Citadel Season 2 Review: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5)
Citadel delivers bigger action, slick visuals, and stronger emotional moments compared to Season 1. Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Richard Madden elevate the series with solid performances, while the globe-trotting missions and fast-paced storytelling make it an entertaining binge-watch. However, the predictable plot and overstuffed spy-thriller tropes stop it from becoming a truly memorable franchise.
Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
Platform: Prime Video
Language: English
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci
Release: May 6, 2026
If you watched Citadel Season 1 and came away feeling like the show had not quite earned its enormous budget, you were not alone. The first season was visually impressive but narratively messy — a lot of globe-trotting, a lot of explosions, and not enough reason to deeply care about any of it. Season 2, which landed on Prime Video on May 6, 2026, is a noticeable step up. It is tighter, more confident, and considerably more fun. The problems have not disappeared entirely, but the good stuff has gotten noticeably better.
The story picks up with Nadia Sinh, played by Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Mason Kane, played by Richard Madden, back in the middle of a global conspiracy that refuses to leave them alone. The shadow organisation Manticore is still pulling strings from the dark, and Citadel — the spy network that was supposed to stop them — is trying to rebuild itself from the rubble. There are new operatives, new missions, and a larger web of alliances and betrayals that connect the events of this season to the Diana and Honey Bunny spin-offs. If you have watched those, Season 2 rewards you for it. If you have not, you can still follow along without too much trouble.
What works best this time is the action. The set pieces in Season 2 are genuinely impressive — large-scale, well-choreographed, and shot with a clarity that many big-budget productions get wrong. The show knows how to stage a fight and how to edit it so you actually understand what is happening. There is a sequence roughly midway through the season that stands out as some of the best action television has produced in recent memory. These moments are where the budget is clearly visible and where the show makes its strongest case for itself.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is significantly better here than she was in Season 1. Nadia, in this season, carries genuine emotional weight — there is history behind her eyes in a way that the first season never quite established. She handles both the physical demands of the role and the quieter, more vulnerable scenes with real conviction. Richard Madden as Mason is given a harder, darker edge that suits him well. The complicated push-and-pull between the two of them — people who clearly care about each other while being constantly placed on opposite sides of impossible decisions — is the show’s most compelling thread. Stanley Tucci, in a supporting role, is reliably excellent. He is one of those performers who simply improve every scene he appears in.
The writing, unfortunately, is where the season still stumbles. The overarching conspiracy plot is busy without being particularly surprising. Twists land with a familiar thud. Supporting characters are introduced and then mostly used as plot mechanics rather than actual people you invest in. The non-linear structure, which the show seems to love, creates confusion in places where clarity would have served the story better. You can feel the writers reaching for something deeper and more meaningful, but the script rarely gets there. What you end up with is a show that looks and feels like premium television but only occasionally thinks like it.
There is also a recurring issue with tone. Citadel Season 2 cannot always decide whether it wants to be a gritty, grounded spy thriller or a glossy, heightened action fantasy. It veers between the two in ways that sometimes feel jarring. A scene of genuine emotional intensity is followed by something so over-the-top it almost parodies itself. The show never fully commits to either register, which keeps it from achieving the kind of consistent atmosphere that separates truly great action television from merely entertaining action television.
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Still, entertaining is not nothing. Citadel Season 2 is an easy, satisfying binge. It moves quickly, rarely bores you, and gives you enough genuine spectacle and enough character moments to keep the investment alive. It is the kind of show you put on at nine in the evening and look up to find it is past midnight. Whether that is a compliment or a critique probably depends on what you were looking for in the first place.
If Season 1 left you cold, this one might just win you back. If you were already a fan, it gives you more of what you liked and a bit more besides. It is not the standout spy franchise Prime Video was clearly hoping to build, but it is a solid, well-made, watchable season of television that delivers on its most basic promise: you will not be bored.