Currently Watching: La Casa de Papel
I just finished watching La Casa de Papel on Netflix. It's a TV show, about pulling off the greatest heist at the Royal Mint of Spain, set in Madrid. It is a Spanish language show. So subtitles were a must for me.
I've been watching a lot of foreign language TV shows lately. Because I need to look at the TV and read the subtitles, I have to pay much more attention to what's going on. It becomes a much slower watching experience and it's something I'm really enjoying right now. It's much harder to binge eight episodes of a show when you have to read everything they're saying too.
That being said, this is absolutely one of my favorite things I've seen all year. Top three no doubt. It's absolutely amazing. The cast ( I literally had no idea who any of them were before the show, they're all actors from Spain) is so good; you get to really know all of the characters. They're all a rag-tag bunch of different people with different problems that are all revealed in such well-timed moments throughout the show.
The heist itself: breaking into the Royal Mint of Spain, and then just printing all the money for yourself, is absolutely brilliant. Throughout the episodes, we see successes and failures as they try to go through with this meticulously planned out (as we see through flashbacks) idea.
Things I love about the show:
Everyone gets a story: there aren't that many episodes (13 total) and you get everyone's perspective, and they all have very different perspectives, but they're all there to get this thing done.
I love a good heist, Thomas Crown Affair? The Oceans' Movies? They're so good. The stakes are just high enough and there's so much planning that goes into it. I love planning. This show also gave a great wink and nod to some of my favorite classic heist movie moments.
It's got everything you'd want from an action-adventure movie trilogy and a TV show, all wrapped up into one package. It's shot well, it's written well, it's really beautiful, and it's just a pleasure to watch.
I'm definitely going to watch this show again real soon. If you like heists, good character development, or exciting action-thriller shows, I highly recommend La Casa de Papel or Money Heist as it's called in here in the US.
Have you seen any of La Casa de Papel? Let me know in the comments! I'm absolutely obsessed and I'd love to find more people who are loving this show. If not, you can watch it on Netflix asap!