Tag Archives: La Casa de Papel (Money Heist)

Bingeworthy box sets

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As people around the world self-isolate and heed orders to stay at home amid the devastating coronavirus pandemic, DQ offers a selection of series from around the world to enjoy.

Babylon Berlin
From: Germany
Original broadcaster: Sky
Starring: Volker Bruch, Liv Lisa Fries, Peter Kurth, Matthias Brandt, Leonie Benesch, Severija Janušauskaitė, Ivan Shvedoff
Seasons: Three
This German noir has become a breakout hit for the country, immersing viewers in a visually intoxicating 1920s Berlin. Based on the crime novels by Volker Kitscher, it follows police inspector Gereon Rath, who is on a secret mission to expose an extortion ring, and Charlotte Ritter, a police clerk who aspires to be an inspector but at night is a flapper and occasional prostitute at the Mika Efti cabaret. The series is also lifted by the dramatic soundtrack, which features standout song Zu Asche, Zu Staub (To Ashes, To Dust), performed on the nightclub stage.

Badehotellet (Seaside Hotel)
From: Denmark
Original broadcaster: TV2
Starring: Amalie Dollerup, Lars Ranthe, Anne Louise Hassing, Merete Mærkedahl, Ulla Vejby, Jens Jacob Tychsen, Anette Støvelbæk, Birthe Neumann
Seasons: Seven
Downton Abbey by the seaside, this long-running Danish drama is one of the country’s most popular series, drawing audiences every year since 2013 to the trials and tribulations of the staff working a lavish hotel and the guests who visit them each summer from Copenhagen. Combining beautiful scenery with comedy drama and the clash of class and cultures that comes naturally from the upstairs/downstairs setting, it’s the perfect example of blue-sky Nordic drama.

Das Boot
From: Germany
Original broadcaster: Sky
Starring: Vicky Krieps, Tom Wlaschiha, August Wittgenstein, Lizzy Caplan, Rick Okon, Vincent Kartheiser
Seasons: Season two launches in Germany on April 24
Following a classic novel and iconic film is no easy feat, and critics were rightly sceptical that the ambition of this series could match what had come before. But from the first glimpse of a U-boat rising out of the Atlantic Ocean, this wartime drama serves up a compelling and technically stunning show. Set nine months after the Wolfgang Petersen film, the action opens in 1942, simultaneously following the crew of the claustrophobic U-612 and the Resistance in La Rochelle, France.

Delhi Crime
From: India
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Starring: Shefali Shah, Rasika Dugal, Aakash Dahiya, Adil Hussain, Rajesh Tailang
Seasons: One
While true crime dramas continue to dominate the broadcast and streaming schedules, buoyed by a similar wave of documentary series in the genre, this is one of the best. Based on the tragic true story of a 2012 gang rape in Delhi, the series follows the aftermath and the police investigation to find those responsible. Shah plays Vartika Chaturvedi, the deputy commissioner of police who drives the series forward and guides viewers through the sights and sounds of the city.

Fauda
From: Israel
Original broadcaster: Yes
Starring: Lior Raz, Itzik Cohen, Neta Garay, Rona-Lee Shim’on, Boaz Konforty, Doron Ben-David
Seasons: Three
Israel has become known as the home of some of the most original drama series in the world, leading to US remakes such as Homeland, Hostages, In Treatment and the upcoming Your Honor. Fauda might be the best of the bunch, drawing on the military experiences of creators Lior Raz (who also stars) and Avi Issacharoff. Set against the backdrop of the Israel-Palestine conflict, it follows the leader of an elite unit as they pursue a Hamas terrorist. Season three switches the action-packed story to the Gaza Strip.

Freud
From: Austria
Original broadcasters: ORF, Netflix
Starring: Robert Finster, Ella Rumpf, Georg Friedrich, Christoph F Krutzler
Seasons: One
Having recently launched in Austria, this dark, gothic period drama from director Marvin Kren (4 Blocks) is set in 1890s Vienna, famous for its decadence and the dark underbelly of high society. Mysterious murders and political intrigue clash as young psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (Finster), who finds strong opposition against his theories, becomes embroiled in a murderous conspiracy alongside a policeman and a notorious medium.

