I recently just started watching Nikita, a show about a trained assassin who went rogue from an already rogue government group called Division (so the double rogue possibly makes her not rogue...). Division sent out agents to kill her fiance and now she is out for revenge, and she wants to get the other recruits who are manipulated into joining Division out of the program. Nikita trains a girl, Alex, whose parents were murdered by Division, and has her infiltrate from the inside.
There are plenty of movies and shows out there about assassins and secret agents either committing crimes or preventing them, but the interesting aspect of this show is that both parties are committing crimes. Even though Nikita is trying to prevent murders from happening that Division is implementing, she is willing to commit the crimes herself if it is in her best interest. Since the viewer is inclined to be on Nikita's side, this almost suggests that some crime is necessary and is okay if it is for the best interest of getting revenge and ultimately bringing down a rogue agency. There are even instances when police are involved and both Nikita and Division go against their authority, yet as the viewer, you think, "Oh that's okay if Nikita does it, but bad on Division's part."
In this particular episode, Nikita is after another one of Division's "Black Boxes," which hold all of the secrets Division is hiding from the world and are used to blackmail outside groups to do their bidding. So Nikita goes after the guardian of this particular black box when another rogue government group interferes, and finally the police arrive and everybody is shooting at everybody. Soon it is Nikita and the guardian vs. the police. At this point, I have to call Nikita out on this one. She is fighting so hard for revenge against the "bad guys," but she is killing dozens of police in the process. The show completely justifies Nikita turning against authority in order to achieve her mission. Not to mention it makes the police look like they are good for nothing as the majority of the force that was brought in gets taken out before the select few finally handcuff Nikita and the guardian (and they escape anyways so the police essentially did nothing but get killed).
So clearly, this representation of crime is over-exaggerating, but it does show an interesting conflict between the "good guys," the "bad guys," and the authorities. It no longer becomes good vs. bad, but has a triangle effect. Is Robin Hood still the "good guy" if he does everything out of selfish intentions?
I think that the media, in this case in particular, can promote crime if it means the so-called good guy becomes the hero, but that doesn't change the fact that crime was committed. Do the good acts cancel out the bad? I guess you could compare Nikita to Batman except the Batman is even more justified in what he does even if the public doesn't know it. This poses another question: Is is okay to commit a crime to prevent a worse one from happening? I suppose it is even a sticky situation in real life, but this representation clearly demonstrates that crime is cool and bad ass if you have good intentions and you look good while doing it.
This also shows a lot about what Americans want to see. They want to see that hero figure, but there also needs to be that inherent flaw that makes everything they are doing borderline. We want to see people cross that line and still have something good come out of it. In a way I think is justifies some of the lines that are crossed in the real world. The police can't win otherwise the hero fails. It's an interesting representation.
But hey, Nikita is unstoppable, and she can't be stopped otherwise there's no show.
In this particular episode, Nikita is after another one of Division's "Black Boxes," which hold all of the secrets Division is hiding from the world and are used to blackmail outside groups to do their bidding. So Nikita goes after the guardian of this particular black box when another rogue government group interferes, and finally the police arrive and everybody is shooting at everybody. Soon it is Nikita and the guardian vs. the police. At this point, I have to call Nikita out on this one. She is fighting so hard for revenge against the "bad guys," but she is killing dozens of police in the process. The show completely justifies Nikita turning against authority in order to achieve her mission. Not to mention it makes the police look like they are good for nothing as the majority of the force that was brought in gets taken out before the select few finally handcuff Nikita and the guardian (and they escape anyways so the police essentially did nothing but get killed).
So clearly, this representation of crime is over-exaggerating, but it does show an interesting conflict between the "good guys," the "bad guys," and the authorities. It no longer becomes good vs. bad, but has a triangle effect. Is Robin Hood still the "good guy" if he does everything out of selfish intentions?
I think that the media, in this case in particular, can promote crime if it means the so-called good guy becomes the hero, but that doesn't change the fact that crime was committed. Do the good acts cancel out the bad? I guess you could compare Nikita to Batman except the Batman is even more justified in what he does even if the public doesn't know it. This poses another question: Is is okay to commit a crime to prevent a worse one from happening? I suppose it is even a sticky situation in real life, but this representation clearly demonstrates that crime is cool and bad ass if you have good intentions and you look good while doing it.
This also shows a lot about what Americans want to see. They want to see that hero figure, but there also needs to be that inherent flaw that makes everything they are doing borderline. We want to see people cross that line and still have something good come out of it. In a way I think is justifies some of the lines that are crossed in the real world. The police can't win otherwise the hero fails. It's an interesting representation.
But hey, Nikita is unstoppable, and she can't be stopped otherwise there's no show.
