Citadel

From the beginning of the show, it is clear what they were trying to do with the whole story, the concept of the Citadel universe as a whole is great, but it is indeed badly executed. If only they worked on the execution more; as in story telling, how the series of events would run after one another, noticed that there's a lot of flashbacks at wrong points throughout the episodes, and sometimes even too many flashbacks back to back, forgetting sometimes that the series is also taking place in real time. The whole high tech part of the series is also amazing what they tried to accomplish but their ambition was their undoing. This series is capable of being top notch, but the story telling needs refining, while watching you'd feel that the episode is out of place or out of sync with the story, you'd feel that it's missing something. Again more work is needed on execution.

For now, just a big parade of shallow clichés.

Maybe it's an attempt to bring a teenage audience closer to spy genre. The intended audience would then justify the insubstantial plot, the characters' constant explanations of what's going on, the TikTok editing, and an almost cynical lack of engagement with the real world. By the way, do these plots involving nuclear artifacts still make sense? Why don't screenwriters experiment with contexts closer to the experiences of the new generations, such as pesticides, industrial secrets in medicine and food, disputes over geolocation data, etc.? Why not explicitly place industries and their business interests at the center of the story rather than these government agencies with their political overtones?

Boring.

There were some undoubtedly good moments as this series set up, unfortunately, the further the series went the less promise it showed.

This is tricky, I really wanted to like Citadel, and I did like the first episode.

It's a little tempting to think that this is what happens when you throw too much money at something and don't make it work hard enough to earn that money and develop.

True there was some classic spy action - but with only a few exceptions this wasn't really groundbreaking stuff. Also true that an element of predictability crept into the show the further it went.

What we ended up with is a show that absolutely looks the part, but that when all is said and done is less the sum of its parts, whereas at a rumored $300 million it should clearly have been more - much more.

Citadel is another sad example of a show that chose form over function - looking good, rather than really getting the razor to the story and whittling and revising until something fresh and entertaining remains - new twists on old tails.

Let's hope they learn the lesson for season 2.

I actually thought Citadel was pretty good. I've been looking forward to this ever since I first heard about it and then my expectations grew even more after watching the trailers. Well, I can tell you that without a doubt this show has not only met those expectations but surpassed them in every way. Besides looking great it has A-list stars attached both in front and behind the camera. It's made by the Russo Brothers (Avengers, Captain America: Civil War and Winter Soldier, The Gray Man, etc.) and stars Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Bodyguard) and Priyanka Chopra Jonas (Baywatch, Quantico). It's a fun series from start to finish. It will grab your attention from the very first episode and bring you into their world. The visuals are beautiful and the story is fast paced. I'm glad to see this series was already renewed because I'm excited see where this show goes.

It doesn't get much more cookie cutter and mediocre than this.

You can tell from the dialogue in the very first scene, what kind of show is going to be. The two main characters for no reason talks to each other in five different languages in a single conversation, to tell the audience how great they are as spies. The handler tells the agent on the mission to remember that the target has nuclear material in his briefcase, because I'm sure she forgot... The entire first episode continues in the same vein, where characters explain things to the audience by telling each other things they already know, and it's the laziest kind of writing.

Throw some amnesia in there, some top agents who's fighting is laughable and who like to throw quips around instead of carrying out their mission and you've got a show that nobody is going to remember in 10 minutes.