It's a pretty good heist series that centres around a team of crooks robbing the Royal Mint of Spain. Binged watched it over New Years and enjoyed it a lot.
The second batch of episodes have already been aired in Spain BTW. Netflix for whatever brainless reason decided to only release the first part right now. I watched the whole series (those who don't want to wait for Netflix can PM me).
I thought overall the series was enjoyable and engaging enough for an action series. But the sheer length of series made it impossible to ignore some of the plot holes and tropes that you can normally filter out during a 90-120 minute movie. It had a definitive conclusion but I don't think it ended that well since it glossed over some stuff and clearly struggled to close out a lot of character arcs properly.
Don't open if you have not watched the whole series including the second part -
- Most problematic was Berlin's arc. He got a heroic demise in the end when he was the clear villain of the piece who was raping someone when in there. Lack of agency of others to stop him from doing so was a huge problem for me.
- Inspector not getting jailed in the end made little sense. In fact let's ignore that since her failing in love with someone within 5 days at the same time as she is seemingly working on a round the clock hostage crisis.. really? Going on dates when you are negotiating with criminals an hour ago? Even 24 did not come out with such crazy set ups. That whole arc was the centre piece of the story and the sheer implausibility and idiocy of the same leads me to rate the series much less than some others.
- I think they botched Tokyo's arc too. Her dying to save Rio would have been the perfect end to her story.
- After some time they clearly did not know what to do with the hostages. Arturo and english girl were just used for mini arcs in between and in the end, it all went no where.
In Spain it aired in 2 parts separated by 3 months.
Netflix so far has only uploaded the first part which had 9 episodes in its original run in Spain but Netflix broke it into 13 episodes. The second part has 6 episodes, yet to upload on Netflix but available on torrents.
It's amazing, although certain aspects of it were similar to the movie 'Inside Man'. Other than that, loved the show. Waiting for Netflix to release the second batch of episodes.
The second batch of episodes have already been aired in Spain BTW. Netflix for whatever brainless reason decided to only release the first part right now. I watched the whole series (those who don't want to wait for Netflix can PM me).
I thought overall the series was enjoyable and engaging enough for an action series. But the sheer length of series made it impossible to ignore some of the plot holes and tropes that you can normally filter out during a 90-120 minute movie. It had a definitive conclusion but I don't think it ended that well since it glossed over some stuff and clearly struggled to close out a lot of character arcs properly.
Don't open if you have not watched the whole series including the second part -
- Most problematic was Berlin's arc. He got a heroic demise in the end when he was the clear villain of the piece who was raping someone when in there. Lack of agency of others to stop him from doing so was a huge problem for me.
- Inspector not getting jailed in the end made little sense. In fact let's ignore that since her failing in love with someone within 5 days at the same time as she is seemingly working on a round the clock hostage crisis.. really? Going on dates when you are negotiating with criminals an hour ago? Even 24 did not come out with such crazy set ups. That whole arc was the centre piece of the story and the sheer implausibility and idiocy of the same leads me to rate the series much less than some others.
- I think they botched Tokyo's arc too. Her dying to save Rio would have been the perfect end to her story.
- After some time they clearly did not know what to do with the hostages. Arturo and english girl were just used for mini arcs in between and in the end, it all went no where.
Reply in spoilers for those who have not finished:
I actually don't think the inspector-professor relationship is as implausible as you make it seem. I know both from personal experience and what I have read, that crisis situations can accelerate things relationship wise in ways that don't make sense to normal situations. The intensity of the situation is a huge contribution plus the psychological difference of being an extraordinary circumstance. I have seen people form relationships they even called love in such short time periods. Intense situations have a way of stretching time for those in the experience. The effect wears off and I think a few months after the series ended they would probably end up breaking up and not working out. But the act of thinking they are both falling in love especially given both backstories is plausible to me - although their first meeting with the phone chargers is extremely serendipitous and to me the most implausible aspect.
Also I don't see a problem with the lack of agency of stopping Berlin and Ariadne. That was very realistic IMO to how the characters with those profiles would have responded.
The hostages though I feel is the most valid criticism where they just skipped over that aspect.
Reply in spoilers for those who have not finished:
I actually don't think the inspector-professor relationship is as implausible as you make it seem. I know both from personal experience and what I have read, that crisis situations can accelerate things relationship wise in ways that don't make sense to normal situations. The intensity of the situation is a huge contribution plus the psychological difference of being an extraordinary circumstance. I have seen people form relationships they even called love in such short time periods. Intense situations have a way of stretching time for those in the experience. The effect wears off and I think a few months after the series ended they would probably end up breaking up and not working out. But the act of thinking they are both falling in love especially given both backstories is plausible to me - although their first meeting with the phone chargers is extremely serendipitous and to me the most implausible aspect.
Also I don't see a problem with the lack of agency of stopping Berlin and Ariadne. That was very realistic IMO to how the characters with those profiles would have responded.
The hostages though I feel is the most valid criticism where they just skipped over that aspect.
- Was it realistic that other criminals would not stop Berlin from raping a hostage? Yes. Did it make it difficult for me to sympathise with any of the criminals after the fact? Also yes. And that's problematic since the series is told from their POV and peppers in this pseudo-socialist message about how the real robbers are the banks and not these guys. Plus more than that it was Berlin's death that was the issue. He got the typical hero sacrifices himself to save others routine which was BS. I am fine with a dark series not playing out the trope of giving the villain a bad ending but let's not turn him into a hero (anti or otherwise) either.
