Reviews Contest: Nikita

[humanbeing]

"Nikita" is at times unbearable, at times passable, at times mediocre. It's style and a whole lot of posturing over substance. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a breezy, fun show IF it is entertaining and know what it wants to be. This show takes itself way too seriously without the proper execution to back it up.

I like Maggie Q but I hate say it, a cold hard truth: She. Can't. Act. I like her in "Live Free or Die Hard". That movie knows how to use her APTLY- which is in small dosages, showing her being badass without requiring much else. Here she has to carry a full primetime show as the title character and unfortunately, she can't. Yes, her character is an assassin, which means she is supposed to be stone cold stoic all the time but whenever she is on screen, the scenes turn stale. I guess with Shane West's over-acting on everything and Maggie Q's minimum-acting, they both cancel each other out so we are left to watch veteran actors like Xander Berkeley chewing up the scene from time to time.

The action is lightweight, the editing is all over the place. Worse yet, because of the poorly shot production, Maggie Q looks like the wind can blow her over while standing. Do I believe she can take down 3 macho guys twice her size at the same time on a weekly basis? Hell to the NO. In "Live Free or Die Hard", I can acutally buy that she is able to kick Bruce Willis' ass. Here, I laugh in disbelief.

Overall, the series ends up being boring and stale. One thing a new show can do worse is making the audiences long for old show in the same genre or an old character. Here after 3 episodes, I found myself actually pine for the insanely preposterous Alias' Sydney Bristow, a series that I only followed for two seasons. For that, Nikita fails.

I am not asking anyone to agree or disagree, it's just my two-cents. Afterall, there are a lot of spy/assassin/conspiracy shows out there and I am not willing to settle for less.

Written by humanbeing, October 13th, 2010.

[zenibuka]

Yep, gotta agree with you on this one ! Yet i'll keep on watching 'cause i like the Besson movie (when he still knew how to direct...) but i have very low standards !

[honeybunny]

I synced the first episode and it reminded me so much of Dollhouse that I even predicted (unsuccessfully so far) it's cancellation. But I liked Dollhouse I can't say the same about this one. Not on my list.

[humanbeing]

It's on CW so it's less likely to be canceled. Their target audience are tweens... They have lower standard... therefore the rating is still solid on CW Of course, I might be wrong.