NIKITA: Judging a Book By Its Cover

Nikita season 1 lands on DVD and Blue-ray August 30, and we’re in the middle of editing interviews with the cast from Comic Con in advance of the new season, so I’ve been thinking about the show lately. One of the things that struck me last season was how people – allies, enemies, and everyone in between – underestimated Nikita based on her looks.

Beautiful, sexy, and alluring, Nikita certainly doesn’t look like a deadly assassin. Her slim frame belies her strength, however, and her intelligence is often overlooked for her other assets. Offensive? Maybe. Valuable? Undoubtedly. In Nikita’s line of work, being underestimated gives her a distinct advantage. By the time her adversaries realize they’ve been distracted by a short skirt, Nikita is three steps ahead and halfway to her goal.

Women are often underestimated based on our looks. I’m a girl-next-door type who happens to be a die-hard Trekker,  magna cum laude college graduate, and co-owner of a growing web company. Few people know about those facets of my life, though, which is fine with me. They see blond hair, green eyes and a ready smile and assume they know what kind of person I am. Usually I don’t correct assumptions, because it’s more fun to know that they’re wrong than the prove it, but now and then someone will patronize me in a way that raises my hackles.

I remember during my undergrad days when I worked at a local bookstore, there was a regular customer who came in to buy his sci-fi novels and try to impress us with his geek knowledge. One day he came in during my shift and started going on about space and how a certain plot point in a novel he’d read couldn’t work based on the laws of physics. Unfortunately for him, I’d just read an article in Astronomy magazine hypothesizing that it very likely could (and did) happen the way the author wrote it. By the time the discussion was over, he wasn’t acting nearly as superior. Can you imagine how his mind would reel if I’d told him I went to Star Trek conventions, too?

Moral of the story: don’t judge a woman by her appearance. You never know if she’s a trained assassin or just smarter than you.

Nikita season 1 arrives on DVD and Blu-ray August 30. Pre-order your copy now!