- Even if I buy your argument about the acceleration of their relationship, all the stuff packed into 5 days just does not add up. If it was a normal relationship fine but finding out someone you love is a criminal and betrayed you in that short of a time span and then forgive the guy and etc etc is just way too much. I think they needed to be smarter and establish that Prof had already started dating her much before the actual plan started. Just show the stuff about him first meeting her in flashbacks. It would have made much more sense and played better.
If I cared more about the show I could write a lot of stuff ripping the plot apart. Just take the arc of the main featured character in Tokyo, the ending of her arc felt very meh. The whole business of how she was freed from police custody was farcical to say the least and then waltzing back in to the bank... I am such stuff would look even out of place in 80s' action movies.
- Was it realistic that other criminals would not stop Berlin from raping a hostage? Yes. Did it make it difficult for me to sympathise with any of the criminals after the fact? Also yes. And that's problematic since the series is told from their POV and peppers in this pseudo-socialist message about how the real robbers are the banks and not these guys. Plus more than that it was Berlin's death that was the issue. He got the typical hero sacrifices himself to save others routine which was BS. I am fine with a dark series not playing out the trope of giving the villain a bad ending but let's not turn him into a hero (anti or otherwise) either.
- Even if I buy your argument about the acceleration of their relationship, all the stuff packed into 5 days just does not add up. If it was a normal relationship fine but finding out someone you love is a criminal and betrayed you in that short of a time span and then forgive the guy and etc etc is just way too much. I think they needed to be smarter and establish that Prof had already started dating her much before the actual plan started. Just show the stuff about him first meeting her in flashbacks. It would have made much more sense and played better.
If I cared more about the show I could write a lot of stuff ripping the plot apart. Just take the arc of the main featured character in Tokyo, the ending of her arc felt very meh. The whole business of how she was freed from police custody was farcical to say the least and then waltzing back in to the bank... I am such stuff would look even out of place in 80s' action movies.
I completely agree that the Prof having established the relationship with the inspector before the heist would have been better.
I also see your point about making the heist crew less sympathetic although I will say that it wasn't my impression that most of them even knew the extent of what was going on with Berlin as they all had their minds occupied with different issues.
I also think some suspension of disbelief is required for these types of things. I can't think of many movies and TV shows that I have ever watched in any genre that I coudln't find plot holes with if I tried.
Even the most acclaimed fiction shows in history (The Wire, Breaking Bad) have somewhat major plot holes if we look carefully about realism - Hamsterdam in the Wire and the whole premise about Walter White's unrealistically pure "blue meth". And that's not even getting into more action based shows like Ray Donovan and Banshee or just the completely unrealistic premise of a show like Suits. So while I agree with you its a fair criticism, almost every show that ever existed has plot holes and require suspension of disbelief.
I completely agree that the Prof having established the relationship with the inspector before the heist would have been better.
I also see your point about making the heist crew less sympathetic although I will say that it wasn't my impression that most of them even knew the extent of what was going on with Berlin as they all had their minds occupied with different issues.
I also think some suspension of disbelief is required for these types of things. I can't think of many movies and TV shows that I have ever watched in any genre that I coudln't find plot holes with if I tried.
Even the most acclaimed fiction shows in history (The Wire, Breaking Bad) have somewhat major plot holes if we look carefully about realism - Hamsterdam in the Wire and the whole premise about Walter White's unrealistically pure "blue meth". And that's not even getting into more action based shows like Ray Donovan and Banshee or just the completely unrealistic premise of a show like Suits. So while I agree with you its a fair criticism, almost every show that ever existed has plot holes and require suspension of disbelief.
Yeah but that was my initial point. Suspension of belief is more palatable when it is a 2 hour movie. Even for shows like breaking bad the plot for any heist was limited to an episode or two. Here they stretched the whole thing spanning few days to 15 hours or so. This was one thing 24 did really well at its peak. The overall plot of the season rarely held up but it kept the action moving at such a fast pace that you never got the time to dwell on it. It also had at least 2 big arcs in a season rather than just one. For example in this case one arc would be about heist and the other about immediate aftermath. This series just stalls and suspends action far too much than it ultimately could afford to.
Yeah but that was my initial point. Suspension of belief is more palatable when it is a 2 hour movie. Even for shows like breaking bad the plot for any heist was limited to an episode or two. Here they stretched the whole thing spanning few days to 15 hours or so. This was one thing 24 did really well at its peak. The overall plot of the season rarely held up but it kept the action moving at such a fast pace that you never got the time to dwell on it. It also had at least 2 big arcs in a season rather than just one. For example in this case one arc would be about heist and the other about immediate aftermath. This series just stalls and suspends action far too much than it ultimately could afford to.
Fair enough if that's your opinion. For me, I did not feel it suspended action too much at all and it achieved a nice balance.
Also Breaking Bad requires you to suspend disbelief for the entire series about this magical blue meth which only one genius in all of North America is capable of making (which is completely unrealistic).
I'm quite enjoying this, but the dialogue seems really, really ropey in places. Not sure if that's a problem with the writing or a botched translation job.
Given how awful they made the English title I'm going for the latter.
I'm quite enjoying this, but the dialogue seems really, really ropey in places. Not sure if that's a problem with the writing or a botched translation job.
Given how awful they made the English title I'm going for the latter.
I'm quite enjoying this, but the dialogue seems really, really ropey in places. Not sure if that's a problem with the writing or a botched translation job.
Given how awful they made the English title I'm going for the latter.