La Casa de Papel, Part One
I found my Halloween costume for this year! I gotta order my red jumpsuit and Salvador Dalí mask so I can shout “Soy Allison Parker y soy la puta ama!” (translation, “I am Allison Parker & I’m the fuckin boss!”), or so I can sing “bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao CIAO!”
In case you can’t tell, I love La Casa de Papel (or Money Heist as the show is called in English), and I’ve only finished Part 1! I’m not Hispanic, but I can read & understand Spanish a little due to a combo of school, and having mainly Hispanic/Latinx friends my whole life. But I’m certainly no pro; I still had to watch this show with English subtitles. Plus Spain-Spanish is different from the Spanish I’m used to hearing. For instance, I know the word boss is “jefe” in Spanish and was confused when Allison Parker used “ama” instead. I also noticed they pronounce a lot of their words with a “th” sound, like “grathias” instead of “gracias.” A show that’s entertaining and that’s teaching me things (I had to google things too like muñeiras, which I learned is a traditional dance), what’s not to love?!
The entertainment comes from the captivating storyline of course. A group of strangers spend five months planning the robbery of La Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre, aka the Royal Mint of Spain where money is printed. But this is no ordinary take-the-money-and-leave type job. The gang expects to spend 10 days or so in the Mint, using employees as hostages to print as much money as possible for them to steal (like 2.6 billion USD worth!). In Part 1, we simultaneously watch the planning and execution of the heist. A man who calls himself The Professor is the mastermind behind it all. He has studied every single detail, and has provided a solution for any possible error that could occur. He reminds me of Jigsaw of the Saw franchise. But even years of preparation can’t control human emotions, so only about 80% of things go as expected. The Professor himself even screwed up, risking almost everything for some pussy & falling in love with the lead cop on the case, Inspector Murrillo! 😩
At the end of Part 1, Murrillo has a lead on the house where the gang lived and planned for five months. She asks her new boyfriend, who she has no idea is The Professor, to drive her there. The Professor looks extremely worried the entire drive, but once Murrillo discovers the house and the DNA left all over it, The Professor smiles. Was this part of his plan too?!
It’s crazy that this show has me rooting for both the good and bad sides of this robbery. Of course I want Murrillo to catch her freakin boyfriend, and I want the hostages to be successful in their escape attempts. But I also want the plan to work out for the gang. Whenever something goes wrong, like Oslo gets bashed in the head or Berlin threatens to kill Denver for disobeying an order, or Tokyo shoots a cop, I grab my chest in a panic! Getting to know these criminals through the eyes of Tokyo as the narrator has made me quite fond of them. Nairobi is my favorite of them all. She’s a badass but caring woman who won’t let anyone ruin the plan for her, and ruin the opportunity to reunite with her son. Helsinki is my second favorite. He serves as comic relief with his big, teddy bear aura, and his broken Spanish since it’s not his first language. He also admitted to being gay and it’s funny to see Arturo squirm, thinking Helsinki’s hitting on him.
Speaking of Arturo, can we talk about the acting in this show?! As frustrating as Arturo can be sometimes (cheating on his wife & falling in love with his secretary, getting himself shot, etc.) he definitely deserves an award for his role. Berlin also does a perfect job of portraying a creepy villain with not too many morals or empathy for anyone. Anyway, I could go on and on talking about the awesomeness of this show, but I digress. I just hope Parts 2 and 3 are as good as Part 1, and that no one else has a near-death experience 🙏🏾
