Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Citadel: Honey Bunny’ on Prime Video, A Rip-Roaring Action Series And The Latest Entry In The ‘Citadel’ Suite Of Shows 

Citadel: Honey Bunny, now streaming its six-episode run on Prime Video, is also the next installment in an action series universe that includes Citadel – a second season is in the works – and Citadel: Diana, which premiered in October. And while it doesn’t feel like Prime Video has done a whole lot to promote the connectivity between these series, that’s a them problem: like Diana before it, Honey Bunny functions just as well as a standalone action thrill. Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Varun Dhawan – the titular Honey and Bunny – star, the so-hot-right-now duo Raj & D.K. (Raj Nidimoru and Krisha Dasarakothapalli) are directors and co-writers with Sita R. Menon, and there are even a few crossover references for true Citadel heads, if that’s your kind of thing.        

CITADEL HONEY BUNNY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Honey (Prabhu) is driving her daughter Nadia (Kashvi Majmundar) to school on their scooter. It’s 2000, and we’re in Nainital, a city in India’s mountainous north. 

The Gist: Honey has taught little Nadia how to not take any shit from anyone. But in case anything does happen, they’re also connected via pager. And after dropping her at elementary school, Honey heads to the market to buy supplies for the cafe she operates, which is exactly where the “anything” she’s been worried about for years finally occurs. Immediately detecting that she’s being followed, Honey wastes no time, and pages Nadia to enact their plan for escape and rendezvous. But while her daughter waits, she is overpowered and abducted.

Flashback, 1992. While Honey hopes to break into the Bollywood film industry, Bunny (Dhawan) is already a successful stunt performer on the scene. They meet on set, and though she is accustomed to fighting off harrassment from all kinds of movie biz types, he is actually kind. He is also not just a stuntman. Bunny recruits Honey for a covert op he’s running with Chacko (Shivanit Singh Parihar) and Ludo (Soham Majumdar) for their boss Guru (Kay Kay Menon). It’s a mysterious device they’re after, a device also sought by Zooni (Simran Bagga) and her henchmen, and while Honey quickly proves adept at undercover work, she’s also wounded in the resulting scrum. 

In 2000, Honey will have to figure out who’s after her while trying to save Nadia. But Bunny is soon back in the mix, too. He’s in Bucharest, Romania when an encrypted message comes through – “Honey ALIVE” – and it puts a look of resigned determination on Bunny’s face. Whatever the scope of their work and relationship back in the 90s, it’s clear that it’s returned to bite both of them. With teeth. And with Guru’s cryptic references to “Project Talwar” and his ongoing rivalry with Zooni, what’s also evident is that, like the other shows under the Citadel banner, clandestine networks are competing to secure powerful resources and take each other out in the process.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Honey Bunny directing duo Raj & D.K. also made the highly entertaining limited series Guns & Gulaabs for Netflix. And Citadel: Diana is definitely worth a watch, too, especially for the lead performance of Matilda De Angelis, which feels like a breakthrough. 

Our Take: For us, there is a bit of a disconnect between what Prime Video seems to want its Citadel to be – series that exist in a shared universe full of gunfights, car chases, and established spycraft lore – and what they actually are, as shows that feature all of those elements but don’t fully lean into the connectability context. But here’s the thing: that stuff doesn’t matter. Citadel: Honey Bunny, like Citadel: Diana before it, is fully capable of asserting its own damn self. Prime can tout the money it spent in development, and the involvement of Anthony and Joe Russo as executive producers. But before Easter eggs connecting these international shows together are even considered, what really matters is individual watchability, and Honey Bunny has that going on immediately. 

We’re excited to watch the chemistry develop between Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Varun Dhawan as Honey and Bunny – it sizzles in the flashbacks where they are together, and smolders in the show’s present where they aren’t, so it’s going to get hotter as things move along and they find themselves back on each other’s radar. The action sequences in Honey Bunny are full of crushing fisticuffs, speeding motorbikes, and touches of visual wit and pizazz from directors Raj & D.K., and the humor in the script is also on point. Basically, Citadel: Honey Bunny has a lot going for it individually. And how it links up to the other Citadel series isn’t really an issue, because it’s based on the natural conflict between two time periods just like those other series. That dynamic is contributing to keeping us in it, and should do the same for you you’re coming into this whole Citadel shared universe thing totally blind.

Sex and Skin: A little bit of male buttcheek, but that’s it, at least for the first episode. 

Parting Shot: Can Honey make it out of her current predicament and back to Nadia’s side? How will Bunny, still in Bucharest, figure into the mayhem that’s going down in Nainital? And what else will we learn about their collective past together? 

Sleeper Star: We really like Soham Majumdar as Ludo in the early going of Honey Bunny. Razzed by Bunny for scavenging flea markets for electronics, his gadgets are actually instrumental to their work for Guru. We’ve only met Ludo in 1992. But we’re wondering how he figures into the events of 2000.

Most Pilot-y Line: Bunny’s elevator pitch to Honey is as follows: “You really think being a stuntman is my only source of income? There’s another job I do for extra cash. It’s like acting, but there’s no shoot, no camera. Real life.”

Our Call: Stream It! Citadel: Honey Bunny is full of quick wit, quicker action, and lots and lots of charisma from leads Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Varun Dhawan. It’s both a complement to the other series under the Citadel umbrella, and worthy enough to entertain you on its own.  

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.