They’re writing for fans now
Writers go to wacky lengths to ensure an antagonist stays alive
Part four of “La Casa de Papel” (“Money Heist”) continues the Dali crew’s robbery of the Bank of Spain, but this time, the robbers’ backs are up against the wall as they attend to their losses while fending off attacks from the authorities on multiple fronts.
The strength of “Money Heist”’s latest release undoubtedly comes from the impact of its villains. The crew nearly collapsed in the first heist due to conflicts between the members, so now the stakes are higher when they’re faced with truly competent antagonists.
Inspector Alicia Sierra (Najwa Nimri) and security chief César Gandía (José Manuel Poga) are excellent in their roles this season. They provide the radical foils to the heist: Sierra as an intellectual match to the Professor (Álvaro Morte), and Gandía as the slasher-style predator, vanishing throughout the bank and appearing briefly again to stir up the pot.
In a somewhat antagonistic role, Palermo (Rodrigo de la Serna) proves to be the most captivating character of the fourth installment. His character’s storyline gets to the heart of what the melodrama has been about thus far (love and betrayal in the face of death), yet in the most refreshing and interesting way.
Certain flashbacks reveal him to be the most carefully crafted character of the latest part. He’s complex and vulnerable yet also undeniably a maniac with a twisted mind, which makes him the most interesting antihero in the crew.
Full-on war
The antagonists take center spotlight because, as the ending of the third part teased, it’s no longer just a heist, but a full-on war. However, perhaps a more apt term would be revolution, as the Dalis’ war against the establishment is one fought more with the media, the leaking of government documents, and the proof of criminal acts, torture and extrajudicial killings.
The series covers a lot now in relation to the fight against oppressors, from women’s rights to sexuality to posttraumatic stress disorder and mental health. Now, some subjects are merely just featured in the show, while others are thoroughly explored. It will be interesting to see where the rest of the season takes it in part five, as it seems the natural conclusion will be that the fight against all kinds of oppressors is unified under the “Bella Ciao” movement.
Hopefully, there will be an attempt to at least explore some of these topics in the rest of the season, rather than just introducing them superficially.
The writing of the series, with its rising popularity, is now such that it gets fans to react—more audience-oriented than organic.
That they’re writing for the fans is brutally evident in a major character’s death this season. The death is tragic, not in a narrative sense, but in that it is utilized to motivate other characters along their storylines (as made clear in the final shot of the finale).
It’s also strange that it was this specific character who was chosen to be the sacrificial lamb to fuel the motivations of others, given how much more significant this character was to the series than the others.
Old tricks
The death marks a moment in the latest installment that takes a turn toward somewhat lazy writing. For one, the writers go to wacky lengths to ensure an antagonist stays alive. They also start an episode in midplot, rewind to build up toward the scene, then oddly don’t build up to it at episode’s end. The new installment falls back on old tricks used by the show.
It’s a different bank from last season, but it’s starting to fall into the trap of becoming the same heist. The series is quickly revisiting the same playbook of digging tunnels, walkie-talkie misdirects and internal group turmoil. Part three at least had an underwater heist and tree climbing.
This fourth part’s newness just comes mostly from the Professor with Marseille (Luka Peroš) and his comedic international associates (the bull sequence is fun, though).
However, there’s a lot of hope and excitement left for the fifth part, as the board has practically been flipped, and the heist extends to presumably eight more episodes. The Professor surely has more tricks up his sleeve, and it’s infuriating that there’s another wait before finding out what awaits the Dali crew in the outside world.