The Russo Brothers’ Citadel is Amazon Prime Video’s most expensive show, rivalled only by its ambitious Rings of Power. But the money, unfortunately, is not well spent.
Agents of a fallen global spy agency Citadel, Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra) and Mason Kane (Richard Madden), are beginning to probe for answers eight years after losing their memories in a fateful ambush on a train. And a powerful gang Manticore is rising. Kane is now a family man with a wife and a daughter. Sinh, who escaped with a bullet wound, is presumed dead. Stanley Tucci’s ‘tech guy’ Bernard Orlick along with Kane pieces together a mission. The show’s six-episode first season has been directed by David Weil.
Strong actors, terrible script
Maybe it’s the Quantico experience but there’s no jarring accent in Citadel from Chopra. She switches gears from German to English to Spanish like a pro.
She really is in top form as Nadia, and makes you want to see more of her. She fights like a dream, and you wish she were given more screentime in the first episode to show her moves. This is probably her biggest Hollywood project yet, and she leaves no stone unturned to make the most of it, displaying sass, seduction and fighting prowess to prove exactly why she is a global star.
Madden, famous for playing Rob Stark in Game of Thrones and David Budd in Netflix’s Bodyguard (2018), owns the screen as much as Chopra. He changes seamlessly from being a spy to a regular guy next door. Chopra and Madden’s chemistry is dripping.
Stanley Tucci’s role as Bernard is no different from his character Merlin in the Kingsmen franchise. But he brings his charm and wit to the tired trope of Citadel. The problem with the show is that good actors are somehow making do with terribly predictable writing. It’s nothing you haven’t seen countless times in staple Hollywood spy movies and shows.
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Yet another misfire
Having flawless CGI or sleek action scenes cannot make up for the sheer lack of original material. It is like ticking off boxes–nuclear codes, spies with post-traumatic stress disorder and forbidden love. Before a character can make a move, the audience is already aware of what is going to happen—that’s how you know it’s not the smartest of moves.
The Russo brothers’ last attempt at action-thriller, Netflix’ The Grey Men (2022), should have stopped them from spending $ 300 million on Citadel. Both the show and the film have talented actors, drone shots, run-of-the-mill spy-thriller visuals and a banal script barely tying all the predictable scenes together. Citadel is out with only two episodes so far and talks of second season have started to make the rounds. It won’t be surprising for another mediocre big-budget multi-starrer to keep hogging space on the spectrum of endless content on streaming platforms.
That said, Anthony and Joseph Russo aren’t new to the game. If their Marvel projects are any proof, they know how to get bang for their buck. Citadel is no magic but it has everything that can make a spyverse enthusiast stick with it. If nothing else, desi fans can watch it for Priyanka Chopra.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)