‘Citadel: Diana’ Prime Video Series Review - Matilda De Angelis’ Hair Has More Style than the Show Itself

The first season of Citadel, starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden, premiered in April last year and arrived with much fanfare. While I enjoyed its first two episodes, the series, from the third episode onwards, started descending into the depths of blandness. By the end, you didn't care about the show, the story, or the characters. Citadel turned out to be horrible, but since it had the blessing of the Russo Brothers, it got renewed for a second season. That sound you hear is that of all those TV series' banging their heads as they got canceled, even after having a dedicated audience as well as plenty of potential (some of them were also incredible). Look at Citadel. It's not only getting a second season but also multiple spin-offs "with settings being in the Italian Alps, India, Spain, and Mexico." Citadel: Diana is set in Italian waters, while Citadel: Honey Bunny will have an Indian setting and Indian actors. The question, for now, is this - Is Citadel: Diana good, bad, or merely watchable? Well, it's certainly not as terrible as Citadel.

What Citadel: Diana does better than Citadel is that it makes its dramatic core crystal clear. There is meat in the material. The show deals with a character who suddenly finds herself alone in the world at one point. It gives us familial tensions, romantic melodrama, father-son debates, double-crossings, and tragic deaths. Citadel: Diana wants to be more than just a shoot-'em-up spy thriller. However, the problem is that its drama is utterly conventional - it's fitted inside typical spy story clichés. When an agent talks about retiring from his position, you immediately predict he will soon be dead (your prediction turns out to be correct). Notice how Diana (Matilda De Angelis) is hired for a job at Citadel. She investigates a disaster, and someone overhears her in a café. The ensuing meetup and training sessions have generic written all over them. In one of the scenes, Diana watches one of those "if you are seeing this, then I am dead" videos. On the scale of unoriginality, Citadel: Diana scores almost the same points as Citadel.

Director Arnaldo Catinari's weak direction further sends the show into the arms of vapidness. Citadel: Diana moves between the past and the present, but this jump in the timeline is almost always jarring and abrupt. Hence, this narrative style doesn't generate intrigue; it merely keeps the show busy. What's frustrating is that this flaw drains out all the emotions from the story. There are scenes in Citadel: Diana that should have affected us deeply. Without getting into spoilers, let's just say that someone is placed in a situation where they might have to kill someone they know personally. This conflict should have been intense, suspenseful, and palpable. But we remain unperturbed as if we are watching some strangers. There are other scenes that I cannot mention that carry a strong emotional charge but fail to detonate on the screen with fervor. The writers (Alessandro Fabbri, Ilaria Bernardini, Laura Colella, Gianluca Bernardini, and Giordana Mari) don't flesh out the drama. Instead, they reduce it to a bunch of bullet points and place it on the screen as superficial embellishments. The personal conflicts and the national politics end up supporting the narrow and uninspiring spy shenanigans. The most unpleasant cut, though, has to be the one that comes when Sara (Giordana Faggiano), Diana's sister, listens to a made-up dating history. We don't get to hear Diana's verbal invention, which would have been pleasurable. Instead, the camera moves outside the premises. What could have been an amusing scene is reduced to an ordinary conversation. What's more, Diana has an incurable disease, but this doesn't add anything interesting to the narrative.

Even as an action thriller, Citadel: Diana is a major disappointment. The two or three action scenes that are present are shot impersonally, with the usual blend of quick cuts and closeups. Diana chases her target by sliding down a rope, and this moment could have been thrilling if we had gotten the point-of-view of the character. Catinari never puts us in the middle of the action. We are detached from the events. There are some cool gadgets like small sticks that can be transformed into big guns, but these weapons are sadly saved for the finale. Edo (Lorenzo Cervasio) gets to show off his hacking skills with a biometric device. Look at him casually handling an infiltration operation, which should have been more awesome. The performances can only be described as unmemorable. Maurizio Lombardi's serious face makes you think he's suffering from constipation. Thekla Reuten looks bored. She seems to be saying, "Let's get this over with." Cervasio and Julia Piaton fade from your memory as soon as the show ends. De Angelis looks promising -  we sense that her talents are being suppressed. She gives whatever she can to a role that confines her to a limited space. Her hair, on the other hand, moves freely and can be considered as Citadel: Diana's main attraction. It has more style than the show itself.

Final Score- [4/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times
Note: All 6 episodes are screened for this review.
Premiere Date: Oct 10, 2024, on Prime Video