Citadel: Season 1

Created by: Josh Appelbaum, Bryan Oh, David Weil

Directed by: Newton Thomas Sigel & Jessica Yu

Written by: David Well, Josh Appelbaum, Bryan Oh, David Weil, Melissa Glenn, Angela Russo-Otstot

Starring: 

Richard Madden (Mason Kane), Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Nadia Sinh), Ashleigh Cummings (Abby), Roland Møller (Anders), Osy Ikhile (Carter), Caoilinn Springall (Hendrix), Lesley Manville (Dahlia), Stanley Tucci (Bernard) 

Citadel season 1 trailer:

The word "enigma" has been used to describe Citadel by some reviewers, and I have to agree. 

And we're not talking about the story. Unfortunately, it's referring to behind the scenes shenanigans from the franchise's grandiose initial development to where it currently stands. 

Citadel, at its basic level, is a spy thriller; Amazon's response to James Bond or Mission: Impossible. Mason and Nadia are spies and ex-lovers for the global network, Citadel, which is something of an international CIA/MI6 that strives to root out terrorists and do general good. In the pilot, the ground is stripped from under both of them when Citadel appears to be dissolved, defeated in one fell swoop by a rival organization, Manticore, and the two spies left for dead. Years later, Mason is uprooted from the normal life he's since established when he's forced to reunite with Nadia and pick up the pieces of Citadel to strike back against Manticore. 

If you think that all sounds a little cookie-cutter, you're not alone. Sadly, while I certainly did enjoy the exciting visuals and electric chemistry between Madden and Jonas, that largely sums up what the series manages to accomplish. 

Mason and Nadia on mission 

The series leans a bit too heavily into the "sexy spy" thing, but what spy franchise doesn't? 

To brief on those behind-the-scenes shenanigans I mentioned earlier, Citadel was meant to be Amazon's leap into revolutionizing entertainment. They sought to replicate Citadel's international branches with their own, producing additional seasons of the series on location where the branch of Citadel is located.  It's an impressive and exciting idea, to be sure, but necessitating similarly complex writing and character points to provide reason for us to care about all of it. However, it seems to me that Amazon somewhat jumped the gun, pulling the trigger (to extend my on-the-nose analogy) on this series before it really had time to breathe, and the result is an overly complex barrage of character relationships and plot points without the muscles of character development and slower story moments needed to pull the weight. 

Madden's forced to leave the new family he's started after Citadel was dissolved in the premiere 

Stanley Tucci's role as one of the heads of Citadel was definitely a highlight 

To put that more simply, Citadel is too much exciting action and shocking betrayals, but it doesn't slow down for the moments between heroes (and villains!) needed to humanize them and show us why we care. In the six hour series, the only conversations we really get between our titular spies consist of snappy banter and witty dialogue regarding their off-screen history, but we rarely (if ever) are treated to in-the-moment conversations that meaningfully shape their relationship in one direction or another. It's abundantly apparent that these spies have a rich and fraught history, but they never seem to have a present or a future. And when the two aren't alone, the series shifts to tense moments of anticipated betrayal or covert operations in between big explosions or car chases. 

I think this is all too bad because the season feels like fertile ground for more. As I described above, the developer's concept around a fictional international organization that's literally produced in the countries it represents is very exciting. The synopsis I described above, as well, is full of possibilities. I described it as unoriginal, which may be true, but what these days isn't? There's nothing new under the sun, as an old friend of mine used to say. All writers these days generally do is spin fresh ideas off of old tropes, create new heroes and worlds in which to place the tried and true hero's journey. Citadel  absolutely can work, but it's suffering from a rushed writer's room which, I suspect, is caused by a greedy Amazon eager to get it out there and start earning back the budget. In consequence of the rushed greed, they may not in fact earn it back. 

See Forbes' interpretation of the franchise's sticky development situation and viewership figures here, if you're interested in reading more. 

Citadel has been greenlit for a season 2, and international seasons of the franchise are also currently in production, including an Italian season (Citadel: Diana) which is to be released in 2024.