Nikita (Nikita character)
Encyclopedia
Nikita Meers, better known as Nikita, is the primary protagonist and eponymous character of Nikita
, an American action and drama television series, which debuted in September 2010 on The CW Television Network
. She is played by American actress Maggie Q
. The series follows Nikita's efforts in bringing down Division, a secret agency that trained her into becoming an agent and assassin, and then betrayed her by killing a man she fell in love with, civilian Daniel Monroe. She recruits Alexandra Udinov
(Lyndsy Fonseca
) into helping her destroy Division from within.
Q was in talks to appear on the series as the title character in February 2010, and it was her first time working on a television series. She was chosen for the role because series creator Craig Silverstein believed Q had qualities that would fit the character; "beautiful, who could fight," and be believable with a gun. The actress meanwhile was intrigued by the original Nikita film and Luc Besson
's creation of a flawed female character. Q performs her own stunts of the series. The series also deals with Nikita and Michael
's romantic tension, then relationship, described by the fans as "Mikita." The character and Q's portrayal garnered generally positive reactions from critics.
teenager. After she was sentenced to death
, Nikita was brought in by Division, a secret American agency who faked her execution and agent Michael
(Shane West
) started training her to be an assassin
. Nikita's first kill assignment was Victor Han (Russel Wong
). However, unknown to her at the time Han contacted Division to fake his death to cover up his involvement with a triad gang. Later Nikita began a relationship with civilian Daniel Monroe (Sebastien Roberts
). Because this was against Division's policy—Division could not allow Nikita to be distracted with emotional entanglements—they killed him. Seeking revenge, Nikita went rogue and would spend the next three years working on a plan to bring down Division. Nikita recruits Alexandra Udinov
(Lyndsy Fonseca
) after saving her from drug dealers, and started training her in bringing down Division from the inside.
In the pilot episode Nikita and Alex gets Division's attention by setting up a robbery where Alex would be arrested for the murder
of a man Division was after. From there Alex would assist Nikita by warning her of several Division operations so that Nikita can sabotage them. In "The Guardian" Nikita reluctantly takes Owen Elliot (Devon Sawa
), Monroe's killer, as an ally; Elliot is a guardian to one of seven black boxes, hard drives with information on Division's past assignments. She would later plan on finding all of Division's black boxes to destroy them. In "Phoenix" Nikita is offered a position in Gogol, a terrorist organization who also wish to destroy Division, but she declines. In "One Way" she aids a reluctant Michael in killing Kasim Tariq (Haaz Sleiman
) in Uzbekistan
, a terrorist responsible for killing Michael's family. Nikita is helping him because it is an unofficial assignment, and she would disappear after it is done. However Division soon learns of her involvement and sabotages it. In "Dark Matter" Nikita finds another ally; Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) analyst Ryan Fletcher (Noah Bean
), whom she saved after Division framed him for murdering a Chilean presidential candidate when Owen leaked the candidate's death from the black box to the press; Fletcher and Nikita would occasionally cross paths in helping each other in stopping Division. In the midseason finale "All the Way" the shell program which Nikita uses to communicate with Alex is discovered by computer programmer Seymour Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford
). She is also captured by Division, thought Alex would detonate several bombs as a distraction to allow Nikita to escape.
Later Michael discovers the location of Nikita's hideout and discovers that Alex is her mole in stopping Division. In "Covenants" he forces her into finding and killing Tariq, who later turns out to be a former Division agent. After this is completed, Michael and Nikita begin a romantic relationship. In "Betrayals", it is revealed that when she was an agent, Nikita was ordered to kill the entire Udinov family, which she followed save for the young Alex; it became the first time Nikita ever defied Division. In the season finale "Pandora", Nikita's access to Division has been damaged. Firstly, Alex is discovered to be the mole. After she is released, she no longer wishes to help Nikita because of her role in her family's murder. Secondly, Amanda takes control of part of Oversight, and Michael is no longer able to retain his cover at Division when he tries to kill Percy for organising the death of his family. However, Birkhoff has helped Nikita hack into one of the black boxes, saying he will "cross [his fingers] behind [his] back" to help her. By the end of the first season, Michael and Nikita then end up on the run together to find the remaining black boxes.
