The Russo family sit at the helm of this one so it’s safe to expect some top notch espionage spy drama. They deliver!
Citadel, a global spy agency has been compromised and all its members memories have been wiped clean. Their opps organisation, Manticore have now seen an opening and trying to take over. We follow Nadia Sinh and Mason Kane now known as Kyle Conroy due to his memory wipe and his new identity as they traverse the world piecing together their memories and trying to restore Citadel to its former glory. Through this journey are plenty twists and turns as they make numerous discoveries as they piece their memories together to eventually learn how it all went tumbling down. It’s 6 episodes of brilliance.
There are some titular characters being portrayed by high end actors. Richard Madden plays both Mason Kane and Kyle Conroy. He’s in full modern day Rob Stark mode. Cool, calm, confident and direct. Priyanka Jonas puts together a stern audition tape to be the next Black Widow of the MCU. She conveys all this whilst maintaining her beauty and femininity so well. It just blows the character to superior levels where she just owns her scenes. She was really in her action bag here. Roland Moller is solid. He plays both villainous Silje twins and I enjoyed his portrayals. Ashleigh Cummings plays Abby and Osy Ikhile as Carter. Both strong displays. As the audience we are blessed with 2 veteran actors in both Stanley Tucci and Lesley Manville. Their interactions are the highlights of the show. Their experience shines through. Casual, witty, powerful, assertive and just magnificent. They are the source of the substance in the show. They are amazing.
For a series Prime are really setting the bar in regards to production levels. Citadel is on par with Ring of Power and Prime are clearly sending a message to all the other streamers.
Picture quality is high end, crisp and crystal clear. The action choreography is convincing and it shows performers like Priyanka really telling a historical story through their action. In regards to CGI there are shoddy scenes but you can see the scenes where they focused the higher budget and they sparkle. There is an excessive amount of violence and gore but it has balance as we are still left engrossed in the story even after those action packed spectacles.
There are some comedy elements as expected when you see Tucci on screen but it doesn’t waste time in returning to its core. It’s a full on espionage action drama and it doesn’t shy away from it. The amount of revelations here will leave you scratching your head and if you turn away from the screen once you are due to miss some vital piece of information. We are just ploughed with plots on plots on plots plus lies on lies on lies. I LOVE IT!! Rather than just stay in the realm of international threats the show then gets real personal. Family links coupled with children dramatisation just emphasise the show to elevated degrees. It’s insane!!
Overall it’s a must watch! They have wasted no time in confirming Season 2 and 3 with recently announced spin off series (plural) as they begin to build their very own “spyverse”. I am super excited and can’t wait to see where the series goes. Who knows when it comes to the Russos… we might see a Winter Soldi… never mind.
Did you enjoy season 1? Which reveals caught you off guard? Which ones did you see coming? Who was your fave character? Are you looking forward to the spyverse? React and comment below…
