Amazon’s $300 Million ‘Citadel’ Is Not Reviewing Well

Amazon may have more money than god, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that throwing cash at the problem of “making a hit TV show” is not the solution they believed it to be.

We had similar conversations about Amazon’s Rings of Power series, which was…fine. Possibly even good, depending on who you asked, but far from the Game of Thrones competitor that Amazon believed it to be, even if they plan to run it for multiple seasons.

Now we’re moving onto Citadel, the second most expensive show ever made at $300 million, but one without any sort of established IP to boost its prospects. Amazon has had a frankly bizarre amount of faith in this series, and at least so far, that does not seem to be paying off.

As it stands, Citadel currently has a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes from a few dozen critics. That’s a few points into the “Rotten” rating, but using the somewhat skewed scale of TV, that’s actually quite low. Even just browsing a handful of currently airing shows, nearly all are far above this. Netflix’s The Diplomat (89%), Beef (98%), The Night Agent (75%). Epix’s From (100%). Peacock’s Mrs. Davis (89%). It’s almost hard to find anything as low as Citadel right now. HBO’s Love and Death is not reviewing amazingly at a 62%, but that also did not…cost $300 million to make.

What on earth is going on with his show? It’s a spy thriller that Amazon hired Avengers Endgame’s Russo Brothers to produce. The problem is that Amazon has put an extraordinary amount of faith in this series, spending $300 million on it, plus already renewing it for season 2, plus formulating spin-offs set in Italy, Spain, India and Mexico. And it’s doing it with a completely unknown IP starring two actors that I know, Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden and Quantico’s Priyanka Chopra, but they’re not exactly Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling and Ana De Armas who the Russos got for their Netflix blockbuster, The Grey Man (which was also just okay).

Part of the high cost of the series was the controversial removal of its original writers, Josh Applebaum and Adnrew Nemec. David Weil was then hired as showrunner which led to extensive, costly reshoots. And judging by the early reviews, that does not seem to have paid off.

Of course it’s certainly possible that Citadel is still a hit. There are plenty of series that have some level of disconnect between critics and audiences, but the sheer size of the investment here means that Citadel can’t just perform okay, it has to be the kind of megahit that Amazon is envisioning. I keep thinking about the contrast here between this show and The Night Agent on Netflix, the competent spy drama with zero big stars that somehow managed to be Netflix’s third most-watched debut…ever. It feels like Amazon keeps trying to force performance like that through sheer scale of budget, instead of letting hits just happen where they happen.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.