was looking to create a female-driven action series. Creator Craig Silverstein discussed with Warner Bros.
about the previous incarnations of Nikita (the original 1990 film, and La Femme Nikita) and wished to make the current television series look fresh. Silverstein wanted to follow Nikita after she left the agency, as that chapter was yet to be told in the previous incarnations. He also believed it would have done the original story justice. Also, he wanted to include a highlight of Nikita's original story in the pilot to earn the title, and then move on from there. Silverstein described Nikita's transition in a Collider interview; "It's a dark fairytale. This girl is taken from one life, her identity is erased, she's put in another life and she's transformed. It's like Alice in Wonderland. She's told, "Eat this, drink that, steal this, kill that," and she's not told why. And, she begins to find her own identity through that. It's just a great story."
On February 2010 it was announced that Maggie Q was in talks to play the title character of Nikita. Q's casting would mark the highest-profile series role for an Asian actress on a broadcast drama series. Q was drawn to the series because she was intrigued by the original film and Luc Besson
's creation of an incredibly flawed female. According to the actress the process of her casting took about four to five days. In describing Q's casting, Silverstein stated;
Appearing on Nikita would be Q's first television role. During an interview with IGN
, Q explained that she previously was not on television "not because I didn't want to. I just never thought about it," adding "When this came up, everything just felt right. I knew McG and when Wonderland came on he was like, 'This is you, we're not doing this without you.' and I went 'That's very sweet!' So it felt right."
Q performs her own stunts in the series. The actress liked to have her character "be able to do her own thing," as it is an action series where females play lead roles; during her film career, she noted "but in movies, alongside big action men, we've always got to take a step back and let the men shine. And in this, it's about the women who know what they're doing." At some point Q set up a three-week long training period for the rest of the cast to make their fight scenes on the series believable; she had her partner, an action director, bring his stunt team to train them. In filming the stunts she was already used to working in an environment where filming in television would be faster than in American films, because of her time starring in films in Asia, which usually took two to six weeks.
One of the more prominent aspects of Nikita's character development since the beginning of the series is her relationship with Michael, and has been dubbed by fans as "Mikita". Unlike other works on film and television, Silverstein did not play the traditional "Will They/Won't They?" game between the two characters. Co-star Shane West stated "It's not hard to bring Michael and Nikita together," but it is "really hard to keep them apart...We're barely into the season yet, so why not keep teasing?" When the first season started airing, West also expected that their romance would come, citing Michael and Nikita's past relationship while she was working with Division. Now that the two are together by the end of the first season, in the second season Craig Silverstein wanted something to happen to get in their way, saying that no new tension would make the relationship boring, adding "I don't think you can just have them happy and in love, kicking ass together forever."
felt that Q was suited for the role, stating "she has a solemn, exotic beauty and hauteur that echo the heroine's self-possession and cool relentlessness," adding "Nikita is noticeably more hard-boiled and less girlish than the undercover agent played by Jennifer Garner
on Alias
, or the C.I.A. rookie that Piper Perabo
plays on Covert Affairs
." Troy Patterson of Slate
felt that "Ms. Q's Nikita is only half so crush-worthy as Bionic Woman's
Jaime Sommers
or Dollhouse's
what's-her-name, but her predicament is no less tasty." Robert Bianco of USA Today
believed Q's performance was "a fairly sizable incentive" to watch the show, adding she "combines stunt-fighting chops and lithe beauty with an unusual-for-the-genre air of somber intelligence. Her Nikita is not above cracking a joke, but it's clear from Q's eyes and bearing that she has suffered at the hands of evil men, and she's not going to take it anymore." Alan Sepinwall of HitFix
believed that Q "carries herself in a way that makes it believable she could be a hard-core killer, and she has the requisite dramatic chops and charisma for the part." Maureen Ryan of AOL TV
said "Maggie Q, has real charisma and presence; she invests Nikita's drive to bring down the secretive Division with potent energy. You have to believe that Nikita would devote her life to wreaking vengeance on the people she views as her former captors, and you also have to buy her as a butt-kicking, gun-toting action heroine who also looks great in a cocktail gown. Maggie Q makes all those things look easy."
