You’ve seen the commercials. You’ve heard the hype. Now there’s only one thing you want to know: Which of the new fall shows are worth watching and which should be avoided at all costs? In this continuing series, we give you the scoop on some of the most highly-anticipated shows of the season, with today’s subject being the CW’s highly-anticipated NIKITA reboot.
The Boilerplate: Since these pilot presentations may go through numerous rewrites and casting changes prior to premiere, this by no means should be considered an official review. Rather a preview of what one can expect come Fall.
The Elevator Pitch: A reboot of the popular 90’s USA series which in itself was a small screen version of the hit French movie La Femme Nikita.
The Plot: When she was a deeply troubled teenager, Nikita was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who faked her execution and told her she was being given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn’t tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin. Ultimately, Nikita was betrayed and her dreams shattered by the only people she thought she could trust. Now, after three years in hiding, Nikita is seeking retribution and making it clear to her former bosses that she will stop at nothing to expose and destroy their covert operation. For the time being, however, Division continues to recruit and train other young people, erasing all evidence of their former lives and turning them into cold and efficient killers. One of these new recruits, Alex, is just beginning to understand what lies ahead for her and why the legendary Nikita made the desperate decision to run.
The Snap Judgment: A re-imagination of an iconic 90’s series that succeeds on virtually every level is precisely what you get when you combine an impressive (not to mention easy-on-the-eyes) cast of characters including Maggie Q (in the titular role), Lyndsy Fonseca (also, somewhat in the titular role), Shane West (the ubiquitous handler) and Melinda Clarke (yeah, we’re not quite sure what her deal is yet!) among others… with some fantastically plotted action sequences (not to mention gadgetry to match)… only to top it all off with a ridiculously cool ending that (a) we totally should have seen coming but didn’t, and (b) already has us counting down the days until we can see what happens next! That said, it wouldn’t be a post on theTVaddict.com if we didn’t rain on the CW’s parade just a bit by bringing to their attention two teensy little concerns. The first of which we’ve already addressed in a recent post where we asked the question if NIKITA is the right show on the wrong network (The pilot’s somewhat dark tone and ‘elderly’ ages of the characters at least by CW standards has us convinced the show would fit far better on a USA or TNT network.) With the second being something that may have contributed to MELROSE PLACE’s ultimate demise, that of a complete lack of age-appropriate eye-candy (‘age-appropriate’ for the CW being twenty-somethings playing teenagers) for the CW’s core demographic of boy-crazy fangirls to obsess over (See: The seemingly never-ending struggle between the Team Damon and Stefan or Sam and Dean fandoms!) But that aside…
The Verdict: Has us cautiously optimistic that NIKITA will be a big winner for the network in desperate need of one. 