Herrens Veje (Ride Upon the Storm)
From: Denmark
Original broadcaster: DR
Starring: Lars Mikkelsen, Ann Eleonora Jørgensen, Simon Sears, Morten Hee Andersen
Seasons: Two
From the creator of hit Danish political drama Borgen comes this drama about a family of priests and the characters within it, as each follows their own path to a meaningful life. On the face of it, they are the epitome of respectability, but events that leave the family in crisis soon unfold.

La Casa de Papel (Money Heist)
From: Spain
Original broadcasters: Antenna 3, Netflix
Starring: Alvaro Morte, Itziar Ituño, Alba Flores, Esther Acebo, Pedro Alonso
Seasons: Three, with a fourth released on Netflix on April 3
If any series characterises Spain’s assent to global drama powerhouse, it is this thrilling and action-packed story of a mysterious man known only as El Profesor (The Professor), who brings together a band of criminals to carry out the biggest heist ever imagined: taking over the The Royal Mint of Spain and taking home 2.4 billion euros. In season three, they are forced to reunite to execute a more ambitious plan, this time targeting the Bank of Spain.

Line of Duty
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC
Starring: Martin Compston, Vicky McClure, Adrian Dunbar
Seasons: Five
With filming on season six interrupted as productions around the world shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, now is the chance to catch up creator Jed Mercurio’s nail-bitingly tense police thriller (also pictured top), which introduces the members of Anti-Corruption Unit 12, tasked with uncovering police wrongdoing. Each season features a host of guest stars, while a long-running conspiracy plays across the series. By the end, you’ll be asking, ‘Who is H?’

Mr Robot
From: US
Original broadcaster: USA Network
Starring: Rami Malek, Carl Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallström, Christian Slater
Seasons: Four
Turn off social media and be sure to pay attention to Mr Robot, a critically acclaimed psychological thriller that follows Elliot Anderson (Malek), a young man living in New York who works for cyber-security company Allsafe and whose struggles with social anxiety and depression mean he struggles with paranoia and delusion. Elliot’s hacking skills lead him to anarchist Mr Robot, who is planning to attack one of the biggest corporations in the world – and Allsafe’s biggest client.

Professor T
From: Belgium
Original broadcaster: Één
Starring: Koen De Bouw, Tanja Oostvogels, Goeie Derick, Carry Goossens, Herwig Ilegems
Seasons: Three
Belgium is certainly among the most ambitiously creative countries in the world when it comes to television drama, thanks in part to a financial system that demands fresh and original ideas. Set in Antwerp, this crime drama introduces the eponymous eccentric professor, who works alongside the police to solve crimes. What makes it stand out is the mixture of genres the series covers, from musical and comedy to tragedy and melodrama. The show has already been remade in France and Germany, and a UK version starring Ben Miller is now in the works for ITV.

Queen Sono
From: South Africa
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Starring: Pearl Thusi, Vuyo Dabula, Lois Maginga
Seasons: One
Recently launched on Netflix, this series marks the streamer’s first foray into original African scripted programming. Mixing thills, actions and character drama, it follows the titular character, a member of the Special Operations Group and daughter of an anti-apartheid leader, who tackles criminal operations while dealing with crises in her personal life.

Sex Education
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, Connor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Aimee Lou Wood, Tanya Reynolds, Patricia Allison
Seasons: Two
Ostensibly the story of a teenager who follows in his sex therapist mother’s footsteps by providing advice to his hormone-driven classmates, Sex Education matches an eclectic cast of characters with a visually vibrant take on the traditionally dour British school drama by blending the look of a US high school with a distinctly 80s vibe, all while mixing laugh-out-loud humour with discussions of serious subjects such as sexual assault, sexuality and sexually transmitted infections.

