CITADEL Season One

Quantum Of Homage

- Nick Setchfield

UK/US Prime Video, streaming now

Showrunner David Weil

Cast Richard Madden, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Lesley Manville, Stanley Tucci

EPISODES 1.01-1.06 A frisson of future shock enlivens this globe-hopping spy drama from Amazon Studios. Agents of the eponymous intelligence network have their memories implanted, deleted and uploaded to a central server. It’s a smart, intriguing conceit, one that promises Mission: Impossible by way of Philip K Dick. A shame, then, that the series feels like a data cloud of audience memories, every espionage tale we’ve ever thrilled to, all flung into the neural blender and whisked into so much secondhand mulch.

The inspirations are blatant. An amnesiac hero, just like the Bourne saga. Duelling spy agencies, echoing UNCLE vs THRUSH or SHIELD vs HYDRA. Gadgets straight out of Q branch,