Some other critics however, did not react so warmly towards Nikita. Chris Conaton of PopMatters
felt that Q "seems to be a good choice for the title role," but noted that the pilot did not call attention to the character's background. That said Conaton stated "it's still something of a novelty to build a TV series around an Asian American lead—though plenty of recent ensemble and reality TV shows have featured prominent cast members of Asian descent." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe
flet that Q was "too much of a sad sack," adding "Q doesn't seem able to layer any other emotions over her cold resolve," and compares the character to "a little bit like [Saturday Night Live
character] Debbie Downer
." Mary McNamara of The Los Angeles Times
believed that while Nikita "provides some sizzle," her emotions "run that famous distance from A to B, as do virtually [every other characters]."
Before the show started airing, Q posed for several billboard posters. However, they were met with some controversy for being revealing, and several locations across the United States, including in areas of Chicago
, Los Angeles
and New York
, refused to allow them to be put up, as they were located near churches and schools. Rick Haskins, the marketing executive for the CW stated "we've been down this road a few times with some of our campaigns."
Nikita (TV series)
La Femme Nikita is a Canadian action/drama television series based on the French film Nikita by Luc Besson. The series was co-produced by Jay Firestone of Fireworks Entertainment and Warner Brothers. It was adapted for television by Joel Surnow...
, an American action and drama television series, which debuted in September 2010 on The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
. She is played by American actress Maggie Q
Maggie Q
Margaret Denise Quigley , professionally known as Maggie Q, is an American-born actress and former fashion model. She currently stars as the titular character on the action-thriller TV series Nikita.-Early life:...
. The series follows Nikita's efforts in bringing down Division, a secret agency that trained her into becoming an agent and assassin, and then betrayed her by killing a man she fell in love with, civilian Daniel Monroe. She recruits Alexandra Udinov
Alexandra (Nikita character)
Alexandra "Alex" Udinov is one of the main characters of Nikita and the deuteragonist of the show. She is presented in the pilot episode as a drug-addicted teenager when her and her boyfriend Robbie both rob a drug store...
(Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Marie Fonseca is an American actress known for playing Colleen Carlton on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and The Restless, Dylan Mayfair on the ABC series Desperate Housewives, and Ted Mosby's daughter on How I Met Your Mother. She also played Katie Deauxma in the 2010 superhero film...
) into helping her destroy Division from within.
Q was in talks to appear on the series as the title character in February 2010, and it was her first time working on a television series. She was chosen for the role because series creator Craig Silverstein believed Q had qualities that would fit the character; "beautiful, who could fight," and be believable with a gun. The actress meanwhile was intrigued by the original Nikita film and Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
's creation of a flawed female character. Q performs her own stunts of the series. The series also deals with Nikita and Michael
Michael (Nikita character)
Michael is a main character and the tritagonist of the the CW television series Nikita, portrayed by Shane West. He is the primary romantic interest to Nikita, and was recruited by Percy after the death of his wife and daughter by previous "low-level snitch" Kasim Tariq...
's romantic tension, then relationship, described by the fans as "Mikita." The character and Q's portrayal garnered generally positive reactions from critics.
Character arc
Nikita was once a felonious drug addictedSubstance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
teenager. After she was sentenced to death
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
, Nikita was brought in by Division, a secret American agency who faked her execution and agent Michael
Michael (Nikita character)
Michael is a main character and the tritagonist of the the CW television series Nikita, portrayed by Shane West. He is the primary romantic interest to Nikita, and was recruited by Percy after the death of his wife and daughter by previous "low-level snitch" Kasim Tariq...
(Shane West
Shane West
Shane West is an American actor, musician and songwriter. West is best known for portraying Eli Sammler in Once and Again, Landon Carter with Mandy Moore in A Walk to Remember, Darby Crash in What We Do Is Secret, and Dr...
) started training her to be an assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
. Nikita's first kill assignment was Victor Han (Russel Wong
Russel Wong
Russel Wong is a Singapore-born Hollywood celebrity photographer. He had his primary and secondary education at Anglo-Chinese School, and his bachelors degree at University of Oregon, Eugene....
