Citadel is a 2023 American Spy Thriller Series. The show was created by Josh Appelbaum, Bryan Oh, and David Weil for Amazon Prime Video, with The Russo Brothers acting as executive producers. Citadel stars Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Stanley Tucci and Lesley Manville. It premiered on 28 April 2023.
The show’s premise is around a shadowy global spy agency that gets burned and its agents get their memories wiped, meanwhile a new criminal syndicate is rising to take over the world and the surviving Citadel agents need to regroup and regain their memories to stop them….
On a production budget of close to 300 million dollars it is Amazon’s most expensive series for 2023 and plans are underway to create a Citadel Universe with international spin-off shows connected to the flagship show.
The Good
Citadel feels like what you get when Jason Bourne meets James Bond with Mission Impossible undertones. The concept of hard-core spies who have forgotten their badassery and are now domesticated normies always opens the door to interesting story arcs with plot twists.
“You can’t even remember to put the toilet seat down. Now you’re Jason Bourne?” – Citadel Quote
Cinematically, the show has some interesting visuals with each episode opening with a sweeping upside down revolving shot, a metaphor as to how the lives of characters can just as be flipped turned upside down. The saturated colour grading gives it an edgy feel compounded with a gritty score to make it a riverting watch.
Richard Madden as Mason Kane and Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Nadia Sinh have some great screen chemistry with their witty flirtatious characters that steam up the screen as well as compliment each other and the plot.
Lesley Manville as Dahlia Archer provides the epitome of a bone chilling villain, cold calculating and ruthless, who will discuss details on how to have your family killed over breakfast cool as you please.
The Bad
It feels like you are watching a James Bond wannabe series, from the opening theme that sounds a few bars short of a James Bond theme song to the imagery with an opening sequence that is reminiscent of the iconic gun barrel sequence.
Of course The Russo Brothers are fans of James Bond and were paying a sort of homage in the series:
“We’re immense fans of Bond, but our job is to try to take what we love about these sorts of genres and films that have influenced us and figure out ways to push them into spaces and places that surprise us … Our job as storytellers isn’t to bring you another version of Bond. Our job as storytellers is to bring you a fresh experience that you are excited and surprised by. So hopefully we hit that mark. We’ll see.”
The Ugly
First, they had the money, then sought out an idea to throw the money at and it shows, the series is visually appealing and set in international locations but almost as if they spent money making it look good but not on the actual story, which isnt quite evolved, the characters’ motivations for doing what they do, is shaky at best.
Initially the show had more episodes with a longer running time but after some creative differences, episodes were reshot, editing was done which is also what contributed to its inflated production cost and possibly why it feels like there’s some missing story arcs and character development.
The show tries to present the agents as having high-tech gadgets but thats little explained, you just have to take it on faith that an agent has got a Star Wars Storm Troopers Body Suit that sends feedback to handlers that the agent is close to losing consciousness or how many ribs they have broken in a fall…
How about voice activated shoes that transform into into snow skis…. Oh hang on and the thing with the memories???? Erm I will need someone who also watched it to be like what in the Harry Potter pensieve was that!!
Final Thoughts
It’s a great bubblegum watch if you arent into thinking too much… It has an interesting premise, starts of intriguing, runs you through some plot twists to an even more twisted ending that will leave you like… Okaaaay and then????
6 episodes with a running time of under 50 minutes its an easy binge watch over the weekend. Citadel has been approved for a season 2 and other international productions in the Citadel Universe are in the works.
Have you seen Citadel? If not does it sound like something you would watch.
~B
Becoming The Muse 
Your thoughts.. if you will?