Right from its first announcement, it was obvious that ‘Citadel’ was not only one of Amazon Prime Video’s most expensive shows ever but also amongst the most ambitious ones too. Russo Bros were backing the project with the unique lead cast of Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. ‘What could go wrong’ was everyone’s thought?
On the contrary, after the show’s first two episodes were released last Friday, almost everything about ‘Citadel’ was being criticized by critics left, right, and centre. So, the massively mounted ‘Citadel’ mothership series turned out to be an equally massive disappointment. And surprisingly, ‘Citadel’ has already been renewed for a second season.
Now that the initial verdict for ‘Citadel Season-1’ is out and with the benefit of hindsight, the worrying thing is that the makers had already announced the show’s Indian and Italian spin-offs. So, how badly can parent Citadel series’ negative feedback affect these spinoff series, especially the Indian version?
The Indian version of ‘Citadel’ features Varun Dhawan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu in the lead roles and the spin-off is set in the same universe as the ‘Citadel’ parent series but it’s set in India.
The positive thing about ‘Citadel’ India is that the show is being directed by the talented filmmaker duo Raj & DK, who had given us the deftly crafted spy thriller series ‘The Family Man’ and the fantastic dark comedy crime thriller show ‘Farzi’.
Considering Raj & DK’s directorial filmography, it looks like the Indian version of ‘Citadel’ is in safe hands and it might actually turn out to be drastically different and heads and shoulders above the poorly received ‘Citadel’ mothership series. So, ‘Citadel’ India has the potential to even turn around the entire Citadel universe and the negative feedback received so far.
Moreover, even for the ongoing ‘Citadel’ series, so far, only two out of a total of six episodes have been released on Amazon Prime Video. Who knows, the next four episodes could turn around the show and dramatically alter the feedback from critics and audiences in a positive way.
And speaking of audiences, the current audience score for ‘Citadel’ is surprisingly much better at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the RT critics’ score of just 50%. Moreover, the IMDb user rating is not that bad at 6.5/10.
But if the aforementioned two things do not happen…That is, if the ‘Citadel’ Indian version and the remaining four episodes of ‘Citadel’ are not taken kindly by critics and viewers, then that could spell trouble for Amazon Prime Video. Because the makers have already spent so much of their time, cost, and creative energies for the big-ticket project. So, how badly Citadel’s poor reviews can affect the Indian and other spin-offs would predominantly depend on the two above mentioned factors.