1. IanMD197

   10

   The pilot episode of Nikita was very entertaining. It was fast-paced, action packed and had a really interesting concept. Perhaps what's most exciting is that I haven't felt this excited about a TV show since the Lost pilot. *UPDATE* As the series has progressed, it's grown in almost every way. The writing is great, the action is brilliant and the whole production makes Nikita one of the most entertaining and intriguing shows in recent memory.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
2. Squared

   8

   I think the season holds promise. Bit of a slow start and not sure what
   was happening and who was who, although at the end it is made clear,
   based on the end I can say there might be a chance it will go for maybe
   3 seasons? Any longer than that it might be dragged out. I've only
   watched the first episode about to watch the second maybe that will
   improve the rating. The reason for the 8 out of 10 is im not sure if
   the season will go the distance, only time will tell.
   
   Definitely worth a watch to see for yourself as its getting very mixed reviews all proving excellent points.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.
3. CriticalCritic

   6

   Nothing new, nothing awesome, but still a perfectly enjoyable show. I enjoy the plot lines and the action, but it's nothing too substantial. I wish Nikita was more of a complex character, not written as any other generic female assassin. The characters and backstories create an interesting structure, but it's starting to be cliche with the whole Michael/Nikita relationship. Right now, this series only has potential. In later seasons, it can be potentially good or potentially bad. In my opinion, character development is essential for the future of this series. Nikita needs to be more unique, and Michael just needs to be totally rewritten to give him some depth. As of right now, I enjoy the show, but I don't think it's going to have a big life span if it follows its current direction.… Expand

   • Helpful? 3 of 3 users said Yes.
4. DaneM

   3

   Note: I'm reviewing the entire series, up to May 2012, rather than just season 1.
   
   Nikita is in a genre that I enjoy, and as such, I watch it. Unfortunately, it's really bad in terms of plot, acting, writing, and other areas, and relies heavily on "sexiness" for most of its appeal, so I consider it a very "guilty pleasure." (I'm not referring to the sex specifically by that term, so much as the quality of the show.) Here's why:
   
   1) Only one character is at all believable to me: Percy. The actor actually manages to make me forget and think that the guy is really a sociopathic genius. Partly, this is due to the writing of this character, but I attribute it more to the way the actor portrays him--especially since the writing is so bad, elsewhere.
   2) The plot and premise are about as recycled as they can get. Nikita is based on the French film by a similar name, which has had at least 4 remakes in movie and TV format (for a total of 5 extremely similar productions). Not one of the main themes in the show are original, and nearly all of them had become hackneyed before the first episode of this recent series was released. In point of fact, Steig Larsson's famous Millenium series of novels (starting with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) features an intelligence-agency-gone-rogue called Division that does basically all the same things as the one in Nikita does (but without the fancy training facility). In summary, this series is not only extremely unoriginal, but it's also an especially BAD rendition of unoriginal material and themes.
   3) The acting and script writing are horrible! As above, the characters are entirely unbelievable (with one exception), which means that either the actors are really, really bad, or the writers/director(s) are really, really bad at giving them good impetus (material, coaching ,etc.) to act well. Not a single character in the show, but Percy, gives me the impression that the actor has any comprehension at all of the kind of life that the character lives. They're all far to clean-and-pampered-seeming to be believable--except for those who are supposed to be clean and pampered, who aren't quite clean-and-pampered-seeming enough. It doesn't help that none of them actually know how to aim or shoot a gun (see below).
   4) Rampant, stupid lack of "technical" knowledge. Most TV shows demonstrate a "status quo" of stupidity about just what a computer can do, and how a gun should be handled, but Nikita takes it to a whole new level of stupidity. The main computer hacker of the show uses a graphical user interface (GUI) for basically everything. Most of the real hackers/hardcore programmers (nearly the same thing) I talk to shun GUIs for anything but the sorts of things a layman would use a desktop for: word processing, image editing, etc. People who want to "break" the security of a system--whether to find "holes" to plug or to exploit such holes--spend months discovering and coding exploits, working at privilege elevation, tricking employees, etc. before actually being able to attempt something worth doing. Nikita's hackers and techies routinely do this "on-the-fly" in a way that would make even "script kiddies" feel ashamed for the lack of technical know-how and abundance of pre-made "hacks" that it implies.
   5) Complete lack of knowledge about how gunplay, raids, and related issues "work." Actors (specifically for main characters) are routinely allowed to get away with firing guns that are held so badly that their line of fire would obviously hit the floor before they reached their target--yet the main characters are shown to be amazing shots. Professional gun-combatants routinely "sweep" the muzzle of their weapons at each other, step into each other's line of fire (violating the principle of "fire zones"), step out of cover stupidly (and sometimes get shot for it--about every 10th episode, it seems), etc. Raiding parties typically don't properly cover exits before moving in "half-cocked" unless the main characters are supposed to be "out of luck"--but even so, the attacking force almost always does something stupid in order for the main characters to be able to progress the plot line by escaping. Likewise, when a person clearly holds the advantage--such as holding the enemy at gunpoint--they always do something stupid, like approach within arm's reach when verbally goaded, so the enemy can take the weapon and use it against its most recent owner. That this is so often used to advance the plot is utterly shameful.
   6) Finally, the show suffers from "Stupid Main Character Syndrom." They rarely think (intelligently) before acting, and this is used as a crutch for bad plot writing.
   
   In short, the show sucks, but since the action is fun, I watch it anyway.… Expand

   • Helpful? 1 of 1 users said Yes.

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