[TV]
★★★
OUT NOW (PRIME VIDEO) EPISODES VIEWED 3 OF 6
SHOWRUNNER David Weil
CAST Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Stanley Tucci, Lesley Manville
PLOT Eight years ago, spy agency Citadel was wiped out by a shadowy group called Manticore, the surviving agents’ memories erased. Now, with no recollection of his secret-agent past, Mason Kane (Madden) is dragged back in to work with Agent Nadia Sinh (Chopra Jonas) in a bid to thwart Manticore’s nefarious plans.
THE RUSSO BROTHERS have been making Bond films in one form or another for the better part of a decade now. They brought old-school espionage to the MCU in The Winter Soldier, turned Chris Hemsworth into a (nearly) unstoppable force in Extraction, and played spy games with Ryan Gosling in The Gray Man. It’s little wonder Amazon came to them with this monstrously expensive, multi-series Bond-homage. But while 007 is keenly felt throughout this flagship US series (satellite shows set in India, Mexico, Spain and Italy are in production), Citadel’s Bond inspiration is categorically Roger Moore over Daniel Craig.
The show begins, as all spy yarns should, with a mission in progress. We’re introduced to Richard Madden’s square-jawed super-spy Mason Kane (a dependably heroic moniker, but no Tyler Rake) on a train through the Alps, enjoying light flirtation with workplace rival Nadia Sinh (a devilishly good Priyanka Chopra Jonas, clearly living her best life) while in pursuit of a nuclear briefcase. Five minutes and one bathroom brawl later, not only is Citadel burned, but the Backstop has been initiated, erasing Kane and Sinh’s memories while leaving them for dead in the kind of enhanced redundancy package you might expect from Sports Direct.
Witty bons mots and unflappable cool take priority over functional spycraft here. International spy agency Citadel (Espionnes Sans Frontières?) is at odds with Manticore (not an acronym, just a scary name), a diabolical cabal of the world’s super-rich. And while the frenetic action pulls no punches (or knees, or knives, or sharp bits of glass), it’s clear from the off that Citadel’s world belongs
