from the characters pasts, and relationships between some of them.
its so freaking good i got hooked instantly and couldn't stop watching tell i watched every season and each season kinda felt like it was the end then BAM another season to make me the happiest girl alive so when it came time for the actual end of Nikita i literally cried.
All actors bring their characters to life and keep the old Nikita mystique intact, some even make it better than the previous series.Shane West does a good job in his role as Michael, bringing in a new funny guy dimension to that character.
Before criticizing, I have to say, this show is somewhat entertaining, despite several flaws with it, but after watching 8 episodes, I'm not really interesting in continue watching.Let's start with the casting, or should I say miscasting, most of the recruits look like they are in a high school drama, nearly all of the acting is just plain flat and they have no personality, with the exception of one good episode, episode 7.Percy, their evil leader, looks like an alcoholic, doesn't matter where he is, always has a glass of whiskey, Michael, the character, is also flat, but somehow Shane West manages to make him watchable, but the worst of all is Nikita.Maggie Q is awful as an actress portraying Nikita, it doesn't help that this new version of Nikita is awful also, she is supposed to be a bad ass that somehow ALWAYS win, doesn't matter she is going against a major organization, but the actress, looks like a concentration camp survivor, an ultra skinny model, she looks like she is gonna broke if a strong wind hits her, much less a super athletic rogue agent who can destroy an underground intelligence agency, and when she isn't looking like she needs some food, and trust me, I love skinny women, she looks like a socialite, that should be playing someone's mom on Gossip Girl, with major designer clothes everywhere she goes, even the field, she even has some antique cars to go with her clothes, it's ridiculous really, to be fair, the actress did begin have gained a few pounds in the last two episodes I saw and looked more like an agent than a size double zero model, body-wise I mean.Plot-wise, the old La Femme Nikita (1997-2001) had some over the top stories, always, but that made it interesting, with some awesome soundtrack, here, most of the plot is laughable, that somehow Nikita and her accomplice manages to thwart and have a happy ending, it doesn't help that most of the stories have huge plot holes, that she is always an inch from Division, the rogue organization, and always escape unharmed, the whole story backing up Division is ludicrous, you have to see it, to believe how silly it is.Overall this show has it's moments, but that wears off quickly, mediocre show, awful re-imagination of a very entertaining series and movie.Rate 4/10..
Maggie Q is an inspired casting as Nikita; even though her physique is obviously lacking she's executes action scenes with gusto, and she carries the title character mostly well, most of the time though her sad sequences were meh.
Throughout the season the duo attempt to undermine and put an end to Division, whilst thwarting the schemes and plans of Division's commander, Percy (Xander Berkeley) and having to face-off with one of Division's best agents, Michael (Shane West), who personally trained Nikita!
Finally, the season also benefits from some interesting back stories told in the form of flashbacks that help to develop and flesh out its characters.The writing in this first season of Nikita is of a good standard, though it suffers by being too clichéd and predictable at times.
Moreover, anyone interested in a very good action drama would do well to purchase this first season of 'Nikita'.8/10.
One of the typical plot of the action movie similar to Nikita is that the good guy will always to go to all the trouble to save somebody and the bad guys will just kill thoughtlessly to achieve their goal.
After watching all 67 (Up to current new episode) episodes, I am really very much trying to like this show, but it is just not that good.
Watched a recent episode of Nikita, and part of the action took place in the UK.
She was so good as Nikita through the whole 4 seasons and served as the linchpin to keep the story going!
Like most of these over-produced action television shows, "Nikita" is good viewing for 10-15 episodes before the boredom factor sets in and you struggle to focus long enough to watch another episode in its entirety.
By the way i don't want to say that there was no brain on making this series but watching just a whole season will show you an ideological obsession behind all which make good things so much bad.
It is fascinating to watch Michael's perpetual tightrope-walking in attempting to balance his personal feelings for Nikita (portrayed with exquisite subtlety by both Shane West and Maggie Q) with his loyalty to Division and sense of self-preservation.I can't get enough, and I hope the series outlives me..
In S03E13, after they have captured a mole inside Section 1, we are shown Michael questioning him after he has been 'tortured' and the mole just readily answers, his spirit and any will to resist broken beyond repair.With new shows like Alias, 24, and now Nikita, one of the things that always make me laugh is the scenes where the bad-guy is tortured for information that is essential to save lives.
Therefore though the series had a small budget or very few special effects, the show had high density.With this new version of Nikita, the lines have been clearly drawn, we know who the good guy is and who the bad guy is.
First of all, let me say that I'm a big fan of La Femme Nikita series and watched it over and over again.In the new NIKITA I have to admit that I liked that they kept a few things the same, like the training process, the facilities of 'Division' etc...
I've been a long time Maggie Q fan and thought this was going to be a good series.
"Nikita" however has steered away from its basics and suffers accordingly.It's still a good action show, first season 10 points, second?