Series Review: "Money Heist" ("La casa de papel") (2017-21).

"The Perfect Robbery." This is Money Heist (La casa de papel). This Spanish heist crime drama television series created by Álex Pina. Eight thieves take hostages and lock themselves inside the Royal Mint of Spain as a criminal mastermind manipulates the police to carry out his plan.

In 2016, after finishing their work on the Spanish prison drama Locked Up (Vis a vis), Pina and director Jesús Colmenar left Globomedia to set up their own production company, named Vancouver Media. For their first project, they considered either filming a comedy or developing a heist story for television, with the latter having never been attempted before on Spanish television. Along with former Locked Up colleagues, they developed Money Heist as a passion project to try new things without outside interference. Pina was firm about making it a limited series, feeling that dilution had become a problem for his previous productions. Initially entitled Los Desahuciados (The Evicted) in the conception phase, the series was developed to subvert heist conventions and combine elements of the action genre, thrillers and surrealism, while still being credible. Pina saw an advantage over typical heist films in that character development could span a considerably longer narrative arc. Characters were to be shown from multiple sides to break the viewers' preconceptions of villainy and retain their interest throughout the show. Key aspects of the planned storyline were written down at the beginning, while the finer story beats were developed incrementally to not overwhelm the writers. The beginning of filming was set for January 2017, allowing for five months of pre-production. The narrative was split into two parts for financial considerations. The robbers' city-based code names, which Spanish newspaper ABC compared to the colour-based code names in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 heist film Reservoir Dogs, were chosen at random in the first part, although places with high viewership resonance were also taken into account for the new robbers' code names in part 3. The first five lines of the pilot script took a month to write, as the writers were unable to make the Professor or Moscow work as narrator. Ultimately, Tokyo was chosen as an unreliable narrator. Flashbacks and time-jumps increased the narrative complexity and made the story more fluid for the audience. The pilot episode required over fifty script versions until the producers were satisfied. Later scripts would be finished once per week to keep up with filming.

In late 2016, casting took place, spanning more than two months. The characters were not fully fleshed out at the beginning of this process, and took shape based on the actors' performances. Casting directors Eva Leira and Yolanda Serrano were looking for actors with the ability to play empathetic robbers with believable love and family connections. By January 2017, 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, Roberto García Ruiz, Fernando Soto, and Juan Fernández were cast for Parts 1 and 2. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in August. Filming took place throughout Madrid, Spain. The episodes were shot in order and the actors only received the scripts for each episode as they were shooting, so they also did not know what their character's fate would be. By late July 2017, Corberó, Morte, Ituño, Alonso, Tous, Flores, Herrán, Lorente, Acebo, Arce, Pedraza, Perić, Mánver, Ruiz, Soto, and Fernández were confined to reprise their roles. Hovik Keuchkerian, Luka Peroš, Belén Cuesta, Fernando Cayo, Rodrigo de la Serna, Najwa Nimri, Diana Gómez, Patrick Criado, and Miguel Ángel Silvestre were cast as newcomers. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in mid May 2021. Filming took place in Madrid, Spain, Copenhagen, Denmark, Florence, Italy and at Pinewood Studios, London, England; as well as throughout Panama and Thailand. In December 2017, Netflix acquired the exclusive global streaming rights for the series. Netflix re-cut the series into twenty-two episodes of around fifty minutes' length. Cliffhangers and scenes had to be divided and moved to other episodes, but this proved less drastic than expected because of the series' perpetual plot twists. The first part was released on 20th December 2017 without any promotion. The second part was released on 6th April 2018. Without a dedicated Netflix marketing campaign, the series became the most-watched non-English language series on Netflix in early 2018, within four months of being added to the platform, to the creators' surprise. Following the show's success on the streaming platform, Netflix approached Pina and Atresmedia to produce new chapters for the originally self-contained story. In mid April 2018, Netflix officially renewed the series for the third part with a considerably increased budget. Part 3 was released on 19 July 2019. Part 4 was released on 3rd April 2020. In late July 2020, Netflix renewed the show for a fifth and final part, which would be released in two five-episode volumes on 3 September and 3 December, respectively.

The series stars Corberó, Morte, Ituño, Alonso, Tous, Flores, Herrán, Lorente, Acebo, Arce, Pedraza, Perić, Mánver, Ruiz, Soto, Fernández, Keuchkerian, Peroš, Cuesta, Cayo, de la Serna, Nimri, Gómez, Criado, and Silvestre. The solidly constructed plot gets stretched far with smart, nonlinear weaves and a masterful cast crowned by the ever diverse cast and their ever diverse characters from both sides of the law. There are good performances all around as the show veers to its ironic, almost absurdist climax. In addition to his clever plotting, Pina has given his cast sharp, acrid, sometimes witty dialogue.

While it borrows generously from a number of other films, the way Pina structures his heist crime action thriller drama is a breath of fresh air. If one considers this initial work as it is, a stamp made from a storyteller just getting started, the show maintains its strength and vitality. All of which are improved by the UHD experience. Pina hit a home run with his feature debut, and television, as well as streaming, would never be the same.

Simon says Money Heist (La casa de papel) receives:

Also, see my review for White Lines.