Before I begin, let me just state, this is an opinion.
Being a frequent visitor on Twitter is a tough job to begin with. Especially when a new show or a new season of a show is coming out. Recently, I found myself in a familiar situation when the 4th season of Money Heist aired.
Netflix promoted it as the next big thing and Indian Twitter didn’t just consume the show, it also made sure everyone was aware of it.
So, being a curious bastard that I am, I gave the show a try. After a few episodes into La Casa De Papel (Spanish) or Money Heist, I realised I had seen this somewhere else.
That’s right. It’s every heist movie or show ever made in history.
Sure, to the naked eye, it’s a beautifully made show, but when you take a closer look, you realise that it’s done to death hostage drama with unnecessary romantic-subplots randomly thrown in.
You know how when you are sometimes cooking a simple chicken curry and see some interesting smelling masala and think to yourself, ‘I could add that to make it better’, and 20 minutes later realise, you shouldn’t have added that and now your run-of-the-mill curry is shit?
Yeah, the makers of Money Heist haven’t realised it yet!
Look, I understand that you like it. Actually, why you like it isn’t a mystery either. But hear me out.
The whole show is a miscellaneous collection of cliches. You have a genius in the Professor, a rebel without a cause in Tokyo, a funny guy in Denver, the weak link in Rio. Nairobi provides the morality and you all like hating on Berlin.
Am I right or am I right?
Throughout the seasons, the characters go through no visible development. And whatever changes you witness seem whimsical and out of the guidebook for a soap opera, which is not what the show promised to be.
Now, speaking of the plot, it starts off quite well, keeps you hooked for the first few episodes. But it soon loses momentum. It has its moments but quickly becomes more like the last couple of Ocean’s movies, only in Spanish.
It repeatedly assaults your senses with mindless romance and infighting amongst the group, which quite honestly feels like a way to make up for the humongous amount of time left per episode after the actual plot of the show is done progressing. Which again, succumbs to lazy writing more often than you would like.
Money Heist is actually perfectly summed up by this comment on Reddit.
I understand your frustration, I was sold a gripping thriller by many critics and ended up watching a soap opera with 3 love stories between hostage and kidnapper, 30 minutes into the heist…
If you like it, then good for you because you’ve got one more show to enjoy while I’m sitting here trying to figure out what I can watch during the lockdown.