IMAGE – Netflix
Netflix is definitely trying to capitalize on its already showing or streaming shows, given its current woes in dropping audience numbers. But a bad way to go around this is through spin – offs and shows we have watched and binged over before.
Moreover, this is not a result oriented way to do this if the streaming platform tries to rely quite heavily, I would say, on its top rating shows.
The most watched series, non-English show, in this case, Before Squid Game, was Money Heist, the Popular Drama, Spanish Thriller – Heist series that literally got viewers on the edge of their seats. The series concluded in 2021.
It is a no-brainer that Netflix, has decided to redo this popular series. But have the nation that produced Squid Game redo it? Okey, but having a spinoff that, if not having the same plot, same characters and trying to bring out the same concept desperately tries to reciprocate everything that we have seen before, is ridiculous.
Set in 2025, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area imagines North and South Korea on the brink of reunification. The characters appear to maintain some physical and personality parallels with their “La Casa de Papel” counterparts: Tokyo rocks a blunt bob like none other (okay, maybe one other). Moscow, husky and bearded, is often seen trying to calm his hotheaded, handsome son, Denver. Rio is a sweet goofball. Nairobi does whatever she wants. And Berlin — who will be instantly recognizable to “Squid Game” fans — is not to be messed with.
The original. Money Heist, has a thematic undercurrent that calls out the pitfalls of capitalism with the motto ‘Viva la resistencia!’ – which. this new spinoff seems to copy and almost paste, actually yeah, paste.
Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, which, with its plot-packed first season comprises of six episodes clocking in at 69.5 minutes a piece or per episode, somehow manages to be both be way too long and way too short all at the same time, depending on how long you sat in or watched the series.
It’s a Spin off series that we definitely did not need.