Citadel Review

Before its screeners even hit our email inboxes, Amazon’s new massive spy-thriller series Citadel was a known entity. Unfortunately for the series – and for Prime Video – it was known for budget overruns (reports have the first, six-episode season clocking in at around $300 million), serious conflicts behind the scenes with co-creators being fired and entire episodes being restructured and reshot (hence the massive budget), and confusion as to just why Amazon keeps trying to make fetch happen when it comes to finding the next “it” series that will sweep the world by storm. But now that I have seen the first three episodes of the series (which were shrouded under more security than any other set of screeners I have ever gotten – fitting, perhaps for the subject matter), I can report that the show is a fun, if not particularly complex, spy-thriller that is buoyed by some excellent performances.

So, what is Citadel? Well, it’s Mission: Impossible meets Alias meets Mr. and Mrs. Smith (which, coincidentally, is also being developed into a series for Prime Video and has also had some behind the scenes issues – noticing a pattern here?), where there are the good spies (those would be the Citadel spies, a spy organization with no ties to any nation who operate to keep all other spies in check) going up against the bad spies (that would be Manticore, who have power and financial backing and want to take over the world – it’s a bit fuzzy what their main plan is other than to stop Citadel and cause chaos). Our Citadel agents include Mason Kane (Richard Madden, cocky and charming in a James Bond sort of way) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who is excellent, exuding her own cockiness and strength), two sensational agents who have chemistry for days and flirt outrageously before teaming up to take out the baddies. Their loyal tech guru is Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci, who steals the whole damn show and who makes you wish he were the central star – despite our stars also being great), who snarks his way through various operations while also keeping an eye on the entire game board in a way his agents never truly do. And our central villain is Dahlia Archer (Lesley Manville, who is having a blast in the role and who has some delicious scenes with Tucci that are just perfection), who wants to destroy Citadel and keep Manticore’s backers happy.

But here’s the thing. Despite some really cool action set pieces (there’s a lot of great hand-to-hand combat sequences that we get far too infrequently now that we live in the age of crazy CGI battles) and fun, light, and snarky performances, there’s really not all that much of a plot to be had after three episodes. Yes, there are some key plot points I’ve neglected to mention (although I suspect other reviews will lay out more information), but outside of those, nothing much happens through the halfway point in the season that you: 1. Couldn’t have figured out beforehand (twists in this genre are rare, since most people have been conditioned to expect the obvious ones and well, Citadel delivers on the obvious ones) and 2. Could really care about. You see, what the series doesn’t do a great job with is providing us with actual character development alongside the basic good vs. bad plotting. We know who is on which side – or at least which side they claim they are on, as we’re dealing with spies and double and triple crossing is always a thing – and we know a basic outline of what Manticore wants (power). But we know precious little about our characters outside sparse biographies of our heroes (Kane is the best agent ever! Sinh is also a really great agent! Bernard likes to use sarcasm to deflect! Dahlia answers to more powerful people who she is scared of!). Some of this comes from the constraints of the opening twist in the series – which has been spoiled in the trailers, so you likely know it already – necessitating that we can’t know too much about our leads too soon. But still, it’s a problem.

Now, yes, in spy stories, having characters that are more cipher than human is a common trope. But while that might work for a two-hour film, that’s not going to cut it for a continuing television series.* Why did a series like Alias work so well? It managed to combine the personal and the professional, giving us complex and compelling characters who were forced to shelve their feelings and emotional attachments to do horrible things at times. And then it let us see the aftermath of what that cost them. Citadel is trying to deliver on the action, adventure, and quips, but doesn’t seem to want to engage in the emotional toll this life, these actions, and these relationships can take on the human behind the spy. There are some hints of it with what we see about Bernard’s personal life (which is one of the more fun twists in the series), but the emotional aspect to these characters is almost wholly missing through the midway point in the season, which is troubling.

*The series, which is executive produced by the Russo Brothers (of MCU fame), is meant to be the jumping off point for a sprawling Citadel universe, with additional shows taking place in Italy, India, and other countries. The goal is to have these spin-offs be local language series that can get market share in those countries, hopefully increasing Prime subscriptions and driving viewers to the mothership (the main Citadel series) and then to other Prime series. It’s a huge gamble, and one that hasn’t ever been attempted (launching a multi-pronged series like this on a wholly original idea). No word on whether characters from Citadel would also appear on the various spin-offs, but one assumes they would have to so that they are truly tied together.

Still, if you’re looking for a well-made spy series with snappy dialogue and fun performances, well, Citadel absolutely fits the bill. Does it make me want to run out and watch anything related to the Citadel expanded universe? Not by a long shot, since the successes of this series are largely tied into its winning casting combined with writing that highlights the cast’s strengths. But, there are far worse ways you could wile away several hours watching spies fight bad guys, good guys make deals with the baddies, and two of our finest actors (that would be Tucci and Manville) trade sharp barbs with one another across a dining table (seriously, I would watch a spin-off where these two go tete-a-tete). Is this worth the extreme investment made by Prime Video? Only time with tell on that one, but considering all the behind the scenes shuffling, this one turned out better than I expected.

Citadel premieres on April 28 on Prime Video. Three of the first season’s six episodes were provided for review.