Maggie Q stars as the title character in one of the CW's newest shows, "Nikita." The show airs every Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Exactly four years ago, and I mean exactly four years ago on Sept. 16, 2006, I embarked on what has become a four year grudge against the network that destroyed one of my all time favorite television shows.
Please, let me explain. After the merge of UPN and the WB, an evil and less than satisfactory replacement network was created, the CW. When the CW decided to turn the third season of “Veronica Mars” into the sort of show that the network would soon become known for, I immediately knew that Dawn Ostroff, president of entertainment at the CW, and I would never see eye-to-eye.
Prior to the merge, “Veronica Mars” had been a struggling, but creatively acclaimed work of art that stole the hearts of critics and a small but strong fan base, myself included. Then the little gem of television that was “Veronica Mars” joined the CW along with shows such as “Gossip Girl” and “America’s Next Top Model.” The unconventional season long story arcs and street-smart, quirky characters of Neptune, Ca. suddenly didn’t quite fit the mold.
Long story short, “Veronica Mars” was cancelled at the end of the season. And thus began my grudge.
Why any show would want to fit in on the CW is beyond me. The network seems to strive to be your one and only source into the scandalous lives of television’s elite. And by elite, I mean the teenage skanks who grace your television sets every evening, setting an example for pre-teens everywhere. Coast to coast, 13-year-olds tune in on Mondays at 9 p.m. to see what stupid decisions Serena and Blair will make next.
The newest additions to the lineup, “Hellcats” and “Nikita,” do nothing to impress me either. The former offers an hour of “Bring it On” meets “High School Musical” starring Alyson Michalka as the unwilling, yet unbelievably talented gymnast Marti, and Ashley Tisdale as the goodie-two-shoes Savannah. What bothered me the most, besides the awful transition effect of a cheerleader jumping across the screen wiping it to the next scene, is that the story really doesn’t seem to line up. I have a hard time believing that this so obviously “not cheerleader” easily slipped right into “cheerleader” mode — big smiles, mini skirts and all.
I wish I had counted how many times over the course of the pilot episode that the skimpy cheerleader clothing was highlighted, making girls everywhere wonder if they are just skinny enough to look like an anorexic supermodel. I could have made that one hell of a drinking game.
“Nikita,” on the other hand, actually holds a morsel of potential. I am a sucker for spy shows, even though it is a genre that has been completely exhausted by this point. This remake of the 1997 show “La Femme Nikita” joins about three other secret agent shows that are currently on the air. The show follows Nikita (Maggie Q), an ex-spy for a covert government agency, called Division. The agency, which stopped following the government’s orders long
ago, trains helpless nobodies to become assassins. This remake picks up three years after the initial series ended after Nikita had escaped from the claws of Division. While the main storyline follows Nikita’s efforts to bring down the agency, we also get to see the original story of a young girl who is picked up and molded by Divison through their newest recruit, Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca).
When I watched, I kept asking myself, ‘Well, what makes this different? What makes it worth watching?’ By the end of the hour, I knew that the CW had struck again trying to make this a show worth watching through sexual appeal as opposed to having a driving story and character.
In spite of the CW infecting “Nikita” with the same problems I have with all of their other shows, I might give this one a chance, at least for a few episodes. The cast boasts a few big names with Shane West as Michael, who is supposed to be evil but is really just too damn cute. Melinda Clark plays Amanda, a trainer in the art of how to use one’s feminine wiles just enough to win someone over before snapping their neck. On any other network, I would have much higher hopes. But the CW’s style is clearly just not my cup of tea.
Now, four years after the start of my grudge, the CW has hardly done anything to win me over. “Smallville” has managed to make it to a 10th season despite screaming for cancellation. “America’s Next Top Model” has not changed one bit in eight cycles and “90210” has fed into the dramatic teenage slut image that the CW has won for itself. And the network wonders why it does so poorly in the ratings. Its most watched show is “The Vampire Diaries,” about a girl who gets caught in the middle of drama with vampires … gee, that sounds familiar.
If the CW wants to even attempt to make amends with me, it should first approve production for a “Veronica Mars” movie. But that’s never going to happen, so I don’t see myself becoming a CW groupie anytime soon.
Rosenberg is a member of the class of 2012.
