The second season of the Prime Video spy series Citadel begins with one of the most comprehensive Season 1 recaps we’ve seen. There are two reasons for that. One is that the first season debuted over 3 years ago, but the second is that, even if you watched the entire first season like we did, it likely didn’t leave much of an imprint on your memory. It’s just that kind of show.
Opening Shot: “ENGLAND.” As people get on a party boat, an uninvited guest gives a guard a few hundred pounds as his invite.
The Gist: The uninvited guest is James Hutch (Jack Reynor), a CIA operative who is looking for a billionaire named Paolo Braga (Gabriel Leone). After a lot of fighting and threatening people with guns, he finds out from a smuggler that Braga lives outside Marseille, France.
In France, Braga, who is one of the big funders of Manticore, has former Citadel chief Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci), who was transferred to Braga by Manticore head Dahlia Archer (Lesley Manville). Why Braga wants is to force Orlick to develop a chip that Braga can have inserted into a person’s brain in order for Braga to take over control. The idea is to create the ultimate, controllable assassin.
In Germany, Nadia Sinh (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), another former Citadel spy, is hiding out with her daughter Asha (Elena Lee), who is becoming increasingly resentful of being in hiding. But when her hideout is found, and Nadia battles a Manticore operative, the two barely escape with their lives. This leads her to find Frank Sharpe (Matt Berry), a con artist that she knows could forge documents to “disappear” them, but he says he’s “radioactive.”
In Sweden, another Citadel operative, Mason Kane (Richard Madden) is hiding out. He is still struggling with his memories as Kane, after being restored, fighting with his memories as Kyle Conroy. He is hiding out with Abby (Ashleigh Cummings), the woman he married when he was Kyle, and their daughter Hendrix (Caoilinn Springall) is still hiding out with Orlick’s family, which is causing a lot of tension between Mason and Abby.
Taking advantage of a mistake by Braga, Orlick escapes, and gets some last-minute help by Hutch. As much as Orlick thinks Hutch is a shoot-first idiot, he reluctantly teams with the CIA guy in order to get out of France.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? As we mentioned during the show’s first season, Citadel feels like Quantico, another series featuring Chopra Jonas.
Our Take: If you thought that the first season of Citadel was a whole lot of silly but fun to watch, you’ll probably feel the same about Season 2. It does feel, though, that showrunner David Weil and his staff has amped the silly up a bit, and not just via the introduction of more over-the-top characters like Hutch, Braga and Sharpe.
The action, which was pretty cartoonish in the first season, is even more ridiculous in the second season. Both Nadia and Orlick are in extended scenes where they’re fighting for their lives, and both fight scenes are ridiculous in different ways. In Nadia’s scene, it feels like the person attacking her is somehow blowing massive holes in the walls and no one in the building notices. In the case of Orlick, it feels like Braga’s thugs essentially walk into the path of the gun Orlick is shooting.
Eventually, Orlick, Nadia and Mason will come together again, along with Hutch and Sharpe. There will be some backstory elements, like Nadia finding out that Mason was the mole that ended up getting most Citadel agents killed at the command of Dahlia Archer, who happens to be his mother. But, like the first season, the episodes will more than likely be just a series of setups for chase scenes, fight scenes and scenes where there’s banter between the characters.
Yes, Citadel continues to not take itself all that seriously, which might be the show’s saving grace. Tucci’s presence (as we’ll explain below) helps this, but it also feels like the humor factor is going to be upped this year via Berry, whose voice is funny all by itself, and Reynor, whose character Hutch is so over-the-top that he has his own cache of grenades, just because.
Performance Worth Watching: Just like the first season, we watched Stanley Tucci and wondered why he agreed to be on a show like Citadel. Sure, he brings an element of class to the show, but his wry delivery of basically all his lines also makes the show funnier than it might have been otherwise.
Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: After Sharpe tells Nadia that Mason is the mole, she flashes back to all the moments during their marriage and when the two of them fought Manticore thugs together.
Sleeper Star: Matt Berry is a fun addition to the cast, because any line sounds hilarious coming from his bombastic voice. Also, Merle Dandridge plays Joana Malvern, who works for Braga but also seems to be carrying on an affair with him. We’re still not exactly sure what function her character serves.
Most Pilot-y Line: “Oh, I see, you’re an enlightened Gen Zer,” Orlick says to Braga.
Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s really hard to consider Citadel to be anything more than it is, which is a pretty silly spy show with a hearty sense of humor. You might not remember anything about the show’s second season after you’re done watching it, but at least you’ll be entertained.
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Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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