Nikita: The Complete Fourth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Nikita: The Complete Fourth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown May 30, 2014

Spoiler alert: The following review assumes that the reader is familiar with the first three seasons of Nikita. If you have yet to finish the previous seasons, proceed at your own risk. A review of Season Three can be found here.

As consolation prizes go, a six-episode mini-season isn't half bad. Nikita had already lasted longer than its diminishing ratings could sustain, and most everyone involved in the production and watching at home could see the writing on the wall. What no one expected was an act of good will on the part of the financiers. The CW, in true service of the series' dwindling but devoted fans, shot down the idea of traditional cancellation in favor of something the bigger, badder networks should adopt as standard operating procedure: granting an exiting show the opportunity to wrap up its story in one form or another. A movie, a truncated season, even a final episode... anything that might allow its writers to offer closure to the series' fanbase. Of course, from such unique opportunities comes equally unique burdens. Chief among them a burden that falls to the writer's room: deliver an ending worthy of the saga that precedes it. Does Nikita's final six-episode stretch achieve something great? Does it bring things to a satisfying close? Or merely scribble a hurried exclamation point at the end of the show's last sentence?

Framed for a dramatic assassination, a rogue Nikita (Maggie Q) now finds herself alone and on the run as a wanted woman. In trying to clear her name, Nikita is unexpectedly reunited with her old team: Michael (Shane West), her ex-fiancé and the man who trained her; Alex (Lyndsy Fonseca), her former protégé; anarchist hacker and tech specialist Birkoff (Aaron Stanford); and ex-CIA analyst Ryan (Noah Bean). Sam (Devon Sawa), the Division agent formerly known as Owen, remains a wild card. Nikita and her allies must get past their emotional wounds to take down Amanda (Melinda Clarke), and in the process uncover a larger conspiracy that could lead to a global catastrophe.

Nikita's last hurrah is a bit crowded and pressed for time, but the trimmed down episode count is more a benefit than a curse, leaving no room for the sort of filler and baddie-of-the-week eps that tend to creep into every 20-episodes-per-season CW series. But Amanda and The Shop's sinister plot is also a wee bit sillier than usual (think lesser Bond-movie villainy), shoving the show into SyFy territory with a string of spittin' image dopplegangers designed to infiltrate the highest levels of government. A touch more Smallville than Nikita, it undermines the lean, sinewy intrigue and assassin vs. assassin action that's kept the story alive as long as it has and continues to propel Season Four forward. It all has a nice payoff in the final episode -- a finale which also just so happens to boast one of the series' most intricately mapped and cleverly plotted reveals -- but the lead-up challenges suspension of disbelief once too often.

The cast and script-writers are game, though, with Q and her cohorts still riding high on the thrill of Nikita's extremely well-crafted third season. Presented with plenty of emotional beats and meaty punches to take on the chin, the actors give it their best and give it their all, if nothing else bringing an intensity and honesty to a last-ditch mission that could have easily gone the way of revenge-fueled fan fiction. There's a lot of exposition for each of our selfless heroes to chew on -- a lot -- but no one falters or flinches, making some of the dopiest and driest lines plausible and impactful. The manner in which the final episode dovetails with the franchise's original premise (street urchins trained to be assassins) injects a welcome feeling of wholeness as well, uniting past and present before those who survive Season Four begin looking to the horizon of a more stable yet more uncertain future.

The result? A flawed but reasonably satisfying series sendoff that hits center mass more often than it fires wide. Diehard fans will be more excited than casual viewers at the whos, whys and hows of everything that goes down, but anyone who's stuck it out this long will be fairly pleased to have the ending as it is rather than the cliffhanger that was the Season Three finale. Would our imaginations have given us a better fourth season? I suspect so, although without the niftily executed suspense, twistiness, and nick-o-time saves the show revels in right up to its bittersweet close. It isn't nearly as sharp as Season Three, but I'll take it. Pay attention NBC, FOX, ABC and CBS. The CW may have a smaller audience, but it places far more value in every member of its viewership, and treats them accordingly. Nikita could've been unceremoniously axed, like so many cult favorite shows and Comic-Con darlings before it. But rather than dismiss the millions-strong fanbase the series had accumulated, the CW chose to say thank you. That thank you just came as a short but heartfelt note marked Season Four.

