Berlin and The Lady With An Ermine is A Romantic Mess, and I Loved It

It’s pure chaos, and I have zero regrets about watching all of it

I need to be transparent about something. I have a Berlin problem. Not the city. The unhinged, morally flexible, impossibly charming criminal played by Pedro Alonso, whom I have been defending since his Money Heist days, despite him being, objectively, a terrible person.

When he got his own prequel series, I watched every episode of season one and forgave it for its flaws because Pedro Alonso could read me a terms and conditions agreement and I would be invested. Season two arrived, and I cleared my entire evening. No notes, LOL.

This time, the gang is in Seville, which is already a better decision than most things I’ve done this year. The target is the Duke of Málaga, an eccentric, art-obsessed hedonist who collects priceless things the way some people collect disappointment.

The plan is to steal Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine from under his nose. Then, because apparently one impossible theft isn’t enough, he also completely drains his underground vault, which is protected by an actual ring of fire. Berlin really doesn’t do anything small.

TMJ Rating: 3.5/5

What You Need to Know

The heist runs on two tracks simultaneously. The painting theft is the distraction, designed to keep the Duke convinced he still has some control over the situation. The vault is the real target.

Berlin’s plan involves dismantling the Duke’s entire sense of power, his money, his art, his marriage, his ego, until there’s nothing left holding him up. That’s personal, and I respect the commitment enormously.

Then Seville itself arrives, and the show suddenly also wants to be a romance. Berlin meets Candela, a local pickpocket who is chaotic and fierce and completely unbothered by him in ways he clearly isn’t used to.

Damián gets tangled up with Genoveva, the Duchess, who has her own agenda running quietly underneath everything. The heist now has feelings. The feelings are actively creating complications. Extremely relatable content.

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Pedro Alonso is The Whole Show

I know I say this every time, but it bears repeating. He is carrying this season entirely and making it look effortless.

Berlin this time is less the cool, controlled manipulator from Money Heist and more of a passionate disaster in an expensive coat, and Alonso sells that shift completely. There’s a scene where he’s simultaneously running a multi-layered heist and spiralling over a woman he met four days ago, and I believed every second of it.

The man has a specific energy where you would follow him into something wildly illegal and only start questioning it somewhere around episode five.

His chemistry with Inma Cuesta as Candela is the emotional engine of the whole thing. She’s unpredictable and brings something genuinely different to the dynamic.

The Duke is a Gift

José Luis García-Pérez plays the Duke as someone so thoroughly convinced of his own importance that watching Berlin systematically take everything from him is one of the most satisfying arcs the show has ever done.

The plan leaves him with nothing to stand on by the finale. I felt zero sympathy.

I felt that the finale delivered. The heist converges, everything pays off, and Berlin ends the season getting married on a sun-drenched Spanish afternoon with the whole crew there.

It’s warm and joyful and a little absurd and completely earned. Cameron’s death earlier hits harder than I expected, and the show sits with it properly rather than rushing past it.

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Where it Loses Me

Episodes four through six genuinely drag. The romantic subplots expand to fill space that should be building tension, and I found myself checking how many episodes were left in a way I never did in season one.

The structure is slightly overstuffed. Too many good ideas fighting for screen time and not enough discipline about which ones actually serve the heist.

Some new supporting characters appear, create a moment, and then fade into the background before you’ve figured out if you care about them. The show needed to be tighter by about 40 minutes total, and it knows it.

The Verdict for Berlin and The Lady With An Ermine

Romantic, stylish, occasionally frustrating, and anchored by a performance that makes all of it worth sitting through. Berlin and the Lady with an Ermine earns its ending even when the middle tests your patience.

Watch it in Seville if you can. Watch it anywhere if you can’t. Just watch it.

Are you a Berlin defender, or did you always think he was more interesting as a villain? Tell me in the comments.