A once substantial show now quickly falling victim to the CW's glamour formula
8.0
Reasons I love Nikita S1 & S2:
1. It was not about well dressed hot people and their stupid petty drama (with bad acting to boot). Cough, vast majority of CW shows.
2. Storyline: fast, interesting, cleverly intertwined
The storylines were fascinating and so cleverly and intricately woven together. Every new episode revealed something of the past and we got to see, bit by bit, different layers and depths of the characters.
3. Characters: Re: abovecharacters were multi-dimensional and real. They were all flawed in their own ways, especially Nikita, but ever so winning.
Unlike with shows like Gossip Girl, characters were not annoyingthey made mistakes, messed up, did selfish things etc etc but they were not petty or overly dramatic. Despite their flaws, these were real, strong, and admirable characters with such faith in something bigger than themselves, and that redeemed them.
4. Cast and how well they play their characters: in a word (or two), really well.
Biased here but Maggie Q is my all time favorite actress, and I admire her a lot as a person. I think what I loved in Season 1 was that I saw parallels between the kind of compassion Maggie has (from her charities, beliefs, interviews of her and those who've worked with her) and what Nikita has. Also the sense of fighting for something one believes in (Maggie for animals' rights; Nikita to protect the innocent/stop Division). There is a really authentic determination there, and though in Season 1 Nikita was mostly oscillating between angry and hurt (mostly angry)all in serious modeshe showed a wider breadth of emotion in S2.
The rest of the cast was great too: Lyndsy Fonseca really embodying the strength, smartness, and charm of Alex;Shane West ever the do-righter, which is a role that could so easily turn into annoying but he maneuvers it with sincerity and the right amount of hesitation and self-reflection/questioning; Birkhoff the perfect geek, the most lovable genius loser ever, who is the perfect dose of comic relief but is equally believable in his sentimental moments; Melinda Clark so icily manipulative and cold as Amanda I could almost hate the actress herself sometimes (but then I remember not to), yet with the rare glimpse of sentimental softness, adding a perfectly subtle depth to character relations; and Xander Berkley the ultimate villain mastermind, god complex, truly emotionless and perverse, so incredibly well-spoken in his scenes as a leader and motivator, it is no wonder so much of Division were willingly his sheep.
Reasons I hate Nikita S3:
Pretty much all of the above reasons above were undone. Everyone in the show is annoying now, everybody somehow suddenly sucks at fighting now, Nikita is turning into Amanda (wtf is it with the makeup and the tight dresses and heels? This is not Gossip Girl and Nikita is not a hooker), Sean is being a possessive demanding boyfriend (there are ways to be protective without being annoying), the Birkhoff and Sonya are just inexplicably and unfunnily weird, there are plot holes the size of Percy's ego (except there's no more Percy now), the general direction of the storyline is unclear, the fight scenes are lower quality (seriously let the actors spend more time rehearsing fight scenes and less time sitting for hair and makeup; by that token hire more choreographers and fewer makeup artists), stop taping Maggie Q's boobs at every possible occasion she is extremely attractive even if she doesn't look like every Hollywood broad...seriously producers, writers, directors: please go re-watch S1 and get back to what this show is really supposed to be about.
Seriously, S3. Stop breaking my heart (and annoying me).
