So Krull to be kind: an update on Money Heist

Spanish La casa de papel

Created by Álex Pina

Starring

Úrsula Corberó, Álvaro Morte, Itziar Ituño, Pedro Alonso, Paco Tous, Alba Flores, Miguel Herrán, Jaime Lorente, Esther Acebo, Enrique Arce, María Pedraza, Darko Perić, Kiti Mánver, Hovik Keuchkerian, Luka Peroš, Belén Cuesta, Fernando Cayo, Rodrigo de la Serna, Najwa Nimri

Theme music composer Manel Santisteban

Opening theme “My Life Is Going On” by Cecilia Krull

Composers Manel Santisteban & Iván Martínez Lacámara

Country of origin Spain

Original language Spanish

No. of seasons 2 (5 parts)

No. of episodes 36 (list of episodes)

Production

Executive producers Álex Pina,Sonia Martínez, Jesús Colmenar, Esther Martínez Lobato, Nacho Manubens

Cinematography Migue Amoedo

Editors David Pelegrín, Luis Miguel González Bedmar, Verónica Callón, Raúl Mora, Regino Hernández, Raquel Marraco, Patricia Rubio

Production companies Atresmedia, Vancouver Media

Distributor Antena 3 Televisión, Netflix

The first half of season five of Money Heist goes roaring over the top and explodes over the Madrid skyline like a war. The tension is ratcheted up, the special effects more stunning, and the stakes skyhigh.

First a little background: the in first season, shot for Spanish television, the Professor put together a group of skilled criminals, each named for a city, to infiltrate, seize, and steal 2.4 billion Euros from the Royal Mint of Spain. On Netflix, this became two seasons, of 9 and 6 episodes. If you don’t know how that turned out, you need to start watching the series from episode one and stop reading this if spoilers bother you.

That season ends with the surviving members of the gang scattered to the ends of the Earth (the job did not go uneventfully. Repeat, it did not go uneventfully). Overall, though, they made off with a shit ton of money and are having a great time.

People who are stressed by moral ambiguity probably aren’t going to like this show. That’s OK: the show isn’t going to like those type of people, either. As a rule, the resolute, stalwart, unyeilding ones don’t do well. True to its telenovina roots, Money Heist has lots of complex, emotional, and chaotic characters who are mischievous, violent, idealistic and wildly romantic.

Season two starts with the cops capturing Rio (all the gang members except The Professor are named for cities). The Professor decides the way to force the cops to release Rio is by leading an assault on the Bank of Spain. He adds four more towns (Stockholm, Bogotá, Palermo, and Marseilles) to replace the ones that got used up, and begins the job, using plans devised by his brother back before the Royal Mint job.

Netflix is airing Season Two now, in chunks. The third and fourth installments were 8 episodes each, and are about the assault on the Bank of Spain. The fifth and six installments are airing now and in December.

This job, too, does not go uneventfully and season five starts with the professor captured by the most evil pregnant women in history, a couple more gang members dead, and several cases of people switching sides and/or betraying their fellows. Telenovina roots, remember.

There is a companion documentary that covers the making of the first five episodes of what Netflix calls seasons five but is actually season 2d. The last five episodes of the series (2e) air December 3, 2021.

Because of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown, a fair bit of this set of episodes are flashbacks various, and I suspect some of them were footage shot before but not used. A giveaway is how youthful Tokyo, the sexiest bank robber you’ll ever see, is. No, really, you’ll fall in love.

For the five episodes just now released, they built one of the most elaborate sets ever constructed, a faithful reconstruction of the museum contained within the Bank of Spain. It’s not too much of an overstatement to say they utterly destroy the set in about 35 minutes of film time in the final episode of this chunk.

It’s gone from a cops and robbers game to a full on military war, and it seems the Spanish military has its fair share of violent psychotics. Well, that’s a job requirement, isn’t it?

Like everything that has gone before, it’s a wild carnival ride of a show, tense, exhilarating, engrossing and with some of the most absolutely unforgettable characters you’ll ever encounter. It may not be the greatest television you’ll ever see, but it’s almost certainly the most entertaining. If you haven’t seen the show, it’s on Netflix, all however many seasons your count comes up with. Treat yourself.

Bella ciao.