S01.E05: Time Renders Us Enemies

[jenrising]

Available 5/19 on Amazon Prime. 

[Constantinople]

Opening with a scene that's both a flashback and an upside down shot that turns itself rightside up?

They've outdone themselves.

It took me this long to realize that all of the implausible story points, cheesy and overly long action scenes, dumb twists, nonstop flashbacks and pointless camera tricks aren't just filler. They serve an important storytelling function: to distract the viewer from noticing that Mason and Nadia have zero chemistry.

This is the first tv series I've ever seen with Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and I'm not sure I ever want to see another. I liked Richard Madden in Game of Thrones and Bodyguard, but it may be a long time before I'm willing to watch him again. Much of the blame lies with the writing and directing, but even with that I feel their acting has ranged from mediocre to terrible.

Props to the creative team for making the train wreck in the first episode a metaphor for the series.

For now my goals are simple: root for Carter, hope he doesn't turn out to be a bad guy and finish the season.

I'd like to say I won't be around for Season 2 but I may watch the premiere out of morbid curiosity.

[BellaR]

Last week I had some hope, but this was bad.

[Snazzy Daisy]

Enough with the upside-down, rotating camera shots! Geez. 😠 They’re overused and really feel very gimmicky at this point. This cinematography style is used to heighten the feeling of claustrophobic or trapped etc. Do you really need it in a hotel scene where your leads are casually talking about their UC roles?

Dahlia is slowly transitioned into a caricature.

A slow-mo death for Anders despite the headshot. Hmm.

Mason and Nadia have a child together. SHOCKING! People saw this coming several episodes ago. Duh.

🤣🤣🤣

 

 

Edited May 19, 2023 by Snazzy Daisy

[magdalene]

It may be the generic American accent and the generic way he is written but the show has really damaged what I used to find attractive in Richard Madden.  I know he is a good actor but it's not evident here.

I was hopeful last episode but that was short-lived.

[blackwing]

Some things still don't make sense and some things are predictable, but I am still liking the show.

Just to be 100% certain I didn't misinterpret... the girl that Kyle/Mason has with Abby/Celeste that they call Hendrix is actually the daughter of Mason and Nadia?  During the final scene showing the aftermath of the kidnapping, the closed captioning indicated that "Asha" was screaming.  So her name is actually Asha?

I don't fully get how this all happened.  Both Mason/Kyle and Celeste/Abby lost their memories and when they woke up, they were both told "I know you can't remember who you are, but this is your spouse, and you have a daughter"?  I don't remember what Hendrix looked like but if she is half-white, half-Indian, then Mason's genes definitely seemingly took over.

I agree that Dahlia is turning out to be a cartoon.  And I agree that Richard Madden's American accent doesn't really work.  There's times when a little bit of Scottish accent slips through.  I think they should have just let him keep his accent.

Is the Moira Kelly character (Jo?) supposed to be Bernard's wife?

Edited May 19, 2023 by blackwing

[Ceindreadh]

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

Some things still don't make sense and some things are predictable, but I am still liking the show.

Just to be 100% certain I didn't misinterpret... the girl that Kyle/Mason has with Abby/Celeste that they call Hendrix is actually the daughter of Mason and Nadia?  During the final scene showing the aftermath of the kidnapping, the closed captioning indicated that "Asha" was screaming.  So her name is actually Asha?

I don't fully get how this all happened.  Both Mason/Kyle and Celeste/Abby lost their memories and when they woke up, they were both told "I know you can't remember who you are, but this is your spouse, and you have a daughter"?  I don't remember what Hendrix looked like but if she is half-white, half-Indian, then Mason's genes definitely seemingly took over.

I agree that Dahlia is turning out to be a cartoon.  And I agree that Richard Madden's American accent doesn't really work.  There's times when a little bit of Scottish accent slips through.  I think they should have just let him keep his accent.

Is the Moira Kelly character (Jo?) supposed to be Bernard's wife?

Kyle/Mason has two daughters.

Asha is Nadia's daughter and Hendrix is Celeste/Brielle/Abby's daughter.  Although I wouldn't be surprised to find that Hendrix was actually the daughter of the twin that CAB was undercover with. 

Asha was the 'package' in Valencia that Dahlia told the not dead twin to retrieve.  The piece of jewellery shown at the end had been given to her by Nadia eight years ago.

I suppose it's lucky for the plot that Nadia had already told Kyle she'd had his daughter, otherwise it could have been confusing (or amusing!)

Jo is Bernard's ex wife and mother of his child.  Her current wife is also in Wyoming and was last seen during their emergency evacuation of the not so safe 'safe house'. 

[magdalene]

This is all going to end on a cliffhanger, isn't it?  

[BellaR]

50 minutes ago, magdalene said:

This is all going to end on a cliffhanger, isn't it?  

I hope not.  Given the concept of future seasons taking place at the same time, but in other locations, I think that it would be better to wrap this mystery up.

 

I think that the show can be redeemed a little, if we learn that Mason was the traitor, and that all of this is some convoluted plan on the part of Nadia and Bernard to get Mason to retrieve the codes that only he can get. Maybe after the accident they wiped his memory, and put him into a position where he would be on ice with Celeste, until they could put this plan into motion. 

My idea isn't good, but it would fill some of the plot holes, and explain the outlandish coincidences. 

[edhopper]

Sure Stanley, give up the nuclear codes that could condem a billion people to death, and the only bargaining chip you have to the psychopath who will never keep her word.

You ran a spy agency. 

 

Also hate the global spanning agency that has five people involved in everything. 

[AnimeMania]

2 hours ago, BellaR said:

3 hours ago, magdalene said:

This is all going to end on a cliffhanger, isn't it?  

I hope not.  Given the concept of future seasons taking place at the same time, but in other locations, I think that it would be better to wrap this mystery up.

Given the concept of future seasons of the different Citadel localizations taking place along various timelines, but in other locations, I think that it would be better to wrap this mystery up.

As I said before, given the rushed nature of how they had to rewrite and act this entire season "pretty much" on the fly, way over schedule and over budget, after scrapping all the work they had done previously. I will give this season some leeway and judge the next season "as what the Citadel team can actually do". This season was full of predicable cliches, but I liked the spy stunts. This was the first episode that didn't have any spy stunts, but it still held my attention.

[WritinMan]

I think half of the $300 million budget went to the upside-down rotating shots.

[chaifan]

14 hours ago, edhopper said:

Sure Stanley, give up the nuclear codes that could condem a billion people to death, and the only bargaining chip you have to the psychopath who will never keep her word.

I'm really confused as to Dahlia's motivations here.  She had some line this episode that made it sound like she wanted the nuclear codes so no one else could use them.  Does she want to save the world or destroy it?

Here's my biggest question... according to the show, there is one master code to these nukes.  And then they need some biometric reading from Mason.  Once it's known that the X Box, or whatever they're calling it, has been stolen, couldn't they just change the codes?  This is all just so very stupid.

And how bad of a spy do you have to be to be sitting in public talking about being a spy???  Using the actual phrase "I am a spy"???  Again, just so very stupid.

 

 

[catherinejane]

Wouldn’t you have 2 nuke codes. 
 

1 legit

And 1 that looks legit but at last minute isn’t (to give code giver a chance to escape) 

[Sandman]

On 5/19/2023 at 5:18 AM, Snazzy Daisy said:

Mason and Nadia have a child together. SHOCKING! People saw this coming several episodes ago. Duh.

I just came here to say: And how!

As you were.