#StillNotOverIt: Money Heist
A genre-savvy Spanish heist crime drama
by raquel vatamaniuk, Contributor
Everyone has a show, movie, or book they keep coming back to again and again, just like the popsicles in the freezer that you said you’d leave alone.
For me, that show is La Casa de Papel (Money Heist). I’m #StillNotOverIt.
How can I summarize my passion for this show in one article? I could talk for days or weeks about it. I have to squeeze, downsize, and cut my six story, two swimming pools mansion of enthusiasm into a New York shoebox apartment-sized format, utilities not included.
Have you ever been amazed by your favourite thing and outraged that others don’t share your love for it when you share it with them? Their indifference feels like betrayal, and you think to yourself “why am I even friends with you?” They may be great friends in other respects, but in this instance, they have failed you.
But I keep sharing my love for Money Heist because, when I do find someone who loves it, the feedback and the shared experience is worth all those other rejections.
The one aspect of the show I keep coming back to is that it’s never boring. Show creator Álex Pina and star Úrsula Corberó Delgado have made a masterpiece of dialogue, actions, visuals, and unexpected events.
Before I found Money Heist, I would drag my feet as I looked for new shows, begrudgingly accepting the boring fare I thought I was going to find. Now, I turn on my TV hoping for good times, always on the hunt for something new to digest.
This is a show that speaks to me even when I’m not sitting glued to the screen. I often listen to the audio as I do tasks that I’ve been putting off forever, and when I’m knee-deep in mud, pulling weeds, listening to the sounds of the action sequences as they pull off the biggest heist ever makes me emotional every single time. You’d think after the seventh – or certainly the 20th – playthrough that it wouldn’t hit so damn hard, and the success wouldn’t feel so sweet. But what can I say? This show gets me.
And yet, so many people don’t know what this show is – and I can’t accept that. “Watch this awesome show! I swear you’ll love it!” has become my battle cry.
The published reviews of Money Heist disappoint me because their enthusiasm to me is nowhere near enough. I want more. I want it overflowing with details. I want sentences in ALL CAPS, and the more exclamation marks used, the better!!!!! To do this show justice, it should be in-your-face-extreme. When you read about it, you should get the impression that the author believes drinking espresso shots is just as good as sleeping and writes with their fingers flying over the keyboards.
As you read this, you might have noticed that I have been telling you about this show, but not actually telling you much. The juicy details, jaw dropping shockers, and twists make you scramble for the remote, pausing to process what exactly just happened. Do I continue onwards, or do I replay that awesome part?
For me, any type of spoilers is unacceptable – especially while so many of us are stuck at home during COVID. Movies matter too much to cheapen the experience like that.
But I’ll give you this one hint: if you watch Money Heist, I think you’ll have a great time.
