The Taking

Kyra Agnew is on top of the world. Her future is bright. She has a wonderful boyfriend, a loyal best friend, and a loving family. She excels at softball and will surely get a sports scholarship to college. On the way home from a game, she argues with her father and gets out of the car to walk home in a huff. The last thing she remembers is a flash of light before waking up laying in the parking lot of a gas station. Five years have passed and Kyra has no memory of where she was. Her whole life has changed. Her parents split up. Her mother remarried and had a child. Her father is a drunken mess obsessed with alien abductions. Her boyfriend moved on to be with her best friend. Alone and adrift in a world she no longer recognizes, Kyra's only comfort is Tyler, her ex-boyfriend's little brother, who supports her every step of the way. Together, they try to figure out what really happened to her.

The Taking has a concept that is quite popular this year. I haven't seen any of these shows, so the concept is fresh and interesting to me. I felt a lot of sympathy of Kyra because her world was turned upside down. Sure, her initial appearance where she acted kind of bratty and annoying wasn't a great impression, but that's how teenagers act. They're impulsive and don't look at the long term. When she returns, she copes with the situation as best as she can. The relationship with Tyler started really fast and was really based on nothing. It's another case of instalove, but it was at least sweet. Tyler is a little too perfect though. Characters have to have some flaws and he's like a teenage girl's ultimate fantasy. The romance also took precedence over the more important issue of where she was for five whole years. It takes a while for anything real to happen because of the focus on romance.

The concept that Kyra hadn't aged in 5 years was intriguing. Her new abilities were interesting, but it seemed very Mary Sue-ish that she had the most special powers of all the returned. I wish more information could have been found out about the process and the aliens, who weren't in the story at all. Why would aliens want to do this to us? What's the purpose of the experimentation? The ending was too convenient and really took me out of the story. I'm not interested in continuing the series.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins