Hype TV Club does "Nikita" in June

[ComicChick]

NIKITA
​

Any Hype members are welcome to join us in our viewing of these shows.
The Discussion Thread: http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=491461


The only rules are

• Only shows on the list will be selected
• Only the first season is required for the monthly viewing. If a show has multiple seasons
• Each show on the generator has a minimum of 10 episodes per season, if not, we will watch S1&2
• ALL spoilers must be tagged as such, as none of us have seen these shows before aka don't be a jerk
• Any posts not following the spoiler rule as subject to Deletion

What is Nikita?

Nikita, a young woman who was rescued from death row by a secret government agency known as Division. Division faked Nikita's execution, giving her a chance to start a new life and serve her country. At least, that's what she is told. In reality, she is trained to be a spy and assassin. After three years in hiding, Nikita seeks retribution against her former bosses who deceived her and does everything she can to expose and destroy Division's covert operation, even as Division continues recruiting and training other young people to become cold-blooded killers.

 

[E-Man]

Yeah buddy!

 

[flickchick85]

All I will say is keep watching into S2. That's when this show got awesome for me.

I may have to re-watch along with this one.

 

[kguillou]

This show was FANTASTIC from beginning to end. Highly recommendable. It's too bad it was on the CW, this belonged on a network like FOX where it would've flourished.

 

[E-Man]

I don't know if it would be helped better on Fox. Fox does have a tendency to cancel things too early like Almost Human. At least they're giving Sleepy Hollow a chance.

 

[E-Man]

Insomnia and illness hit me bad, so I started watching this show to occupy my time. God damn this **** is really good! I'm three episodes in so far. The similarities to Alias are pretty apparent. You've got a rogue, female agent that is betrayed by her secretive organization. She's trying to do the impossible by taking it down, and the tech guy is the comedy relief character. I'm not complaining since all I've seen of Alias, the first season, is good before it hits a weird wall. Outside of those things this show stands on its own.

Of course there was going to be a twist, but they are handling things pretty well so far. There is enough political aspect of what The Division is doing to make things interesting. They also managed to do something with a character I figure I would hate in that first episode that makes me root for her even more. The Nikita character is someone that's easy to root for as well. Kind of like Michael Westen and Macguyver I find myself wanting to see how she is going to approach every situation. So far I'm not disappointed.

If there's a con to the show it's that I have to realllllllly suspend disbelief on the fight scenes involving Maggie Q. She is playing the role well so far, so it's not like Gal Gadot where she can't act in addition to being an ironing board. It still looks silly when she is fighting guys who look like they could snap her in half like a Slim Jim. You'll know it when you see it, but there's one scene in particular in episode 3 that's just laughable. She gets into a certain spot, and I couldn't help buy hear Jim Ross yelling, "Her body is broken in half!" I know it's fake so I roll with it, but man this stuff gets ridiculous sometimes. I know every girl can't be the completely awesome Katie Sackhoff and have a great build with sick acting chops to go along with it, but Maggie Q. could really stand to have herself a bunch of extra sammiches.

But she's really playing the character well enough that it doesn't matter overall. I'm really loving most of this show right now.

 

[kguillou]

E-Man, trust me when I say the show gets better and better. It's action packed and has some great storylines. It's one of the few shows, imo, that maintains its quality from beginning to end and has a great, satisfying ending as well. You're in for a great ride, man.

 

[Primal Slayer]

If there's a con to the show it's that I have to realllllllly suspend disbelief on the fight scenes involving Maggie Q. She is playing the role well so far, so it's not like Gal Gadot where she can't act in addition to being an ironing board. It still looks silly when she is fighting guys who look like they could snap her in half like a Slim Jim. You'll know it when you see it, but there's one scene in particular in episode 3 that's just laughable. She gets into a certain spot, and I couldn't help buy hear Jim Ross yelling, "Her body is broken in half!" I know it's fake so I roll with it, but man this stuff gets ridiculous sometimes. I know every girl can't be the completely awesome Katie Sackhoff and have a great build with sick acting chops to go along with it, but Maggie Q. could really stand to have herself a bunch of extra sammiches.

But the thing is...Maggie Q could really fight those guys in real life. She trained with the Chan, she is sorta badass.

 

[flickchick85]

Insomnia and illness hit me bad, so I started watching this show to occupy my time. God damn this **** is really good! I'm three episodes in so far. The similarities to Alias are pretty apparent. You've got a rogue, female agent that is betrayed by her secretive organization. She's trying to do the impossible by taking it down, and the tech guy is the comedy relief character. I'm not complaining since all I've seen of Alias, the first season, is good before it hits a weird wall. Outside of those things this show stands on its own.

Of course there was going to be a twist, but they are handling things pretty well so far. There is enough political aspect of what The Division is doing to make things interesting. They also managed to do something with a character I figure I would hate in that first episode that makes me root for her even more. The Nikita character is someone that's easy to root for as well. Kind of like Michael Westen and Macguyver I find myself wanting to see how she is going to approach every situation. So far I'm not disappointed.

