La Femme Nikita (1997-2001)

This is the best dramatic TV series I have ever seen, bar none. I will watch it over and over to no end because the psychology of all the characters is so complex, layered, and deep. As a shadowy-antiterrorist-organization suspense-drama series, La Femme Nikita is patently more realistic and riveting than 24, MI-5, and all the rest. Peta Wilson plays the street urchin who is offered a deal she cannot refuse: train to become a lethally effective antiterrorist operative (though her independent spirit steadily resists the dehumanizing ethic of Section's tactics of coercion and manipulation because she cares about innocent lives). All this plus she is a sexy chameleon of a fashion plate. Roy Dupuis as her consummate mentor and once-consummated love interest is fascinatingly understated in his emotional reserve and self-control (and you learn why as they dole out his back story in dribs and drabs over the seasons). All that plus he's an athletic Adonis who doesn't shoot blanks. Eugene Glazer is brilliant and bloodless as (head of) Operations and Alberta Watson is unforgettable as his second-in-command, a masterful tactician of torture and psychological strategist. Don Francks and Matthew Ferguson are memorable for their yeomanlike contributions as suppliers of weaponry and surveillance, and all the lesser players (including two characters who are Watson's greatest challenges and two who are Nikita's) play their parts excellently. The set design, costuming, tactical realism and music are always top of the line. Five stars.