Critic Reviews

While Berlin doesn’t bring anything new to the heist genre, the charm of Alonzo as Berlin makes the prequel worth watching for both fans of Money Heist and newcomers to the franchise.

All of the love stuff really bogs Berlin down. After setting up the premise in a zippy first episode, Pina, Martínez Lobato, and their writers typically spend only a fraction of each subsequent chapter on the progress of the jewel heist and the rest on long scenes of the characters sniffing around each other with amorous intent.

The pace is odd, the heist dull, the characters flat. Less a spinoff than a knockoff, the new show can’t even — despite the creator’s extraordinary credentials on this front — generate suspense.

Not surprisingly, Berlin also relies on contrivances to move its story forward, which is the trademark of poor writing. You can find coincidences in pretty much every episode, and it’s pretty hard to think of the robbery as an ingenious plan when so many things could go wrong and don’t due to several instances of “good luck.”