Getting it better: Nikita
Oct. 17th, 2011 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marinessSo after my rant about Warehouse 13, someone alerted me to a recent episode of Nikita (season 2, episode 3, "Knightfall") with a similar theme.
Only done better.
Let's unpack again:
If you've missed Nikita, it's more or less about various shadowy government operatives and rogue operatives and assassins running around killing people. In "Knightfall," Nikita and Michael encounter one of these guys, Ramon, who is now in a wheelchair since another one of those operatives shot him in the spine. Here's what the show got right:
1. Ramon is not an innocent eight year old kid with an artifact that is slowly making him eeeeeeeeeeeeevil, but an international terrorist and assassin responsible for killing several people (the show is unclear on how many). Nikita admires him because she thinks Ramon has a good agenda, but "good" here means "compared to the agendas of the people I am working for, who are flat out evil." Ramon may be a nice, liberal sort of dude who aims his gun only at evil corporate targets, but he's achieving his radical agenda through guns, not, you know, saving trees or improving sanitary conditions or organizing boycotts or whatever. And he is fully aware that his actions will have consequences – he expects to be murdered at any moment – but has decided that these consequences are worth it.
2. The guy who fires the shot that puts Ramon in a wheelchair is an unquestionably bad guy, heading up the evil organization that the heroine of the show is trying to bring down.
3. The bad guys have very good reasons for doing this to Ramon -- they want to incapacitate him, because Ramon has been working against their interests, but an incapacitated Roman can be used in their eeevvvvvvvvvill plans. Plus, by incapacitating but not killing him, they can continue to hit Nikita with intense psychological pressure and guilt, and continue to cover up their tracks.
4. Nonetheless, the show makes no attempt to have anyone defend the spinal shooting or claim that this was, in the long run, a good thing that had to be done for the safety of humanity blah blah.
5. Everyone in the show – Nikita, bad guys, geek guy, even Ramon – recognize that although Ramon may now be in a wheelchair and thus a bit hampered in the running around and shooting evil corporate executives business, he is still useful and dangerous. The bad guys are using Ramon as a front to cover up their activities; Nikita is trying to use Ramon to help her bring down the bad guys and rescue Michael. On a related note Ramon is still able to film and edit his own videos and continue to have a voice, if a more limited one. And he is able to summon Division people and get a shooting spree going (although this last bit seems more because the script said, wait, we've gone ten minutes without a single gun shot? What's wrong with us? ATTACK!)
6. Ramon is, unsurprisingly, not thrilled that he is now in a wheelchair. Let's change "not thrilled" to "thoroughly pissed off." But as he and the show make clear, Ramon is not just angry at Nikita (and everyone else) for putting him in a wheelchair. He's also furious because Division usurped his entire calling (and it's clearly a calling, not just a political agenda) for their own eevvvvvvvill purposes AND took away his main job, all of which happened because Nikita refused to respect the choices he'd made in life. (Or, for that matter, obey orders.) And by refusing to respect his choices, she left Ramon with almost no choices.
7. Division has created thoroughly wheelchair accessible facilities for all of their disabled workers and is completely ADA compliant! (I have to admit this line just cracked me up, and I suppose making the point that the most accessible places on the show are run by evil people makes its own point, but still, kudos for making the point.)
8. Instead of vowing revenge on everyone, Ramon – brace yourself for the shock – decides to work with the situation, doing and getting what he can out of what is a seriously crappy deal, but at least ensures that his voice and agenda will not be silenced.
9. Nikita leaves Ramon on the road in his wheelchair, with a gun, fully confident that Ramon will be able to use it when necessary.
10. And, in the end, Ramon, from his wheelchair, saves Michael. Division still ends up murdering people, but that's mostly thanks to a subplot of a very annoying character (Alex, the main reason I don't watch this show on a regular basis.) And why is Ramon suddenly helpful? Because finally Nikita accepts that she can't keep making Ramon's choices for him.
I wasn't entirely happy with the episode, mind you (why is Alex on the show?), including just how Ramon got that spinal injury in the first place, and I'm not going to claim that Nikita doesn't have its problems (why is Alex on the show?), and the plot holes are large enough to accommodate large ocean liners, but kudos for creating more nuanced disabled characters. (But, why is Alex on the show?)
