“Nikita” The Complete First Season is one hell of a ride. There’s plenty of kick ass action by a sexy lead actress, some decent writing, interesting storylines and adequate to good acting from the main cast. The Blu-ray has some expansive features (more so than most TV series get today), sharp-looking video and lossless audio which, while it won’t knock your socks off, still sounds great.
“Nikita” The Complete First Season (2010-11)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Action, Suspense/Thriller
Warner Bros. | Not Rated – 927 min. – $69.97 | August 30, 2011
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Various
Writer(s): Craig Silverstein (developed by)
Cast: Maggie Q, Shane West, Lyndsy Fonseca, Aaron Stanford, Melinda Clarke, Xander Berkeley
DISC INFO:
Features: 2 Episode Commentaries, Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Division Tracker
Number of Discs: 4
Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.78
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A, B, C
THE MOVIE – 4.25/5
It’s tough for new shows to find and keep audiences. A series like “Lost” was a rarity and while I didn’t find the CW’s newest entry, “Nikita” as slick, it’s still pretty damn entertaining and, most importantly, consistent from beginning to end.
“Nikita” is based in part on the French film, La Femme Nikita which itself spawned a 1997 television series with the same name and a Westernized version starring Bridget Fonda entitled Point of No Return. I don’t know where this show fits in, but if memory serves, it could tie into the original movie but taking place years later (with some tweaking, of course).
In the series, the sexy and deadly Nikita (MAGGIE Q) is out on her own and away from the secret organization known as Division, a covert unit that has gone rogue and takes on assignments of highly questionable morale and legalities. Running Division is Percy (XANDER BERKELEY), a one-dimensional character who wants what every good villain wants: power; and with it comes money. Working for Percy is Michael (SHANE WEST), Nikita’s former handler who has a soft spot for Nikita but is also strangely tasked with capturing and/or killing her.
When the show opens, Nikita has made a vow to take down Division by thwarting any assignments they get. She does this with the help of a mole within, a girl named Alex (LYNDSY FONSECA) whom Nikita had rescued from the crosshairs (or fire flames) of Division who were assigned to kill Alex and her family. Nikita provides her with a new identity and presents a package that would be irresistible to Division and soon enough she’s “recruited” and under heavy surveillance is taught in a variety of skills. But before Alex enters, Nikita gave her own lessons on how to not succumb to their brainwashing techniques including interrogation which was primarily conducted by Amanda (MELINDA CLARKE) who also serves as a consultant to the recruits.
“Nikita” is one of those shows that one can get into no matter what junction you are in the season thanks to a quick recap at the beginning of each episode (a big plus if you’re somebody like me who tends to miss an episode or two) but even without them, you quickly get the gist of what’s going on and who the heroes and villains are and their relationships with one another.
As far as the episodes themselves go, I found them mostly entertaining though there’s more than a time or two where it gets a tad ridiculous and nonsensical. For instance, there’s one where Division tries to kill a conspiracy reporter because she’s on the trail of an airplane crash cover-up. I don’t know, it all seemed unnecessary and overkill going the route they did which only resulted in the cover-up being exposed (though Division itself is left out of the story). Maybe a covert organization would act in such a way of being overly cautious but I wish somebody had at least pointed that out.
In any case, despite some of the story gaffs, at the center is once again a great cast ensemble. Maggie Q shows off her ass kicking skills with some depth to her character and obsession with taking Division down; Lyndsy Fonseca, a relative newcomer, holds her own as the innocent girl who we see grow into a stronger, more independent woman by the end (for an inevitable showdown for the season 2 with another character); and Shane West as the conflicted former handler who is in love with Nikita and also begins having doubts about who he works for and the jobs they do.
The show also has some fine supporting cast with the series’ villain played by Xander Berkeley in a one-note, but effective, performance; Miranda Richardson as the devlish and devious Amanda; and Aaron Stanford plays up the computer genius who also begins to see the light near the end, though his loyalties I’m sure are questionable so we’ll see how he plays out in the next season.
All in all, this first season is a success and while I might not watch the second season as it airs, since my cable provider doesn’t have CW HD, I think the developers and writers have laid out a good blueprint, so hopefully it doesn’t fall victim to a sophomore slump, something that killed the Fox series, “Human Target”.
Episode List:
DISC 1
01. Pilot
02. 2.0
03. Kill Jill
04. Rough Trade
05. The Guardian
06. Resistance
DISC 2
07. The Recruit
08. Phoenix
09. One Way
10. Dark Matter
11. All the Way
12. Free
DISC 3
13. Coup de Grace
14. The Next Seduction
15. Alexandra
16. Echoes
17. Covenants
18. Into the Dark
DISC 4
19. Girl’s Best Friend
20. Glass Houses
21. Betrayals
22. Pandora
PACKAGING
“Nikita” comes housed in a thick Blu-ray case with a side-sliding matted slip cover. Inside the case is an episode guide with the airdates, plotlines and what features are associated with an episode.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4.0/5
Audio Commentaries – We get two episode commentaries for “Phoenix” with series developer/producer Craig Silverstein, executive producer David Levinson and episode writer Jim Barnes and “One Way” featuring Silverstein and episode writer Albert Kim. Both tracks present quite a bit of info on the respective episode and the commentators keep things roling.
Inside Division, Parts 1 & 2 (TRT 53:01; HD) – These two featurettes takes the viewer behind the scenes where members of the cast and crew talk about what “Nikita” is all about, how they adapted it from the original film and made it their own. While there are quite a few episode clips, it’s still a lengthy featurette and provides a lot of information on the making of the series from writing, casting and the actual filming. I only wish other shows got this much depth…
Inside Division, Profiles (TRT 28:12; HD) takes a look at the main characters including Nikita (5:07), Alex (6:10), Percy (7:17) and Michael (9:38). These featurettes have comments with producers as well as the actress/actor who play the part. It’s actually not a bad set of featurettes as the interviews provide some good info on the characters.
Division Tracker is an interactive feature where you can go through a timeline (1999-2011) and go to various locations where a text screen shows what happened to the characters at different cities. On certain ones, you can look at clips from.
Deleted Scenes (TRT 13:59; HD) – There are several unaired scenes from 12 of the episodes and while they’re fine, and feature some good performances, aren’t anything important.
BD-Live
VIDEO – 4.5/5
“Nikita” The Complete First Season infiltrates its way on Blu-ray with a sharp looking 1080p HD transfer. The show is presented in its original 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and all in all looks great. There’s a fair amount of color throughout from the cool tones within Division to some of the brighter elements in the outside world. Of course, there are darker parts too and those look deep but not crushed. I also didn’t notice anything in the way of flaws such as artifacting or pixilation.
AUDIO – 4.25/5
Like other recent Warner releases, Warner has provided this set with a solid 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio track. As you can imagine, there’s a fair amount to judge with some quieter, dialogue-driven, moments followed by action sequences with gunfire galore. I won’t say this is a great lossless track but it’s certainly an upgrade over a standard Dolby Digital track that you would hear on television.
OVERALL – 4.25/5
Overall, “Nikita” The Complete First Season is one hell of a ride. There’s plenty of kick ass action by a sexy lead actress, some decent writing, interesting storylines and adequate to good acting from the main cast. The Blu-ray has some expansive features (more so than most TV series get today), sharp-looking video and lossless audio which, while it won’t knock your socks off, still sounds great. I normally am cautious recommending plucking down $40+ for a TV on Blu-ray but if you liked “Alias” this is a no-brainer.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 09/17/2011
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2.