TAKEN

Bryan Mills is a former CIA agent.

I almost put down that he was a hostage rescue expert because he most certainly is highly trained and experienced in finding and freeing kidnapped and abducted people but he does not actually earn a living doing that, at least not always.

This are really two versions of Bryan Mills presented to the viewer.

The first one we meet is an elder Mills. He has put his time in with the Agency and chosen to retire. He could still be with that department of the government or he could be making very good money putting his talents on the civilian market but has chosen not to for the same reason he retired in the first place.

Mills had been married to a woman he still loves, Lenore, and they had a child together both dote on, Kim. Mills' work and frequent and prolonged absences due to his job cost him the marriage and Lenore eventually married someone else. Regretting not being there for his daughter and wanting a chance of reconciliation with her, Mills left the CIA and got a safe, sedate job near her.

That might have been the end of the story except for the kidnapping of Kim and the determined efforts of Mills to get her back. However, the violent actions needed to do that will create some nasty enemies which will return for revenge.

Mills will need to show over again how dangerous he is and how good he can be at rescuing people who have been taken.

The second one we meet is the much younger Mills. This is a former Special Forces operative who has a run-in with a powerful drug cartel leader which will cost the life of Mills' sister and forge his determination to get vengeance for her and to bring that leader to justice.

Mills will be shown that doing it alone is suicide and that there was a team of hostage rescue personnel working for government that had a spot he would fit in wonderfully.

Initially, Mills will demonstrate that he is very good at his newly found career but also rash and impetuous and thus prone to making mistakes. It will be a period of learning and maturing through the occasional failure and through successes that were not as good as they should have been.

Eventually that team will fall into disfavor and Mills will join with another operative and a computer hack to work again with Christina Hart, the woman who had run the first team only to see it broken up. Mills will show that he is even better than he was but he is still prone to brash actions.

Obviously looking at the time line, the movies came first in our time but the television show came first in the Mills universe.

Regarding the televison series, I enjoyed the first season's almost Mission Impossible feel of a team working together, and occasionally not, to achieve the desired goal. I like the teammates that Mills had but with such a large group, the chance for any to stand out was not there and since it was obvious that Mills was the central character, it had problems.

The second season was, to me, far more enjoyable because there were less people. Mills was the star but his two coworkers, Santana (played by the extremely talented Jessica Camacho) and Kilroy (a computer geek and anarchist terrifically played by Adam Goldberg), were a lot of fun to follow.

Jennifer Beals in both seasons was wonderful as always. I will watch her in anything.

The movies were, to me, the heart of the series and Liam Neeson's portrayal of a Bryan Mills with his 'very particular set of skills' making him capable of backing up his 'I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you', well, was instantly iconic.

The second movie was not as good as the first, but then they usually are not, and the third weaker still but both were fun to watch.

I have watched the third movie twice, the second movie several times, and I lost count of the viewings of the first.

Sorry about this but it is obvious that I am quite "taken" with this series.