Citadel: Honey Bunny is the latest Prime Video series in the Citadel franchise. After the fun ride that was Citadel: Diana, there was hope that the Indian chapter in the story would continue the storytelling. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite hit the mark.
Caution: This post contains some spoilers from Citadel: Honey Bunny
The series struggles partly because of the time period it’s set in. We’re set in the past, a little before the events of Citadel. Because of that, we have an idea of what is supposed to happen, especially to young Nadia.
Who is young Nadia in Citadel: Honey Bunny?
Let’s just start with this explanation. Nadia is the Nadia that we meet in Citadel, played by Piryanka Chopra Jonas. Knowing that, we know that nothing can happen to her. That doesn’t mean nothing can happen to Honey or Bunny, but Nadia is going to survive.
The benefit of the series is that we learn that what Nadia knows about her past isn’t the complete truth. Nadia always believed that her mom died when she was a baby, but that’s not the case. However, she doesn’t really called Honey mom. She constantly calls her Honey, which suggests that she has always been left to believe that her mom is dead. There is a great mystery to this, which, I’ll admit, had me tuned into each of Honey and Nadia’s conversations to understand it better.
With all this, Nadia has no idea who she will become. We get to see just how naturally smart and intuitive she is, which makes it easier to believe how she becomes the Nadia that we would eventually meet in Citadel.
I want to note that Samantha Ruth Prabhu has some looks of Chopra Jonas. It’s easy to believe that this is Nadia’s mother as Nadia grows up. Kashvi Majmundar plays a sassy and smart young Nadia at the same time, and I’m here for her being on our screens a lot more.
The lack of relationships fails the Citadel series
One of the things that made Citadel: Diana work so well as the relationship between Diana and Edo. We had a chance to see how they didn’t really know each other and then grew to love each other. We watched as they slowly developed those feelings for each other.
There was an attempt at that in Citadel: Honey Bunny, but not on the same level. The attraction was done with the backstory between Honey and Bunny. We didn’t get to see anything after that because the series focused on Honey on the run with Nadia and Bunny trying to find them after finding out he had a daughter and she was in trouble.
I did appreciate the backstory, though. We got to see who Honey was as a child and the reason she was interested in guns. Then we got to see how she learned to be a spy. She was even a terrible actress at first but ended up becoming a good one the more she learned to be a spy.
The only relationship I did enjoy seeing develop was that of Honey and Nadia. We get to see how protective Honey is and how much she’s taught her daughter to ensure survival. I would have loved to see more of Honey and Bunny together, but at least we got something believable and relatable. It’s just a shame that the romance wasn’t sold as well as it was in Diana. At least it was better than in Citadel.
Plenty of spy action throughout the series
On a positive note, there was plenty of action from start to finish. Each episode brought us gun fights, hand-to-hand combat, car chases, and more. It felt like a real spy series, so it didn’t get too bogged down by all the back and forth between the two timelines.
This helped to feel the intensity of the series. If you’re looking for high action, this is the show for you. It does make me wish that Citadel was done to a much higher quality and didn’t rely on the more expensive elements to it to make it big. Both Honey Bunny and Diana have shown that an intense thriller works with the right action and writing.
Overall, I just didn’t feel the weight of the series in the way I did with Diana, or even with Citadel. I wasn’t left with questions about what everyone wanted or whether Honey could keep Nadia safe, because I knew how it would turn out for Nadia.
Citadel: Honey Bunny is now streaming on Prime Video.