Nikita ran for four seasons and 73 episodes on The CW, from September 9, 2010, to December 27, 2013. It is the second adaptation of Luc Besson’s French film La Femme Nikita, after the 1997 Canadian series of the same name. The premise is a good one: a spy agency that makes its own people disposable.
Trailer, via Ditzonice1.
Division’s Kill Chips and Black Boxes
The series follows Nikita Mears, played by Maggie Q. She escaped from Division, a secret U.S. government-funded organization, spent three years in hiding, and came back to bring it down. Division handles espionage, sabotage and assassination. Its founding director, Percival “Percy” Rose, played by Xander Berkeley, has gone rogue and runs murder-for-hire on the side.
Percy protects himself with black boxes: hard drives holding every job Division has ever done. They sit in secret locations worldwide, guarded by high-ranking agents called Guardians. Division recruits troubled young people, often straight out of prison, fakes their deaths, and implants tracking devices and kill chips. Recruits who fall short are “cancelled.”
That machinery is the show’s best idea. It gives every episode a clock.
Maggie Q, Shane West and the Rest of the Roster
- Maggie Q as Nikita Mears, who performs her own stunts
- Shane West as Michael, the operative who trained her
- Lyndsy Fonseca as Alex Udinov, a former sex slave turned Division recruit and Nikita’s mole
- Aaron Stanford as Seymour Birkhoff, Division’s head technician
- Melinda Clarke as Amanda, Division’s psychologist and interrogator
- Devon Sawa as Owen Elliot
The series borrows names from the 1997 La Femme Nikita. Alberta Watson, who played Madeline in that show, appears in the season one finale as Senator Madeline Pierce.
Casting moved fast. Craig Silverstein, an executive producer, said Maggie Q was the easy call. He wanted someone “who was beautiful, and could fight, and who you could believe holding a gun at the same time.” Fonseca arrived late and won the role on intensity. Noah Bean and Devon Sawa became series regulars after two years as recurring players.
What the Four Seasons Add Up To
| Run | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|
| Four seasons, 73 episodes | September 9, 2010 | December 27, 2013 |
The show’s weakness is its middle. Division’s internal politics — Oversight, Percy, Amanda, the black boxes — keep multiplying, and the conspiracy outgrows the woman at its center. Maggie Q is the reason to stay. She sells the fighting and the betrayal without asking for sympathy.
Nikita never became the hit The CW wanted, and 73 episodes is a short run for a premise this durable. What it has is a clean engine and a lead who never lets it idle. The first season is the one to watch.
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