LA CASA DE PAPEL (Mostly known as Money Heist)
This show has a special place in my heart because when I was traveling, a French girl (lol) that I met and lived with in Cambodia introduced me to this show. And until now, we are still really good friends and we were planning on traveling together again next year. Anyway! This show is a Spanish crime-drama show that aired normally in a spanish network and then Netflix got the rights to stream it. It was even before it became a worldwide sensation that I knew of it. The title translates to "The House of Papers". At the beginning, it follows a criminal woman, who is mainly a robber named Silene Oliveiro, where she is being tracked to be arrested. They used her mother to trap her but she knew and felt like something is up. She was about to run away and go away when someone stopped her in her tracks. It was El Professor. He has gathered criminals and decided to team up with them and steal. Where are they stealing from? The Royal Mint of Spain. This is where they print banknotes and it also has a museum. He told him about his rules before he started giving out details of his plans. One of them was that personal informations are not needed and attachments should not be formed because it is a distraction to their grand master plan. They decided to have codenames that are places. The team consists of Tokyo, Rio, Berlin, Nairobi, Moscow, Denver, Oslo, and Helsinki. They all have their own stories and all criminals in their own ways but they have united to rob the Mint for millions of euros each.
They spent 5 months memorising every step, every detail, and every probability that can happen during the heist so everything will be perfect. They have Plan As, Bs, and even Cs. They tried to cover every situation that could happen and that made the show excitinf and thrilling! It's never perfect because what plan really goes on to be perfectly planned? But with their preparations, they can try and turn the tides. With El Professor on the outside the all of them on the inside with the planned hostage and all the other things, this show gives you everything you need for a crime-drama show. Let me introduce the characters quickly.
Tokyo is Silene. As I've said, she's kind of a notorious robber until El Professor scouted her. I dislike her a lot because she makes questionable choices throughout the series. She started off as my favourite because who doesn't love a badass woman who is also the focus of the show? But then she just became annoying and frustrating. I'm not saying all of what she did was bad because I did like her a lot in the beginning. Tokyo is a reckless and impulsive person. She usually thinks before she acts which sometimes (or in my opinion most of the time) results in things she would regret. I can say though that even if she can't keep her emotions in check, she seems to be the most caring person in the team but she has a hard time expressing it.
Rio is the youngest person in the team. He is a very good hacker and he engaged in multiple cyber-attacks which was done discreetly because of the police. Because of that, he was recruited by El Professor. He even knows where to buy weapons (probably in the deep web lol). He knows how to handle a weapon but he is pro anly the least skilled to. Rio becomes infatuated with Tokyo and they aould have a relationship. Sexual at first of course being isolated for five months learning the plan is quite frustrating. Being the youngest one, he is quite playful, naive, and innocent compared to the others. He and Tokyo got frustrating because their relationship kind of sometimes affected the plans. I won't go into details because spoilers.
Berlin is someone who you would love and hate at the same time. He is quite polarising but I think now, he is quite loved by the people. He is a jewel thief and the second-in-command of the heist. He kinda lead the heist inside the Mint while El Professor is the mastermind of course but he handles things outside. Berlin makes the decisions that are not important enough to contact El Professor. Before the robbery, he was already diagnosed with a muscle disease called Helmer's Myopathy. Berlin is an arrogant, narcissistic, and sometimes showing signs of being a psycopathic person. He showed signs of it by having superficial charm and lack of empathy. He is shown to be calm and eloquent and likes to play mindgames with the hostages. Berlin also has a very sarcastic humour that he used on the hostages and even his team. But still, he greatly respects his team and would do anything to save them.
Nairobi is the other female of the group. She was recruited by El Professor and put on the quality of production of the bank notes because she is an expert on falsifications. Basically that means she's a really good counterfeiter. She is always active, enthusiastic, and very motivating as seen when she motivated some hostages in the production of the bank notes. Nairobi speaks loud and clear does her job in the heist well. The money is what they all came for so she really did have a crucial part in it. She probably is the most kind hearted and empathetic person in the group. Nairobi is my favourite because not only is she a badass boss ass bitch but she is also a very focused and reasonable person. She is logical and does not make quick decisions that can lead to their downfall.
Denver is the son of Moscow. I don't really know what his expertise is or how he became a criminal but he's seen being picked up by his father from jail after being release and probably not the first time. Maybe he's just a troublemaker. Oh wait, he's a drug dealer and he got into a big mess. Or he was just brought on because Moscow insisted as El Professor needed Moscow. Moscow is a drilling expert and basically the person who could achieve their escape route. He used to be a miner before living the life of a criminal. He quit though because apparently he's claustrophobic. Weirdly, Denver has a bigger role than Moscow. Denver was asked by Berlin to kill a pregnant woman but he hides her in one of the big ass safes and falls in love with her during the process. The pregnant woman will have a bigger role in the third season and will be part of the team and her codename will be Stockholm. Funny right? Because people thought she had Stockholm Syndrome when she was woth Berlin. Moscow is a very gentle father figure not only to Denver but to the others as well. Denver, on the other hand, is immature, rowdy, and just all around mess. Their dynamic and their relationship though as father and son is something that touched my heart watching the show.
Helsinki and Oslo are Serbian war veterans and they are cousins. Oslo probably has the smallest role of the main cast as he was basically a guard dog. Helsinki is the same too but he got a bigger role throughout the season. I can't say much bexause it's a little spoiler-y but we learn that Helsinki is gay. He also is closest to Nairobi.
Last but not the least, El Professor. He is basically the brains of the heist. He controls the operation from the outside and plays with the police and doing tricks to make them do what he wants. He uses head inspector Raquel Murillo by using his identity as Salva but it ended up backfiring a little bit as he falls in love with her. She falls for him too and she becomes a member of the group in season 3 with the codename Lisbon. El Professor is somewhat sheepish like you know a geeky loser kid but he is hot lol. Anyway, he is a perfectionist and he wants to everything to go smoothly although he understands it won't so he checked all the probabilities of their actions throughout the heist. Without him, the heist would not be possible. He solves all the problems inside and outside the Royal Mint whenever he can.
They all wear these iconic red jumpsuits and masks that has the face of the Spanish painted Salvador Dalí. It became really iconic and people dressed up like those last Halloween.
There has been 3 seasons so far and the next season will air on next month. The first two seasons were about the heist in the Royal Mint and the 3rd and 4th are about the heist in the Bank of Spain. Who knows if this is the last season or not? Is there another big ass place they can heist? We will see.
The show was set after the financial crisis of 2007-2008 in Spain and critics argued that the series is an explicit allegory of rebellion against capitalism. They saw it as a subversive in that it's about a heist for the people. It's revenge against a government. Which can be seen in a literal sense in the show with the heist team appealing to the masses and somehow most of them grew to support them. There are more themes in the show that can be seen and this show isn't just about having another great show but it touches on the reality in Spain which the creators wanted. They avoided adapting to international tastes which helped it to be set apart from the usual American shows and raised international awareness of Spanish sensibilities. Also, they have made the song Bella Ciao, and Italian anti-fascist song, very popular as it was used in the show.
Honestly, this is a great show and I would recommend people to watch it because it is fun, funny, and will put you st the edge of your metaphorical seats. There is an English dub in Netflix but I'd prefer you all to watch it in Spanish with subtitles on because you would want to hear the emotions and powers in their voices. In 2018, it became the most watched non-English show in Netflix and it is still one of the most watched shows in Netflix. I'm glad I got it this far with probably the help of Nico. I'll leave the trailer for the first season here.
