The two Nikitas.

[the_grynne]

If you're in the US, apparently you can watch all 5 seasons (96 episodes) of USA Network's La Femme Nikita here at the WB website. Anyone who's seen the emotionally wrenching final two seasons of LFN will recognise the disconnect between the way the series ended and the new Nikita being developed by CW (details on that here and here), and yet there

Comments

Re: chill folks

[rhienelleth]

Interesting! Thank you from dropping in and commenting. Really and truly. :) I actually already assumed it would be a re-imagining, because I didn't see how it could work as a continuation or anything like. That being said, the comments regarding Michael and Nikita's relationship I'm not sure what to think about, since Nikita's relationship with her handler has been a central point in every incarnation of her. If these characters are meant to be nothing like the USA show's version from which their names were lifted, why lift the names at all? Michael and Birkoff could easily have been called something else, and we wouldn't be drawing quite as many parallels.

One thing that might be reassuring is an answer to this question: will Maggie Q's character be the actual lead in the show, or will Alex?

I don't think we can compare BSG's success to this. BSG took a really cheesy 70's SF show, and updated it into a very serious drama with an almost military SF feel. The two shows' only similarities are the base concept and some character names/concepts. Nikita was already a pretty complex drama, so re-imagining it into something similar is more akin to Batman Begins vs. Burton's Batman. If Batman Begins had been about Alfred training a new Batman after Bruce's retirement. :)

(I know this sounds like I'm being really argumentative. I swear, I'm not trying to be. I have no doubt I'll tune in when it airs, and the show could totally grab me and become one of my new favorites. The Vampire Diairies did, and I was totally not expecting that. Just realize that LFN was a really well done show, and fans of it are going to have some fairly high expectations based on how much they loved it. There's no way around that, unfortunately.)

Re: chill folks

[rhienelleth]

>> If these characters are meant to be nothing like the USA show's version from which their names were lifted, why lift the names at all?

Many people asked this very same question about BSG as well.

>> One thing that might be reassuring is an answer to this question: will Maggie Q's character be the actual lead in the show, or will Alex?

Maybe this will help, here's the number of lines each of these characters has in the pilot:

Jaden (another new recruit): 15
Thom (another new recruit): 25
Amanda: 25
Birkhoff: 35
Percy (head of "Division"): 35
Alex: 35
Michael: 60
Nikita: 80