Nikita, Season 1, Episodes 1-5

So nobody's written anything about Nikita here yet, so I thought I'd do a little summary post about it. A reboot of the movies and tv series (2 movies, 1 tv series), of which I'm only familiar with the USA tv series starring Peta Wilson and Roy Dupuis, the only parts that resembles the old series are the names of (some of) the characters.

Premise: Nikita is a rogue spy who escapes a super secret division of the government (conveniently named "Division") that has gone rogue from it's original patriotic intentions. In addition, there's a mole inside Division by the name of Alex, who works for Nikita and helps feed inside information.

As I said above, there really isn't too much of this new reboot that resembles the original series, with the exception of the names Nikita, Michael, and Birkoff. The action is top notch and fun to watch (very Alias-y), and I am intrigued where the overall series is headed and how Nikita will eventually take down Division (cuz she's the good guy, so clearly this will eventually happen), but it still needs a few more episodes to get into the groove of things.

The chemistry between Shane West and Maggie Q is ok, nothing to write home about, but I'm a sucker for angsty romance, so I want to see their past and how they ended up where they are now. The best episodes I've liked so far have flashbacks to Nikita and Michael while both were in Division. Alex being a mole is an interesting twist, but she tends to be too reckless within the Division, and makes it hard for me believe she can get away with as much as she does on the show. A sorely underused character is Amanda (Melinda Clarke). She is scary stoic, but you can see her thinking and devising in her head.

The biggest aspect that I miss in the new show that the old show had is the moral ambiguity. In the old tv series, Section One (retitled Division in the new series) wasn't definitively evil. Their methods were questionable, but usually it was for a higher purpose, and perpetuated the debate of killing one or two people to save a larger number. Maybe this new series will eventually head in that direction, but here, there is definitely a "bad guy" of the series (Percy, the leader of Division who sold out for money), with no apparent redeeming quality.

I just read that the CW is looking to "lighten" the tone of Nikita, introduce more romance, and maybe scale back on the action. While I'm all for romance, I'm not sure how this will play out. Hopefully for the better. Tune in to judge for yourself.