If there's a con to the show it's that I have to realllllllly suspend disbelief on the fight scenes involving Maggie Q. She is playing the role well so far, so it's not like Gal Gadot where she can't act in addition to being an ironing board. It still looks silly when she is fighting guys who look like they could snap her in half like a Slim Jim. You'll know it when you see it, but there's one scene in particular in episode 3 that's just laughable. She gets into a certain spot, and I couldn't help buy hear Jim Ross yelling, "Her body is broken in half!" I know it's fake so I roll with it, but man this stuff gets ridiculous sometimes. I know every girl can't be the completely awesome Katie Sackhoff and have a great build with sick acting chops to go along with it, but Maggie Q. could really stand to have herself a bunch of extra sammiches.

But she's really playing the character well enough that it doesn't matter overall. I'm really loving most of this show right now.

Glad you're enjoying it! I've always said this show was like Alias but with less soapy romance drama and more consistent writing. I LOVED Alias, but it completely went off the rails after S2 and damn near ruined all their characters before the end. The writers for Nikita seemed to have a much better respect for the characters and their journeys, and ultimately did right by them for the duration of the show's run. Which I appreciated, since this show basically filled the Alias-shaped hole in my heart.

On the fight scenes, I will say, they do get better. Maggie Q was unhappy with them early on in the show too (she comes from Hong Kong action pedigree, training under Jackie Chan when she was a teen), and eventually - either late in the 1st season or early in the 2nd season, I can't remember - she brought in her own stunt crew from LA and became a lot more hands-on with creating Nikita's fighting style. And it works really well, imo.

 

[E-Man]

But the thing is...Maggie Q could really fight those guys in real life. She trained with the Chan, she is sorta badass.

Jackie Chan ain't nobody! He ain't no muay thai specialist that can take Chong Li out in the Kumite, and he owes me $5!

Glad you're enjoying it! I've always said this show was like Alias but with less soapy romance drama and more consistent writing. I LOVED Alias, but it completely went off the rails after S2 and damn near ruined all their characters before the end. The writers for Nikita seemed to have a much better respect for the characters and their journeys, and ultimately did right by them for the duration of the show's run. Which I appreciated, since this show basically filled the Alias-shaped hole in my heart.

On the fight scenes, I will say, they do get better. Maggie Q was unhappy with them early on in the show too (she comes from Hong Kong action pedigree, training under Jackie Chan when she was a teen), and eventually - either late in the 1st season or early in the 2nd season, I can't remember - she brought in her own stunt crew from LA and became a lot more hands-on with creating Nikita's fighting style. And it works really well, imo.

I started watching Alias last year and loved it before I got a little tired of it. I stopped at episode 18 of the first season because there were some parts that were too corny for me. I usually hate romance in tv shows, but I did like the family aspect of the spy with her two best friends. I'll go back to it eventually, but I think it's problem is that Burn Notice pretty much did everything that Alias was trying to do much better. Of course Burn Notice is the GOAT spy show, so it's unfair to hold Alias back to it, but I'm seeing where Nikita is succeeding where Alias started to fail. I'm still early in Nikita though. I'm seven episodes in, and it could hit a wall like Alias did. Where I don't think it will hit that wall is that I know my lover, Lyndie Greenwood, shows up at some point in time.

The fight scenes don't bother me in terms of what happen. There are a little bit too many jump cuts, but the idea behind them is pretty good. It's just that Nikita looks like she could get blown away by a stiff breeze, yet she's taking punches from guys much larger than her. I hate when shows do that. It's fake, so I'm not going to write a letter to Congress about it, but they could set things up better. Thin people can be badasses too, but they are going about it wrong. If they showed her having Anderson Silva like reflexes where she's incredibly hard to hit it would make sense. That way you have the feel that she's just faster and more fluid than everyone else because she has to be or else she'll get knocked out by a few blows, Instead she's going toe to toe with dudes whose arm is bigger than her entire body. Stuff like that is impressive in Arrow because Amell is a built guy. Here it's just goofy. But the show is good enough to overcome that.

 

[ComicChick]

i plan to start watching this very soon!

 

[flickchick85]

Jackie Chan ain't nobody! He ain't no muay thai specialist that can take Chong Li out in the Kumite, and he owes me $5!



I started watching Alias last year and loved it before I got a little tired of it. I stopped at episode 18 of the first season because there were some parts that were too corny for me. I usually hate romance in tv shows, but I did like the family aspect of the spy with her two best friends. I'll go back to it eventually, but I think it's problem is that Burn Notice pretty much did everything that Alias was trying to do much better. Of course Burn Notice is the GOAT spy show, so it's unfair to hold Alias back to it, but I'm seeing where Nikita is succeeding where Alias started to fail. I'm still early in Nikita though. I'm seven episodes in, and it could hit a wall like Alias did. Where I don't think it will hit that wall is that I know my lover, Lyndie Greenwood, shows up at some point in time.

