CAST: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci, Ashleigh Cummings

DIRECTOR: Thomas Sigel

Citadel has been long awaited and the Indian press has been going bonkers over it because of course the lovely Indian actor Priyanka Chopra works with the Russo Brothers. If you’re anything like me then you’ve watched all of the interviews she did for the promotion of this show airing on Amazon Prime. Citadel feels like a text-book movie made by a front-row student who has ticked off all the boxes on the checklist without having to think much because money wasn’t a problem for them, a fully funded if not overly funded project that did not match up to the expectations that it had created for itself.

The story revolves around Nadia (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and Mason Kane (Richard Madden) who are the typical steamy couple trying to fight against the world where the woman is a work focused go get it kinda’ girl and the man just sways around her; with a jawline though and in a suit though. Nadia and Mason work for Citadel, an international syndicate concerned with Cold War-era threats like loose nuclear weapons.

Citadel was founded to serve no interest but humanity’s and therefore does not belong to any country. The plot seems to be set up for transnational appeal than a hard look at real-life surveillance work and the media that glamorizes it. The shots are pre-functionary Bondish but fail to be any better or even good enough.

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If you have watched Madden earlier, he will end up being in a time warp of his earlier work. Priyanka’s modulated voice work in the lowest tones to wipe out accent makes her sound plastic and recyclable.

The two exemplary agents somehow end up forgetting their past and about eight years later when they need to help revive Citadel, the agency they used to work for. The sheer idea of them living with scars and conveniently forgetting it seems too easy again, just like any other Bollywood movie making this ‘mini-series’ a Hollywood remake of Bodyguard if anything else.

Coming to the ‘mini-series’ part, they cut out character arcs, scenes, and transitions and turned an 8-hour long episode into a 6 forty minute episodes series and the shortcut shows. There is no context to jumping between the gazillions situations, twists and turns and let me remind you that they spent $250 million on this and couldnt even deliver anything close to what they pitched.

Not sure how Amazon has approved a season 2 of something so cumbersome because of all the reshoots as well. They had a change in director, pushed schedule because of COVID, failed pilot episode and the current forty minute  pilot has been written collectively by five writers. One thing to say- too many cooks spoil the broth.

The same way that Amazon ripped off from Game of Thrones to produce Lord of the Rings so that it could check off a genre, this time the only thing that changed is that its a spy-thriller and that they did even more miserably.

It’s not bad, but it’s not WOW. It’s mid and had I not alrady been a part of the pre-release banter I would have probably liked it because dialogues that are textbook romantic just seem cringe to me now.

Visually, it feels like a show that you are supposed to like. Unfortunately even after trying very hard I could not come around it – I would have just rewatched a Bond movie instead.

If for anyone, watch it for PC and how she’s pulled of 80% of the stunts herself – without looking as heavy and with some good camera work to keep her looking swift.