| Advertisement |
LOS ANGELES, April 27 (UPI) -- Calling Citadel an original series seems like a stretch. The show, premiering Friday on Prime Video, is cobbled from all the best spy movies, and the one element it adds only makes it sillier. Mason Kane (Richard Madden) and Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) meet on a train on which they fight bad guys in suits. After the train crashes, Mason wakes up in a hospital with amnesia.
Advertisement
Of course, Jason Bourne is the most famous spy with amnesia, but Liam Neeson also did an amnesia action movie, and even Robert Langdon got amnesia in Inferno. Eight years later, Mason is married with a new identity, Kyle.
Then, Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci), the last surviving agent of the covert Citadel program, comes to get Kyle and reminds him that he's Mason.
Mason's old spy skills come back as muscle memory so he can spring into action instinctively... just like Geena Davis's assassin skills in The Long Kiss Goodnight.
The one element Citadel adds is Citadel actually wiping its agents' memories after a failed mission. But, they store the memories on a hard drive, so spies like Mason can download them again.
So, Citadel planned to give its spies Bourne Identity/Long Kiss Goodnight cliches? This plan is woefully misguided because wiping an international spy's memory could lead to more questions, enemies pursuing them or accidental leaks.
Even Citadel's attempts to be clever about its tropes are cribbed from other postmodern action movies. Tucci is doing the show way too many favors by committing to lines about how even Bernard's heroic actions make him an untrustworthy, manipulative spy.
Bernard laments that younger agents don't get his Muppets references. The writing is the next level of Joss Whedon making a reference and then referencing that he made a reference.
For a backstory, Citadel is an international spy organization independent of governments that works to keep the world powers in line.
But, you can't have a Citadel without an evil counterpart, so Manticore is the agency that tries to kill Citadel agents, presumably so they can empower warmonger countries to send the world into chaos.
Citadel is international, so Amazon spent the money to film on location, at least for establishing shots. The actors look like they learned to fight, so it is unfortunate the action is presented all shaky and chopped to bits in editing.
The show frequently employs an upside-down camera, spinning to reflect Mason's world literally turning upside down. It gets really old after a few episodes, and it's a poor substitute for exotic cinematography.
Episode 2 checks in with Nadia, and future episodes crib directly from James Bond ski action, proving there's no action trope Citadel can't do worse. At least the episodes are under 40 minutes each, so it's not a full hour.
Crafting an original mythology must be challenging when so many already exist and most of them have been mined for film and television. Still, picking the best parts from other properties only reinforces what better shows and movies one could watch instead of Citadel.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001 a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
