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| KIDNAPPED - THE COMPLETE SERIES |
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| Actors: Jeremy Sisto, Timothy Hutton, Carmen Ejogo, Dana Delany, Will Denton |
| Creator: Jason Smilovic |
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Studio: Sony Pictures |
| DVD release: 24 April 2007 |
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Runtime: 541 minutes
(3 discs) |
| Format: AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC |
| Features: Audio tracks (Dolby Digital AC-3 Surround Sound - English), Subtitles (English), 13 episodes, "Ransom Notes"
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Kidnapped may remind the viewer of Lost or 24 because the intensity and viewers' inability to walk away is very much the same. (I always recommend to new 24 fans to stop watching in the middle of each show, not at the end - emotions run too hot and tense, and you'll have to watch into the next one anyway. The same holds for Kidnapped.) Jason Smilovic, who most recently is producing The Bionic Woman show, was the executive producer of this 13-episode series.
A very wealthy family's only son is kidnapped in the first few minutes of the show. Wasting very little introduction time, his bodyguard is shot and he is whisked away with few traces of a path to follow. Knapp - played incredibly well by Jeremy Sisto - is brought in to help find the boy. Knapp is an expert in finding lost people and returning them to the families. He comes with a high pricetag, but he earns every cent of it. His almost cold manner is at odds with the passion that tingles the surface. Knapp is the most dynamic character, and although the others are all acted superbly, he continually surprises. He was the one I was most interested in learning more about - and he ends up being the one we learn the least about.
Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany are Conrad and Ellie Cain, well-to-do beyond any decently fathomable dreams, and their relationship is a tangled mess of deceit and betrayal. Delroy Lindo is incredible as the agent with the FBI who was in charge of the case. Carmen Ejogo plays Knapp's assistant, the ever-capable Turner. Mykelti Williamson is very believable as the bodyguard turned vengeful hunter.
Twists and turns and slowly revealed secrets make it impossible to fully guess the whole of the plot. Surprise bad guys, men with big guns, and cold, cruel hirelings are the earmarks of the thriller side of the show. The other side is the internal struggles and relationships of all of the main players. Both are woven together carefully and delicately so as to tell an entire tale that isn't even close to being one-dimensional - but would unravel and bare all if we knew which single thread to snip. For all the action and confusions, the jaw-dropping revelations definitely make it all worthwhile, in the end.
The filming was very well done, and the music couldn't have been more impressively well-suited to each individual scene and mood. Although it boasts only half of a usual showing season, Kidnapped is entirely complete in those thirteen episodes, and thoroughly satisfying.
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