On Superspies and La Femme Nikita

[raefinlay]

I couldn’t sleep last night, so I watched a couple eps of La Femme Nikita. I loved it muchly. It’s a lot like Alias--which I also love in spite of much silliness--but more artsy, grittier.

These days, when I watch anything, I analyze in terms of STORY. So I watched Nikita, and I learned. The show contains an element of realism I find fascinating, but not to the exclusion of its Big Outrageous Plot. The perfect combination. This is how I want to write.

For example, when her nose bled, the blood coagulated and turned dark. When she sucked on her hair, the strands stuck together in a slightly viscous base. After an explosion threw her to the ground, her nylons ran and she skinned her knee. Even her apartment, which is profoundly cool, expresses something about her rather than being a mere accessory to the show (because if one is a spy, one must have cool digs.) There is a subtle, underlying theme of Nikita decorating the place in soft colors and pipe-cleaner sculptures, and it becomes a symbol of the other Nikita, the one who hates her job and just wants to be a normal girl. (This is a cliché of course, but the subtle, subtexty presentation makes it feel like anything but.)

So, yeah. *learns from Nikita*

BUT. My original assertion, the one that inspired Elisa’s Belly still stands. Hollywood can’t make a realistic spy show, because real spies are not 6-foot Icelandic beauties. Real spies blend in, never garnering a second look. (I mean, the Discovery Channel says so, so it must be true, right?) And real spies use their brains more often than fast-forward spin kicks.

Sydney and Nikita may be hot fighter chicks, but Elisa could take both their skinny @$$3$. Now, I just need figure out how to have her do it using all those lovely, Nikita-esque details.

Comments

[pjthompson]

I was once devoted to Nikita, when it originally aired. The early eps had just that quality you spoke of--gritty angst and grounding details amidst the goofiness. It just got sillier and sillier, I'm afraid. Less grit and more FAN-tasy. I think that's an inevitable decline in these kinds of shows because, as you said, it isn't based on anything really real. And my money's on Elisa, too. :-)

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Ah bummers. I had such high hopes for the show. At least I'll enjoy season 1!

And thx for the vote of confidence for Elisa. *g*

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

If one is a spy, one is lucky to have digs, isn't one? I mean, if you're on a job, you are in temp digs, and if you are at home, you are in. . . undercover, ordinary-looking digs? Hiding your souvenir postcards from places you aren't supposed to have been to?

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Excellent points. But if you are a TV spy, you must have cool digs. I think there's a rule posted somewhere. :-)

[cathemery.livejournal.com]

There must be! It's in the Secret Guide to Spy and Adventure Show Screenplays (TM). There are only three copies in existence, and one of them is lost. One is passed around in Hollywood, so battered and filthy that occasionally someone mistakes the coffe stains on page 4 for a cryptic rune signifying hair, when really the word beneath it is flair, which is how we end up with characters pausing to play with their hair in the middle of the fight scenes.

The other copy is currently on the black market with a fake title and a high price, so that none of the people who desperately want it realize what it is. It's about to be purchased by a kid in --- umplhaklj

"No, wait, I won't tell! let me goooooooo. .. ."

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

*laughing soooo hard*
*wipes tears*

[aaron-mag.livejournal.com]

Weight does give a certain advantage. But, of course, conditioning can take you a long way. Then there is also experience.

There is a guy in my Sambo class who is 270 and I'm 205. When he gets me on the bottom it is really tough (having all that weight pushing on down on you is tough...(side note, Cynthia always says, "Now you know what a woman feels like!" when I complain to her about such things).

But currently I'm in better shape than he is. So I 'shrimp', try to roll him, keep him working, etc, until he gasses himself out. Then I take the top position and typically get the sub (all the fight is out of him because he is so tired).

So I'm guessing Elisa won't be able to take Sydney or Nikita for awhile. She gets tired just going up stairs...

But once she gets some experience under her belt, watch out. :)

(Same for that dude. Once he gets in better shape and he gets me beneath him...I'll never be able to roll him off. I'll just squirm there for awhile until I have to give up. :D)

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Hah! You think like such a guy, Aaron. Elisa could take Sydney. But there would be no fight. A poisoning of her high-power protein shake maybe. Or an insidious infiltration of Sydney's support system. Mind games. A diversionary tactic to lead Sydney away from Elisa's endgame...

Elisa does not engage.

[aaron-mag.livejournal.com]

Heh heh...

I assumed by referring to Sydney and Nikita as 'skinny' you were referring to Hollywood's tendency to ignore weight advantages in a fight scene. Anyone who has ever strapped on the gloves or grappled knows it plays a major factor.

But in Hollywood you've got skinny guys and gals throwing these big dudes around as if it were nothing. Not that I mind. It is, after all, 'fantasy'. Real fighting is boring, violent, ugly, and brutal. Who wants that kind of stuff unless it is specifically meant to show the horrors and brutality of violence. Really good and insightful movies should leave you thinking, "I really don't want to be in that sort of situation. It pretty much sucks..."

:D

How is that for a long winded response?

[raecarson.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I mean, no one ever talks about how much it fricken HURTS to punch someone. Or about the lack of rules in street fighting. Like you said, it's brutal and ugly.

[aaron-mag.livejournal.com]

That is the weird thing about martial arts (that few understand). It is supposed to be a study where the 'master' learns after years of study that violence is ugly and senseless and that it proves nothing. Hence brutality and crudeness is supposed to become something artistic and positive. Not used for violence, but expression of an 'art' that is supposed to bring inner peace...

Only that is not the way it is portrayed in movies and such. Then it is using it to save lots of people through violence (rather than as an alternative to violence). Ah well...who would want to watch a movie about reality anyway...

:D

[navicat.livejournal.com]

Go Elisa! My money's on her.

Oh, btw - way to go to make me REALLY want to read the rest of 'Elisa's Belly'! :p