The last five episodes of Season 5 of Money Heist drops on Netflix this Friday, Dec. 3; and these episodes officially bring this Limited Series to a close. For devoted fans from all over the world, this marks the end of a truly incredible journey. A virtual media event with the creators and cast was presented by Netflix just last night, and I was fortunate enough to have been invited.
As the show’s creator, Alex Piña, was overwhelmed to mention, it’s really been a ride, that even now, is hard to believe. El Casa de Papel (Money Heist) is the most-watched non-English language series, and one of the most watched series of all time on Netflix. It boggles Alex’s mind how fans from here in the Philippines, from Vietnam & Malaysia, have taken to the show, making it such a global success; when they first thought it would only ‘fly’ In Mediterranean Europe, and Latin American regions.
The first five episodes of Season 5 dropped September 3rd of this year, and on December 3rd, we get the chance to binge-watch the final 5 episodes. For the fans all over the world, there will be something bittersweet about this - while they’ll ravenously watch the episodes, they’ll also know that it’s all coming to an end.
As the cast were all assembled for this media event, it was hilarious hearing Alex talk about how personally attached the fans would get to particular characters over the five seasons. It got so crazy that he would receive threats from fans should a particular ‘City’ be bumped off - if you recall, the members of the heist crew use cities as their code names. Fans would second-guess the Professor, and there would be outrage if the show went into different directions.
It’s hard to say why this show struck such a nerve; and the comment was made that if it was that easy to analyze, then every producer would use the same formula, and every series put out would be a great success. It’s even easy in hindsight to play seer, but the blend of action and the psychological drama of the characters just fused so perfectly in this show.
As to what the audience could expect for this Season 5, Part 2; everyone during the media event were very careful not to give away any spoilers. The most they would disclose is that these five episodes would play heavily on emotions, and a little less on the action. But whatever transpires, we can be assured the viewers will flock to bid a fond farewell to this show.
In this era of short attention spans and the reliance on the byte-size; it’s a testament to just how canny and smart this series has been, to sustain such interest and sustained investment on the part of its audience. El Casa de Papel has made streaming history, and if it’s one last dance via these five episodes, bring them on!