TL;DR – This is the first Citadel show that I think captured what set out to do with this series.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that viewed this series.

Citadel: Honey Bunny Review –

We are now three seasons deep into this grand Citadel experiment from Amazon Prime. The first season was a complete mess, but that might have been more about behind-the-scenes issues than anything else. On the second outing, Diana jumped over to Italy and was an improvement on the formula. But today, it is India’s turn to show what they can do, and spoiler for the review: what they can do is quite a bit.   

So, to set the scene, we are in Nainital in the year 2000, and Hanimandakini “Honey” Raj (Samantha Ruth Prabhu) is dropping her daughter Nadia (Kashvi Majmundar) off at school and building up a café. However, things take a turn when Honey notices that she is being followed in the market. She dodges her pursuer, sends a coded message of alarm to her daughter Nadia (Kashvi Majmundar), and almost gets a surprise attack, but she misses the second tail. For you see, back in 1992 in Bombay, while Bunny was trying to make it in the acting world, she met Raahi “Bunny” Gambhir (Varun Dhawan), who was on the stunt team. But when Honey struggles to get work and is in desperate need of a job, she discovers that stunts are not all that Bunny does for money. On the side, he and his group Chacko (Shivankit Parihar) and Ludo (Soham Majumdar) also engage in a little corporate espionage. We will be looking at the season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Structurally, Honey Bunny shares a lot in common with Diana, and I think that is one of its strengths. We get a dual narrative that jumps between two main points in time: 1992 in Bombay and Belgrade and 2000 in Nainital and Mumbai. We cut between these two points throughout the series, but it all moves in the same chronological order, so you don’t have to worry about where in the timeline you are when watching. There are two minor exceptions to this, but one is such a minor blip it does not matter, and the other was carefully integrated with aspect ratio change to keep you following along.

Where I think Honey Bunny truly shines is in its action scenes that have been clearly crafted to have a significant impact on the show. An exceptionally good example of this comes in the first episode, Dancing and Fighting, when Bunny is trapped in the boot of a car and then has to cut her way through the back seat before taking out the driver and guards. It is filmed with an elegance similar to The Villainess. The rest of the series is punctuated with solid gun battles and melee brawls that are constantly engaging. Indeed, much of the final episode is one long oner as Honey and Bunny stop an army from attacking their hideout with an intensity that you would expect from a John Wick action scene. If I were being picky, I would say that many of the seams were obvious, but you don’t really care because the stunt team are throwing themselves into it.

The next strength is the cast, who very much know what sort of show they are in and play into those roles. Samantha brings absolutely the right energy for Honey, someone that you believe entirely managed to navigate between the proto-Manticore and Citadel and carve out her own life. Watching her beat down that director who was soliciting her was fantastic to watch, and you also wholly believe the dynamic between her and Nadia. On that front, congratulations to Kashvi Majmundar for being one of the best young actors I have seen in a while. Because they nailed that precociousness that had been funnelled into a protective drive. Then, of course, we have Varun Dhawan, who brings all the charm as the Bunny half of the show. We then surround the main cast with some solid supporting work, and you have a great ensemble.  

From a narrative perspective, it is pretty straightforward, but it holds enough cards close to its chest that it never becomes entirely predictable. Much of the narrative shows the first significant interaction between Citadel and what would become Manticore. In that respect, it is a bit of a prequel, and if you think about the timelines and character names, it becomes more apparent how these fit into the first season of Citadel. The story all works quite well because you suspect Baba’s (Kay Kay Menon) motivations right from the start, but you don’t quite know where he sits. When he says he does not trust women, you can feel the show immediately giving him some much-needed side-eye.

The production side of things was also strong, as it is clear the show leaned into its strengths. It makes good use of its location work, which helps cover for the fact that they dressed that same concrete building up as several different locations. Setting much of the series in Belgrade was also a good choice because it is not a location we see often in cinema, so they were able to build on that here. One area I particularly enjoyed was the musical score, with the opening re-mix of the Citadel theme being just one strong example.

In the end, do we recommend Citadel Honey Bunny? For the first time in this series, I think, yes, yes, we do. What we got was a solid outing punctuated with excellent action scenes and a drive to tell an interesting story. While I am not sure this Citadel Universe has still found its feet yet, this entry has at least shown me that it is possible that it will, and I hope it will. Though, did you need a cliffhanger?   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Citadel: Honey Bunny yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Citadel: Honey Bunny
Directed by – Raj & DK
Written by – Raj, DK, Sita R Menon & Sumit Arora
Created by – Sita R Menon
Based On – Citadel by Josh Appelbaum, Bryan Oh & David Weil
Production/Distribution Companies – Amazon MGM Studios, Gozie AGBO, Midnight Radio, PKM, Picrow, D2R Films & Amazon Prime
Starring – Samantha, Varun Dhawan, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon, Simran, Saqib Saleem, Sikandar Kher, Shivankit Parihar & Soham Majumdar With Parmeet Sethi, Bhuran Arora, Thalaivasal Vijay, Mukhtar Khan, Yash Puri, Arsh & Armaan Khera And Shahsank Vyas, Mohit Ranjit Thakur, Stasa Nikolic, Sagar Tugnait, Jihan Hodar, Suvel Gupta, Hardika Sharma, Shruti Narayan, Ravuri Aarush, Ajit Koshy, Chadaram Bhargavi Sri Durga, Shamsher, Raimundo Querido, Jyoti Kapoor, Visnja Obradovic, Izudin Bajrovic, Oliver Kim, Michael Teh, Luca Tanganelli, Supurna Malakar & Yash Puri 
Episodes Covered – Dancing and Fighting, Talwar, Spy Game, Home, Traitor & Play