Bryan Mills has a very particular set of skills, but in 2018, those skills weren't enough to save the show from a massive identity crisis. If you watched the first season of the NBC prequel and then tuned into the Taken 2017 TV series Season 2, you probably thought you’d accidentally clicked on the wrong channel. It was a total overhaul. Almost the entire cast was gone. The tone shifted from a serialized origin story to a "mission-of-the-week" procedural. Honestly, it was a bold move that some fans loved and others absolutely hated.
NBC brought in Greg Plageman, the guy who ran Person of Interest, to take over as showrunner for the second outing. He didn't just tweak things. He gutted the house. Gone were the days of Bryan Mills working within a massive, bureaucratic team. Instead, the show stripped things down to a leaner, meaner trio. It felt more like the Luc Besson movies—faster, more isolated, and way more focused on the kinetic energy of Clive Standen’s performance.
The Massive Cast Purge and Why It Happened
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Most of the team from season one—Gaius Charles, Brooklyn Sudano, Monique Gabriela Curnen—just disappeared. They were written out entirely. Only Clive Standen (Bryan Mills) and Jennifer Beals (Christina Hart) remained. It’s rare to see a show do a hard reset like that unless the ratings are in the basement, which, frankly, they were struggling. The network wanted something that felt more like a high-octane action flick every Friday night rather than a slow-burn spy drama.
The new dynamic centered on Mills, Hart, and a new character named Santana, played by Jessica Camacho. She brought this cynical, street-smart vibe that balanced out Mills’ more stoic, "I’ll jump off this building if I have to" attitude. Then you had Adam Goldberg playing Kilroy, a grey-hat hacker who was basically there to provide the tech-speak and comic relief. It worked, but it felt like a different universe.
If you’re a fan of the Vikings series, you know Clive Standen can handle physicality. In Season 2, they really leaned into that. The stunts got bigger. The fights got grittier. But the narrative connective tissue suffered because we lost the emotional weight of Bryan’s family life, which was a huge part of the first season’s DNA.
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How the Storytelling Shifted in Season 2
The premiere of Season 2, titled "S.E.R.E.," starts with Bryan in a Mexican prison. It’s a claustrophobic, intense opening that sets the stage for a more nomadic version of the character. He’s no longer just a cog in the CIA machine; he’s a man who often operates on the fringes. This change was clearly an attempt to mirror the Liam Neeson version of the character—a guy who is constantly "on the run" even when he’s the one doing the hunting.
The episodes became much more self-contained. In one week, they’re stopping a biological weapon; the next, they’re rescuing a kidnapped diplomat. While this makes for easy "background TV," it lost some of the serialized tension that modern audiences usually crave. You could skip an episode and not feel like you missed a massive plot point. For some, that was a relief. For others, it felt like the show was losing its soul to become another Hawaii Five-0 clone.
The Conflict of the Prequel Concept
Here is the weird thing about the Taken 2017 TV series Season 2: it’s a prequel set in the modern day. Think about that for a second. Bryan Mills is using iPhones and high-tech drones in 2018, but he’s supposed to be a younger version of the guy we met in the 2008 movie. It creates this bizarre chronological rift.
- Season 1 tried to explain how he got his "skills."
- Season 2 just assumed he already had them and wanted to see him use them.
- The tension between "origin story" and "modern thriller" never quite resolved.
Most viewers just learned to ignore the timeline. If you stop trying to make the math work, the show is actually a decent procedural. Standen is genuinely good as Mills. He doesn't try to do a Liam Neeson impression; he makes the character more of a raw, unpolished weapon. He’s impulsive in a way that the older Mills isn’t, which adds a layer of unpredictability to the action scenes.
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Why NBC Ultimately Pulled the Plug
Despite the creative reboot, the ratings didn't do what the network hoped. The show was moved to Friday nights—often called the "death slot" in network television. It struggled to find a consistent audience. By the time the finale of Season 2 rolled around, it felt like the writing was on the wall. NBC actually pulled the remaining episodes from the schedule at one point, later burning them out during the summer months.
It’s a shame, really. The chemistry between Standen and Beals was the strongest part of the series. Beals played Christina Hart with this cold, calculating brilliance that made you wonder if she was actually the villain of the piece sometimes. In Season 2, her role became even more complex as she had to navigate the political fallout of her team’s unsanctioned actions.
The final episodes tried to wrap things up, but they left enough breadcrumbs for a Season 3 that never came. We saw Bryan becoming more of the solitary figure we know from the films, pulling away from the structures of government. It was the character arc we were promised, but it just ran out of time.
Critical Reception vs. Fan Reality
Critics weren't exactly kind to the second season. Many felt the "soft reboot" was a sign of desperation. On Rotten Tomatoes and various fan forums, the divide was clear. Some fans missed the ensemble cast of Season 1 and felt the show became too generic. Others felt the faster pace of Season 2 was exactly what the doctor ordered.
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The action choreography, however, remained a high point. They used a lot of practical stunts. You could tell Standen was doing a lot of his own work, and that lends a certain level of credibility to the fight scenes. When he takes a hit, it looks like it hurts. That’s something the movies eventually lost with their "one thousand cuts per minute" editing style.
Where to Watch and What to Look For
If you’re looking to binge the Taken 2017 TV series Season 2 today, it’s mostly available on streaming platforms like Amazon Prime (depending on your region) or through digital purchase on Vudu and Apple TV.
If you decide to dive in, keep an eye out for these specific things:
- The Shift in Cinematography: Season 2 looks more cinematic and less like a standard TV drama.
- Kilroy’s Tech: The way the show handles hacking is... well, it’s TV hacking, but Adam Goldberg makes it entertaining.
- The Absence of Family: Notice how Bryan’s sister and parents, who were central to Season 1, are barely mentioned. It’s a total pivot.
Actionable Takeaways for Viewers
If you’re a fan of the Taken franchise or just looking for a solid action procedural, here is how to approach Season 2 without getting frustrated:
- Treat it as a standalone: Don't worry too much about the continuity from Season 1. The showrunners didn't, so you shouldn't either.
- Appreciate the stunts: This isn't a CGI-heavy show. The physical work by the lead actors is top-tier for network television.
- Expect the procedural format: It’s not Breaking Bad. It’s a "catch the bad guy of the week" show with a very charismatic lead.
- Watch for Jennifer Beals: Her performance is arguably the most nuanced thing in the series, providing the emotional stakes when the bullets stop flying.
The legacy of the Taken TV show is a bit of a mixed bag. It never quite captured the cultural zeitgeist the way the first movie did, but for a brief moment in 2018, it tried to redefine what a "movie-to-TV" adaptation could look like by completely blowing up its own premise. It was an experiment in real-time rebranding. Whether that experiment succeeded is up to you, but as a pure action vehicle, it’s a lot more competent than most people give it credit for.