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One of the more seriously underrated action thriller series has just landed on Prime Video. Beginning back in 2010 before coming to an end in 2013, Nikita features Mission: Impossible III and Die Hard 4 star Maggie Q in the lead role. She plays a woman with a particular set of skills who escapes from a mysterious, nefarious organization in which she was trained, disappears, and returns three years later to take them down.
Airing on The CW, the series is a reimagining of Luc Besson’s 1990 French action movie La Femme Nikita for American audiences. Though largely forgotten, Nikita is worth revisiting, boasting not only the action movie talents of Maggie Q but also an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes. All four seasons of Nikita are now streaming on Prime Video.
The official synopsis reads, “Maggie Q stars as Nikita, a young woman rescued from death row by a secret government agency called Division. Division faked Nikita’s execution, giving her a chance to start a new life and serve her country. However, she is trained to be a spy and assassin. After three years in hiding, Nikita seeks revenge against her former bosses who betrayed her and does everything she can to expose and destroy Division’s secret operation, even as Division continues recruiting and training other young people to become cold-blooded killers.
Alongside Maggie Q, Nikita features an ensemble cast of genre faves, including Lyndsy Fonseca (Kick-Ass), Shane West (Gotham, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Aaron Stanford (X2: X-Men United, Deadpool & Wolverine), Melinda Clarke (Spawn), Xander Berkeley (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Mandalorian), Noah Bean (12 Monkeys), Tiffany Hines (Bones), Ashton Holmes (A History of Violence), Dillon Casey (BlackBerry), and Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Chucky).
Breaking down the Rotten Tomatoes numbers, Nikita Season 1 is certified fresh at 78%, with the consensus reading, “Building on Maggie Q’s strong central performance, Nikita is a strong spy thriller that’s sleek and action-packed (if a little heavy with backstory).” While Season 2 dips to 62%, Season 3 picks up again with 78%, and Season 4 ends with a perfect score of 100%.
Brendan Bettinger of Collider was particularly praising of the series and Maggie Q at the time, stating, “Maggie Q is a star. She's endlessly charismatic, a credible action star, and capably shoulders the sometimes overwrought drama thrust upon her.” Christine Seghers of IGN awarded Season 3 a promising 9.3/10, concluding, “Suitably dubbed ‘3.0’, Nikita’s third season premiere saw the show offering up a new pilot to hopefully lure new viewers into the fold while also rewarding its loyal fans with the same smart, witty, action-packed entertainment we’ve come to expect.”
Maggie Q is still an unsung hero when it comes to action, and Nikita is further proof that she should be better known by a much wider audience. With roles in Mission: Impossible III, Divergent, Die Hard 4, Designated Survivor, The Protégé, and as Renée Ballard in the Bosch franchise, the martial artist and protégé of Jackie Chan shows her skills as an action hero and actor in Nikita.
