Product Description
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In this sexy and suspenseful series, NIKITA has gone rogue.
Division is an ultra-secret government agency whose operatives
are recruited young people with severed ties to family, friends
and society. Trained to be invisible assassins, no one ever
leaves Division -- except the charming and deadly Nikita, who has
managed to escape, making it her mission to undermine the
now-corrupt organization. A force to be reckoned with, the rogue
Nikita taunts Division, staying on their radar, but always one
step ahead. Yet as determined as Nikita is to bring down her
former agency, there are those just as determined to stop her,
including Division's newest recruit Alex, a beautiful young woman
who seems destined to replace Nikita as their next top operative.
.com
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In Nikita, the CW Network has developed another resounding hit
on its roster of solid dramatic series that do a nice job of
grabbing viewers from a variety of demographics. With season two
starting in late September 2011, this slick package of the 22
episodes of season one is a great way of diving into a show
that's among the best looking, most tightly produced, and
intensely cinematic on the small screen. The title and the
premise both come from the 1990 French feature film and early
style-setter from writer-director Luc Besson, La Femme Nikita.
The character of Nikita was a beautiful, troubled young criminal
who was essentially abducted from prison and inducted into covert
intelligence to become a er assassin used at the will and
the whim of the government. There was an American remake in 1993,
Point of No Return, starring Bridget Fonda, then a TV adaptation
in 1997 that used the original French title and ran for just over
four seasons on the USA Network. This reworking maintains the
basic premise of a black ops organization that has largely gone
rogue from US government control, with the title character of a
dangerous, sexy assassin having escaped its clutches and gone
rogue herself. After six years as its most expert operative, this
Nikita (Maggie Q, who is very dangerous and very sexy) uses all
her training and black ops wiles to destroy the unit known only
as Division. Division is run from a high-tech bunker by the evil,
calculating Percy (a steely-eyed Xander Berkeley) as a kind of
top-secret consulting firm for the high-paying interests of those
in need of murder, protection, or other sundry cleanup or coverup
services. It employs a stable of young, buffed, highly trained
male and female "recruits" who, like Nikita, have been plucked
from prison and indentured to lives dedicated to Division's
devious details. But the pilot episode reveals that Division's
latest recruit, Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca), is Nikita's mole, and she
runs Alex from the outside, getting intel on Division's nefarious
operations in her effort to bring it all down. The depth of
Nikita's (and Alex's) malice toward Division is revealed over the
course of the season, along with her ambivalence toward Percy's
lieutenant, Michael (Shane West). Their cat-and-mouse includes a
fair a of personal heat within the missions that Nikita
tries to disrupt, especially the one that becomes Division's top
priority: eliminate Nikita. Michael has his own mixed feelings
for his former protégé, and even as the intrigue among Michael,
Nikita, Alex, and the other assorted characters both within and
without Division becomes more elaborate, it's clear that there's
a lot of gray for everyone. Except Percy, that is, who remains
deliciously black throughout. The final episodes set up a
suspenseful scenario of character maneuvering, compromised
loyalties, and convoluted conspiracies that bodes very well for a
new season.
Every installment of Nikita is paced and plotted like a mini
thriller, with production values and heavily styled good looks to
match. As series creator Craig Silverstein and many other
behind-the-scenes contributors confirm in the extensive
supplemental materials, incredible attention is given to the
details of art direction, design, wardrobe, cinematography,
scoring, etc. in order to make what are essentially mini action
movies. And action is definitely a key word. There is play
enty, with a level of physical violence that's about as
powerful as anything on TV these days. But all of it is expertly
staged and carefully motivated to serve the needs of brainy,
quick-witted scripts. Maggie Q certainly has the background chops
to bring integrity and authenticity to her smooth martial arts
moves; that's really her chopping and shooting up there. She is
eminently appealing not only for her beauty and grace, but also
her soulful stare. Silverstein admits that the CW Network was
looking for a shoehorn series to capture not just action fans,
and they all thought the Nikita brand could be adapted into a
version of something like Alias. It makes sense with all the
secret agent stuff going on and with Maggie Q making herself a
rousing antidote for Jennifer Garner fans. But she's also
uniquely Nikita as she guides an exciting show that gives equal
weight to brain and brawn with a precise combination of restraint
and exuberance. --Ted Fry