The Expanse
From: US
Original broadcaster: Syfy (now Amazon Prime Video)
Starring: Steven Strait, Cas Anvar, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Frankie Adams
Seasons: Four, with a fifth already ordered
For a sci-fi drama that’s out of this world, look no further than The Expanse. Based on the books by James SA Corey, the show’s future was in doubt when it was cancelled by Syfy after three seasons, before Amazon stepped in to save the series and order two further seasons. It opens hundreds of years in the future in a colonised Solar System, when the case of a missing girl brings together a hardened police detective, an Earth-based politician and a rogue ship captain, leading them to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.

The Mandalorian
From: US
Original broadcaster: Disney+
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Werner Herzog, Nick Nolte, Emily Swallow, Taika Waititi, Giancarlo Esposito, Omid Abtahi
Seasons: One
Those lucky enough to be in the US, Canada or the Netherlands may have already check out this Star Wars series, the flagship original drama on the new Disney+ streaming platform. But as the service reaches most of Europe tomorrow, millions of subscribers will no doubt be eagerly awaiting the opportunity to see this acclaimed show, which is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order, as seen in the most recent trilogy of Star Wars films. It’s here we meet a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic.

The Marvellous Mrs Maisel
From: US
Original broadcaster: Amazon Prime Video
Starring: Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Michael Zegen, Marin Hinkle, Tony Shalhoub
Seasons: Three, with a fourth on the way
A comedy-drama that has plenty of both, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel sees Rachel Brosnahah turn in an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning performance as the titular character, a housewife in 1950s New York who discovers a knack for stand-up after an impromptu set at a comedy club.

This Is Us
From: US
Original broadcaster: NBC
Starring: Milo Ventimiglia, Mandy Moore, Sterling K Brown, Chrissy Metz, Justin Hartley
Seasons: Four
For heartwarming comedy and emotional family drama, this smash hit US drama ticks all the boxes. It follows the members of the Pearson family – mum Rebecca, dad Jack and siblings Kevin, Kate and Randall – mostly in the present day but flashing back to the past and into the future, focusing on their individual relationships and how their lives and experiences have been experienced by their childhood. Last year, following its third season, the show received the rare honour of being renewed for an additional three seasons.

Top Boy
From: UK
Original broadcasters: Channel 4, Netflix
Starring: Ashley Walters, Kane Robinson, Shane Romulus, Malcolm Kamulete, Sharon Duncan Brewster
Seasons: Three
British crime drama Top Boy first aired in 2011, with a second season running in 2013 on Channel 4. But thanks to the support of rapper Drake, Netflix revived the series this year. Set in East London, it introduces a group of friends and gang members fighting for survival on fictional crime-riddled estate Summerhouse. The series has been praised for its tough characters and its realistic portray of the world the story is set in.

Watchmen
From: US
Original broadcaster: HBO
Starring: Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tim Mison, Sara Vickers, Jeremy Irons, Andrew Howard, Louis Gossett Jr
Seasons: One
This might be described as a superhero drama, but it can’t be compared to anything produced by Marvel (The Avengers) or DC (Batman) in recent years. From Lost creator Damon Lindelof and described as a “remix” of the iconic graphic novel created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, this alternate-history series takes place 34 years after the original story and follows a detective (Regina King) as she investigates a murder, in a world where police officers are forced to conceal their identities in an ongoing battle against a white-supremacist group. King’s standout performance and stunning filmmaking ally with topical themes and a powerful soundtrack created by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross from Nine Inch Nails.

Westworld
From: US
Original broadcaster: HBO
Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Aaron Paul, Vincent Cassel, Lena Waithe
Seasons: Season three is now airing
As visually striking and imaginative as ever, this science-fiction series continues to be one of the most ambitious and complex stories on television. Based on Michael Crichton’s 1973 film, it introduces the eponymous Wild West-themed resort where guests can entertain their wildest – and often most villainous – fantasies alongside the android ‘hosts’ that populate the park. Naturally, things don’t go as expected when some hosts begin to gain sentience and search for a way to leave the park and join the real world.

