MONEY HEIST: WHY YOU SHOULD STOP AT SEASON 2

Money Heist (Spanish: La casa de papel) has rapidly grown in popularity in the past few months. Now among the highest streamed shows in Netflix with a rotten tomatoes rating of 100%, this Spanish show is being compared with all time favorites like Prison Break and Breaking Bad.

Story line

Money heist starts out similar to Ocean 11. Criminals are introduced one by one followed by a mastermind professor who collects them all to carry out a heist. The story line revolves around the “perfect plan” of the professor to rob a bank. The series goes on to show how the plan is periodically backtracked due to “human flaws”.  

All the characters are shown to have unique and strong personalities with varying pasts, but they all have two things in common — they have nothing to lose and the money fixes all their problems.
I get it, it’s thrilling, very dramatic with a bit of ideological undertones we all cherish. I was and still am a huge fan since 2017 when its first season  was released. Back then, it was genuinely one of the best shows I had ever watched on TV. Money heist skillfully blended all genres together— comedy, thriller, action and drama. You got a bit of everything and also a killer plot with not too many plot holes (at least in the beginning).

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Here’s the problem though

Season 3 really wasn’t necessary. The plot had a very good ending in season 2. It was slightly bittersweet, imaginably realistic (yeah, I invented that phrase but it makes sense), and left some room for speculation.
There was honestly no reason to extend the series any more. But they released it anyway, and to an extent Season 3 got positive reviews. Although repetitive and slightly illogical, the thrill from previous seasons still remained and character development was also pretty good. It still had it’s share of problems though.

PLOT HOLES/ IDEOLOGICAL CLASHES

Monet heist Season 3 three goes like this: A bunch of millionaires rob a bank again but somehow still win over public support and label it as a movement against capitalism? After enjoying two years of vacation on “printed” money they didn’t really work for? I don’t know about you but that sounds pretty capitalist to me.  Not to mention how they burned a dozen police officers and the public support still remained. I could go on and on, but you get it, ideas clash all over the place in the last two seasons.

REPETITIVE STORYLINE

Season 3 is quite literally a remake of season one with different characters and ideologies. The heist part pretty much remains identical, they even put in the same gut-wrenchingly annoying Arturo to mess things up for the heist. Although they have tried to change little bits to make it seem like a new plan, to any intellectual viewer, the core remains identical.

And here’s where Money heist really goes downhill

Season 4 added up a bunch of new problems which, at least in my opinion, took away the core of the series: thrill. The problems with season 3 were still there, plus there were some more that took the essence of the series away.

FILLERS!

Money heist had a pretty fast paced first two seasons. You didn’t have unnecessary fillers to interfere with the story line. That changed with season 4, the series turned more and more soap-opera like. It had a bunch of unnecessary drama of no real value and kept on reiterating “deep messages” that didn’t even fit in with the series’ ideals.

PREDICTABLE

Due to the plot being repetitive, you can literally predict what is going to happen without even watching the series. You know someone will mess up because of something personal. A fight will break out but the professor won’t there to help. It’s the same thing over and over again. This makes the series lose its vigor and the unique kind of goosebumps you felt in previous seasons.

Don’t get me wrong. Money heist is still a must-watch series, just not after season 2. Let’s face it, the only reason season 3 exists is because the producers wanted more money. Season 2 was  an appropriate epilogue to the suspense and cliffhanger created by the first season. But that’s just it, season 2 was an epilogue. And the producers should’ve left it at that. Instead the show has dragged on for a grueling 4 seasons. 

If you are planning on watching it, I highly recommend you stop on season 2, you will have an experience of your lifetime. Go any further and it isn’t guaranteed anymore.  

You can watch Money heist on Netflix here