Taken Season 1
DVD Wholesale Quick Overview:
If you’ve ever wondered how the bad ass Bryan Mills portrayed by Liam Neeson in the action hit “Taken” obtained his “particular set of skills” here is your answer. “Taken” the small screen series introduces us to a young Bryan (Clive Standen) recently separated from the Army and the Green Berets. He’s traveling on a train with his little sister Callie when he spots a couple of shady characters, things go south fast and Callie is collateral damage in what turns out to be a hit on Mills. You see, back when Bryan was in the SF he participated in a raid against a drug cartel to rescue a DEA agent killing the cartel leader’s son in the process so it’s a revenge thing. He’s soon recruited by a CIA affiliate group and his training begins in earnest.
Bryan’s new boss is named Christina Hart (an ice cold Jennifer Beals). She leads a team called ODNI staffed with covert ops types who do a variety of off the books jobs for the government. Mills is a bit of a diamond in the rough and Christina and her crew work to school him in refining his abilities. Some of it seems like it would be unnecessary, the guy was in the Green Berets so he should really have the whole “team” thing down by this point. There’s a running joke in the earlier episodes when a target needs to be taken alive Bryan manages to kill them through a variety of cute accidents.
There is an unconvincing romance between Mills and a friend of his late sister, Asha (Brooklyn Sudano). Of course for today’s inclusive programming it’s a bi-racial relationship which feels contrived. However, this story arc plays a bigger role in the overall plot so at least it’s relevant.
The episodes are all pretty suspenseful and I enjoyed the show. Occasionally this team of spec ops experts makes some unlikely tactical decisions. In one caper type of episode they break into a Swiss bank and a mob boss they use to get in has to open his safe deposit box to disable an alarm. Do our agents hold a gun to his head or look in the box first once it’s unlocked? Nope; so of course he pulls two pistols out of the box and turns the tables on the good guys.
The ODNI crew performs a variety of missions but the core plot continues to involve the cartel boss Carlos Mejia (Romano Orzani) who killed Bryan’s sister. He’s captured early on and held in a black site but later escapes leading to a big showdown in Mexico after Bryan goes rogue in pursuit of him. As if Mills needs more motivation his girlfriend Asha has been “taken” by Mejia and is being held in a plush compound. The season ends with justice being served, the hostage saved but with our hero captured by the Mexican Federales and tossed in a dank prison cell. I’m definitely on board for Season 2 which unfortunately will be the last for “Taken” since it was recently cancelled. If you liked the ill-fated show “24 Legacy” which was canned after just one season then “Taken” might be worth your time.
– Colonel D
DVD Wholesale Main Features :
Actors: Clive Standen, Brooklyn Sudano, Monique Gabriela Curnen, Gaius Charles, Michael Irby
Directors: Various
Format: AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
Language: English
Region: Region 1
Number of discs: 3
Rated: NR Not Rated
Studio: LIONSGATE
DVD Release Date: September 26, 2017
Run Time: 440 minutes
ASIN: B072ZKW25N
