Review: Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden are secret agents in fun, appealing ‘Citadel’

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden are secret agents in fun, appealing ‘Citadel,’ a glossy new spy series produced by the Russo Brothers that succeeds in refurbishing cliches.

Richard Madden stars as Mason Kane and Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Nadia Sinh in Amazon Studios’ “Citadel.” Photo: Courtesy of Prime Video/TNS

“Citadel,” a new series on Prime Video, is a sleek, glossy spy thriller that grabs the audience immediately and never loosens its grip. It’s a collection of spy movie cliches, but with all of them shined up and refurbished so that they seem almost fresh.

The series takes place in six episodes, of which the first three were made available to critics. It’s a measure of the show’s success that I was sorry when the three episodes were over. “Citadel” may be hard to take seriously, but it’s even harder to stop watching.

The first moments are classic. As a train speeds along, a beautiful woman in a red dress enters the car. You’d think that maybe just once a secret agent might want to blend in — wear old jeans, put her hair up in a scrunchie — but what would be the fun of that? As Nadia, Priyanka Chopra Jonas is probably the first woman since 1935, or since Eva Green in “Casino Royale” (2006), to think of train travel as an occasion for dressing up.

Then again, this is a special occasion. Nadia is there to steal a suitcase that she believes contains a deadly virus, a version of Ebola that has the transmissibility of COVID-19. In other words, she’s there to save the world. After talking to her handler (Stanley Tucci), who gives her instructions through an earpiece, she is joined by her associate, Mason (Richard Madden), who is equally dressed up and almost equally good-looking.

Then things get extremely violent.

Stanley Tucci in “Citadel.”

Photo: Amazon/Paul Abell/Prime Video

娜迪娅和梅森是一个秘密组织的一部分called Citadel, which has been protecting the innocent and allowing the world to function for more than 100 years. But it turns out that the incident on the train marks the effective end of Citadel. A rival organization, devoted to spreading evil and chaos, all but wipes out Citadel, and next thing you know, it’s eight years later and Mason is living a tranquil life under a different name.

His only problem is he can’t remember anything past eight years ago.

“Citadel,” produced by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame,” “Captain America: Civil War”), has a sci-fi aspect: Every Citadel member has had their memories wiped, yet preserved in small vials containing an amber liquid. This detail becomes very important as the show goes on.

Priyanka Chopra Jonas in “Citadel.”

Photo: Amazon/Courtesy of Prime Video

Chopra Jonas and Madden make an attractive couple, and that’s three quarters of the ballgame in a show like this. Tucci seems to be enjoying himself as the Citadel mastermind, who is unfazed and sure of himself despite presiding over a staff consisting mostly of dead people. They’ve all been killed off.

But probably no one has more fun in “Citadel” thanLesley Manville, a brilliant actress who usually playsnice people或过分好人。在这里她找到自由eration by playing the most evil person in the world — an infinitely polite, soft-spoken, motherly woman who, over the course of three episodes, tells two different people that she plans to kill their entire family. It sounds funny to think of Manville as terrifying when she was so meek in “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” but in “Citadel” she is the most frightening mother figure since Angela Lansbury in “The Manchurian Candidate.” In fact, in a head-to-head scare-off between Lansbury and Manville, the smart money would be on Manville.

Criminal masterminds are practically a cliche in spy stories, but in casting Manville, the show’s creators found a way to take something old and make it feel new.

Reach Mick LaSalle: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com

More Information

3 stars“Citadel”:Spy thriller. Starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci and Lesley Manville. Directed by Newton Thomas Sigel and Jessica Yu. (Not rated. 40-minute episodes.) First two episodes are available on Prime Video starting Friday, April 28, with one new episode out every Friday through May 26.

  • Mick LaSalle
    Mick LaSalle

    Mick LaSalle is the film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he has worked since 1985. He is the author of two books on pre-censorship Hollywood, "Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood" and "Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man." Both were books of the month on Turner Classic Movies and "Complicated Women" formed the basis of a TCM documentary in 2003, narrated by Jane Fonda. He has written introductions for a number of books, including Peter Cowie's "Joan Crawford: The Enduring Star" (2009). He was a panelist at the Berlin Film Festival and has served as a panelist for eight of the last ten years at the Venice Film Festival. His latest book, a study of women in French cinema, is "The Beauty of the Real: What Hollywood Can Learn from Contemporary French Actresses."