This is what an iPad premiere looks like ... although no-one had their arm around me
I love a novelty, so you can imagine my delight when I was sat down on a leather sofa and handed an iPad to watch Warner’s latest television offering, Nikita, on at a secret launch event last night.
Danny Wallace then appeared and told the assembled journalists that this was the first ever iPad première of a TV show … I was sceptical at first, but my confidence in him grew when he later gave my colleague the correct directions to the event over the phone before jumping in a cab and disappearing into the night.
So, if this was the first ever iPad premiere, what was it like?
In a word, luxurious. As I reclined in my Chesterfield, waiters delivered booze and canapés to me as I got stuck in to the re-imagining of the Nikita tale. The added bonuses to everyone having their own screen are that no-one’s head is ever in your way, and if you over indulge on the hospitality, you can always tap pause and toddle off to the bathroom without causing a scene or missing any of the show. I understand that a 30-year-old man should probably be able to survive 43 minutes without the requirement for a toilet break, but what can I say, when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go.
The multimedia extravaganza continued after the last journalist had finished watching the show as Mr Wallace conducted a Skype interview on a big screen with one of the show’s starts Xander Berkley. Although Xander assured us that the time in Toronto was early afternoon, he did look like he’d just got out of bed as he described how great the show is and how much he adores the cast. The love-in was however cut short just as things were getting juicy … asked about his co star Maggie Q’s bad habits, Xander began to speak and the feed went dead. Was someone from Warner Television censoring the conversation, or is Skype just rubbish? We’ll never know.
As for Nikita itself, after such a novel and interesting PR stunt to launch the show, I was hoping for the same level of creativity and fun on screen, sadly, for me it didn’t really deliver.
For those not familiar with the Nikita story, it originates in a 1990 French Luc Besson film of the same name and was later adapted for four and half series in the late nineties as a Peta Wilson vehicle called La Femme Nikita (I think it used to be on Channel Five in the UK).
It follows the fortunes of an imprisoned woman who is given the impossible choice between working as an undercover assassin for a secret branch of the government or facing her punishment the old fashioned way … imprisonment, or in the new version, to add a little more drama, death.
The latest crack at the format sees a new Nikita, Maggie Q, hell bent on bringing Division (that secret branch of the government) down after feeling betrayed by them. Nikita is on the run, and as she dodges bullets and her ex-colleagues Michael (Shane West) and Percy (Xander Berkley), there’s a new batch of troubled teen recruits being trained up in the shape of Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca) and Jaden (Tiffany Hines).
As far as these things go, it’s well shot and has an OK plot … there’s a nice twist at the end of the first episode which suggests that the series could get significantly better if it plays out well.
But overall, the show seemed to lack an edge. It feels like it was rushed into production to try and fill the void that 24′s departure has left in the schedules. It’s nice to see a female anti-hero in the lead role, but sadly Nikita is no Jack Bauer.
At points the action sequences were impressively executed, but I found it hard (just as I did with its cheaper looking 1997 precursor) to buy into the characters.
Maggie Q does her best with the role, but just when your starting to ‘get’ her plight, the director does something like throw in a shameless bikini pool party scene where she is required to ‘ooze sexuality’, but the gratuitous nature of the flesh-fest (although appealing to the base senses) is so obvious and forced that any empathy you’ve built for Nikita is lost.
There’s an alright action drama in there somewhere, I just think in the pilot, it had trouble getting out … so for now I think Nikita is best described as no more than a show with potential.
However, there’s two pieces of good news.
Firstly, I’m often wrong about new shows, so I’m sure legions of fans will appear overnight and send me abusive emails.
Secondly, you don’t have to wait until October’s Living TV launch of the show to watch in the UK, because in another ground breaking digital stunt, every week the day after the show has aired in the US, Brits will be able to download the latest episode via iTunes … starting now, so those of you that way inclined can go online and tell me that I’m dead wrong about the programme … immediately.
Oh joy, I love technology.