The fight scenes don't bother me in terms of what happen. There are a little bit too many jump cuts, but the idea behind them is pretty good. It's just that Nikita looks like she could get blown away by a stiff breeze, yet she's taking punches from guys much larger than her. I hate when shows do that. It's fake, so I'm not going to write a letter to Congress about it, but they could set things up better. Thin people can be badasses too, but they are going about it wrong. If they showed her having Anderson Silva like reflexes where she's incredibly hard to hit it would make sense. That way you have the feel that she's just faster and more fluid than everyone else because she has to be or else she'll get knocked out by a few blows, Instead she's going toe to toe with dudes whose arm is bigger than her entire body. Stuff like that is impressive in Arrow because Amell is a built guy. Here it's just goofy. But the show is good enough to overcome that.

I'll be curious to read your thoughts on the fights as they evolve throughout the show. I ultimately much preferred the fights in Nikita over Arrow's, but I'm mostly thinking of the later fights from Nikita when I compare them in my head.

And yeah, I liked the family stuff in Alias too, but I just thought they overdid all the love triangle stuff. Nikita (the character) certainly has her own romantic plotline, but she's too much of a badass to let it bog down the show the way Sydney's eventually did on Alias. I love Sydney Bristow, but she was a straight-up softie compared to the protagonists of this show.

 

[E-Man]

I'm up to episode 14 now, and I like how they've switched things up with Alex. Now she's [BLACKOUT]an agent out in the field, so she doesn't have to constantly find reasons to be near the ops team to eavesdrop.[/BLACKOUT] At some point the old way was going to stretch things too far, so they found a plausible way to keep things moving while making sure Nikita is still always one step ahead of Division.

 

[flickchick85]

Yeah, that's one of the things I really appreciated about the writing on this show - they continuously "changed the game" before the status quo could ever get a chance to become stale.

 

[luis4u]

How is the 1997 2001 version?

 

[Primal Slayer]

I enjoyed it as a kid, have the dvds but never did a full rewatch. It is kind of like a prequel to Nikita and is more gun heavy then martial arts heavy.

I was always sad that Nikita never brought in Peta Wilson in for a role like they did with some of the original LFN actors.

 

[flickchick85]

How is the 1997 2001 version?

I only saw a few episodes of it as a tween, but it seemed decent to me back then. The plot is different, though. Like Primal said, THIS Nikita could almost be seen as a sequel to that one, as the older show follows her time in Division (or "Section One" as it was called there).

 

[Frodo]

Loved the CW Nikita. It was a great, mature show ,in which the characters acted like mature adults, rather then the usual CW teen model. Maggie Q was and is still great,. Great supporting cast , strong writing, and movie quality production. Highly recommend watching it to those who haven't seen it. Its better action and more consistent characterization than Arrow, and has better relationship dynamics than the Flash.

 

[E-Man]

Alex's character gets better to me over time. At first I thought she'd be the generic, good because we say so character that sometimes plagues tv shows. Instead she's got a really interesting story. She does some dumb stuff from time to time, but that's to be expected for a 19 year old.

And for the love of all that's cool and happy. Please don't kill off Fletcher. I'm liking that guy more and more too, but I can see him dying at some point. Don't screw me on this one, CW. You bastards already took the coolest Winchester away from me far too soon. If Fletcher dies early I'm coming to the CW and giving everyone a Mike Tyson level uppercut.

 

[flickchick85]

I expected Alex to become my main annoyance with the show based on the early eps, but that never happened (though it came close in a later season). Once we got her full backstory she became a real favorite of mine. I mean, that's one hell of a backstory, lol.

 

[E-Man]

I'm almost done with season one, and I can't help but think about how Percy and Amanda are really some evil bastards.

 

[flickchick85]

That they are. Great villains, both of 'em, imo.

I am now 10 episodes into my re-watch. This is my first time ever re-watching the show (it just ended last year, after all), and I have to say, it's not as much of a slow-starter as I remember. Of course, that could be due to me already knowing and feeling attached to these characters but for some reason my recollection of the 1st half of this season was that it was largely comprised of filler episodes and that's hardly the case at all. Most of the characters or story elements introduced in each of these episodes actually do come to be significant in the big picture, with a couple exceptions. So overall I'd say it's holding up quite well on re-watch thus far.

 

[E-Man]

I can see where Alex is going to start doing some more dumb **** as the seasons go along. Early in season 2 I can't help but wonder why she's so naive. She's got tunnel vision so bad now that it's going to bite her in the ass. She acts like CC sometimes when she doesn't want to admit that I'm right.

 

[flickchick85]

I seem to recall being frustrated with Alex and the strained Nikita/Alex relationship in the early eps of S2 as well, but the 2nd half of that season is my favorite run of the entire show, so I guess you could say it straightens up before too long.

 

[E-Man]

I fell in love with Lyndie Greenwood on Sleepy Hollow, but man that faux British accent on this show has to go. I still accept her as one of my lovers though. I can never be mad at a woman with those eyes, lips, and dem curls. It's weird seeing her here be a tech specialist when she's the badass extraordinaire on Sleepy Hollow...well before the damn showrunner started hating on her.