Nikita

Before watching the first couple of episodes of new series Nikita, I wondered what there would be to not like? I loved not only the original film, La Femme Nikita, but even the US version with Bridget Fonda (what ever happened to her anyway?). Plus I like a slick, action TV show with lots of cool subplots and twists. I was excited to see it, what could go wrong?

The best way to critique Nikita is to compare it to two TV shows which I loved that are of the same genre: Alias and Dollhouse.

She's no Sydney Bristow
Lean, mean and one helluva fightin' machine, Maggie Q plays Nikita. And we're asked to feel for Nikita from the beginning and get behind her. She served her country but fell in love and was penalized for it in the worst possible way. And now she wants revenge and to bring them down. What I loved about Alias was Jennifer Garner's Sydney Bristow, who was so entirely likable despite the ever increasing (and frankly ridiculous) plot twists. I watched Alias to the very end because I believed in Sydney and willed her to overcome all the baddies and live happily ever after. What's more, I felt like that from the beginning of the pilot. Not so with Nikita. I felt no connection, even though her life is so eerily similar to mine. She got into drugs, no bueno. She killed someone in a black out, bummer. She was arrested, hate it when that happens. She got trained to live as an assassin (sounds better than prison), who doesn't? Then she broke the rules, loved a man who they killed and now she's out for revenge, yawn. If you don't really feel for the protagonist and root for her, what's the point? And I just didn't care much about Nikita, though I wanted to. (And for the record, I've done none of those things, I was only playing with ya.)

A time and place for hand-to-hand mortal combat
In the world of Nikita, the new recruits of The Division go through a year long training regimen before their first assignments. Reminiscent of the Dollhouse, scenes of young and good looking men and women are trained on fighting, weapons, computer hacking and etiquette. But unlike Dollhouse, there's no mystery as to what they will be doing. Whereas Dollhouse was able to put the "Actives" in any scenario or storyline the writers could think of, thereby keeping my interest from week to week, there's no added mystery to Nikita. We know they are being trained as assassins. In Nikita it was still fun to watch the fight scenes so beautifully choreographed but without depth of plot, it became a bit one-note for me.

Sisters are doing it for themsleves
What do Sydney Bristow, Echo and Nikita have in common? They all kick ass, of course! They're athletic, smart, beautiful and don't need to be rescued (though there is always at least one sympathetic male character trying to look out for them in their travels). I appreciate any show that is centered around a strong female heroine at the helm and Nikita is nothing if not that.

I think...it's an entirely serviceable new TV show and will set my DVR for it, but it has neither the heart nor the intrigue that I was hoping for so my long term loyalty remains uncertain.