). However, unknown to her at the time Han contacted Division to fake his death to cover up his involvement with a triad gang. Later Nikita began a relationship with civilian Daniel Monroe (Sebastien Roberts
Sebastien Roberts
Sebastien Roberts is a French-Canadian actor of television and film, working in both French and English since the mid 1990s....
). Because this was against Division's policy—Division could not allow Nikita to be distracted with emotional entanglements—they killed him. Seeking revenge, Nikita went rogue and would spend the next three years working on a plan to bring down Division. Nikita recruits Alexandra Udinov
Alexandra (Nikita character)
Alexandra "Alex" Udinov is one of the main characters of Nikita and the deuteragonist of the show. She is presented in the pilot episode as a drug-addicted teenager when her and her boyfriend Robbie both rob a drug store...
(Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Fonseca
Lyndsy Marie Fonseca is an American actress known for playing Colleen Carlton on the CBS daytime soap opera The Young and The Restless, Dylan Mayfair on the ABC series Desperate Housewives, and Ted Mosby's daughter on How I Met Your Mother. She also played Katie Deauxma in the 2010 superhero film...
) after saving her from drug dealers, and started training her in bringing down Division from the inside.
In the pilot episode Nikita and Alex gets Division's attention by setting up a robbery where Alex would be arrested for the murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of a man Division was after. From there Alex would assist Nikita by warning her of several Division operations so that Nikita can sabotage them. In "The Guardian" Nikita reluctantly takes Owen Elliot (Devon Sawa
Devon Sawa
Devon Edward Sawa is a Canadian actor. Although he appears in independent films, he is best known for portraying the part of Alex Browning in the 1999 movie Final Destination...
), Monroe's killer, as an ally; Elliot is a guardian to one of seven black boxes, hard drives with information on Division's past assignments. She would later plan on finding all of Division's black boxes to destroy them. In "Phoenix" Nikita is offered a position in Gogol, a terrorist organization who also wish to destroy Division, but she declines. In "One Way" she aids a reluctant Michael in killing Kasim Tariq (Haaz Sleiman
Haaz Sleiman
-Career:One of Sleiman's first roles was in the 2004 African-American gay comedy film The Ski Trip. He co-starred as undocumented Syrian immigrant Tarek in the critically acclaimed 2008 independent film The Visitor, a drama nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and an Oscar, directed by Thomas...
) in Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, a terrorist responsible for killing Michael's family. Nikita is helping him because it is an unofficial assignment, and she would disappear after it is done. However Division soon learns of her involvement and sabotages it. In "Dark Matter" Nikita finds another ally; Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
(CIA) analyst Ryan Fletcher (Noah Bean
Noah Bean
Noah Bean is an American actor best known for his role as David Connor on the FX legal drama Damages and as Ryan Fletcher on the The CW action series Nikita.-Career:...
), whom she saved after Division framed him for murdering a Chilean presidential candidate when Owen leaked the candidate's death from the black box to the press; Fletcher and Nikita would occasionally cross paths in helping each other in stopping Division. In the midseason finale "All the Way" the shell program which Nikita uses to communicate with Alex is discovered by computer programmer Seymour Birkhoff (Aaron Stanford
Aaron Stanford
Aaron Stanford is an American actor, best known for his role as Pyro in X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand films, and Doug Bukowski in the 2006 The Hills Have Eyes remake....
). She is also captured by Division, thought Alex would detonate several bombs as a distraction to allow Nikita to escape.
Later Michael discovers the location of Nikita's hideout and discovers that Alex is her mole in stopping Division. In "Covenants" he forces her into finding and killing Tariq, who later turns out to be a former Division agent. After this is completed, Michael and Nikita begin a romantic relationship. In "Betrayals", it is revealed that when she was an agent, Nikita was ordered to kill the entire Udinov family, which she followed save for the young Alex; it became the first time Nikita ever defied Division. In the season finale "Pandora", Nikita's access to Division has been damaged. Firstly, Alex is discovered to be the mole. After she is released, she no longer wishes to help Nikita because of her role in her family's murder. Secondly, Amanda takes control of part of Oversight, and Michael is no longer able to retain his cover at Division when he tries to kill Percy for organising the death of his family. However, Birkhoff has helped Nikita hack into one of the black boxes, saying he will "cross [his fingers] behind [his] back" to help her. By the end of the first season, Michael and Nikita then end up on the run together to find the remaining black boxes.