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Right on the Money

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La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) is a certified phenomenon after Netflix revealed it was the streamer’s biggest non-English-language series ever. DQ hears from creator Alex Pina and writer Esther Martinez Lobato about making the Spanish heist drama.

When Netflix published its earnings statement for the first quarter of 2018, there were plenty of headline figures. Revenue growth of 43% year-on-year, the fastest in its streaming history; more than seven million new subscribers worldwide; and confirmation of a US$8bn content budget for the year ahead that would be spent on a dizzying array of series, films, unscripted series, documentaries and comedy specials.

The same period also saw the launch of new series including The End of the F****** World and Altered Carbon, plus the return of shows such as Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Santa Clarita Diet and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

And while Netflix continues to expand its production line of international originals, among them Brazil’s O Mecanismo (The Mechanism) from Narcos creator José Padilha, the report also noted, with little fanfare, that Spanish drama El Casa de Papel (Money Heist) had become the most watched non-English-language series on Netflix. Quite a feat when you consider Narcos, Babylon Berlin, Fauda, Suburra, Generation War and Rita are among the slew of international shows available on the streaming platform.

The series, one story split across two seasons (or ‘parts’), first aired on Spain’s Antena 3 in May 2017. It tells the story of the mysterious Professor, played by Álvaro Morte, who assembles a crack team of criminals with one goal – to break into the Royal Mint of Spain in Madrid and print €2.4bn (US$2.8bn).

Alex Pina

Creator Alex Pina says he was keen to bring the heist genre, a constant in the big-screen world, to television but admits getting the project off the ground was a bumpy road.

“The TV channel wasn’t convinced,” he says. “And we were producing so many chapters with only one heist, which takes place in the 15th minute of the first chapter. There were 1,000 minutes of fiction, 137 hours of action, and we wanted to make it very fluid, so the only solution was to use flashbacks.

“With all these flashbacks, we wanted to tell the story and make it authentic, with lots of action and events one after the other, twists and turns. This is something that made it unique and such an addictive TV show.”

Another problem was that the heist genre is largely aimed at male cinema-goers – so how did the writers look to draw female viewers to the series? The answer lay in telling the story largely from a female perspective.

“Last year we saw an explosion of female narratives,” says Esther Martinez Lobato, screenwriter and executive producer. “More TV shows are having female main characters. The most difficult decision we had to make was to find the perfect protagonist, which we found in Tokyo [played by Úrsula Corberó]. She’s a very important character. She’s a loser at the beginning and had nothing to lose, and then she meets the Professor. That’s how we wanted to approach the male presence. But the female characters go beyond Tokyo.”

The other most notable female characters are Raquel (Itziar Ituño), the police officer who leads the investigation into the heist and unwittingly becomes close to the Professor; and Monica, an employee at the Royal Mint who is initially held among the hostages but becomes involved with one of her captors, Denver (Jaime Lorente).

Álvaro Morte as the Professor, mastermind of the heist at the centre of the show

“We have the perfect heist, that’s the motive of the series, but it’s something very masculine so we wanted to provide feminine perspective,” Pina says. “Raquel’s story is very powerful, very romantic. She controls the heist from the police point of view and she deals with gender violence in her life [following an abusive relationship with her ex-husband]. On the other hand, we have Tokyo. We also have Monica. She has a lot of male-related problems and all of this takes place within the perfect heist. There are four main female characters [including fellow gang member Nairobi] and it works very well. We also intended to enhance the genre with some hybrids. One of most powerful romantic stories could happen between the Professor and the inspector, the mastermind of the police operation. It was something we wanted to exploit and it has worked.”

Those who struggle to put pen to paper should take heart when Lobato admits it took a month to write the first five lines of the series. The writer, who was already working with Pina on Spanish prison drama Vis a Vis (Locked Up), says El Casa de Papel was “a leap into the unknown.”

