Netflix got eight more hours out of a character who was already gone, and the strange thing is that they mostly work.
“Berlin” is a Spanish series created by Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato, a prequel to “Money Heist” that follows Andrés de Fonollosa before the events of the original show’s first two seasons. It premiered on 29 December 2023, runs eight episodes, and carries a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 7.0 out of 10, at 70 percent. Pedro Alonso returns as Berlin, the role he played in the parent series, and the show hands him a gang, a Paris setting, and one very expensive night.
The premise is a jewel heist worth €44 million. Berlin assembles a crew — Keila, Damián, Cameron, Bruce, Roi — and the plan is not just to take the stones. It is to frame the man who provided the security for the job. That is the mechanic the season hangs on, and it is a better one than a straight robbery, because it gives the show a second clock running alongside the first.
Then Berlin ruins his own plan by falling in love with the wife of the man he intends to destroy.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Alonso Returns to a Character He Already Buried
The case for “Berlin” starts with Alonso. He played this character as a doomed man in “Money Heist,” and the prequel’s whole bet is that the audience wants to watch him before the doom. The show does not soften him. It keeps the arrogance and the theatrical streak, and lets the heist run on his confidence rather than on competence.
That is a real choice, and it costs the series something. Berlin is not a mastermind the way the Professor was. He is a man who is very good at this and very sure of himself, which is a different and less reliable engine.
The eight-episode order helps. The season does not have room to wander, and it does not. Each episode moves the job forward or moves the romance forward, and often both at once.
A Crew of Six in a City That Is Just a Job Site
The crew is where the show spends its personality. Michelle Jenner plays Keila, Tristán Ulloa plays Damián, Begoña Vargas plays Cameron, Julio Peña plays Roi, and Joel Sánchez plays Bruce. Samantha Siqueiros plays Camille Polignac, the woman Berlin falls for.
That is a lot of names for eight episodes, and the show does not give all of them equal weight. Some of the gang get a defined skill and a couple of scenes. Others get a backstory the season never quite pays off.
The Paris setting does more work than most heist shows get out of a city. It is a place to run a con, not a postcard. The show treats it as a job site.
The Frame Job Is the Best Idea in the Season
The framing plot is the smartest thing in “Berlin.” Stealing €44 million in jewels is a familiar shape. Stealing them and pinning it on the security man is a story with a villain who did not do anything, and the show understands that this is the part that makes Berlin interesting rather than merely skilled.
It also creates the season’s central problem. Berlin needs to spy on his victim. He does that by getting close. He gets too close.
The romance with Camille is the load-bearing wall of the whole season, and it is the part that divides. It gives Berlin a vulnerability that the parent series only hinted at. It also slows the heist down at exactly the moments the heist is most interesting.
Where the Prequel Explains Too Much
The show has a habit of explaining Berlin rather than letting him be explained. The prequel format invites this. You already know how this man ends, so the temptation is to show the audience the seams.
“Berlin” gives in to that temptation more than it should. Some of the character work is there to justify the man we met later, not to serve the man we are watching now.
The result is a season that is more coherent than it is surprising. The beats land where you expect them to land. The crew functions. The plan advances. The romance complicates it. Nothing here will rewire how you think about heist television.
Berlin Against the Show It Came From
The comparison that matters is the one Netflix invites by putting “Money Heist” in the title in some markets, where the series is known as “Money Heist: Berlin.”
| Money Heist | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Multi-season series | One season, 8 episodes |
| Lead | The Professor and the crew | Andrés de Fonollosa |
| Setting | Spain, primarily | Paris |
| Central job | The Royal Mint of Spain | €44 million in jewels |
| Extra layer | Hostages inside the building | Framing the security provider |
| Season structure | Continuous | Released as separate miniseries |
That last row is the one worth watching. “Berlin” is built as a set of miniseries rather than one continuous run. The first is titled “Berlin and the Jewels of Paris.” A second, “Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine,” was renewed on 19 February 2024 and released on 15 May 2026.
That structure is a real advantage. Each season can be a self-contained job with its own title and its own ending. It also means the show never has to sustain a single plot across years, which is where “Money Heist” eventually strained.
What a 7.0 Actually Says
Here is the thing about a 7.0. It is not a score that says a show is broken. It is a score that says a show is good at what it does and does not do much more than that.
“Berlin” is good at what it does. Alonso is worth the ticket. The frame job gives the season a spine that a plain robbery would not. Paris is used well. The eight episodes are tight enough that the weaker stretches do not have time to become fatal.
What it is not is essential. If you never watched “Money Heist,” the show gives you a heist and a romance and a crew, and that is enough to fill eight hours. If you did watch it, the prequel answers questions you may not have been asking.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 7.0 out of 10, at 70 percent, is a fair read on that. It is a competent, well-cast, well-built season that never quite justifies its own existence beyond the pleasure of watching Alonso play this man again.
A Second Season Turns a Curiosity Into a Franchise
The renewal matters more than it looks. A prequel with one season is a curiosity. A prequel with a second season is a franchise, and the separate-miniseries structure means Netflix is not committing to a long arc — it is committing to another job.
“Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine” arrived on 15 May 2026. The title points at a painting, which suggests another theft in the same shape the first season used. That is either a formula or a format, depending on how the second season handles it.
The first season earned the second one. It did not earn it overwhelmingly.
Eight Episodes, One Job, One Title
“Berlin” takes a character who worked best in small doses and gives him eight episodes, and the surprise is that he holds up. The heist is solid. The frame job is the best idea in the season. The romance is the riskiest and the least certain.
Pedro Alonso is the reason to watch. Michelle Jenner, Tristán Ulloa, Begoña Vargas, Julio Peña, Joel Sánchez and Samantha Siqueiros fill out a crew that functions without ever quite becoming a family the way the “Money Heist” crew did.
The show’s real achievement is structural. By releasing each season as its own miniseries, “Berlin” avoids the trap that catches most prequels: the need to stretch a backstory across years it does not have. Eight episodes, one job, one title. That is a clean way to run a franchise.
What it does not do is surprise you. Every turn is the turn the premise promised. Berlin falls for the mark’s wife because the synopsis says he does. The job gets complicated because the job always gets complicated. The season is well-made and predictable in roughly equal measure, and a 7.0 is what that adds up to.
Worth your time if you liked the character. Worth skipping if you did not.
7 of 10.
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