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Reel Toronto: Nikita – Season 2 (Part One)
She's back! Television's bad-ass assassin, Nikita, goes everywhere from Amsterdam to Belarus to Turkey without leaving the GTA in the series' second season.
Toronto’s extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn’t always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.
We had so much fun with our first and second looks at Nikita—which hops all over the GTA while its characters hop all over the globe— we thought there was no point beating around the bush, and we might as well dive right into Season 2. To quickly recap: we are not talking about either the original French film, La Femme Nikita, or the American remake, Point of No Return, or the also-shot-in-Toronto-but-on-the-cheap series La Femme Nikita. Like all those properties, though, this show is about a bad-ass female assassin and her exciting spy adventures, which take her (at least in real life) from one end of the GTA all the way to the other.
The first episode starts outside this historic shop, actually Brothers Discount on Queen West, at Cameron.
Then we find ourselves in this motel…
…and there’s a big shootout…
…complete with drones attacking the courtyard…
…of what turns out to be the old City Motor Hotel, in Hamilton.
By the second episode, we’re safely back in the 416. This lovely banquet is at the old banking hall at One King West; it also played a restaurant toward the end of Season 1.
Ah, it’s always helpful to have captions remind us of where we most certainly aren’t.
This park, in which an assassination attempt takes place, is actually Allen Gardens.
So far, Nikita has “visited” Quebec several times, and made not one single fictional visit to lovely Toronto. We’ll pretend we’re not insulted by that, since here we are back again.
It looks as if this courtyard eatery is actually outside in Trinity Square…
…and this stroll is actually along Temperance Street.
The fourth episode takes place almost entirely in Turkey, which is a relatively unusual place for Toronto to sub for. This street is too tightly framed to identify, but it’s pretty clearly around here, despite the red filter they’ve thrown over it.
If you’re wondering which part of the GTA looks particularly Turkish, you may be amused to watch this action scene…
…which takes place outside…
…the mid-century International architecture of Hamilton City Hall…
…you can even see the local Sheraton across the street here.
You probably never thought of Hamilton as a place evocative of the Ottoman Empire, but it certainly steps up here. This train station…
…is Liuna Station, an action-film fave for everything from X-Men to The Long Kiss Goodnight.
We’re not sure, but we think this oddly located restaurant is down by the old Hamilton docks…
…but this bridge, ostensibly the way into Armenia, is the historic Chambers Bridge, over in West Montrose.
Somewhat further afield is this old-timey train…
…recognizable from its interior as the York-Durham Heritage Railway, occasionally used for period films but also always nice for a Sunday jaunt in the country!
It’s rather dark, but the greenhouse back there seems to suggest this park is actually the Toronto Botanical Garden.
It took long enough, but finally, in the series’ 27th episode, it’s the Distillery District! This time we’re supposed to be in Belarus, of all places.
A lot of the action in the fifth episode takes place at this mansion…
…and its grounds…
…up at North York’s Graydon Hall. How many mansions can these people film in without hitting Casa Loma? Let’s just say that between Graydon Hall, Liuna Station, the banking hall, and some of these other locations, Nikita is a good series to watch if you’re shopping for a historic wedding venue.
In the sixth episode, we spend more time in the series’ fictional home base, New York City. This church, however…
…is actually St. Paul’s, on Bloor…
…as is the interior.
We also get local thespian Alberta Watson chewing up some scenery!
This brief section in Episode 8 puts us in Washington, D.C., though those wee bits of the ROM and the Manulife Centre suggest we’re actually on Bloor.
But most of the episode takes place in rainy old London.
This quiet “London” street and home are seen a fair bit…
…and it’s actually kind of an unusual street…
Elmsley Place, part of St. Mike’s, at U of T. Given how picturesque and European it is, we’re surprised the only other thing we’ve seen it in is, um, The Prince and Me. You can see a university sign here…
…and the Kelly Library in the back of the episode’s final shot, complete with added phone booth and Underground sign!
The ninth episode is back in North America. This D.C. hotel is actually the Rosewater Supper Club…
…also where the interiors were shot.
This Washington garbage can sure seems familiar! We wonder if the pedal works, since they have less ice there?
This handsome espresso shop is actually Leslieville’s Tango Palace.
This downtown chase scene features a GO Bus…
…a CIBC…
…and helpful convenience store signs…
…placing us in downtown Hamilton.
Back in town, this, um, exotic bar, is the former Dolce Social Ballroom. It didn’t last long, but it was around long enough to appear here and in The Samaritan, as well.
This New York street is helpfully identified by a St. Louis Wings outlet; it’s on King Street.
And part of the episode also takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia—also “visited” in the first season. Here…
…it’s with a bit of help from the Cherry Street bridge (which has appeared in everything from A Christmas Story to The Incredible Hulk)…
…and this “airport,” just a bit of the Toronto docks area.
Finally, for this episode, we have this parking lot, which is probably the most filmed parking lot in the city. It’s the mega-Green P that runs from the base of Church to Jarvis.
A big part of the tenth and eleventh episodes takes place at the “Udinov Estate.”
This is actually the third time (counting two separate occasions in the first season) where we find ourselves at King City’s Eaton Hall. Yeah, you can have your wedding there, too.
Much of the episode also takes place in “Amsterdam.” Before this shot is done, you see a “Meville Cafe” sign behind them…
…and all the “Ballet Amsterdam” signs in the world can’t hide a CIBC—we’re really in Cambridge, which played London back in the first season. Indeed, that CIBC is right beside Cafe 13, which was visible in the London scenes.
And, phew, that’s it for the first half of the second season. We’ll get back to you soon with the rest of it and, in the fullness of time, the final two seasons as well. It’s hard to imagine there are parts of the city and region they still haven’t shot, but we’re watching for Casa Loma and waiting to see what European hot-spot Cambridge will double for next!
This post originally stated that the bridge doubling as the way into Armenia was the historic Barbertown Bridge—in fact, the bridge in question is the historic Chambers Bridge, located in West Montrose.