I Use To Love: Le Femme Nikita
I remember I wanted to hate this tv show when i first heard it was coming to the USA Network back in ‘97. I had loved the the movie (by my favorite director, Luc Besson), and i kinda liked the american remake with Bridget Fonda. But i was sure that the tv show was gonna scrape the bottom of the barrel. And then I got a look a Peta Wilson and fell in love. Granted, those early episodes was a little ‘rough’ on the acting and the scripts. But once they got their legs, the show seemed to beceom something special. It was quite possibly the unsung hero of cinematic style for TV in the late 90’s.
The cool thing about this show was even though it was an action thriller, it focused more on the complex characters and their actions with walked a very thin line between right and wrong. You could’ve called it an updated film noir style with amoral heroes and villains and plots that flip flopped and twisted with every commercial break. And once Peta Wilson got out of her stiff acting by the middle of season 1, she became a complex character that you cheered for, even though you knew she was in way over her head in the villainous, yet good “Section One”.
The real star of the show was the music, both original and selected fore the episodic soundtracks. Music composer Mark Snow, seems to bring everything into the show’s overall dark, yet chilled feeling with songs from Depeche Mode, Mandalay, Engima, Curve, Afro Celt Sound System, Enigma, Gus Gus, Morphine, Mono and others.. and it all worked beautifully. It’s a shame how a lot of shows took the successful elements from Le Femme Nikita without acknowledging how important the show was in the evolution of television series. Watching now, i can see how JJ Abrams to the ‘model’ and crafted ‘Alias’ into a more fine-tuned premise.
All in all, it became my Sunday Night must see show. It ran for 5 seasons and I think Season 2 was their high point. But watching the entire show start to finish should be cool.
La Femme Nikita (or simply Nikita in some countries) is a Canadian/US television spy drama based on the original French film by Luc Besson, co-produced by Jay Firestone (Firestone Entertainment) and Warner Bros, and created for television by Joel Surnow who later co-created 24 with fellow La Femme Nikita executive consultant Robert Cochran. This television series debuted in the United States on USA Network in January 1997 and ran for five seasons until March 2001.[1] La Femme Nikita was the highest-rated drama on American basic cable during its first two seasons; also distributed on television in Canada (as Nikita) and, ultimately, internationally, it continues to have a strong cult following, according to the definitive book on the series written by Christopher Heyn in 2006.[2]
Despite being advertised as an action-oriented series, the series’ uniqueness primarily stems from its deemphasis on action as such and greater reliance on well-crafted dialogue and complex plot structures more common to the genre of sophisticated spy fiction as influenced by film noir and neo-noir. Since its inception, the series did not have a large enough budget to finance complex action sequences (as seen in later dramatic spy fiction or spy thriller TV series such as Alias or 24). Its creative team exhibited great ingenuity marshalling its modest resources, channeling their energies into the writing of episodes with more complex plot structures, fuller character development, and more substantial dialogue for the series’ talented actors (all of which aspects are less costly than filming special effects in action sequences).
The autonomous nature of Section One allowed the writers of this series freedom to explore areas not usually associated with this genre on television. Nikita’s voiceover in Season One establishes the Machiavellian motif of Section One. While founded as a counterterrorism organization (traditionally represented within fiction as good), Section One uses (as a standard) immoral means to achieve its objectives, while still citing efficiency and “service of the greater good” as justification for its actions. Its standardized implementation of draconian procedures include the use (upon both terrorist and innocent) of intimidation, torture (“The White Room”), murder (“cancellation”), assassination, abduction, suicide operatives (“abeyance” operatives), false imprisonment, and terrorist cooperation. In one early episode, for example, in exchange for crucial information Section One hands a woman over to a sadist knowing she will be carved up.
Unlike most organizations engaged in counterterrorism, Section One’s key personnel work neither for monetary gain nor for “pure” ideological devotion; instead, since most of these operatives are purportedly reformed criminals (though their backgrounds are often ambiguous), they work out of fear of execution for substandard performance or disloyalty (fear of being “canceled”). Such a dynamic based on fear fosters a bleak social environment in which there is little interaction among members (except regarding issues relating to work). This rather paranoid environment, combined with the futuristic hyper-realist setting of the organization, the brutally real nature of counterterrorism, and Section One’s particular mantra of efficiency, results in a dark, minimalist ethos reflected or expressed in all aspects of the television series. Most particularly, this is present in its design of costumes and selection and original composition of music, as well as in aspects of dialogue, plot, themes, lighting, and acting modes and camera styles. Also notable are intriguing camera angles and frequent close ups on actors’ facial expressions, focusing especially, during pauses in dialogue or in reaction shots, on their eyes in long takes.
Owing to the harshness (both mental and physical) of the environment in which operatives have to perform, the writing tends not to romanticize any potentially positive aspects of the organization or of most of the series’ characters (excluding Nikita, Birkoff or Walter, and, at times, Michael at his most vulnerable). The series generally exudes a dark tone in keeping with the organizational philosophies, the counterterrorist (frequently dangerously violent) situations, and the requisite tactics used by operatives of Section One. Unlimited operational resources for missions coupled with human propensity to hide ulterior motives and individual personal moral relativism lead to widespread intra- and interdepartmental infighting and recurrent secret alliances, backstabbing, blackmail and abuses of power between and among the characters, especially among those in the highest levels of power: Operations, Madeline, George.
The series raises, explores, and offers fresh insights about ethical and moral issues emerging from the paradoxical nature of a counterterrorism organization which resorts to terrorist methods to succeed in its own ostensibly altruistic goals, and the commensurate dilemmas in which the generally unwilling operatives in such an organization find themselves. Nikita’s unwavering belief in a kind of moral absolutism (as opposed to Section One’s prescribed philosophy of situational ethics) consistently and coherently motivates the underlying dramatic plot conflicts in the majority of the episodes.
