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Ok... so I saw on Amazon today that La Femme Nikita Season 2 is coming out on DVD in July. I promptly pre-ordered it. I already own season 1.
I guess this counts as at least psuedo sci-fi.
Anyone else watch this series? La Femme was my "24" before "24" came on. I was plopped in front of my friends' TV (cause I didn't have cable) every week to watch it. But I didn't get into the show until season three, so I've never seen most of season 2.
Season 3 was really good, I remember, and really started getting into the backstory of Section 1 and some of the characters. Was it in Season 2 or season 3 that Section was destroyed and we finally learned that they had been in Paris the whole time? I think that was one of the cooler episodes.
I'll hold off on additional rambling until I find out if anyone else actually watched the show.
quote:I guess this counts as at least psuedo sci-fi.
Well, yeah. Brain Washing computer games, clones, gentically engineered duplicates, copying of minds and psychics. Sounds Sci-fi to me
Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow created both La Femme Nikita and "24". I love La Femme Nikita but can't get into "24". Wierd.
quote:Was it in Season 2 or season 3 that Section was destroyed and we finally learned that they had been in Paris the whole time? I think that was one of the cooler episodes.
It was Season 3 "I Remember Paris" (easy to guess, all the titles for season 3 where 3 words long, just as all the title for season 2 where 2 words, season 1 one ectera) I think Season 4 was the one where we really learnt the most about Section 1 and its realtionship to Oversight and the Centre. Season 2 was mostly about Adrians and her plan to bring down Section. I just wished we'd learnt how many Sections there where!
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Yah, the number of words in the titles thing was cool.
Season 2, I'm pretty sure, is where Nik finds the cloning facility in Section and discovers that Section is probably cloning her. But then Section is destroyed in Season 3 and we never find out what happened to them.
Did the Adrian thing take place in the middle of season 2? I remember it was a 2 or 3 part series of episodes. Season 3 ends with Nikita being brainwashed for real this time. Season 4 then opens with Micheal trying to fix it, finally making him an actual good guy. But I don't remember how Season 2 ended. I guess I kind of thought season 2 ended with the first ep of the Adrian story. "Together my dear, you and I are going to destroy Section 1".
I hated the introduction of Center which, as I recall, didn't happen until late in Season 4. Adding Oversight and George as the Sections' operating authority was good. It put Paul in a vulnerable position. But adding Center to it and the whole Mr. Jones thing never set well with me. It was too complicated. What is Center in charge of other than Oversight?
quote:Did the Adrian thing take place in the middle of season 2? I remember it was a 2 or 3 part series of episodes. Season 3 ends with Nikita being brainwashed for real this time. Season 4 then opens with Micheal trying to fix it, finally making him an actual good guy. But I don't remember how Season 2 ended. I guess I kind of thought season 2 ended with the first ep of the Adrian story. "Together my dear, you and I are going to destroy Section 1".
I thought that Adrian was intoduced half way through Season 2 with the last couple of episodes showing Nikita's actual attmept to take down Section, which Micheal sabotages because he knows that its all a setup by Operations to emabass George allowing Paul to get George's job. Season 3 then opens with Nikita in trouble and looking for Micheal who has disapeared. Thats when she finds out about his son and wife.
quote:I hated the introduction of Center which, as I recall, didn't happen until late in Season 4. Adding Oversight and George as the Sections' operating authority was good. It put Paul in a vulnerable position. But adding Center to it and the whole Mr. Jones thing never set well with me. It was too complicated. What is Center in charge of other than Oversight?
I didn't mind the introduction of Centre, I was more annoyed with the revelation in Season 5 concering who Nikita's father was. That and Berkhoff's twin brother. I always guessed that Centre was ulitmatley in charge of Oversight, Section 1, Section 4 and the Farm but they where never that clear on the the heirachy of Section. Some of the Season 1 episodes seem to suggest that Section 1 is a purely American effort yet "War" suggests that they could be based in Germany and then there's "I remember Paris" and Adrian was English. I did find that annoying.
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Yah, like most series of this sort, they weren't very clear about details like who Section worked for or where they were located. There were references in Season 1 to "our government" and "the country" as well as ties to the CIA making it seem as though the Section is an American organization that recruits from all over the world.
They were pretty clear that Oversight is in charge of all the Sections. "Center can access Oversight, Oversight can access the Sections, but not the other way around." Or something like that from Season 5. There was even a meeting at Oversight once of all the Section heads where they showed all these characters. Makes sense that there would be one operating authority for all the Sections.
And Paul being after Oversight made sense if it was the highest position in the Organization. Berkhoff even mentioned once that Oversight was the only thing Paul had to answer to. Then Center comes along and suddenly there's a whole new teir.
quote:There were references in Season 1 to "our government" and "the country" as well as ties to the CIA making it seem as though the Section is an American organization that recruits from all over the world.
Plus there was at least one episode where Paul has a conference with a US senator. Besides the elements mentioned above did we ever see anything else to indicate who Section 1 operated under? For a while I thought Section 1 was the North America/Western Europe Section, and that it was a collective agency like NATO, with others carrying different areas but then there was that episode with the Coup attempt in Latin America.
quote:There was even a meeting at Oversight once of all the Section heads where they showed all these characters. Makes sense that there would be one operating authority for all the Sections.
Which episode was that? Maybe Centre was the ultimate operating authority for ALL intelligence agencies? Both known, like CIA and NSA, and unknown like Section?
The only other reason that I can think of for involving Centre was to harken back to the original movie, but they did the two big set peices from the movie in the first season.
