Rewatching La Femme Nikita

[Joelist]

I've actually started rewatching La Femme Nikita (the Peta Wilson one not the inferior remake with Maggie Q). I'm about 2/3 of the way through season one so far.

This was actually a pretty good show. The action is well staged and the acting is above par, but where it really excels is in atmosphere and tone. When it was on, it was one of the more effective attempts at "Film Noir" in a television series. The dark tone combined with the bleakness of the lives of the Section One operatives makes for an atmospheric drama.

Also, it raises a question about Section itself - while their mission is a good one (counter-terrorism) their utter ruthlessness and methods (including "cancelling" members for even minor lapses) are to put it lightly questionable.

And at least so far in Season One, the writing is strong. They are not afraid of complex stories and of giving depth to the characters. It helps a lot. It draws you into their world.

If you like espionage/secret organization drama you could do a lot worse than this one.

 

[Joelist]

Through Season Two now and the overall quality has been maintained. One thing starting to emerge a bit more is the very thing I remember finally was the downfall of the show - a romantic subplot that wound up becoming THE story. IIRC it got really bad in there second half of the third season and made season four borderline unwatchable. Season Five was the wrap up and because in it (again to my remembering) they heavily downplayed that romance the quality went back up.

If you like this sort of stuff (for example if you like Alias and want to see what inspired it) this is worth a watch.

 

[Joelist]

And through Season Three. Mostly still good quality but the romantic subplot is starting to become more front and center. I know all the teenage girls at the time thought it was dreamy but it ultimately messed up the chemistry of the show. When this show focused on the agents of Section and what they do it was strong - when it went into personal ives it was weaker (but nowhere near as bad as when Gale Anne Hurd shows do it - see Hunters).

If you want to see now to do film noir properly on TV I recommend the first three seasons of this show - they nailed it and it feels sort of artsy how they did it.