Nate Williams is a longtime tech and entertainment writer based in the Midwest. He covers movies and TV for Collider. Since 2016, his work has appeared on such sites as MakeUseOf, SlashGear, and ComingSoon.net, among others. When not actively working, you’ll likely find him seeing a new movie or reading an old book. (Or vice versa.)
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Fans of spy thrillers often fall into one of two camps: those who prefer some very sleek, very British espionage, and those who’d rather see some Hollywood blockbuster-level action. It’s the difference between the best James Bond adventures and the John Wick franchise. But what if you want both? Between the years 2010 and 2013, audiences could find a hybrid of both styles in a very unexpected place: The CW. For four straight seasons, Maggie Q starred in Nikita: a blend of high-stakes international espionage and bone-crunching action sequences that stood as one of the most underrated entries in the genre at the time.
Adapted from the 1997 Canadian series La Femme Nikita (itself an adaptation of Luc Besson’s 1990 French film of the same name), the setup might already be familiar to you. The series revolves around Division, a secret U.S.-funded agency that recruits troubled young people, fakes their deaths, and trains them to become elite assassins. But behind the scenes lies Oversight, an even more powerful organization manipulating global events through espionage, sabotage, and assassination. The titular Nikita exists in between this world of shadow governments, navigating covert operations, political conspiracies, and international criminal organizations for some classic spy storytelling.
Nikita’s missions unfold across multiple countries, hidden safe houses conceal dangerous secrets, and nearly every season introduces new double agents, rogue operatives, and shifting alliances. Much like Bond or Wick, Nikita rarely knows whom she can trust, forcing her to rely on instinct just as often as intelligence. But where the series separates itself from these other, bigger spy stories is its emotional motivation. Nikita isn’t fighting for queen and country or for a way out of the High Table’s grasp.** She’s waging a personal war against the people who stole her life**.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Years before the series begins, Division recruits Nikita from death row, promising redemption while secretly molding her into a killer. After she falls in love and plans to escape, Division murders her fiancé to eliminate the distraction. Three years later, she returns determined to dismantle the organization piece by piece. That singular mission gives the series the same relentless momentum that drives the action in John Wick movies. Rather than completing assignments for someone else, every operation advances Nikita’s personal crusade. Every fight, infiltration, and assassination pushes her closer to revenge while exposing increasingly dangerous layers of corruption.
A great revenge thriller only works if audiences believe its central character, and Maggie Q is nothing if not convincing as Nikita. Unlike many television stars who rely heavily on stunt doubles, she performed much of her own stunt work, lending the action an authenticity that remains impressive more than a decade later. And rather than overwhelming viewers with rapid-fire editing, Nikita frequently allows its action to breathe, showcasing extended hand-to-hand encounters that highlight precision over spectacle. The choreography isn’t as stylized as John Wick, but the emphasis on efficiency, improvisation, and close-quarters combat makes the comparison feel natural.
How many network dramas can you think of that went on long after their stories naturally concluded? Nikita manages to largely avoid that trap. Following strong reviews throughout its run (including an overall 88% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes), the series ultimately received a shortened six-episode fourth season that allowed its creative team to properly finish the story. Rather than leave off on an unresolved cliffhanger — or drag things out for another full season — Nikita gets to focus only on a satisfying series finale for its fourth and final outing.
The show also benefited from arriving before television became saturated with cinematic spy thrillers. Today, audiences can choose from countless streaming originals built around covert agencies and rogue operatives. In 2010, however, Nikita stood out by combining serialized storytelling with blockbuster-style action every week. Its lasting influence might not be as widely regarded as genre heavyweights like Alias or 24, but its formula still feels remarkably ahead of its time even now (and especially for The CW). For viewers looking for a series that combines James Bond’s world of international espionage with the kinetic action that defines John Wick, all four seasons of Nikita remain one of the genre’s most worthwhile TV binges.
