What I’m Watching: Nikita

Nikita: Season 1, Episode 14 “The Next Seduction” (C+)

Formulaically, the idea of Nikita teaming up with enemies of her enemies while working with true friends is appealing, but it never seems to play out quite as well as it should, apart from the first and third episodes of this show, of course. I’m not minding all of the Ryan Fletcher stuff as much as I thought I would, but it seems silly that he would be kept alive when all he’s going to do is stir up trouble, and he’s now already achieved such prominence that it will be impossible to pretend that he isn’t a viable threat. I tend to get confused when there are all these complicated alliances, and it reminds me of “Alias” and how it was never quite clear how exactly all of these people were bad guys without actually knowing it. Michael’s visit to Alex’s apartment felt hopelessly forced, and he’s demonstrated in the past that he’s not a hard-hearted character, so to have him do something that would be more fitting for a character like Percy doesn’t make too much sense. This episode was overstuffed with romantic intentions, and I see no reason why every show that airs on television – especially espionage thrillers – needs to have some sort of Valentine’s Day theme. It’s as if the timeline stops moving and it’s suddenly February 14th, which definitely detracts from whatever else the show is in the middle of doing, even if this show hasn’t really had its head screwed on straight in quite a while.