- Title: Citadel – Baked Alaskas
- IMDb: link
The original, and arguably weakest, of Amazon’s Citadel shows returns for a Second Season. We begin with narration from the still-captured Bernard Orlick (Stanley Tucci) which works as a recap of the show’s First Season (notably somewhat reconning the most important revelations from the season finale) and also sets up Bernard as a major character rather than just a supporting player. Following Bernard’s escape, the show also introduces dimwitted shoot-first former CIA Agent James Hutch (Jack Reynor) who is going to help Bernard stop Manticore from using mind-control technology that they forced him to invent, whether Bernard wants his help or not. He really doesn’t.
“Baked Alaskas” spends much less time checking in with the show’s two main characters, although we do get a far more conflicted Mason Kane (Richard Madden) than the end of last season suggested struggling to mesh his two personalities, while rewriting him into more of a patsy than an outright traitor, as he struggles to provide comfort to his untrusting wife (Ashleigh Cummings) along with an attack on Nadia (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) and her daughter (Elena Lee) by a Manticore assassin (which, along with Bernard’s escape, provides the episode’s action).
Each of the Citadel series has a certain style to mesh with the espionage setup and frenetic action sequences. With the other two set as period pieces in foreign countries, the original was about amnesia (now removed from the plot) and high-tech (which we don’t see any of in the season premiere other than Bernard’s experiment built in the style of Tony Stark in a cave). Removing both, while also separating all the characters, leaves things a bit bland.
The premiere sets up the goals of the season for our heroes to reunite, obviously work through their issues, and then together stop Manticore’s plot (which is directly referenced as The Manchurian Candidate several times). While I’m curious to see Nadia and Mason’s reunion, and wonder how exactly Hutch and his yet-to-be-shown partner fit in the mix, the premiere doesn’t exactly sell me on spending seven more hours with these characters.
