‘Berlin’ puts a psychopath in a romantic comedy

On November 23, 2017, Berlin was shot to death. It happened in what was supposed to be the end of Money Heist.

When it was confirmed that Netflix wanted more seasons, the first thing those in charge thought about was how to continue writing stories for Berlin — the psychopathic villain that viewers had liked so much. They decided that the best option was to bring him back through flashbacks that would show his past. It was clear to the show’s creators that if there was going to be a series derived from the original Money Heist, this character’s story would be their first choice.

They didn’t know it at the time, but the end of the world-famous Money Heist would mark the birth of the Berlin series on Netflix. “First, because of the charisma of the character and because — surprisingly — the public loved him,” explains Álex Pina, co-creator of Berlin and Money Heist.

The new Netflix show — which premiered on December 29 — focuses on the character played by Pedro Alonso, that twisted psychopath who played a leading role in the hostage-taking in Spain’s Royal Mint in Money Heist. It moves through the character’s past, into the 1990s, showing the audience a different side to the criminal.

“We had him do comedy… we didn’t know how it was going to turn out. We had to measure the tone. When we balanced him out, we saw that it was wonderful to make him the loser in a love triangle, to make him angry,” says Álex Pina.

This time, while preparing a white-collar robbery at an auction house, Berlin falls deeply in love. Of course, he’ll conduct his romantic pursuit in his own way: with surveillance and lies involved. “He’s a psychopath, but he also functions as a great dandy, a Spanish Great Gatsby, an old-fashioned hedonist,” Pina continues.

Leaving Berlin for dead was never an option for the creators of Money Heist. “He’s someone who generates a lot of things when he enters a room, even if he doesn’t have lines. Those characters are difficult to replicate,” says Esther Martínez Lobato, co-creator of the two series. She remembers that, to resurrect him, they considered various options, such as saying that he hadn’t actually died, or creating a futuristic series in which Berlin was a robot. They couldn’t lose a character like that.

“Charismatic villains are very morbid. You know that this guy is going to entertain you because he has fewer red lines and is going to go further [than anyone else]. It’s much more fun to write someone like that than a proper person.”

“In the times we live in,” Pina notes, “as creators, we take a risk by doing this… but what’s politically correct is, as a general rule, boring. I’m sorry for the ‘incorrectness’ we’re going to make, but we have a duty to entertain the public. We are commited to political incorrectness.”

When asked if she regrets having killed off Berlin in the first stage of Money Heist, Martínez Lobato shakes her head. “No, I wouldn’t get rid of it [his death], it was epic. And thanks to that, we’ve had to learn how to resurrect a dead person.”

The shock wave that Money Heist generated around them is so strong that the creators of Berlin confess that they’re afraid of how the fans of the mother series will receive their new spinoff. “I’m very curious,” says Esther Martínez Lobato. “The challenge was for the viewer to have the feeling that it’s a story set in the present, rather than just a flashback. [We want them to feel] that Berlin is alive and these are the things that happen to him in another stage of his life that’s more luminous.”

“I’m very curious to see how the show is received by people who hope to see dark Berlin and repeat the sensations they enjoyed in Money Heist. I wonder if they’ll think that it’s a scam or a fraud, or if they’ll be able to enter and enjoy the series, respect it and understand that it’s another universe,” the screenwriters says. “The fans always want to experience the same sensations over and over again, and they may feel disappointed… but we wanted to build a new universe,” Pina adds.

Their intention was to separate (as much as possible) Berlin from Money Heist.

For this reason, both the tone and the characters — with the exception of Berlin and police inspectors Alicia Sierra (Najwa Nimri) and Raquel Murillo (Itziar Ituño) — are different. The new songs are performed by Tristán Ulloa, Michelle Jenner, Begoña Vargas, Julio Peña Fernández and Joel Sánchez.

While creating their characters, the scriptwriters looked for less somber attributes than what marked those from Money Heist. “As creators and viewers, we needed to make something beautiful… beautiful and comfortable. It’s been very gratifying to return to [regular] comedy,” Martínez Lobato admits.

And, of course, there’s love. Because if Berlin is about anything — besides the story of a robbery — it’s a love story. Love from different angles: from the disturbed one that Berlin experiences to the first love, the most carnal — the one that drives you to madness or heartbreak. “In the historical moment we’re in, we decided to launch this defense of love, which is what moves the world and makes you have a little hope,” Martínez Lobato emphasizes.

Even the setting of the story is distanced from its mother series: from the closed and claustrophobic spaces of Money Heist, the prequel moves to the landscapes of Paris. “We came up with several robberies, several stories and several countries [as options]. I like that we did it in Paris. Even though it seems cliché, love is reflected in Paris. We wanted to capture — in a single frame — what Berlin is about… and with the Eiffel Tower in the background, it’s clear,” Martínez Lobato notes.

This setting also allowed them to give the series a classic esthetic, very much in line with the landscapes of the French capital. “We looked for a classicism even in Berlin’s own clothes, which are inspired by the clothes worn by Jean-Paul Belmondo in the nouvelle vague [the French New Wave]. Classic clothes, the car, the hotels… everything exudes classicism,” Pina describes.

Introducing comedy into a character as dark as Berlin — and in a universe as dense as that of Money Heist — wasn’t easy. “A lot of the time, in comedy, we tend to lower the intelligence of the characters to generate funny situations. But Berlin couldn’t be too stupid in comedy or too clever in planning the robbery. [Finding a balance] was very complex, to the point that once we saw some sequences in montage, we re-shot them and changed texts and even introduced a voice-over, so that people knew, from the first episode, what journey they were going to be on,” Martínez Lobato explains.

“In a tense sequence, everyone knows where the tension is. But in a comedy sequence, there is a lot of room for interpretation. In each country, comedy is different. It’s very complicated,” Pina concludes.

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