'Nikita' on The CW HD

I will probably check it out, but as a fan of USA's version, I have to sigh. That show went off the air less than 10 years ago. A little more time before another remake would be welcome.

(And if the reviewer thinks the CW version is dark, they really should check out the USA version to learn what that word actually means.)

I'm thinking another nikita tv show.. from the guys of chuck and human target. I was originally thinking it was gonna be the guys who did 24, who did the previous Nikita tv series.

Surprisingly, the network hasn't sent us a screener yet for the pilot, not that I know of anyway. Once we get it, I'll let ya know how it stands versus the USA Nikita (though I thought that show was on Fox first).

Isn't "dark teen dramas" pretty much all CW does?

Loved the original film (which was called, in France and most of Europe, simply Nikita--the title La Femme Nikita was only used in the US). Even the American remake, Point of No Return, was enjoyable. Was not a fan of the TV series at all (but my aunt was crazy about it ). These early comments about the CW series aren't encouraging.

EDIT: I just found this 3 minute, 25 second trailer for the show. It doesn't look like something that should be called a "dark teen drama"--I didn't see any teens in that clip (the actress choosen for the title role is, appropriately, 31 y/o). Interesting idea to follow Nikita after her escape from her organization at the end of the movie, being hunted by them and doing everything that she can to take them down. In the clip, the acting of the Nikita character seemed a bit flat, but maybe she'll grow into the role. I'm willing to give it a chance.

The TV series completely broke the premise of the original movie and sanitized it for mainstream audiences.

In the movie Nikita was a worthless junkie who shot a cop in the face and then "executed." Rather than letting her die she was recruited as basically a disposable assassin. She was given just enough training to kill. and sent to kill people without the ability to question ethics or morals and with little concern for her well being or survivability. If she survived it was a bonus. If not they never wasted a valuable asset.

In the TV series she was a framed homeless person who has a fake death and then the government spends considerable resources training her for top secret covert missions, reconnaissance, counter-espionage etc. and gives her access and training on more gadgets than Bond ever had. Why spend money and time training an absolute nobody and threatening them with death when there are probably hundreds of military and existing agents and law enforcement members who would do that job voluntarily and have the necessary skillsets already?

Even the most extreme cases of moral ambiguity in the series looked pretty tame compared to CIA rumors and the entire show paled in comparison to everyone's favorite morally-ambiguous justice-machine Jack Bauer. A guy who did his job voluntarily and managed to recruit some other trained professionals to go along with him every season. No death threats necessary.

So if this is based on the series then it's has to be cliched spy vs spy. Especially on the CW. If it was based on the movie Nikita the only skills she would have would be involve killing people with various firearms and then burning them alive in a bath of acid.

Well, there was some surveilance and espionage in the original film; it ends with a (severely pooch-screwed) mission to penetrate the security of an embassy in disguise and photograph some documents. People get killed by accident and the agency sends in a fixer to finish the mission, leading to more people being casually killed. She can't take any more after that and bugs out, very reluctantly leaving her lover behind. Since she left behind the material that she was able to get before the mission went totally belly-up, it looked as though they were going to let her go.

Also, they spent quite a lot of time and resources training her, not only to be an assassin, but also to convert her from this crude gutter-snipe, barely able to use a knife and fork, into a poised young women who could fit in anywhere.

Judging by that long trailer, it seems to be a little of both--she's escaped the forced-to-be-an-assassin life (true to the movie) after they kill her lover (not true to the movie). She apparently goes back to take the agency down, using resources from who knows where. Hopefully they'll show some back-story in the pilot.

The original film is available, subtitled (thank God), as Netflix Instant Watching content. It's been a while since I've seen it--think I'll watch it again .

After seeing so many ads, I don't know why but this show is ... reminding me of that other show... Bionic Woman

With "teen angst" sub-plots galore.

