LOS ANGELES 鈥� When it debuted in February 2017, NBC promoted their new drama Taken as being based on the trilogy of action films starring Liam Neeson. Those films featured retired government operative Bryan Mills, who in a classic scene explained he had 鈥渁 particular set of skills鈥� he would use to save his daughter.
It was a little difficult to see how the new series connected to the films during Season 1 as the series, airing Fridays on NBC, began with a very young Mills played by Clive Standen. It鈥檚 obvious now that the second season has started that those first 10 episodes were just setting up the foundation for the character.
The first season was necessary because of the vast differences between TV and film. Each of the Taken movies came in at about two hours, and all three had a beginning, middle and end. That鈥檚 only six hours for the entire movie franchise.
Standen said in an interview: 鈥淲ith a TV show you hopefully want it to go 30, 40, 50 hours and you can鈥檛 have an end until you know when your last season is. So therefore you can鈥檛 give the audience too early the finished product of the character.
Making a TV show is a marathon and not a sprint.
鈥淚n this case, the finished product is a 60-year-old man who is grizzled and jaded and [has] lost his family.鈥�
That first season was spent showing the reckless side of the character of a Green Beret who joins the entirely different world of the CIA and black ops. To accomplish his training to fit in that world required Mills being surrounded by a team. That鈥檚 why Mills works with former CIA spy Christina Hart (Jennifer Beals), who sent him and a team of covert operatives on rescue missions around the world.
Now that the heavy lifting has been done to get Mills trained, there has been some reshuffling this season to reduce the cast to four main characters. Plots will now lean more on the particular set of skills Mills brings to the spy world. That change means less of a focus on international bad guys and more personal stories. Standen describes this season as being more like The Equalizer, where the focus is more on individuals or families in need.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I signed on to do this series in the first place,鈥� he said.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I saw in the films. Now we finally have that in the show. It may be a season too late, but thankfully people invested in the show and we got a Season 2. Now we can really give the viewer what they wanted. 鈥�
Whether it is a big mission on the other side of the world or a small problem near to home, Taken is a physically demanding job. Standen already had a strong foundation in the action world after starring in a variety of TV roles that both required massive amounts of research and physical training. Along with playing Rollo, a fearsome warrior with a wild impulsive streak in History Channel鈥檚 Vikings, he portrayed Sir Gawain in the Starz original series Camelot, alongside Joseph Fiennes and Eva Green, and had a starring role in the BBC America series Robin Hood.
Taking on the wide range of roles makes Standen happy because he looks at acting as just getting to 鈥減lay make-believe.鈥� He鈥檚 more comfortable when he鈥檚 dressed for a role than when he looks more like a company executive.
Taken is his first series in recent years in which Standen wears modern clothes. But, he is so aware of exactly how the character would think and act, it鈥檚 not unusual for Standen to have disagreements with what he鈥檚 given to wear as Mills.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 stand the TV idea of everyone looking perfect all the time,鈥� Standen says. 鈥淏ryan is too busy to go shopping. Bryan鈥檚 the kind of guy who leaves his clothes in the washing machine for four days and they would be dank and wrinkled. But, that鈥檚 not the way it works on network TV.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 like being clean cut.鈥�
