By Michelle Hart, Staff Writer

“Nikita,” The CW’s new spy drama, could have easily fallen into all of the trappings that usually follow such a premise. Equal parts “Kill Bill” and the Bourne trilogy, the show follows Nikita, a femme fatale living on the run from the very organization she wishes to exact revenge upon. The organization happens to be a secret government breeding ground for lethal mercenaries, something like a teen-angst version of Blackwater. For what, exactly, is she exacting revenge? The death of the love of her life. Make no mistake, this has all been done before. Forget the two previous incarnations of the character, Nikita also harkens back to the misadventures of the crimson-haired Sydney Bristow on “Alias.”

In spite of all of this, however, Nikita comes off as fresh as morning dew. It’s hard to pin down, exactly, what allows this show to transcend its influences and genre cousins, but it’s a good guess that what makes this show feel so new is the ability to wear its influences on its proverbial sleeve.

Succinctly put, Maggie Q (who plays the titular hero) kicks a lot of ass. Throughout the first episode, Nikita cunningly takes out many of Division’s assassins. Yet the operative word here is cunning: Nikita not only bests her opponents physically, she has the intelligence and foresight to mentally dominate them as well. Alex, a spy in training, clearly shares Nikita’s gift of manipulation too. It becomes increasingly evident throughout that Alex is a force to be reckoned with. It’s not ashamed of its kinship to “Human Target” or even “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” but it basks in its relationship with such shows.

One of the more pleasing elements of the pilot was its treatment of the past. With a show as complex as this, with a lot of important events taking place before the timeline of the series, it is easy to get bogged down in using flashbacks as a sole plot device. Nikita, on the other hand, uses such conventions sparingly, instead opting to catch the viewer up through dialogue that fortunately falls just short of expository.

The two main twists of the pilot, which both come at the very end, are so unforeseeable that by the time the credits roll even the critics and skeptics will find themselves dazed and confused. A show about a lover-turned-assassin taking down a mysterious government agency can surprise you not once but twice? Unheard of! “Nikita” is definitely the first must-watch show of the new television series.