Plot: What’s it about?
La Femme Nikita is most likely remembered by the movie that came out some 13 years ago. It was then re-made into an “American” version starring Bridget Fonda and essentially retitled “Point of No Return”. However, the movie was popular enough (and director Luc Besson was popular enough as well) that the show was turned into a television show that ran on the USA Network for five years. The characters and the story are the same, but if you liked the movie then you’ll most likely want to see more adventures of Nikita. The show, now cancelled, was among the most popular in syndication history. Fans have been bombarding Warner Video with requests to get the show on DVD and now that’s happened! Of course, we all know the story of La Femme Nikita; but in case you don’t, here’s a quick recap. Nikita (Peta Wilson) is an operative whose sole purpose is to fight terrorism (a word that has taken on much more meaning since the show first aired). She was rescued by “Section One” after she was wrongly accused for murdering a police officer. Michael (Roy Dupuis) is her mentor who trains her to kill and become an even more elusive and better agent than she was before. Naturally, with every new week brought a new episode and all of the first season is here on 6 discs. Below are some episode capsules from the first season of La Femme Nikita.
Nikita: Nikita, a girl living on the streets, is wrongly accused of a murder she did not commit and sentenced to life in prison. After the government arranges to fake her suicide, Nikita wakes up at Section One, a top-secret agency that aims to train her to become an anti-terrorist operative.
Friend: Section One is assigned to protect Jovan Mijovich, a politician attempting to negotiate peace among opposing forces in his section of the world. When Nikita meets with a contact to find out who has attempted to assassinate Mijovich, Nikita is recognized by Julie, a childhood friend.
Simone: Glass Curtain is a high-tech terrorist organization that attracts new members via internet chat rooms. Posing as a new recruit, Nikita is taken to Glass Curtain headquarters, where she discovers that Michael’s wife Simone is being held hostage. A former Section One operative, Simone was believed killed years before.
Charity: Nikita is assigned to get close to a money launderer in order steal his data files. When she learns about his successful charity for troubled youth, she starts falling in love with him. However, when Section One admits to Nikita that the shelters are a front for a thriving child slave trade, Nikita’s loyalties become divided.
Mother: A nuclear trigger is stolen by a cold-blooded terrorist couple responsible for killing an entire team of Section One operatives. In a final attempt to retrieve the trigger, Nikita poses as the couple’s long-lost daughter, who was given in adoption years ago.Love:
Love: When an international arms smuggler steals a canister of deadly nerve gas, Nikita and Michael pose as a married mercenary couple in order to infiltrate his compound. However, when the gas is discovered wired to a bomb in a crowded train station, Nikita must put her life on the line to defuse it.
Treason: Section One is assigned by the CIA to “quietly” deport Suba, a foreign anti-terrorist contact who is smuggling waste uranium out of the country for his own profit. The first attempt to capture him goes terribly awry, and Nikita is held responsible. Upon further investigation, Nikita discovers a traitor in the Section…
Escape:A mysterious Section One operative offers Nikita a seemingly ironclad opportunity to escape from Section One for good. All the information he gives her checks out, and Nikita seriously weighs his offer. However, Michael states making romantic overtures toward Nikita, and her emotions are divided.
Gray: Section One’s computer security is breached and the directory of all their agents is stolen. Michael goes to Prague to reclaim the directory, but the man who stole it is killed by another terrorist seeking the directory for himself. Nikita discovers that it was randomly left with a civilian passenger on a Prague city bus, architect Gray Wellman.
Choice: The CIA believes that a rogue element of their agency is responsible for a recent massacre of heroin dealers, performed in order to steal money and drugs as part of an embezzlement scheme. Section One is brought in to clean the house quietly, but Nikita’s continued involvement with architect Gray Wellman is hampering her ability to be a reliable operative.
Rescue: Section One has successfully destroyed a chemical weapons plant in a former Soviet Block country, but in the process, Michael is wounded and left behind. On the run, he hides in the house of nurse Angie Georgiev. To rescue Michael, Nikita and Madeline pose as cosmetics saleswomen in order to enter the country.
Innocent: A terrorist group smuggles a live nuclear device onto North American soil and threatens to detonate it in a major city. However, the bomb transfer was accidentally witnessed by Rudy, a simple pizza delivery man. Section One interrogates him, thinking he was involved, but Nikita believes Rudy’s story–that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Gambit: When Section One attempts to thwart the thief of a canister of Cobalt 60, they lose the Cobalt, but capture one of the world’s most fearsome terrorists, George Kessler. To find the Cobalt 60, Madeline must interrogate Kessler, who successfully uses his knowledge of Madeline against her.
Recruit: Nikita is assigned to evaluate Karyn, who is coming to the end of her two-year training period. On a mission to capture a terrorist gone awry, Karyn kills her trainer in cold blood, then lies about it. When Nikita confronts her, Karyn confides that her trainer had repeatedly raped her. This, coupled with the fact that everyone in Section One seems to like Karyn, makes Nikita’s decision all the more difficult.
