Money Heist 5 first impression: Women call the shots in an erratic season

One year is a long time — long sufficient for a dreaded pandemic to spawn devastating variants, and for regimes to rise and fall. In the world of Money Heist though, the time has not just slowed down, it seems to be refrigerated. The bullets that were fired in the Spanish show’s season 4 will finally be finding their marks now. But the Netflix show more than makes up for the wait by delivering a lesson in shock and awe. Money Heist doesn’t draw the curtains with its final season as much as it drops a relatively heavy grenade and burns the whole thing down. The hot gang in red jumps right into the action and doesn’t let it drop. You better be readied for the ride because they are not going to make it simple with you. It is full throttle, baby.

The first episode takes off immediately after Lisbon enters the Bank of Spain, and inspector Alicia Sierra grabs The Professor from his shelter.

The gang is still swivelling under the loss of one of their closest and best, Nairobi, and the news about The Professor being persecuted by Alicia should break their spirit? Only, these guys have been educated well and are simmering for revenge.

Though the first two incidents don’t tell us much about the actual motive (one can only guess) of Alicia to come after the master planner, we do expect some big prophecies going forward. The fact that women get a bigger pie in the sequel is already well established. Lisbon or “Mrs Professor” is now calling the shots. In fact, after watching the initial episodes of the show, I only remember its women – Lisbon, Tokyo, Stockholm, Manila, and Alicia Sierra.

Another thing worth mentioning is the way they’ve cut the beginning episodes. We’ve discerned a lot of its footage in the trailers and BTS already, almost that we never understood who their first set of enemies will be, and how the new characters – Berlin’s son Rafael, Sagasta who is overseeing the attacking army and Tokyo’s dead boyfriend Rene will weave into the story. However, the way these new faces were introduced suggests they are going to add a lot of bulk to the show.

Some characters encounter a hail of bullets, some lose their tolerance, some even uncover their vulnerable side. You also find the gang more professional, confident and large as they tote around their rifles. Talk about the knowledge? But I’d say it is a frustrated Colonel Tamayo and a desperate Arturo who get brownie points here for being so good with their fractions.

Money Heist is known to rely heavily on flashbacks, time-jumps and personalities’ backstories. Its season five is no various. In a close to one-and-a-half-hour I saw, it’s pacy, heart thumping and risky. If its remaining episodes manage to keep a similar pace, Money Heist 5 is going to be the show’s most explosive season.