Creation and casting
The CWThe CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
was looking to create a female-driven action series. Creator Craig Silverstein discussed with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
about the previous incarnations of Nikita (the original 1990 film, and La Femme Nikita) and wished to make the current television series look fresh. Silverstein wanted to follow Nikita after she left the agency, as that chapter was yet to be told in the previous incarnations. He also believed it would have done the original story justice. Also, he wanted to include a highlight of Nikita's original story in the pilot to earn the title, and then move on from there. Silverstein described Nikita's transition in a Collider interview; "It's a dark fairytale. This girl is taken from one life, her identity is erased, she's put in another life and she's transformed. It's like Alice in Wonderland. She's told, "Eat this, drink that, steal this, kill that," and she's not told why. And, she begins to find her own identity through that. It's just a great story."
On February 2010 it was announced that Maggie Q was in talks to play the title character of Nikita. Q's casting would mark the highest-profile series role for an Asian actress on a broadcast drama series. Q was drawn to the series because she was intrigued by the original film and Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
's creation of an incredibly flawed female. According to the actress the process of her casting took about four to five days. In describing Q's casting, Silverstein stated;
Appearing on Nikita would be Q's first television role. During an interview with IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
, Q explained that she previously was not on television "not because I didn't want to. I just never thought about it," adding "When this came up, everything just felt right. I knew McG and when Wonderland came on he was like, 'This is you, we're not doing this without you.' and I went 'That's very sweet!' So it felt right."
Development
Because the CW is a fashion-orientated network, there were times Nikita had to be dressed in a certain way to get her noticed by her targets. Q liked the idea, but at the same time wanted Nikita's dress sense to be "toned down a bit" because she is an assassin. In one scene in particular Q had to wear a red bikini in the pilot, which "mortified" her. She added "that red bikini was the bane of my existence. You're not going to see me in a bikini again, that's for sure. [...] I was like, 'Danny, can you put me in a one-piece?,' and he gave me that red bikini. I was like, 'That's not a one-piece. That's a two-piece with a string.'" However, Q did not have to cover her tattoos like she had to in the films, as it was in keeping with who the character is; a hardcore, street kid.Q performs her own stunts in the series. The actress liked to have her character "be able to do her own thing," as it is an action series where females play lead roles; during her film career, she noted "but in movies, alongside big action men, we've always got to take a step back and let the men shine. And in this, it's about the women who know what they're doing." At some point Q set up a three-week long training period for the rest of the cast to make their fight scenes on the series believable; she had her partner, an action director, bring his stunt team to train them. In filming the stunts she was already used to working in an environment where filming in television would be faster than in American films, because of her time starring in films in Asia, which usually took two to six weeks.
One of the more prominent aspects of Nikita's character development since the beginning of the series is her relationship with Michael, and has been dubbed by fans as "Mikita". Unlike other works on film and television, Silverstein did not play the traditional "Will They/Won't They?" game between the two characters. Co-star Shane West stated "It's not hard to bring Michael and Nikita together," but it is "really hard to keep them apart...We're barely into the season yet, so why not keep teasing?" When the first season started airing, West also expected that their romance would come, citing Michael and Nikita's past relationship while she was working with Division. Now that the two are together by the end of the first season, in the second season Craig Silverstein wanted something to happen to get in their way, saying that no new tension would make the relationship boring, adding "I don't think you can just have them happy and in love, kicking ass together forever."
Reception
Nikita and Maggie Q's portrayal of the character was met with generally positive reactions from television critics. Alessandra Stanley of The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
felt that Q was suited for the role, stating "she has a solemn, exotic beauty and hauteur that echo the heroine's self-possession and cool relentlessness," adding "Nikita is noticeably more hard-boiled and less girlish than the undercover agent played by Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Anne Affleck , better known as Jennifer Garner, is an American actress and film producer. Garner gained recognition on television for her performance as CIA agent Sydney Bristow in the thriller drama series Alias, which aired on ABC for five seasons from 2001 to 2006...
on Alias
Alias (TV series)
Alias is an American action television series created by J. J. Abrams which was broadcast on ABC for five seasons, from September 30, 2001 to May 22, 2006...
