Taken
2017
Original language: English
- action & adventure
- crime
- drama
- comedy
The story
The origin story of younger, hungrier, former Green Beret Bryan Mills as he deals with a personal tragedy that shakes his world. As he fights to overcome the incident and exact revenge, Mills is pulled into a career as a deadly CIA operative, a job that awakens his very particular, and very dangerous, set of skills.
What it’s like
Lean, hard-edged network-drama look: fluorescent-lit government offices, rain-slicked streets after dark, and a palette of cold blues, greys and sodium-orange city light, with handheld cameras that stay close to the actors during fights and chases. Action scenes are kinetic and physical, cut quickly, with a driving synth-and-percussion score that swells under set pieces and drops out for quieter scenes of grief and paperwork-grade tension. The vibe is sombre, pulpy and propulsive, a stock-thriller mood with a bruised, wounded core, best suited to a weeknight binge or a background watch while doing something else. Pacing is brisk, with episodes built around a case-of-the-week and a slowly tightening season-long conspiracy. The emotional register is grief turning to grim resolve: a damaged ex-soldier learning to channel rage into a new, dangerous job, with relationships that stay guarded and transactional. Violence is regular and fairly graphic: punches, gunfire, stabbings and bloodied aftermath, with some moderate cruelty and peril, but no sexual content and little gore beyond the expected. It suits viewers who want a gritty, action-forward espionage show with emotional stakes, not something gentle or lightly comic.
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