Watch This: Thursday's a twofer night

Two new shows start tonight, one looks spooky, intriguing and clever, the other has Maggie Q as a kickass rogue assassin shooting baddies. Good job they're not on at the same time.

Nikita
Living, 9pm



Hey Nikita is it cold, in your little corner of the world?

I was surprised to find that this series isn’t an interpretation of Elton John’s 1985 hit of the same name. Instead, it’s a reboot of the Nikita story which started life as a French film, became and American film and most recently a Canadian TV series chronicling the adventures of a rouge assassin bent on revenge against her captors.

For its rather convoluted history, New Nikita isn’t the car crash television I thought (and somewhat hoped) it would be. As the titular character, Maggie Q performs all her own stunts and is excellent as the prisoner-turned-spy-turned vigilante. The series does take a different road from its ancestors; she’s gone AWOL and is trying to take down the government agency who forced her into the assassin role while at the same time trying to rescue other youngster they’ve captured.

Comparable to Alias in some ways, it is a good action drama and lots of fun to watch; even if you only laugh at poor Shane West (ER) trying his hardest to be, well, the hard man and try and spot other tones in the colourist’s palette beside orange and teal.

Haven
Syfy, 10pm



Has something been missing in your life since American Gothic ended?

Overly imaginative FBI Agent Audrey Parker (Emily Rose; Ed’s note- don’t Google her name without including “actress”, or you’ll get the poop scared out of you), gets sent to Haven, Maine by her mysterious boss in order to track down an escaped fugitive. When she gets to Haven, Agent Parker discovered the villain already dead in mysterious circumstances and the locals all look good for it.

Further investigation leads to her uncovering mysterious facts about the citizens of Haven, from her de facto police partner who can’t feel pain, to a photograph in a 30 year old newspaper which looks mysteriously like Audrey herself. Is it her long lost mother, a doppelgänger, or does she just have excellent skin for a 70 year old.

Do you get it yet? It's mysterious!

I’m a fan of the show; while it does have an over-reaching story arc, each episode is fairly self contained, so you can dip in and out of it if need be. It’s not a brain twister, but it is an engaging and, yes, mysterious, drama.

Good work, Syfy, on your first international self-made programme.