I’ve never been too fond of series (because I’m lazy, but most importantly, because if I watch an episode and like the storyline, I will want to watch the entire series in one sitting, and sometimes I don’t have the time or want to do that). In this case, A LOT of people recommended this series to me (and I heard a lot of buzz in mainstream media and whatnot). So finally, I decided to give it a try.
The actor who portrayed “The Professor” was excellent. He was disciplined, serious, but also socially awkward, mysterious. The actor balanced those traits with grace, in my opinion. I watched the 4 seasons (they are called PARTS because originally there were gonna be 2 seasons only, but world acclaim allowed for more PARTS), and I have to say that the first one is magic. The tension created by the director of the series, was enough to keep me glued to the seat. The weird thing is the first and second parts basically are set inside the bank. But the way the characters were developed, to make anyone identify with at least one of them, was the “golden ticket” to keep the momentum going.
The story is basically from a young woman’s perspective (and narrative). She is a rebel and a criminal who lost her lover and seems to be without a purpose in life, until she meets a man known as “The Professor”, by accident. This man finds a group of criminals and tells his plan to make a heist on The Royal Mint of Spain (basically where they print money). The story follows these people inside the bank and mayhem ensues. I have to say that I was intrigued since the first episode. The way each episode is developed is a bit cliché in terms of the whole “back and forth” technique where you see past events then goes to present time and so on. But these glimpses of past where placed accurately (they had value to each character development). I would say that not all of the characters where fully developed (each character had a “code” name from cities around the world). The “narrator” woman was called Tokyo (for example), and so on. There were two characters that weren’t developed so much and I wanted more of their backstories (one was gay and the other one was his best friend).
The remaining two parts have a new setting as the Bank of Spain (the main bank) and it’s a heist again, but I still wanted to watch more. They introduced new characters (like the pregnant negotiator who did great acting). I hated this woman (her character) because she was like a villain, although she was on the law side. There is another female negotiator who becomes the Professor’s girlfriend and she acted very good, too. There is one scene that I literally cried because I thought someone was gonna die and that would crush another character. There are some humorous moments in the series, but it’s more drama-filled and with action sequences. There were not too many action sequences, but I have to say that this series is highly likeable because a lot of people love action. But the director knew how to balance action with drama. To me, that’s a good thing because almost all action movies or series are not character-driven or thought provoking, in general. These series even with 4 parts, doesn’t feel boring (at least to me). The pacing is a lot of times slow, but because they focus on the protagonists’ intentions and humanity (even when they’re committing crimes), you can’t help but feel for them In a way.
This is the key to most films and series. To top it off, it’s entertaining to watch a heist where the criminals don’t want to kill people, and where the mastermind behind that heist is a person who holds high moral standards. To me, that is an initial contradiction that kept me through the series, and where I finally decided that sometimes, morality and justice is relative. For all of this, the series achieves success, because it can reflect our times which are so conflicting with the government, law system and how society perceives everything. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to something more than the usual.
Written by Onirix
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