Review of ‘Berlín’: A more enjoyable robbery than in Money Heist’, with a band that you fall in love with

Creating a completely different series based on a universe that knows half the world can’t be easy. And getting it right, even less so. Well, it must be said that ‘ Berlin‘, living off the phenomenon of ‘Money Heist ‘ , has successfully overcome these two parts and offers us great fiction . There are those who ended up feeling somewhat fed up with the original series, so knowing that its spirit was returning in some way, but that it would do so in a very different way, encouraged (and scared in equal measure). We will be able to check it out starting December 29, when it premieres in its entirety on Netflix.

Until they reach ‘Berlin’, the creators will have considered countless stories, tones, styles, narratives, thefts… And they have hit the nail on the head. They could also have done it successfully in an infinite number of other ways, but this one, which is the one they have chosen, works. But we return to the same thing, it is a very different series, so although we have the character of Berlin ( Pedro Alonso ) we are going to completely separate him from the one we already knew. We are facing a prequel, so our Andrés de Fenollosa still does not know everything that is to come (and the viewer does). Will we see any nod to ‘LCDP? Some, but not much.

Berlin fans will like it, but it still disappoints those who long for the intensity of ‘La Casa de Papel’. We are facing a series that escapes confinement, claustrophobia and violence to give us light, fun, free spaces… In ‘Berlín’ there are no moral approaches, the objective is not to make you reflect on moral debates. It’s playful, it’s fun, it’s easy to follow and beautiful to look at . All this does not make it a worse series by any means, since it continues to keep us glued to the screen with all its twists , but it does make it more comfortable to watch, which is even for all ages.

Surprise in the structure and two timelines

Something that is to be admired about the series, without giving any type of spoiler, is its structure. The arc of the season is not what one would expect and it is a pleasant surprise (although it also has its good dose of clichés) .. And I can read that far. What is also a trademark of the Vancouver house in general and of the two creators of the series, Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato , in particular, are the different timelines. In ‘Berlín’ we have two (the one about the robbery plan and the one about the robbery itself), although as they told FormulaTV, they had a third that was discarded.

A combination of genres with weight for love

‘Berlín’ combines three genres in its first season: it is the story of a robbery with white-collar thieves, it is a comedy because many of the situations invite a smile and you enjoy seeing the characters in trouble, and it is a romantic series , where love is very strong.

In fact, here the main obstacle for the robbery to go well is not the police (that too), but love, since a Berlin in love makes him more than a little careless in the meticulous art of robbery. Here the role of Samantha Siqueiros comes into play, who with her great work brings to life the protagonist’s obsession, whose first scenes seem taken from a ‘You’ script. The love story slows down with respect to the robbery plots, little by little they will merge and gain strength together.

The band where Keyla and Bruce are the best

It will not have been easy to create a new band with characters that do not remind those of ‘La Casa de Papel’ (not all of them succeed) and that at the same time fit well with Berlin itself. But it must be said that they work. The best, without a doubt, are Keyla and Bruce . She is Michelle Jenner , with the most comical and fun character; He is Joel Sánchez, playing the typical chulito in his first role. Without giving anything away, the sequences they have together are some of the best in the series. If you already have to choose a spin-off of this spin-off, a golden pass for the two of them.

There are also Cameron and Roi, played by Begoña Vargas and Julio Peña . Although they are more than correct, their characters may be less surprising as they are more visible, but that is not going to stop many of their sequences from being wonderful . And finally, we have Damián, a friend of Berlin for years and who is the spitting image of The Professor from ‘LCDP’. And now that we mention this series again, we recover Alicia Sierra ( Najwa Nimri ) and Raquel Murillo ( Itziar Ituño ) before being Lisbon. Of course, they take a lot of asking.

Because they said that if not…

Visually, ‘Berlin’ is beautiful and even more so knowing that we are in Paris. We have interiors and exteriors, and a great variety of them. But so far, nothing out of this world. However, as they said in the presentation, they have used a virtual set, which means that they have used screens in an interior to recreate scenes in the heart of Paris that, on the real stage due to technical difficulties, would have been impossible. But because they told us, because in the series it is not noticeable at all. Great job. And speaking of settings and aesthetics, in ‘Berlín’ we forget about red and move on to green and gold, two tones that help with comfort and subtract the aggressiveness that this series no longer has.

Let the robberies continue!

The series has a perfect approach to do as many seasons as they want with robberies and robberies . In this first season we see one, but now that the band is established, why not more? In fact, the series written by the two creators together with David Oliva and David Barrocal do not reveal at any time what year we are in, thus they cover their backs to play with time in their favor, before Berlin changes bands to dock at the National Mint and Stamp Factory.