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Yah, both Nikita's initiation job at the restaurant and her sniper assignment from the hotel window were recreated in the pilot and in one of the episodes with Grey in it.
I don't remember the name of the episode with the meeting at Oversight, but I think it was in the third season. Operations has to go to the meeting and Micheal is left in charge. He does something that Operations told him specifically not to do.
By the end of the series, the organization looked something like this:
Center: Secret authority for many intelligence agencies in, at least, the Western World such as Oversight, NSA, CIA, probably MI5, MI6, etc. Mr Jones said that he wasn't "a king" and that there were other people that he had to at least confer with.
Oversight: Authority for all Sections. Until the introduction of Center, George seemed to be the very top man in the organization. Madeline even referred to him as the most dangerous man on the planet when she and Paul were trying to have him killed.
Section 1: Authority for all it's substations with at least some amount of control over the other Sections, but not total. Section 1 also has access to U.S. military resources and probably those of other countries as well.
Unfortunately, there were only ever slight indications of what each Section's jobs were. Section 1 personnel seemed to go all over the world and it's likely that they were the front line field agency. But there were at least a couple other Sections that engaged in field work as well. Section 4 was a research facility and it didn't sound like they did field work at all in "He Came From Four"
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Besson can quiet down and make me "The Fifth Element 2".
Another question about Section: Was the facility underground? Everything seemed to suggest it was. The few times we got to see people emerging from Section, they seemed to be coming up from some kind of basement. Nikita's escape late in the fourth season is a prime example.
Several areas seem to raise above ground level, though. The secret meeting place everyone except Paul and Madeline seemed to know about had angled vents with light coming through them, and I always got the impression that The Tower was above ground.
The facility also seems to be enormous. We got a few schematic shots now and again and there looked to be several branches and isolated areas reaching off from the main area.
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I remember thinking Section 1 had to be based in Europe considering how fast they got to European cities in the same van. Also the streets and sets didn't look very much like American cities. Plus I remember a lot of "in the west" type references.
When I use to watch it I would always try to figure shit out like Operation's real name, where Section was located stuff like that. We never learned Nikita's full name.
-------------------- I'm slightly annoyed at Hobbes' rather rude decision to be much more attractive than me though. That's just rude. - PsyLiam, Oct 27, 2005.
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When the 3rd Season comes out I'll have to look out for that episode.
Did we ever see Section 1 try and overthrow and enemy goverment? I can't remeber but if we didn't I'd suggest that Section 1 was essentially a defensive agency, whilset other Sections were offensive? Maybe there's been some mission drift in Section 1's purpose and it has taken over reponsibilites of other Sections?
One of my first thourghts on watching "I remeber Paris" was how they got such a massive underground facility under a major metropolitan area, so I agree that it was for the most part underground. Obviously some of it had to be above ground to enable them to go to the garage. I thought I remebered something about the elevators point to it being underground but I can't remeber what it was. Wasn't there mentions of at least nine levels or was it ten with the Clones or the Gelman Process equipment? We know they had intergation rooms, training rooms, quaters, power generators plus a number of off limits areas.
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Well, the layout of the Com area changed a bit, but I'm not sure when it did so. In the first season, there was a training area in view of the Perch. Later, it went away and was replaced by something else.
I think one of the the lower levels was all the super protected computer files that Adrienne got Nikita into.
Van Access didn't necessarily have to be above ground. It could've been an underground garage that lead up to street level.
Other areas we got to see included Systems, which was also a later season addition, Committee, where Operations and Madeline sometimes met, the Tower, Four West, Close Quarters bunks, the stairs leading into the perch, and a few others I can't really remember off hand, but they always kept the locations of these things pretty vague.
I know the Perch and Com weren't on the uppermost or lowermost level.
As for Section trying to overthrow governments, I don't recall they ever did. At least not outright. Operations had his own thing going on as described in the Gemstone file, but Section seemed to be mostly interested in dealing with terrorists.
Operations' full name turned out to be Paul Wolfe. Micheal's last name is Samuelle and his code name is Jacque. Nikita never got a last name. Neither did Madeline or Walter. Mr Jones (the real one) got a first name, and Paul used it, but I don't remember what it was.
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I thought that we saw somebody exiting through the garage in one episode and that pointed to it being above ground. Then again it may have been below ground.
Where were Berkoff's Quaters in realtion to every thing else? Maybe they remodled it in Season 2? or Season 3?
Didn't think that Section 1 did anything in realtion to other goverments, it was mostly terrorists and criminals. They mostly seemed to come up against Red Cell, who it seemed where the equal of Section 1, at least in access and troops. I don't think they had the same resources as Section 1, but I thought I remembered something that suggested that Red Cell was working for hostile goverments but it was brief.
Was the real Mr Jones name Phillip?
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As far as I know, Berkhoff's quarters where only seen once and that was in the first season. I got the impression that they were "in the basement", but it never really showed how Nikita got there. I think the hallway outside was the standard corridor set they used.
Don't know about the garage thing. Maybe that'll turn up in season 2, though.
Also an interesting note: Van access was different than the main entrance we saw the team using all the time when coming back from missions. That door (the one with the LED sign above it) had an elevator behind it. So possibly, one of the places the elevator goes is van access.
There was also an ep early in season 4 when Micheal breaks back into Section after going rogue. He's on top of the elevator when it comes down with the team in it and he rode back into Section below one of the vans. To me that suggests the parking facility is above the main entryway and that he rode the elevator down.
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So...a fair French film is made into a terrible hollywood movie and then re-made into an even more farfetched USA TV show.
Really, if they were shooting for cheesy, they should've cast Rhonda Shear as the lead character.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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