Only done better.
Let's unpack again:
If you've missed Nikita, it's more or less about various shadowy government operatives and rogue operatives and assassins running around killing people. In "Knightfall," Nikita and Michael encounter one of these guys, Ramon, who is now in a wheelchair since another one of those operatives shot him in the spine. Here's what the show got right:
1. Ramon is not an innocent eight year old kid with an artifact that is slowly making him eeeeeeeeeeeeevil, but an international terrorist and assassin responsible for killing several people (the show is unclear on how many). Nikita admires him because she thinks Ramon has a good agenda, but "good" here means "compared to the agendas of the people I am working for, who are flat out evil." Ramon may be a nice, liberal sort of dude who aims his gun only at evil corporate targets, but he's achieving his radical agenda through guns, not, you know, saving trees or improving sanitary conditions or organizing boycotts or whatever. And he is fully aware that his actions will have consequences – he expects to be murdered at any moment – but has decided that these consequences are worth it.
2. The guy who fires the shot that puts Ramon in a wheelchair is an unquestionably bad guy, heading up the evil organization that the heroine of the show is trying to bring down.
3. The bad guys have very good reasons for doing this to Ramon -- they want to incapacitate him, because Ramon has been working against their interests, but an incapacitated Roman can be used in their eeevvvvvvvvvill plans. Plus, by incapacitating but not killing him, they can continue to hit Nikita with intense psychological pressure and guilt, and continue to cover up their tracks.
4. Nonetheless, the show makes no attempt to have anyone defend the spinal shooting or claim that this was, in the long run, a good thing that had to be done for the safety of humanity blah blah.
5. Everyone in the show – Nikita, bad guys, geek guy, even Ramon – recognize that although Ramon may now be in a wheelchair and thus a bit hampered in the running around and shooting evil corporate executives business, he is still useful and dangerous. The bad guys are using Ramon as a front to cover up their activities; Nikita is trying to use Ramon to help her bring down the bad guys and rescue Michael. On a related note Ramon is still able to film and edit his own videos and continue to have a voice, if a more limited one. And he is able to summon Division people and get a shooting spree going (although this last bit seems more because the script said, wait, we've gone ten minutes without a single gun shot? What's wrong with us? ATTACK!)
6. Ramon is, unsurprisingly, not thrilled that he is now in a wheelchair. Let's change "not thrilled" to "thoroughly pissed off." But as he and the show make clear, Ramon is not just angry at Nikita (and everyone else) for putting him in a wheelchair. He's also furious because Division usurped his entire calling (and it's clearly a calling, not just a political agenda) for their own eevvvvvvvill purposes AND took away his main job, all of which happened because Nikita refused to respect the choices he'd made in life. (Or, for that matter, obey orders.) And by refusing to respect his choices, she left Ramon with almost no choices.
7. Division has created thoroughly wheelchair accessible facilities for all of their disabled workers and is completely ADA compliant! (I have to admit this line just cracked me up, and I suppose making the point that the most accessible places on the show are run by evil people makes its own point, but still, kudos for making the point.)
8. Instead of vowing revenge on everyone, Ramon – brace yourself for the shock – decides to work with the situation, doing and getting what he can out of what is a seriously crappy deal, but at least ensures that his voice and agenda will not be silenced.
9. Nikita leaves Ramon on the road in his wheelchair, with a gun, fully confident that Ramon will be able to use it when necessary.
10. And, in the end, Ramon, from his wheelchair, saves Michael. Division still ends up murdering people, but that's mostly thanks to a subplot of a very annoying character (Alex, the main reason I don't watch this show on a regular basis.) And why is Ramon suddenly helpful? Because finally Nikita accepts that she can't keep making Ramon's choices for him.
I wasn't entirely happy with the episode, mind you (why is Alex on the show?), including just how Ramon got that spinal injury in the first place, and I'm not going to claim that Nikita doesn't have its problems (why is Alex on the show?), and the plot holes are large enough to accommodate large ocean liners, but kudos for creating more nuanced disabled characters. (But, why is Alex on the show?)