Haus des Geldes (Netflix version)

Hats off and panties off too, this is a gem that needs to be saved, sealed and archived! In seventeen hours, the Spaniards serve up the most well thought out money heist and negotiation thriller at the same time. It will have you biting your nails, tearing your hair out, swallowing pills, drinking Red Bull, changing your sheets and forgetting to go to work. You'll witness the biggest heist in history, where the brains of the operation has been devising the plan for half his life, putting him five steps ahead of the police every time. Every variable and every step has been thought out to the millimeter. The characters are brilliantly written (the Professor, Berlin, Tokyo and the Chief Inspector steal all the scenes for themselves), and the script is so imaginative, creative and well thought out that it seems almost unbelievable that anyone could come up with this. You'll love the main gang of thieves and gradually come to hate some of them. The music is great too, and when backed up by the onslaught of twists and turns, you feel like you're watching the finale of Saw. The Spaniards have never served up so many twists and turns in seventeen hours in all the history of their cinema! Of course, there's also the Stockholm Syndrome, which leads to sex in a vault, and the countless wisecracks and quips served up by the excellent Berlin (the story about the rebellious virgins and the nuclear warheads coming out of a woman's uterus is not to be missed). So watch out! The Spaniards at their best! Recommended 10/10! (27.06.2019)

Spanish soap operas are a very interesting topic for me right now, and I'm going to explore it a bit more. And Money Heist is currently probably their best known (and most widely loved) representative. Actually, I'm not surprised at all. The professor's plan is brilliant, and most of the henchmen are sympathetic or nutty and impossible not to root for. Their red jumpsuits are slowly but surely becoming legendary, and I bet a lot of fans outside of Spain will wear them to Halloween parties. And I might be one of them. After the first season, I wasn’t sure whether it was really such a hit. By the third one, I'm clear... 5 stars. (23.04.2020)

I'm writing this review after only two seasons as I think the second season should have concluded it. From the third season on, just like the drawn-out Wentworth, it turned into something else. I had a great time watching both seasons, I really enjoyed the story, although I found only one somewhat likeable character. I guess I have more antipathy for thieves than serial killers. I did like Dexter quite a lot. Although I had many issues with the second season, it was still excellent, and I have nothing but praise for the series. (24.02.2020)

At first, I wondered what all could be going on in a heist series about one big heist that happens right at the beginning. In a typical heist movie, we are usually first introduced to the plan, then we watch the recruitment of the team members, then the preparations, and finally the heist itself. We're left wondering if everything will go according to plan, and if something doesn't, we know it. But here, we're not sure of anything until the last moment. The robbery begins and the whole (months in the making) plan is revealed to us step by step in flashbacks. Not only are we tense all the time, wondering if everything will go according to plan, but we are also constantly surprised by parts of the plan. We like that the criminals don't actually steal from anyone. It's not a robbery per se. Their goal is to spend as much time as possible in the mint and print as many bills as possible. Meanwhile, the hostages are trying to get out, and the police want to get in. Throughout the heist, everyone has plenty of time to get to know each other and become intimate, so there's no escaping a bit of melodrama. But the tension doesn't let up for a moment and it's a very decent adrenaline ride from start to finish. It's like watching a thrilling game of chess with the fact that sometimes we don't even know which player we're supposed to be rooting for. The robbers? The police? The hostages? The idea of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys is constantly changing. Everyone has a plan, and we're constantly on edge about who's gonna make the next move. Situations and relationships are constantly escalating and there’s no episode that will leave you at ease. The whole plot is a bit far-fetched and not without occasional lapses in logic, but it's told and performed with such energy that you won't be able to tear yourself away. Money Heist is probably the most addictive series of our time, and I'm not at all surprised that it's the most watched non-English language series on Netflix. (25.02.2019)