, or the C.I.A. rookie that Piper Perabo
Piper Perabo
Piper Lisa Perabo is a Golden Globe Award nominated American stage, film and television actress.-Early life:Perabo was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Toms River, New Jersey, the daughter of Mary Charlotte , a physical therapist, and George William Perabo, a professor of poetry at Ocean...
plays on Covert Affairs
Covert Affairs
Covert Affairs is a USA Network television series starring Piper Perabo and Christopher Gorham. The one-hour drama premiered on Tuesday, July 13, 2010. The show concluded its first season on September 14, 2010 and was renewed for a second season on August 19, 2010. The second season began airing on...
." Troy Patterson of Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
felt that "Ms. Q's Nikita is only half so crush-worthy as Bionic Woman's
Bionic Woman (2007 TV series)
Bionic Woman is an American science fiction television drama created by David Eick, under NBC Universal Television Group, GEP Productions and David Eick Productions that aired in 2007...
Jaime Sommers
Jaime Sommers (Bionic Woman)
Jaime Wells Sommers is a fictional character portrayed by Michelle Ryan in Bionic Woman, a remake of the original 1970s series The Bionic Woman in which Lindsay Wagner portrayed Jaime Sommers...
or Dollhouse's
Dollhouse (TV series)
Dollhouse is an American science fiction television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon under Mutant Enemy Productions. It premiered on February 13, 2009, on the Fox network and was officially cancelled on November 11, 2009. The final episode aired on January 29, 2010...
what's-her-name, but her predicament is no less tasty." Robert Bianco of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
believed Q's performance was "a fairly sizable incentive" to watch the show, adding she "combines stunt-fighting chops and lithe beauty with an unusual-for-the-genre air of somber intelligence. Her Nikita is not above cracking a joke, but it's clear from Q's eyes and bearing that she has suffered at the hands of evil men, and she's not going to take it anymore." Alan Sepinwall of HitFix
HitFix
HitFix, or the HitFix.com is an entertainment news website that launched in December 2008 specializing in breaking entertainment news, insider information and providing reviews and critiques of film, music and television...
believed that Q "carries herself in a way that makes it believable she could be a hard-core killer, and she has the requisite dramatic chops and charisma for the part." Maureen Ryan of AOL TV
AOL TV
AOL TV was the name of both a thin client which uses a television for display , and the online service that supports it, both of which were launched in June 2000 to compete with WebTV....
said "Maggie Q, has real charisma and presence; she invests Nikita's drive to bring down the secretive Division with potent energy. You have to believe that Nikita would devote her life to wreaking vengeance on the people she views as her former captors, and you also have to buy her as a butt-kicking, gun-toting action heroine who also looks great in a cocktail gown. Maggie Q makes all those things look easy."
Some other critics however, did not react so warmly towards Nikita. Chris Conaton of PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
felt that Q "seems to be a good choice for the title role," but noted that the pilot did not call attention to the character's background. That said Conaton stated "it's still something of a novelty to build a TV series around an Asian American lead—though plenty of recent ensemble and reality TV shows have featured prominent cast members of Asian descent." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
flet that Q was "too much of a sad sack," adding "Q doesn't seem able to layer any other emotions over her cold resolve," and compares the character to "a little bit like [Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
character] Debbie Downer
Debbie Downer
Debbie Downer is a name of a fictional Saturday Night Live character which debuted in 2004, and who was portrayed by Rachel Dratch. In Debbie's first appearance, she is given the last name Matousek....
." Mary McNamara of The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
believed that while Nikita "provides some sizzle," her emotions "run that famous distance from A to B, as do virtually [every other characters]."
Before the show started airing, Q posed for several billboard posters. However, they were met with some controversy for being revealing, and several locations across the United States, including in areas of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, refused to allow them to be put up, as they were located near churches and schools. Rick Haskins, the marketing executive for the CW stated "we've been down this road a few times with some of our campaigns."