“We didn’t know what we were embarking on,” she says. “We started to work on a small thing, we ended it, the actors went home. All the sets were destroyed. Then Netflix picked up the series and, starting from a very small TV show, we saw how it was growing exponentially. Everything we did, we did with love. We were just trying to make something entertaining and good to watch.”

Throughout its 15 chapters (re-edited into 22 on Netflix), the series is notable for its fast-paced twists and turns as it juggles competing – and rising – tensions inside and outside the Royal Mint, where the robbers and the police both face a race against time to achieve their aims. Pina says his ambition was to create a “frantic” TV show, noting: “We didn’t want it to get boring, so we wanted to give reasons for the audience to stay with us and keep watching the show. That’s why every five or 10 minutes, lots of powerful things happen. We wanted to open up the series and the plot, even though it was developing in a closed space.”

Úrsula Corberó as Tokyo, one of several prominent female characters

More important than the plot, however, is the band of morally ambiguous characters – all given city codenames, like Tokyo – at the centre of the story. While on the surface this appears to be a story of good versus evil, pitting the police against a group of career criminals, characters on both sides of the fence are not as you initially perceive them to be.

“All the characters, they are anti-heroes, antagonists. And as the plot develops, the audience realises they are very relatable,” says Pina. “That’s how the audience becomes addicted to the characters, because of the way they are developed. There’s no good or bad; it’s up to the audience to decide. Taking the audience from one side of the moral spectrum to another also marks the success of the series.”

It is arguably Berlin (Pedro Alonso), in particular, who changes the most, shifting from the crazed ringleader inside the Royal Mint and the Professor’s right-hand man to become one of the series’ most loved characters.

“People ask me how can you create a character who is so likeable but who started being so oppressing,” Lobato says, noting the character’s initial treatment of the hostages. “The audience can understand depth of character because it develops over a number of episodes. We’re trying to cover the whole moral spectrum and turn good people evil and vice versa. Tokyo starts as an anti-hero and becomes a lovely girl. Monica starts as a secretary and by the end she has a gun in her hand. That’s what makes the series so entertaining.”

The drama was originally ordered by Spain’s Antena 3

It’s an approach that is employed for every character in the series, with shades of light and dark applied to each so they are both relatable and immoral at various moments of the series, from the scheming yet charismatic Professor and the strong yet vulnerable Raquel to each member of the gang holed up inside the Royal Mint.

“We spent a lot of time to find how Nairobi [Alba Flores] speaks and Berlin walks – all those details that construct the identity and DNA of the show,” Pina says. “They’re multi-dimensional characters, they’re always changing and are complementary to one another. That’s what makes the audience stay with the characters and why we present them in another light. We provide a poetic dimension to allow them to develop throughout the plot. If we have a violent character, we want to add some tenderness.”

Lobato picks up: “One of the things we kept in mind when we started work every day was the audience. They are smart and are consuming more fiction. They are becoming experts. Before, we were asking ourselves if the audience was watching TV, but now the question has changed. They choose what to see, so that has affected our choices as well.”

The show’s two-part structure was born out of financial necessity, Pina reveals, admitting “we didn’t have a lot of money.” Production was split between shooting scenes featuring the Professor and the police with one unit and events inside the Royal Mint with another.

The show’s third season will air next year

“That’s how it was viable,” Pina says. “It was created in five months. We started writing and each week we delivered the script. Production was a race against the clock.”

While seasons one and two make up one complete story – earning a Golden Nymph award for best drama TV series at the Monte Carlo Television Festival earlier this month – with a solid resolution to the events that have taken place during the series, Netflix has ordered a third season that will see the Professor develop new heists. It is set to air in 2019.

And when it comes to potential spin-offs, Pina says that’s for the streamer to discuss. “They’re very happy with it and believe it has lots of possibilities,” he says. “They believe that either Berlin or Tokyo can have their own universe, but I don’t have any more information. It could possibly work back in time; it could be a prequel.

“Berlin is going to appear in the third season,” Pina adds. “Berlin will have a big universe before the heist because he was already a professional robber. La Casa de Papel is the end of his story but we have lots to tell about him.”

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