Grade: 86%
The CW’s NIKITA returns tonight with
“3.0.” It’s been a few months. Ryan (Noah Bean, newly promoted to series
regular) now leads Division, with Nikita (Maggie Q) and her friends
serving as his senior staff. Sanctioned by the President of the United
States herself (Michelle Nolden), they must stay under the radar while
they round up the “Dirty Thirty,” agents who have gone rogue since Percy
was taken down.
Hopefully, “3.0” won’t be the new format
of the series. It feels very much like a case of the week, with a
stand-alone mission. Yes, there are thirty of these agents out there
that must be caught, but watching thirty separate weeks of this will
grow boring. NIKITA works because it’s a serial, not a procedural, and
the sooner they return to that format, the better.
Of course, perhaps it’s necessary to
take a little break and reintroduce the characters, revealing what their
relationships are like now. Ryan and Nikita clash because she still
wants to control her own destiny and make her own decisions, as she did
for so long on the run, while Ryan needs to establish firm authority in
front of the rest of the staff. Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford) isn’t sure
what to do with his new promotion, abandoning his desk to take over his
inferiors’ and personally run ops. Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) can’t go
undercover, but using her reputation as Alexandra can open other doors
for them.
Other than that, they’re pretty much the
same people. They have to fit into a new box, and that’s difficult, but
because they still get to use many of their talents, namely, spy work,
they will figure it out.
As long as Ryan doesn’t crave too much
power, that is. After all, it doesn’t seem like, based on his back
story, that Percy began evil. Ryan is throwing himself into Division
obsessively, dealing with the president, sleeping in his office. Might
the temptation to hang onto what he’s building end up being too much for
him when the job is done and it’s time to take apart the group? And by
keeping Division covert during his tenure, will he have the means to use
it to his own will? Or will the staff, whom now have their eyes open to
what is really going on, and more importantly, Nikita, the show’s moral
compass, be able to keep him on the straight and narrow?
Not appearing in “3.0,” we are still
reminded that Amanda (Melinda Clarke) is out there somewhere, trying to
recruit others to her cause, and with a decrypted black box. With Percy
gone and Gogol crippled, Amanda is the last great villain for Nikita and
company. NIKITA needs a bad guy, and I would not be surprised if this
“Dirty Thirty” is just filler until Amanda gets some power back under
her. Unfortunately, Amanda has never posed quite the threat that Percy
did. Is that going to change?
NIKITA remains a highly exciting,
action-packed series. The events of “3.0” are as much of an adrenaline
rush as ever, even if the stakes seem a little lower. For this reason,
it is still definitely worth tuning it. It will find its long-arc legs
again soon enough, hopefully.
The series also takes time this week for
a little romance. I won’t go into details, so as not to spoil the hour
for anyone, but Michael (Shane West) has a plan that has nothing to do
with guns and Division. What his plan entails, or the result of it is,
well, you’ll see. The shippers should definitely tune in to this one.
I like NIKITA because it reminds me of
ALIAS, a superior spy show that I miss. ALIAS’ fault, if there was one,
that it was too bogged down in the Rambaldi mythology, or so some (not
me) accused, rather than just being a spy thriller. NIKITA doesn’t have
that trouble, always skating around going too deep. But other than that,
it has taken the best parts of ALIAS and built them in their own way.
ALIAS took down their
secret-government-operation-that-unbeknownest-to-the-employees-wasn’t-actually-working-for-the-government
in mid-season two. NIKITA went the more traditional route and waited
‘til the season finale. Still the same great idea, though NIKITA went
with the route that saved them on budget, keeping the same sets.
Will NIKITA learn the lessons of its
predecessor and keep re-writing the formula every couple of years? Will
they manage to build another villain who matters as much or is as
dangerous as Percy was? These are the questions facing the writers that
must be figured out during the course of season three. “3.0” does not
hold those answers. If NIKITA is going to rise, now is the time to show
us. Otherwise, it could turn into a shell of its former self, and
quickly become not worth watching. From the season premiere, it’s hard
to tell which way it might go. But the characters are well developed
enough, I’ll learn towards optimism.
NIKITA airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on the CW.
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