“I was falsely accused of a hideous crime and sentenced in life in prison.
One night I was taken from my cell to a place called Section One, the most
covert anti-terrorist group on the planet. Their ends are just, but their means
are ruthless. If I don’t play by their rules… I die.”
Section One is a secret anti-terrorist government
organization which recruits society's misfits and trains them to become
international assassins for the government. Through a highly centralized
governance and surveillance system, Section One is able to gain complete
compliance from its recruits. Like a totalitarian state in its extreme, everyone's
life is a public affair. Through the sowing of distrust and manipulation among
its members, Section is able to rule and control its members. With a state of
the art security system and communications technology, Section One is a secret
world. A state in a state. No one is free to leave.
The quote above are the words spoken by actor Peta Wilson (as
Nikita) in the beginning of La Femme Nikita, the 90’s TV series which ran from 1997–2001,
originally on CTV Canada, and during which it developed a cult following. Nikita
was wrongly jailed for a murder she did not commit and was recruited by Section
who also faked her death to the outside world. As all the other recruits,
Nikita enters Section against her will. In Section One, every member must work
to achieve the organization's objective and complete its missions. One will
obey for fear of death (cancelation). No one has a past; your past is repressed
in Section. The scene where Michael (Roy Dupuis), Section's top operative,
shows Nikita a picture of her grave and says “row eight, plot thirty” became
iconic, something LFN die-hard fans will always remember. Nikita was then
trained by Michael and she quickly became a high performing operative. And so
the story goes, evolving on ethical issues as well as the relationship of the
two characters.
Like typical TV entertainment, LFN displays a pattern of
violence, heterosexual love, and a good looking blonde. The female heroine is
sexualized and there to please viewers. Far from representing any feminist
agenda, feminists will be quick to dismiss LFN as sending any message about women’s
empowerment. But considering that TV entertainment is a product of culture and
capital, nothing it offers will be aligned seriously to any disturbing notion
of changing the world. However, just as many blog posts of the past ten years
have discussed about feminist texts in Xena the Warrior Princess or Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, we can equally find notions of girl power in LFN amidst the
series' display of traditional pattern of male violence and authority. First, let's
consider some facts:
LFN is pioneering.
In the 90's, there were only a few TV female-led series with women who can kick
ass and fight one on one with men. In this sense, LFN is pioneering and
inspiring (in a good or bad way—depends on how you look at it), and it did lead
to other TV series with such female heroines in the coming years and this sort
of gender bending is now a usual site on prime time TV.
In LFN, women rule.
Section was founded by a woman, Adrian (Sian Phillips), the modern day version
of the matriarch. Her overthrow was master minded by Operations (Eugene Robert
Glazer) which led him to the throne and secured Madeline's (Alberta Watson) position
as second-in-command. This was the beginning of Operation's ruthless regime; a
regime which Nikita would later be at war with.
Section’s female
operatives are on an equal playing field. Female recruits go through the
same training as the male before becoming an agent and must display the same
standard of performance in all missions. The notion of women being weaker, especially
physically, seems ancient history and these values just never appear in LFN. Section
is a highly specialized and hierarchal organization, its members are highly
trained professionals, members are valued based on their skills and position
(although this raised ethical issues), not on their sex.
LFN is inclusive. Moving
up through the seasons, Section HQ is filled with new recruits, men and women,
and with multicultural backgrounds (I took a particular notice of the cast of Asian
women). Note that Michael’s “real” wife (also a Section operative) was portrayed
by an Asian actress and the woman he had to marry for a mission was Indian. For
90’s TV entertainment this inclusiveness is pretty cool.
Having said all that, I know that any true student of
feminism will be quick to point out that the above analysis is misleading
because gender equality is not measured by how women are as good as men or how
they measure up to men. Equality is not about sameness (for more, see MacKinnon
in Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, 1989). As such, assessing gender
equality by using the male standard as a yard stick leads to false equality.
But then again, how much can one expect from TV in the
alliance to support gender equality? The above list of facts is probably the
most we can get from TV producers. However, looking closer, LFN does score high
on one other aspect: No Cinderella ending.
Although Nikita’s relationship with Michael became a strong element in the
story, Nikita and Michael never ended up together. No matter how hard fans
pleaded, the writers never gave in to a happy ending.
While some may argue that in reading LFN as a text, one will
in fact find that there is a Cinderella tale in disguise. In later seasons
Nikita was in search of her true identity, who she was before she was taken to
Section, who took her to Section, and why? In her search of her files and her
past—which were classified and only the top people in Section, such as Michael,
can access—she later discovers that she is the daughter of the highest ranking man
in the agent world, Section’s superior. So, all this time she was always
guarded. And the fact that she is special to Michael, had made Michael go at
length to protect Nikita from certain circumstances. One was when Michael faked
Nikita’s cancelation which resulted in Michael being unsure if Nikita was able
to escape an explosion. So he searches for her secretly in vain. And when he
did find her, Nikita did not want to be found. So they had a struggle, and when
Michael was able to hold Nikita back, he said “I thought I lost you.” Nikita
answered “You never had me.” But, as can be predicted, they ended up making
love anyway. However, owing to the series’ deceptive plots and twisted endings,
viewers were well kept in the dark about Michael’s mysterious love for Nikita
throughout most of the seasons. In some episodes he loves her and in others he
is only using her to meet a mission’s end, and so forth. Michael’s
unpredictability tends to cast him off as being the knight in shining armors.
In season’s 4 finale which was supposed to end the whole
series, it was Nikita’s turn to save Michael, but to the surprise of the fans
and not to mention their grave disappointment, it ended with Nikita not
escaping with Michael and telling him that she does not love him. In reaction,
Michael cut the skin under both of his eyes with a knife, crying blood instead
of tears, he walked away from her. Nikita didn’t even look back.
Another eight episodes were later filmed due to the demand
of devastated fans. Ending the series for good, in the last episode of season
five, still—to the disappointment of most fans—Nikita chose Section over
Michael again, fulfilling her father’s wishes that she heads Section. Although this
time it all ended with Nikita telling Michael she loves him, there was no
Cinderella ending, no happy ever after…. If in Sex in the City, the Movie 2,
Carrie—TV icon of the liberated woman—ends up living comfortably with boyfriend,
Big, in his high end apartment and after her fling with her ex, Big finally decides to put a rock (ring) on her
finger; in LFN, no one can save
Nikita. This is LFN’s story telling strength; however, these “texts” become lost
amidst all the violence and love making. They are presently subtle within the strong
dialogs—concise and sharp—which characterizes LFN. LFN is heavy on dialog. Exchanges
are made Section style: gazeless, emotionless, and zombie-like. What makes LFN
edgy is the pause between dialogs and the body language that follows. It is
through this manner of dialog that viewers learn of the faith that bonds Nikita
and Michael. As in Section, operatives live and kill for today—there is no past
or after life, and there are no fairy tales and princesses to be saved.
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