They'll have to drop a utterly ridiculous bratty teenage girl in the mix (like Jaime Sommer's little sister), forever getting into trouble and almost getting herself killed by the organization Nikita used to work for, a constant distraction from the main plot. Then it will be a typical CW series .

I think I still have a few old episodes of bionic woman with mae witeman as the deaf sister before nbc reworked the series.

Wow, a series on the CW that I'm actually interested in! Let's see if it's as dark and sophisticated as has been touted. I gave up on 'Covert Affairs' real quick after it proved to be just another milquetoast example of USA Network pablum. Hopefully, this show aspires to more.

Looking forward to checking this out as Supernatural is currently the only show on the CW worth watching IMO.

If I had known 'Supernatural' would turn out to be as much fun as everyone says it is, I would have given it a shot back when. Too far behind now to realistically catch up, though. Win some, lose some.

I watch a few 'Smallville' eps each year: premiere, finale, and a couple of sweeps episodes in between, especially if they're highly praised episodes in the show thread here. I've found that's about all that's necessary to keep up to speed. So if I get hooked on 'Nikita', that will be my first regular CW series. We'll see.

Well, you've got the opportunity before the final season starts up since all the seasons are out there. It's well worth the effort to catch up, though there isn't exactly a hotbed of discussions out there about the show to risk any spoilers.

That you can blame on being a CW show: no one knows it exists...


I think I quit Smallville at season 3 or 4. It just got old with the whole Lana lust thing, more Lex than you can shake a stick at and a larger than average evil mutant per square mile each week. It started to feel as tired as the death toll on "Murder She Wrote".

In the case of Supernatural, the brothers were always on the move and seeking out the stuff wherever it was. That kept the show from having that "doesn't anyone notice all this is going on around them so much" feel, while allowing events to happen where the outside world might not notice. Plus, the "road trip" aspect kept the amount of love interest entanglement baggage down to a minimum, which avoided a ton of relationship clichés.

Finally, the writing on Supernatural frequently rides in brilliant territory, unlike the haplessness trite Smallville treads in all too often - including the "woe is superhero me" thing.

Supernatural--My wife and I watched the first four seasons on DVD over the last year or so, and I've been recording reruns of Season 5 all summer, and I'll be able to watch it week to week for the first time this upcoming season.

Smallville--True, the writing is nowhere near Supernatural's, however, I've been hooked since day one, so I'm gonna stay on board through the series finale next spring.

Nikita--Looking forward to it!

That's three shows on the CW for this 37 year old male. (My wife did enjoy the Hellcats pilot, so four total in the family.)

Absolutely, the writing is often the very best TV has ever offered and they are masters at running the gamut from downright silliness to deadly serious, no other show I've seen has done this anywhere near as well as Supernatural. Even if the show was already canceled it would be well worth watching from the beginning.

There are so many shows I'd like to do that with, though. 'The Wire', 'The Shield', 'Sons of Anarchy' and 'Supernatural' to name just four off the top of my head. The technology and resources exist to do that now, but there are only so many hours in the day. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to make any more of those.

Unfortunately, they haven't helped themselves much since they dropped those two characters by adding the "Tess" one as a regular.

Does the CW still have the giant opaque CW bug with show promo writing over it?


ron

Added to the DVR. My goal is to watch every pilot this fall season. Since it's The CW my expectations are zero, so I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised like I was with Life Unexpected.

it was terrible and not compelling in the slightest.

I thought it was ok, I'll definitely give it some more time.

It's a well paced pilot. I'm sticking around for at least one more.

It was a little darker and more involved than I expected. Not the average teeny bopper stuff from the CW.

I thought it was pretty good, definitely worth a few more viewings as pilots can be quite different in tone than the rest of the episodes. As noted above, certainly darker and more serious than the usual CW fare, so far anyway.

Oh yeah, Maggie Q is absolutely stunning. (as if that needed to be said )

Not bad, for a start. I was wondering how they would tie it into the CW's teen-appeal theme: her little protege and the others in Division's training program. I'll give it a few more episodes.