Finally got around to finishing Money Heist completely last week, years after most people around me had already watched and moved on from it themselves, and I genuinely came away feeling more satisfied with how the whole thing actually wrapped up than most of the online discourse I had seen mentioned or referenced beforehand led me to actually expect going in.
A lot of people online seemed genuinely disappointed with the pacing specifically in the final stretch, arguing it dragged on considerably longer than the actual story genuinely needed to properly wrap up everything it had built up over the previous several seasons combined. I understand that specific criticism honestly, a few episodes near the actual end did feel like they were stretching material further than strictly necessary, but the emotional core of it still genuinely landed for me personally by the time everything actually concluded properly.
What I appreciated most was that the show did not shy away from genuine, real consequences for the characters involved, several outcomes felt earned rather than conveniently softened purely to please viewers who had grown attached to specific characters over the show's entire run across multiple seasons together.
Discussed this with a colleague who watched it when it originally aired years ago, and her main complaint was that the sheer number of side characters introduced later diluted the original tight core group dynamic that made the earlier seasons genuinely work so well in the first place, which is a fair criticism I can actually understand even though it did not bother me personally as much watching it all together now.
Coming to a show this late does mean avoiding the actual live discourse and week to week anticipation everyone else clearly experienced originally, but it also means watching the whole thing with the benefit of already knowing it was generally well regarded overall, which honestly does change your expectations somewhat going into it.
Did the ending genuinely work for people who watched it as it originally aired week to week, or does it actually land better watching everything together in one continuous binge the way I just did myself?