By Jaylyn Gonzalez

With criminal activities, dramatic storylines, and action-packed scenes brought to the screen, it’s not difficult to understand how “Money Heist”—a Spanish drama and thriller TV series—has grabbed the attention of viewers all around the world.

Whether it’s the intense shootouts, sudden getaways, or even some of the smaller conflicts that arise within the heist, this series—currently streaming on Netflix—brings fans to the edge of their seats and glued to their screens. 

Each character in the show brought together by “El Profesor,” the mastermind of the heist, have distinct personalities that— when combined —become a team of rebellious criminals whose main goal is to follow El Profesor’s plans and leave each heist successfully.

Each member of the team also had to choose a city name as their codename (Tokyo, Rio, Denver, Moscow, Berlin, Helsinki, Oslo, and Nairobi) and they are taught and trained by El Profesor many months before both of their heists—the second in a shorter time frame than the first.

In this series, every episode leads to the next—building up the drama before the breathtaking and explosive finales. This creates an incredibly tense, stunning piece of entertainment that makes viewers want to continue keeping up with the story plot as the series continues.

Known for their red jumpsuits and Dalí masks, season One and Two revolved around two main tasks: maintaining their identity hidden and trying to escape from their first heist—the Royal Mint of Spain—without being caught.

After stealing around a billion euros from the Royal Mint in Madrid and managing to get away with it, the band of criminals came back together, with some new additions—introducing Season Three. In this season, their own band member, Río, has been captured and the team forms a plan to get him back. 

With this encapture led to the return of the red overalls and Dalí masks to mark the beginning of their second heist in the National Bank of Spain, where “Money Heist” does a good job in tying season one, two, and three together — even after a perfect ending the last time out, in season two.

Even with an unstructured storyline, this series strategically uses flashbacks to their advantage. From being in a classroom-like setting learning all of El Profesor’s “perfect” plan to looking back five minutes before the present scene from a different point of view. This all gives the purpose of successfully tying the story back together.

The multi-dimensional characters, the narrative tension, and the unique setting and storyline help make this series stand out among other Spanish TV offerings.

For the past three seasons, the series used “heist” as a theme to deliver deeper messages of human nature: the idea of perfectionism (El Profesor’s “perfect” plan) and the act of following rules (the police vs. the robbers).

Unlike many films and shows that have a “heist” theme, “Money Heist” doesn’t solve a puzzle with a “perfect” plan and experts of robbery. Instead, El Profesor, who controls the heist from the outside, delivers a heist that reveals many errors along its way. However, it is this risky plan that El Profesor delivers that wins the audience’s excitement due to its realism.

Although many mistakes are made throughout both heists by each member, the gang manages to overcome thanks to El Profesor’s flexibility and backup plans. Here, El Profesor’s ability to look at all possible outcomes is an aspect that leads to success in the heists. This outlook causes him to obsess with details which takes him many years to research, each risk that is detected in his plan has a backup plan set up as a precaution.

As per the second theme, El Profesor provides two ground rules that are forbidden to violate during the heists to come: no romantic relationship and no killing of innocent lives. Those rules keep everything professional but also distinguish them from other criminals; they might violate the law but not human principles. This is clear through the way each member of the gang treats the hostages, they pretend to be a tyrant to make the hostages obey but still share empathy with them, showing them in a different light than stereotypical robbers.

Unlike the robbers, the police serve the law and the government’s rules. They follow because it is the law and they believe it represents the truth. However, relying heavily on authority causes their conscience to weaken, especially when the law no longer aligns with human principles. The situations presented with this theme signifies the power of the police serving the wrong purpose. This is evident in season one when the police were faced with making the decision of saving the life of all hostages or saving the life of Alison Parker, a “priority” hostage as the daughter of the Prime Minister. The police chose Alison Parker, disregarding the protocol that all hostages should be treated the same no matter their title or background.

By the end of Season Three, where fans last left off, the two themes portrayed above merge. El Profesor’s “perfect” plan of trying to keep the police from discovering him and Lisboa, a new member of the team, leads to a lack of communication from the inside of the heist and overall fallout. Yet, his plan went wrong in the first place due to the police breaking the law several times to capture the robbers, an idea that El Professor did not take into account.

After the finale of Season Three, it was evident that the attack between the police and the gang has turned into so much more than a heist,  this was now a war between two playing fields—and Season Four proved them right.

Through a total of eight episodes, Season Four features frightening instability, unexpected turnouts, and relationship endings. The battle between the “good” guys (El Professor, Lisboa, and the gang) versus the “bad” guys (the police) that used to be a battle of wits and skill is now just a battle of brutality — where it’s evident that the most brutal side is the one most likely to win.

Although the two themes mentioned previously were still in play throughout this new season, two new ideals have been brought to the table: the fight between love and death. 

Love plays a major role in season 4 as it lies within the relationships that both continued and formed in this series. To an extent, all of these relationships broke one of El Profesor’s major rules: no romantic relationship. Even when El Profesor broke his own rule through his relationship with Lisboa, it’s clear that the results that led from these connections created many mishaps in his plan due to emotional connections including fights that led to betrayals within the team.

Through flashbacks featuring Berlin (a former member of the gang), we get some clarity to this situation—where Palermo’s, the leader for the National Bank heist, loyalty and love lies with his plan and what he will do to make sure everyone is in line. To this end, new alliances are formed and broken, putting everyone in the bank in a precarious position, leading many to near-death experiences.

With the declaration of open war between El Profesor and the police, the idea of death turned one step closer than expected. Due to this, chaos repeats itself, again and again, this season. From the evil acts of Alicia Sierra, the pregnant inspector, from the outside of the heist to Ganía, former head security of the bank, who became the new villain inside the heist, death and destruction came from their leadership and assumed controls. 

Through the evolvement and development of new themes in “Money Heist,” viewers were still faced with its fast-paced storyline and featured surprises that each season always deems to achieve. By the end of Season Four, many were left with yet another cliffhanger—leaving them hungry for more.