When I first wrote about #LaCasadepapel (https://www.passmetheremote.com/post/la-casa-del-papel-an-edge-of-the-seat-thriller-with-fashion-show-worthy-icons), it had caught the fancy of millions of fans worldwide for its edge-of-the-seat thriller meets glam-fashion content and had catapulted the dali-masqued red jumpsuit heroes to instant fame. #Netflix hit the jackpot when it took this 2017 Spanish heist drama from the original network #Antenna3 and took it worldwide. Created by #AlexPina and shot across multiple locations including Spain, Italy, Thailand, Panama, Denmark and Portugal, #MoneyHeist is now in its fifth and final season and is an object lesson on how to sustain audience engagement with a winning franchise.
In yet another innovation, the fifth season is being released in two volumes. Volume I has five episodes, picking up from when a heavily pregnant Inspector Alicia Sierra (#NajwaNimri) breaks through the Professor’s (#AlvaroMorte) den and holds a gun to his temple at the end of season 4. The audience is left on a tantalising precipice, even as the Army is set to storm the Royal Mint of Spain.
What strikes you immediately is that the franchise is now playing out on a set winning template. The Colonel is still ranting and raving in the tent as he is tricked and lured into the wrong strategy. The Professor continues to be the bearded geek who has thought through every move however improbable and operates from remote. He knows everything but every time there is an explosion inside the bank, he keeps asking what happened! Arturo (#EnriqueArce) is the rogue rebel inside and has a new ace up his sleeve; it is time for one of the leads to die in every season; in season 4 it was Nairobi(#AlbaFlores) - killed by Gandia and now time for the next lead to go. The standoff continues and inside the bank, there is the usual power games. Of course, the canvas is getting larger, the explosions bigger and the action more engaging. In volume I, there is also an amazing child-birth sequence, almost as if to compensate for the deaths!
All said, the template works! Not only are characters like Berlin, Tokyo, Denver, Helsinki, Rio and Stockholm now household names, the character arc are beginning to work. The standard formula of inserting a flashback , coupled with the jagged inter-cuts, furtive editing and apt music makes this long form thriller format a seasoned bet. In season 5, it is the turn for the flashback to focus on Berlin (#PedroAlonso) training his son in the ways of the band of rebels and this sequence builds anticipation that the son may well play a part in the finale.
A closer look at this super-hit series that plays up a perennial state of crisis where the rebels take on the system indicates how the makers have cleverly moved the narrative away from a balck and white conflict of good versus bad to a grey one. In a world that is increasingly getting divided along regional biases, it is only apt that certain flawed free thinkers are taking on a system that is rule-bound, soulless and almost facist in its outlook. In Money Heist, the system is represented by the Colonel and officers like Gandia who are cunning, untrustworthy and ruthless. A discourse that is bound to find universal appeal and hence accounts for the massive popularity of the show cutting across age, race and culture disparities!
Comments