Obsessed: David Fanning is one of the world’s most dangerous hit men, but Section One is powerless to stop him. Fanning possesses “The Book,” a collection of top-secret information damaging to Western governments, and if the Section makes any attempt on Fanning’s life, the Book will be released automatically. When the Section’s only way in is through Fanning’s abused girlfriend, Nikita and Michael are forced to use any means possible to secure her loyalties, but her emotional instability could prove fatal to both of them.
Missing: One of the members of a criminal organization that steals classified information to sell to the highest bidder is Operations’ long-lost son, Steven. Section One’s mission is to eradicate this group along with a dangerous terrorist that plans to buy a smart missile chip from them, but Operations asks Nikita to keep Steven alive at all costs. Nikita agrees, only if Operations will let her finally leave the Section for good.
Noise: Section van is breached, and Birkoff is forced to defend himself for the very first time. Now, his fear of being killed on future missions is interfering with his ability to protect Section operatives, unless Nikita can help him overcome this fear, Birkoff is in danger of being cancelled.
Voices: While working undercover near a Central European Consulate, Nikita is confronted by a known serial rapist. Nikita easily subdues the man, leaving him battered and bruised. O’Brien, the police detective on the case, has been pursuing the man for years, and realizes that the rapist’s victim was no ordinary woman. With the help of a witness he manages to break through Nikita’s cover story and track her down.
War: The stolen Directory has ended up in the hands of Red Cell, and operatives are being hit around the world. Section is being forced to evacuate. In order to learn Red Cell’s next move, Nikita and Michael attempt to capture Red Cell’s next move, Nikita and Michael attempt to capture Red Cell’s counterpart to Birkoff, but instead, they themselves are captured and tortured.
Verdict: Jovan Mijovich has been elected as premier of his new nation, but there is a hit man out to assassinate him. Nikita and Michael, along with other section one operatives, are dispatched to provide security. During the inaugural celebration, the hit man is taken out, but a hostage situation develops that no one expected. A man, Bruner, claims Mijovich raped and blinded his daughter during the nation’s civil war, and threatens to kill him.
Brainwash: When Nikita is sent to investigate a bartender a a posh club who may be a terrorist contact, he responds to her questioning by leaping from the 65th floor window to his death. A search of his apartment turns up a strange helmet-like device, which Section later discovers is used for brainwashing. Unfortunately, Nikita has used the device several times in an effort to discover what it is, and now it is in control of her mind.
Mercy: Section One is hot on the trail of Tyler, one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists. After Tyler kidnaps a young inventor who has created a new, completely undetectable plastic explosive, Nikita is sent to try and rescue the inventor and keep his knowledge out of Tyler’s hands. When the mission is unsuccessful, Nikita is given orders to cancel the inventor, but she refuses.
Video: How does it look?
The series, as we might expect, is shown in it’s original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Lacking the benefit of anamorphic enhancement, this picture still looks pretty clean and clear; as the series isn’t that old to take on many artifacts and such. Though at times there seems to be a slight problem with edge enhancement and some of the scenes do look oversaturated from time to time. Aside from that, it’s a very respectable transfer and the droves of fans of this series will be more than happy to see how this is represented on DVD here. Another top-notch effort from Warner here.
Audio: How does it sound?
Unlike the movie, which was re-mastered for 5.1 sound (albeit in French), all we get here is a Dolby Surround mix. Like many television shows, this is really all that’s needed here as the effects and such were meant for TV, not home theater. Still, the track is rather robust at times providing a depth that I really didn’t think possible. Granted, it’s during scenes in which you might expect the sound to shine (a car chase, guns firing, etc.); but for a television show, I was rather impressed. Dialogue is very clean as well, sounding very natural.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The main draw here is the audio commentaries on the season opener and the latter finale episodes. The tracks are very much alike in the sense that they know they’re dealing with a cult hit almost immediately. The don’t talk about the movie quite as much, but it’s an underlying item. Essentially, fans of this will most likely listen to the tracks right after they watch the episodes. While I wasn’t too taken with the commentaries, they’re a welcome addition to the set and I’m certain they’ll be present on future seasons. We don’t really think that television series have scenes that get taken out, but we’re wrong! There are nine deleted scenes (labeled as “cancelled”) that are shown in their entirety. Though not a lot is learned from them, they, like the commentaries, are a welcome addition to the disc. I can see why a few were deleted though (after watching countless deleted scenes off other discs, it’s clear to see why some really were cut and some made the final product). Lastly, a featurette entitled “Section One Declassified: The Making of La Femme Nikita” is included. This, like so many others, is just an extended promo piece, albeit with interviews with the stars and how the show came to be, etc. A bit of fluff material here, but again, the die hard fans of the show will eat it up. All in all, a rather nice set by Warner. A bit on the pricey side, though (by Warner’s standards); but this was produced by fan response, so we’ll pay it!
