UPDATE: La casa de papel has been renewed for a 3rd season! Yay!!!!
La Casa De Papel, translated as Money Heist to English for some reason, is an original, Spanish Netflix series that is among viewer favorites, including yours truly.
I was recommended the series by a friend who knows Spanish, and I started watching after the trailer looked fun. But trailers don’t do this fun heist series justice. Literally meaning The House of Paper, it’s so full of heart, in addition to some solid action scenes, a good sense of humor and decent plot twists.
And because the characters and the relationships between them provide most of this heart, I’ll talk about them a bit.
Here’s the plot (no spoilers)
Salva (Álvaro Morte) is the self-educated, well-read, brilliant planner who can be a little socially awkward due to many years spent in the hospital as a sick kid. He has crafted a plan to “rob” The Royal Mint of Spain (Fabrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre) – the place where Spain prints its money. He wants everyone to call him Professor.
To execute it, he needs 8 co-conspirators with nothing to lose: 2 Serbian soldiers, a leader/experienced robber, an action-loving thief, a young computer whiz, a great forger, a “digger” and the digger’s son, who has had his own trouble with illegal stuff.
Salva brings them to a big old house where they will do nothing but study and practice for 5 months until the big day. The lessons will feature everything they will need during their stay in the “factory:” medical know-how, police procedures, hostage psychology, shooting and beyond. The professor has only two rules: No personal information is to be exchanged –which is why he asks to be called Professor, and no personal relationships. He is also against violence.
His set of misfits mainly embraces the challenge, and to not give away any personal info, they are to be called after cities.
Oslo and Helsinki (Roberto García Ruiz, Darko Peric)- the Serbian soldiers, cousins.
Nairobi (Alba Flores)– the extroverted, talkative and slightly quirky forger, one of the two women of the group.
Tokyo (Úrsula Corberó) – the action-loving, impulsive thief with a short fuse, the other woman in the group.
Berlin (Pedro Alonso)- the narcissistic and charismatic leader of the group with empathy issues
Rio (Miguel Herrán)– the youngest of the group, 20-ish (or was he 19?), the computer whiz, the least cynical of them all
Moscow (Paco Tous) – the digger, the middle-aged miner with the adult son, embodiment of all positive Mediterranean stereotypes and we love him for it,
Denver (Jaime Lorente)– Moscow’s slightly ignorant, loving and funny son
*
The show is set in the present with the heist while we flashback to their plans and how the professor meticulously anticipated and prepared them for almost anything.
Unfortunately for the professor, some of the hostages will turn out to cause more trouble, and his no personal relationship rule will be thrown out of the window by Rio and Tokyo, the show’s first coupling.
And episode 2 will introduce us to a police chief Raquel Morillo (Itziar Ituño), a woman who unfortunately for the professor, is beautiful and just as brilliant as he is.
We are definitely rooting for our robbers while the show keeps us full of surprises, action, romance, humor and of course, more logical but tension-filled conflicts we know what to do with.
Can they pull it off? After all, the goal is to “camp” inside for about 9 days with 67 or so hostages while printing unmarked billion dollars!
*
The mini-series currently has two seasons: The first season has 13 episodes while season 2 has 9.
Favorite Characters
While obviously with his quiet and intelligence charm and adorable looks, The Professor – Salva (Álvaro Morte) – is one of my favorites, I love all main characters. Most of them will piss you off with irrational and impulsive behavior.
Pedro Alonso’s Berlin, while he can be chilling with his psychopathic behavior, he is a delight to watch as he continuously freaks out hostages and fellow men. But even Berlin has his darling side with his loyalty – especially to the professor. And he won’t let you down if you have his back.
Úrsula Corberó’s Tokyo is explosive, and she is one of the best things about the show. Nairobi provides great laughs and is generally unrivaled apart from Denver, who has a crazy, silly yet contagious laugh.
And Raquel (Itziar Ituño) is also great: strong yet vulnerable, brilliant yet full of self-doubt, tough but sensitive.
I can however easily pick least favorite characters:
- Arturo (Enrique Arce). The CEO of the place, married father cheating (and impregnating) his secretary Monica. Arturo is a coward with a hero complex. He thinks he can outsmart the hostage-takers, and comes up with escaping ideas that put his fellow hostages in more danger. Arturo might be the only hostage whose demise you actively root for.
- Lead intelligence officer Prieto (Juan Fernández)- generally a bastard who is more concerned with international diplomacy and Spain’s public image than the safety of the hostages.
- Ángel (Fernando Soto). Cop Ángel is like that guy who puts all the “all the girls friendzone me but I’m such a nice guy” posts all over the internet. Despite being married, he is infatuated with Raquel. He is an excellent partner and friend…until Raquel starts developing a crush on Salva – while of course not knowing he is the mastermind she negotiates on the phone with all day. And of course, I hate Raquel’s ex with a vengeance.
*
The 2017 show was created by Álex Pina.
*
Give it a try. And do watch it in its original language with subtitles. You can’t beat the original.