{"id":2072,"date":"2013-03-07T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2013-03-07T18:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2013-03-03T20:13:17","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T04:13:17","slug":"mark-watches-nikita-pilot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2013\/03\/mark-watches-nikita-pilot\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Nikita’: Pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why don’t I have all the time in the world to just sit and binge shows? WHY?<\/i><\/p>\n

Today’s commission is due to the lovely Sara, and you can download the video file here<\/a>! All my Mark Watches videos are indexed on Dropbox<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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My dad used to watch La Femme Nikita<\/i> back when it was on (I think?) the USA Network. (Which I still remember as being channel 8!) I vaguely recall what the show was like. There was a lot of action! It had to do with espionage! Nikita ruled and you didn’t! I wasn’t allowed to watch it! Apparently, my mother thought it would corrupt me? Again, will never understand how the entire world was Satan, but The X-Files<\/i> and The Twilight Zone <\/i>were TOTALLY okay for me to watch.<\/li>\n
Anyway, sometimes, if my mom wasn’t home and they were airing reruns of La Femme Nikita<\/i>, I’d watch it with my father. It was a neat show, though I do remember the experience a bit more than the content of the show itself.<\/li>\n
So, right off the back, this version of the character\/show is WAY DARKER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. From indirectly killing off her father to many of the more brutal sequences, as well as the HEART-CRUSHING flashbacks to how Nikita was betrayed, this pilot is grim<\/i>.<\/li>\n
Tonally, I should say. It’s also a treat to watch because Maggie Q is FUCKING SPECTACULAR. She’s able to convey Nikita’s grace, her emotions, her physical skill, and her brilliant mind in a pilot that also introduces us to the basic concept of the show.<\/li>\n
Also, Shane West is in this, and it’s weird<\/i>. I haven’t totally gotten into his character yet, though I admit I am biased against him because of What We Do Is Secret<\/i>. Movies about hardcore just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 never really go over well with me? And West wasn’t bad at all<\/i> in that film. He’s actually a bizarrely good Darby Crash, resembling him at times in a way that creeped me out. So every time I see Shane West’s face, all I can see is Darby Crash’s superimposed on top of it.<\/li>\n
I’m weird. I know that. Just accept this<\/i>.<\/li>\n
The allure of Nikita<\/i> comes from the fact that this is positioned as a complex revenge fantasy, one where Nikita seeks out agency by using the very training Division gave her to take the organization down. There are only hints of how far-reaching Division is, and we certainly get a good look at how powerful they are. But we also<\/i> see how one woman, destined to tear the place apart, can keep them second-guessing. It is exciting<\/i>.<\/li>\n
At the same time, we get a parallel story about Alex entering Division’s program for the first time. It’s a fascinating way to show the viewer just what Nikita once went through, from waking up in a strange place, to gradually finding out your freedom has been stripped away, to then discovering that you’re being used as a tool for assassination. WHICH IS FUN, RIGHT? Except oh my god it’s not<\/i>.<\/li>\n
I admit I don’t care too<\/i> much about the fact that Michael is ~tortured~ and ~confused~ by his role at Division. You know why?<\/li>\n
BECAUSE ALEX IS ACTUALLY NIKITA’S MOLE. There you go. That is how you draw me in IMMEDIATELY with a pilot episode of a show. NOW I NEED TO SEE MORE! Oh my god, Alex was acting the whole time<\/i>. THIS WHOLE EPISODE HAS A BRAND NEW CONTEXT TO IT. Bless. BLESS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Why don’t I have more time to watch this? OPPRESSION.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Why don’t I have all the time in the world to just sit and binge shows? WHY?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[433,471,472],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mark-does-stuff-2","tag-commissions","tag-mark-watches-nikita","tag-nikita"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}