Nikita: The Complete Fourth and Final Season includes six episodes:

• Wanted: Nikita is still on the run after being framed for the assassination of the President of the United States. Dale (guest star Todd Grinnell), a reporter from the news channel ENN, starts questioning what really happened that night. Nikita sees this as an opportunity to clear her name so she re-enters the country to talk to Dale but walks right into a trap set by Amanda. The team is alerted and Michael sets out to find Nikita before Amanda does. While Birkhoff and Ryan help Michael from their new mobile office, a high-tech aircraft, Alex stakes out a human-trafficking ring and learns The Shop is involved. Things go south and Alex is surprised when Owen/Sam shows up at the scene.
• Dead or Alive: Nikita reunites with Michael, Birkhoff and Ryan aboard the team’s aircraft command center. Michael refuses to discuss their relationship but tells Nikita she should stay with the group and let them help her clear her name. Ryan realizes Amanda is making doubles of VIPs with The Shop’s help. Nikita discovers that one of the doubles is the Director of the FBI (guest star Alex Carter), but doesn't know how to kill him without exposing herself. Meanwhile, Alex holds Sam at gunpoint and demands he return what he stole from her, but when a gang of thugs attacks them they are forced to work together to escape.
• Set-Up: Tensions continue to escalate between the United States and Pakistan after Amanda plants evidence that Pakistan hired Nikita to kill the President. Ryan becomes suspicious of Birkhoff’s increasingly odd behavior and tells Nikita and Michael that he thinks Amanda may have kidnapped Birkhoff and planted a double on the plane. Meanwhile, the CIA captures Alex and questions her about her involvement with Nikita.
• Pay-Off: Mr. Jones benches Amanda and takes back the reigns of the operation. He calls Nikita and offers her and the entire team complete freedom by wiping away their identities and faking their deaths if they walk away from their mission. The team lands the plane on a secluded Pakistan air strip, but when the local drug czar and his men storm the plane and demand ten million dollars, so Nikita calls Alex for the money. After Alex pulls diamonds out of a safe deposit box to pay the insurgents, Sam sees an opportunity to recoup his losses and contemplates stealing the diamonds. Meanwhile, Michael comes face-to-face with an old adversary, Ramon, who hits Michael with some hard truths.
• Bubble: Just as Nikita is finally starting to see an end to the long war with The Shop, Ryan confesses a secret that could unravel it all. Meanwhile, Michael tries to get Nikita to accept their new circumstances as he contemplates what comes next for the two of them. Realizing Sam was planning to steal her diamonds, Alex gives him a suitcase of fake diamonds to deliver to her contact in France. Alex is surprised when he upholds his end of the bargain and doesn’t take off with the jewels. However, things get messy when Sam is jumped by the loan shark he owes money to, and Alex must step in to save him.
• Canceled: Frustrated that MDK is still active, Nikita decides to end it her way. Leaving Michael and the team behind, Nikita takes Alex on the road to exact revenge. Nikita and Alex capture Mr. Jones and force him to reveal the names of the rest of the members of MDK. Armed with the information, Nikita goes down a dark path that may ultimately cost her her soul. Michael tracks her down and must get her to surrender before the military opens fire and kills her. However, Nikita isn't one to give up on a fight, leading her to make a shocking decision.

Nikita: The Complete Fourth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nikita's fourth Blu-ray release looks every bit as good as the three that have come before it, with an excellent 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation free of compression issues and other indications that Warner's use of a single BD-50 was a mistake. (It's important to remember previous seasons also featured 5-6 episodes per disc.) Color and contrast are once again stylized and graded to the point that skintones are sometimes skewed, blacks crush and primaries struggle, but it's all in keeping with the showrunners' intentions. Thankfully, shadows are deep and dark (minus those in the first episode, which are rather muted by design), delineation remains quite impressive, and detail is rarely hindered. Edges? Crisp and clean; no serious ringing to report. Textures? Refined and rewarding, even when the image grows a tad noisy. Overall clarity? Terrific, and again, without the macroblocking, banding or aliasing that might muck up the proceedings. Nikita's Blu-ray run finishes strong.

Nikita: The Complete Fourth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As I've mentioned when reviewing past seasons, Nikita's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track doesn't disappoint... when dramatic events are set into motion or action-oriented scenes take center stage. When the series is sitting in a room, staring at four operatives hovering over a computer screen, the soundfield is far less engaging. Be that as it may, directionality is fairly precise, pans are smooth and dynamics are above average. Dialogue is always clear and intelligible too, without anything in the way of serious prioritization mishaps. LFE output lends plenty of power to the fray (in particular a mid-season missile strike), although there isn't quite as much in the way of out-and-out chaos to go around in a six-episode season. All in all, Nikita's fourth lossless track represents another solid sonic outing. Fans won't have much to complain about.

Nikita: The Complete Fourth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray release of Nikita: The Complete Fourth and Final Season doesn't include any special features.

Nikita: The Complete Fourth and Final Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Nikita's final six episodes may not deliver a perfect endgame, but then six episodes isn't exactly ideal or, for that matter, what the showrunners had in mind when plotting out a third season that left Nikita framed for the murder of a U.S. president. But the fact that the CW granted us an ending at all makes this one immediately noteworthy, and the way in which Nikita's conflict with Amanda and The Shop draws to a close makes it all worthwhile. Flawed? Absolutely, but don't dare let that stop you if you've come this far. There's enough in The Complete Fourth and Final Season to satisfy. The Blu-ray edition is unfortunately light on special features, but its AV presentation isn't light on anything, making for yet another Warner/CW television release that delivers.