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Nikita: London Calling

"If you don't take it, you're going to be left with 'what if?' That is the most dangerous question I know."

I'm not a big fan of Shane West. Although I've grown to appreciate his strengths after watching him for two seasons, I still find him to be quite lifeless and uncharismatic a lot of the time. This episode is the perfect embodiment of that and although he improves towards the end of the season, it's still one of the weakest hours the show's ever produced.

I really found myself distracted while watching this episode; West as an actor just doesn't hook me, so having an hour dedicated to him was quite tedious. Moreover, what exactly does Cassandra bring to the show? The arc really sucked any sort of momentum the season had going for it this year, which is a pity after last season's excellence. I did enjoy her reveal as an MI-6 agent, however, as that was at least unexpected. In addition, her handler was a horrible, cheesy villain who made the hour even worse. Suffice to say, this entire Cassandra-Max mess is the biggest misstep Nikita has ever done and I'm glad we're through with them.

Usually when Nikita's plot is weak, Alex makes up for it (or vice versa). However here, our little protege didn't fare much better running around as Percy's lackey and wiring money while flirting with a conniving Sean. It all felt very pedestrian and forced.

Speaking of forced, could the episode's final scene have been more dramatic? While Maggie Q has undoubtedly grown as an actress this year (she played the scene perfectly), the ending was exactly the kind of soap opera crap I didn't want this show to fall into. Oh dear...

Bits & Bullets:

- Nikita and Michael kicking ass in the club was a pretty great scene. I especially enjoyed Nikki twirling off the ceiling.

- Percy activating some sort of Protocol with a Guardian is intriguing.

- And where was Amanda in this episode, exactly? And are we really supposed to believe she hasn't been monitoring Alex's conversations with Prison Percy?

- Maggie Q looked beautiful in that final scene. The hottest in quite a while (thank you, leather pants).

Nikki Notables:

Nikita: Office space?
Birkhoff: Nikita Incorporated, baby.

- Forced and not particularly exciting, "London Calling" is one of Nikita's weakest episodes yet.

2 out of 5

Previously posted at Nad's Reviews.

4 comments:

  1. I totally agree: Max and Cassandra are a total waste of screentime. Bringing them back had me rolling eyes. I wished the writers would develop the Michael character through a different storyline.

    Percy and the guardians were the better part of the story.

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  2. Oh gawd, the Max storyline is horrific - it's a lazy way to create drama and undermines every established relationship that they've spent time building up. Although, it was a marginally better representation of London this time around though, compared to the first season's frankly painful attempt (because, London is hard to research accurately, right?!).

    This time around the London part was ok, it was just when they randomly picked Canvey that I died laughing. It's not that much in the middle of nowhere (my train line runs there!) and it's a very, very low lying bit of the Essex coast - not many cliffs to chuck cars off of sadly. Pedantic, but it did amuse me :o)

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  3. I'm with jencat. I laughed at their depiction of Canvey and although London was better, it was the Canadian version.

    That was only one weak spot in an episode filled with them. This storyline is ridiculous and everything about it feels forced. Very lazy storytelling.

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  4. I agree that this episode was weak and the Max/Cassandra arc is weak, but I disagree with you about the final scene: Maggie Q was heartbreaking.

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