It’s unbelievable how much Citadel has changed in its sophomore season. The action is more grounded, the CGI more believable, and, most importantly, the emotion that Priyanka Chopra Jonas uses in her role as Nadia Sinh is so entirely relatable and honest that it enhances all of her action sequences, too.
While there are some corners that Citadel Season 2 had to write itself out of, doubling down on Mark Strong and Chopra is a bet that two leads can carry that task. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it focuses on Nadia and Mason Kane (Richard Madden). Two Citadel agents who were thought dead after every agent in their organization was killed, in a plot that Mason was manipulated into bringing to fruition.
With both of their memories wiped, the two agents (and former spouses) work to stop Manticore, a powerful syndicate behind the eradication of Citadel, from gaining power. They collect their memories and start to understand how deeply interconnected every choice they have made is.
Citadel Season 2 overhauls the series with a more grounded approach.
In Citadel Season 2, Nadia is trying to live a life with her daughter, Asha. After the revelation of his betrayal, Mason is no longer in the picture, but when things get increasingly more dangerous, Nadia is called back into the field. And so are Mason and Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci).
When a terrifying new threat emerges (which is just a Manticore in a trench coat), Nadia, Mason, and Bernard are pulled back into action. But it won’t be just them. They have to recruit an unlikely team of new operatives (read: former CIA agents) and launch a globe-spanning mission to stop a conspiracy and thwart Manticore’s rising power and the assassination of the Russian president at the G8 Summit.
Unlike the nuclear launches that they aimed to stop in the first season of Citadel, this season’s stakes start small and then snowball into terrifying proportions. With the technology to wipe people’s memories already established, Citadel Season 2 pushes the boundary even further, with every person the group meets being a potential enemy thanks to mind control. Yup, mind control.
The impressive nature of the spin-off series Citadel: Diana made me hopeful that the main American series could turn the corner, and well, it did. There is much to love about Citadel Season 2, and it all comes from a solid shift in direction that prioritizes the actors over the spectacles and invests in the story that action can tell, not just the trains it can blow up.
Despite some convoluted flaws, Citadel Season 2 is an amazing overhaul for a series that left me so dissatisfied when it first premiered. What started off as promising soon shifted into a convoluted series with more investment in faking explosions than letting its leads’ physicality and acting take the spotlight. That messy first season is easy to forget when watching the series return with a direct focus on showcasing a series that understands action.
Priynaka Chopra-Jonas’ performance is the core of Citadel Season 2’s success. This season, Nadia focuses on protecting her daughter from anything and everything, even if it’s her ex-husband. Instead of shying away from emotion, Citadel Season 2 embraces the messiness of sorting through anger, grief, and love in a single choice. It’s the heart of the series, and the tension between Mason and Nadia works well to illustrate both how hard love is to forget, but more importantly, how maternal love weighs more on the soul.
Chopra-Jonas’ commitment to the action sequences bolsters her character’s roles in the story. Not just because she is a scene stealer, but because her aggression pulls the emotion of the following scenes. Nadia is fighting for something, and that gives her meaning.
Unfortunately, Richard Madden falls on the weaker end of the performances in Citadel Season 2. While the season’s narrative does its best to untangle the convoluted threads that the first season of Citadel laid out in its final episodes. For the better part of the season, Mason is deadset on revenge. Having learned that his father was killed by Stanley Tucci’s Bernard, he relies on his mother, whom he helped in the eradication of Citadel agents.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is a reason to tune in; her action skills are a reason to stay.
But now, his secret is out, and everyone knows that he is directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of agents. While we see Nadia and Mason work together again in Citadel Season 2, Mason’s sins hang in the air, something that no one can really overcome, even if they need each other to survive. Having started a new life with a new wife and child, Mason is almost entirely different from the character we saw last season.
Still brooding, Madden puts his all into the role, but ultimately, Mason and his mother, Dahlia Archer (Lesley Manville), are remnants of the past that hold elements of Citadel Season 2. Better when not including Mason in the story, Citadel Season 2 does make sure that Chopra-Jonas’s Nadia isn’t the only character to fall for in this sophomore season.
Necomers, Matt Berry, Jack Reynor, and Lina El Arabi, who play ex-Manticore Agent Frank Sharpe, and CIA agents James Hutch and Celine Rohr, respectively, embolden the ensemble cast. Core players throughout the entire season, Hutch, Celine, and Frank, stand out in their own way, with different brash actions and threatening reservations. The fact that almost all of the people in the group had been on the other’s gun barrel accelerates the distrust and sows anxiety.
Working as a unit with drastically different personalities, the chemistry between Chopra Jonas, Tucci, and Reynor is a standout in the series. With Nadia and Hutch keeping romantic tension in the air, even as Mason joins the group. Once Mason is pulled into the mission, the dynamic between him and Hutch is expertly handled. On opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to temperament and strategy, the two are interesting to say the least. And all of this is while Nadia commands every scene and is unafraid of rubbing everyone the wrong way.
She isn’t afraid of pushing other characters past their comfort zones, and how each of them reacts pushes the story further, too. This pushes Citadel Season 2 even further because of how every character walks on eggshells in the last half of the season, once the sleeper agents are proven to be real.
The push and pull between all of the characters is what keeps you engaged, even as the series fumbles some narrative points. Citadel Season 2 can’t escape all of the trappings that come with the spy genre. With backstabbing and double crosses layered on top of each other.
But when it comes to stars in the ensemble cast, Matt Berry and Stanley Tucci stand out on their own. Despite similar pasts, the duo showcases vulnerabilities toward the group and toward each other. While Berry remains a minor character, Tucci’s Bernard is central to the narrative. More importantly, Tucci is given more to do this season and runs away with it. A character acting legend, Citadel Season 2 lets him take the spotlight, taking full advantage of his charisma.
While some convoluted elements still remain, the second season of Citadel is great.
This series begs its audience to pay attention at one moment, but then falls victim to the same over-explanatory lines of dialogue that are plaguing streaming television to accommodate second-screen viewing. It’s an element from Season 1 that Citadel Season 2 can’t seem to shake off, even when it tries.
In the end, though, Citadel 2 is a more grounded story, both in how the action direction and the effects that come with it work, and in Nadia’s emotions as well. With larger and more coherent action, better lighting, and Priyanka Chopra-Jonas and Stanley Tucci anchoring the series, Citadel Season 2 has officially washed the bad taste out of my mouth that the first season left.
When combined with The Bluff, this season of TV has me waiting for Chopra-Jonas’s next action project. More importantly, however, Citadel is a wide-open world to explore, and it now has a solid foundation to do so.
Citadel Season 2 is streaming now, exclusively on Prime Video.