Drama
A Man in Full
Talent and intrigue ultimately can’t cloak the truth about this vulgar, crass and graphic drama on Netflix.
We all have days we’d like to forget. But a whole career?
Admittedly, most of us are not international spies. When you’re a spy, you probably do plenty of things you’d rather forget.
That’s cold comfort to Kyle Conroy, who woke up one morning eight years ago in a hospital with plenty of injuries and not a single memory of how he got them. In fact, he didn’t remember a thing about his life before the … whatever it was. Not his job, not his family, not even his name. He had to rely on his passport for that little tidbit. Sure, he dreams about some mysterious woman again and again. Kyle feels sure he once knew her. But can he be sure?
So Kyle did the only thing someone can do in such a predicament: He started over. He got married. He had a kid. That other woman? That pesky little wedding ring he was wearing back in the day? He shoved all that away and made a new life for himself.
But now, eight years later, his old life wants to reacquaint itself with Kyle Conroy—or, rather, Mason Kane. And that old life can be pretty insistent.
Like, drag-you-out-of-your-house-at-gunpoint insistent.
Bernard Orlick might’ve felt bad about kidnapping and drugging Mason and his family. It’s not the ideal way to reintroduce yourself to an old friend. But he had no other choice. See, Mason (as Kyle) plugged his DNA into a worldwide database to see if he could uncover something about his past. That little act put Mason on Bernard’s radar. And if Bernard found him, it’d be only a matter of time before Manticore would, too.
What’s Manticore, you ask? It’s a nefarious underworld agency run by the eight richest families in the world. It thrives on global instability that, in turn, makes those rich families richer.
That organization was offset by Citadel, an agency untethered to any country that instead worked to keep the globe a wee bit safer. Mason and that mysterious woman of his dreams—Nadia, if you must know—worked for Citadel, and they made quite a team. And they might’ve been, y’know, more than just workmates.
Alas, Manticore infiltrated Citadel and brought it down with a literal bang. Mason and Nadia were on a mission together when everything went wrong. And as part of Citadel protocol, their brains were wiped and rebooted.
But now, it seems, not only has Mason resurfaced, but a bit of informational treasure has, too. It’s an old (but very secure) briefcase of Citadel’s that contains not just the memories of every Citadel agent (in handy liquid form to be injected into said spy in case of emergency), but the nuclear codes on every country on earth.
Obviously, this suitcase begs a whole host of questions—perhaps beginning with why countries didn’t change said nuclear codes eight years ago. But there’s no time to ask said questions! The fate of the world is at stake!
It’s up to Mason and Nadia to find each other; relearn how to be glamorous, lethal spies; crush Manticore; and, of course, save the world.
Oh, and maybe sleep together, too. But that’s strictly optional.
Realism—or at least what might pass for it—was in vogue for spy-based entertainment in the early part of the 21st century. Jason Bourne skipped the glittering casinos and instead did his work in gritty backstreets. The James Bond franchise took the hint and grounded the Daniel Craig’s 007 a bit. No more invisible cars for him; just realistically nifty gadgets and a lot of grim death. FX’s The Americans was about as glamorous as scrubbing the bathtub.
Citadel wants to put the glamour back in garroting, the fun back in fatalities. This show pairs its insidious secrets with shimmering set pieces, where model-worthy assassins make killing look positively effervescent. The evildoers are deliciously dastardly, and our heroes always have a clever quip at the ready.
But you know how it is with international espionage: The eveningwear is all well and good, but eventually things get messy.
Nadia and Mason end more lives than a bug zapper. Gore spatters on walls, bones rend the air with their brittle snaps. If Mason and Nadia were interior decorators, they’d eschew shabby chic for early oubliette. And the bad guys, as you can imagine, are significantly worse. Torture, and the threat of it, is a regular theme here.
We should return to Mason and Nadia’s relationship, too. The show wants to sell itself as a sexy spy show, and even in the trailers we see plenty of skin. While we’ve not seen any actual nudity in Citadel as of yet, rumor has it that some “mild nudity” will be present. Sensuality is a given, of course. And there’ll certainly be some tension between Mason’s old flame and—this is important—his current wife.
Language is predictably R-rated, with the f- and s-word peppering plenty of conversations.
Citadel is stylish, silly and ever so salacious. And even as its spies seek to remember their pasts, the content may leave conscientious viewers wishing they could forget.
We first meet Nadia and Mason on a stylish train in the Italian Alps—both working the same mission (much to Nadia’s surprise). But that mission is a red herring. In truth, Manticore has launched an all-out assault on Citadel: Agents around the world are being slaughtered, and Mason and Nadia are next. A massive fight ensues. Before part of the train crashes, Mason escapes with his life. But he remembers nothing about his past. Eight years later, after building a new life from scratch, he and his new family are kidnapped and taken to a secret lair, where an old professional peer named Bernard reintroduces himself.
The fight on the train is filled with carnage and fatalities. Two men fight in a bathroom, with one having his head forced into a toilet. A man is eventually stabbed in the leg and kicked out of the train, presumably to his death. Loads of people are shot (including one in the head). Part of a train crashes.
Elsewhere, two assassins leave a room filled with dead people (including one with a rather gory head wound). Another victim is dispatched without passion. We see healed wounds and scars on Mason’s torso. (Bernard explains that they could be gun wounds, “machete wounds, shrapnel wounds, oyster shucker wounds, the list is endless.”) Bernard drugs Mason and his family to take them away from their house. He also has tied up three thugs in his hideaway to extract information—and he ultimately shoots all three in the head.
Threats of torture are issued. A couple of people nearly drown. We hear that nearly 100 people were killed in a bombing. We see brief snippets of apparent assassinations.
Nadia is dressed in a revealing evening gown on the train, and she flirts with her mark. (She puts on red lipstick, and Bernard says through an earpiece that “old, pervy men” like red lips. Nadia quips that he would know.) Mason (who thinks he’s Kyle) gets cozy with his wife, prepping for a sensual evening. (His wife tells him that she’s had a “half a glass of wine.”) People kiss. We learn that Bernard and his wife divorced, and she’s now with another woman. (All three apparently work together.)
There’s a crude reference to the male anatomy. We hear seven f-words and two s-words. God’s and Jesus’ name are both abused once.
In flashback, we see what happened to Nadia after the train melee: She dragged herself out of the water and was “rescued” by a strange man. Though given what follows, abducted is probably a more accurate description. In the present, Mason and Bernard take the mysterious case that was stolen by Manticore—and Mason learns that Nadia’s still alive.
In the flashback, a bloodied and seriously injured Nadia fashions a tourniquet around her leg before fainting. When she wakes up, she’s handcuffed to a bed as a man watches her from a chair, a shotgun in his lap. Nadia asks to go to the hospital.
“No need,” he says. I can take care of you here for as long as need be.”
“I’m not asking for me,” Nadia tells him. “I’m asking for you.” A fight ensues, involving punching, kicking, choking and stabbing with a rhino horn. Two people nearly die, and one certainly does.
In the present, Mason and Nadia fight bad people. Someone is shot in the head. Mason throws a knife at Nadia. (He wants to jog Nadia’s memories of her old assassin days, but Nadia just assumes that Mason wants to kill her.) Someone’s thwacked with a frying pan.
Someone drinks wine. Mason’s wife expresses surprise that he’s apparently a spy. “You can’t even remember to put the toilet seat down,” she says. She and Mason kiss. We hear the f-word about 15 times. We also hear an s-word and a handful of other profanities, including “a–” and “b–ch.” Jesus’ name is abused once.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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