La Femme Nikita has had quite a career. The characters began life as a film from the early 1990s, helmed by action auteur Luc Besson. It was an excellent film from France concerning a super secret spy organization that takes a convicted murderer and transforms her into their top operative.
A few years later, in true Hollywood fashion, the film was remade in America as Point of No Return, with Bridget Fonda taking on the lead role. A few years after that, in 1997, the characters saw a new life in a television series, using the same title as the original film, with newcomer Peta Wilson in the lead. The series ran for five years before being cancelled.
I only watched the show sporadically during its original run. Due to the serialized nature of the series and my irregular viewing habits, I was never able to really get into it. It was very similar to the experience I had with Babylon 5. Now, on DVD, I decided to pick up season four -- this was probably a miscalculation on my part.
The season starts with Nikita having undergone some sort of brainwashing or mind control, pretty much making her a blank slate — an emotionless zombie, if you will. Her partner/lover/mullet bearer, Michael attempts to secure her mind repair. His actions get Section on his tail, before he finds someone allowing him to blackmail Section to save Nikita and get himself reinstated with the organization.
This is followed by a number of episodes with emotionless Michael talking to emotionless Nikita while going on missions that could get them killed. Nikita gets married to a target and then helps him escape. There is a lot of nonsense with the head guys in Section moving the players around the board, while everyone is trying to figure out who the bad guy is. Blah, blah, blah.
Article comments
1 - Claudia
I must tell you are only right in one point you should have started with the earlier seasons before writing this review, because if you had you would understand what was happening there, since you didn't that why you have such a wrong and incomplete view of it.
2 - Sandy
Beings that your a novice on the La Femme Nikita Series, I suggest you start at Season One to fully understand the maganitude and depth of the series. You cannot possibly watch the next to the last season and get the full meaning or the storyline. I think it's unfair for anyone to comment on a story such as La Femme Nikita after seeing only Season Four. I've read other individuals that give reviews and they were all excellent. As to the intensity of the series, perhaps if you had wanted slap stick you could review a humerous series. FIVE Stars Here, Sandy
3 - Don Houston
I think Chris was correct when he pointed out the lack of context for the review. If you pick up almost any decent work of fiction, or come into a movie well into the show, you're almost certainly going to be at a great disadvantage in enjoying it. I give the man credit for being open about the limitations of the review in this regard because he hits on some of the reasons why the show really DOES work so well, even if in round about fashion.
Either way, a lot of people will like the deadpan seriousness of the main characters since that was one of the draws of the show from the beginning; it's just too bad that the show was killed before its time.