Cult TV,
January 98, Issue 2.1
Turn On, Tune In
by Jim Swallow
La Femme Nikita, Channel 5 Friday's 10.50pm
The title for this slick and sexy espionage drama might leap out at you if you're a fan of French director Luc Besson - this Canadian series copies the movie's plot about a ragged junkie girl sentenced to death after killing a policeman only to be rescued from the lethal injection by Section One, a super-black secret agency that does the dirty work the CIA won't touch.
"Work for us, and you live," She's told ... The difference here is that in the movie Nikita did kill the cop, whereas in the TV version she was framed: but despite this nod to the noral majority, the show makes up for it with plenty of gunplay and high-octane action. There's also some neat cast dynamics between sexy leads Peta Wilson and her male foil Roy Dupuis, Nikita's 'handler' Michael.
Visually, the MTV-effect imagery of the show (complete with jump-cut visuals and cutting-edge pop soundtrack) is almost too glossy in places, but the taut plotting makes up for it. It's actually quite nice to see some non-Americans leading a show for a change, with Australian Wilson and French-Canadian Dupuis heading up the cast list.
The timeslot's change from Friday to Tuesday [except that this didn't actually happen, who knows why ...anyway back to the article <g>] starts as the year ends with Nikita helping the hacker Birkhoff face his worst fears in 'Noise'. 'War' sees a stolen directory from the Section being used to kill off its agents and 'Missing' features a plot to steal a microchip. Following 'Voices' and 'Brainwashed' a the end of the month, it'll be two short weeks until the kicker season finale 'Mercy' airs, with season two (and the cliffhanger resolution) set to follow later on in '98.