Almost two decades ago, television surrendered to antiheroes. Television was filled with shady guys who worked perfectly as protagonists: Dexter Morgan, Walther White, Don Draper…More than antiheroes, many of them were directly villains, but who cares. Their series were great even though they were worse than a pain.
We could discuss whether Berlin of The Money Heist whether or not he is a villain. I would say yes. A lot. That he possesses certain virtues typical of the most infantilized heroes (hello, Marvel) does not mean that, as a human being, he is infamous. But the power of him in the plot of the series Alex Pina y Esther Martinez Lobato and the grandiloquence with which he interpreted it Pedro Alonso They made him one of the fans’ favorite characters. That’s why Netflix decided to give it its own series.
Berlin It has recently been released on the platform and, according to it, it is being a success. I believe it, because it is a series that repeats the schemes of The Money Heistadds elements of other hits by Netflix (hola, Lupin) and submits completely to a charismatic protagonist.
Conveniently stripped of everything in The Money Heist made it disgusting (and, in my opinion, interesting) the new Berlinwhich narratively is prior to that of The Money Heist, enhances the elements that made it super popular at the time. Fundamentally, the construction of Pedro Alonso, which takes advantage of his powerful voice and his disturbing physique. Alonso’s hyperbolic interpretation (work that, at times, borders on mega-acting by Nicholas Cage) is the center of a series that, otherwise, is exactly as we imagined it.
It has stood out from Berlin its questionable management of relationships between men and women (and, in general, the conception of its female characters), but who expected anything else. The Pina-Martínez Lobato tandem has sometimes been very inspired talking about passions and sex (there is the very notable The pier) but others, most of them, fall into reductionisms and commonplaces typical of the most misogynistic 80s.