Berlin’s reviews are not as enthusiastic as those of Money Heist. From La Vanguardia we warn that the robbery carried out by Andrés de Fonollosa, the character played by Pedro Alonso, does not combine well with romantic comedy (and with henchmen whose only mission is to be sexy). From the Washington Post they moved along the same line: “The rhythm is strange, the heist is boring, the characters are flat.” But this does not mean that, if we talk in terms of commercial success, the prequel is sweeping Netflix at the audience level.
The platform has revealed last week’s streaming consumption and Berlin leads as the most viewed series on the entire platform, also surpassing the data for English-language series, which tend to have better audience data. In its first three days (since it premiered on December 29 and the data represents consumption from December 25 to 31) it accumulated 74.3 million hours watched among subscribers. As its duration is 6 hours and 34 minutes, it is estimated that the series has been viewed 11.3 million times.
This allows him to advance The Monster of Old Seoul, a South Korean horror drama, which generated 48.5 million hours of viewing (and which was viewed 6.1 million times), and the Mexican comedy El niñero, which made 47 million hours (and was viewed 8.2 million times).
The proposals in English pale in comparison: My Life with the Walter Boys accumulated 41.4 million more hours (and 5.4 million views) and The Crown settled for 31.6 million hours (and 3.6 million additional users) led with their respective seasons (and My Life with the Walter Boys, now in its fourth week, is confirmed as the teen phenomenon of recent months).
To understand the Berlin phenomenon, we have to see what other series move around these series. For example, Lupine returned in October with 63.9 million hours watched and, thanks to its shorter duration of 5 hours and 31 minutes, it was viewed 11.6 million times. Although, as it arrived on a Thursday, the most successful French series had one more day to mark this fact.
In fact, if we talk about hours watched, it has the record in the week of the premiere since False Profile, which accumulated 76.3 million hours watched when it landed on May 31. Of course, again the comparison is not entirely fair: it premiered on a Wednesday and, therefore, they were able to compute the data from its first five days instead of the three in Berlin.
In summary, Berlin, which has entered the list of the most watched series in 88 markets and has obtained first position in 39 of them (Spain, India, Pakistan, France, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia are some of the countries more interested). The prequel created by Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato has needed three days to prove a reality: trusting the fictional universe of robberies turned out to be a safe bet and, upon seeing the face of Pedro Alonso reprising the role of Berlin on the cover of Netflix, the public has not been able to avoid selecting the content.
The paper house was not a flower of a day and, with these data, it is a matter of time before it receives a renewal for a second season. Let us remember that its outcome, instead of seeming like a definitive conclusion, indicated the beginning of a new franchise that also features Itziar Ituño and Najwa Nimri as Raquel Murillo and Alicia Sierra, when they collaborated in the security forces of the Spanish State instead of be confronted
And could new series derived from La casa de papel come into development, either in the form of a spin-off or sequel, taking advantage of those characters who survived the last mission of the Professor played by Álvaro Morte?
