30 Coins

I would like to borrow my opening words from elsewhere: "Overwrought and poorly told phantasmagoria"... because they succinctly and accurately characterize what you can expect from the series. According to Alex de la Iglesia, he worked on the series for 6 years, reserved only a maximum of one week for the screenplay based on the result, and it took him the longest time to convince the producers to invest finances and studio support in such garbage. Honestly, I am amazed that the series was created under the patronage of HBO, which usually sets the bar for quality high. I like storytelling and enjoy it, but Alex is a terrible storyteller. It cannot be claimed that the problem lies in the subject itself, it is rather about its execution, about Alex's superficial approach to the material. He wastefully indulges in ideas only to thwart their potential. The mystery genre relies on emotions much more than on rationality, but that does not mean that no laws should apply to it, and that the behavior of the characters will not be guided by any logic. I am surprised by the decent rating on FilmBooster because Alex's lack of restraint and inconsistency moves the genre from horror or fantasy to grotesque in many places... but to each their own. I will not in the least accommodate the carelessly shot mishmash with poor effects and a stupid screenplay, there are others for that. Overall impression: 10%. (23/08/2021)

Fussy and awfully narrated nonsense, unfortunately. It begins quite good, with a mysterious horror episode and a weird creepy baby born from a cow (!) in a remote, historical small town in Spain, but in the episodes that follow it becomes clear that Álex de la Iglesia knows no bounds, which is a bigger problem in a series format than in a film. In the span of eight episodes, he manages to squeeze in a lot, including several CGI monsters, as well as Islamists in Aleppo, and it doesn’t take long for horror to become overstuffed fantasy, which has a nice premise about some sort of biblical Vatican conspiracy, but I would have much rather seen this treated more seriously instead. Moreover, the show often looks really awful, with unconvincing locations and terrible CGI. (18/01/2021)

My favorite director Alex de La Iglesia didn't really please me with his new work. After the first episode, I was hyped and expected the smash of the year, but unfortunately, the storyline went in a direction that didn't interest me much. It must be acknowledged that the series has some excellent things (the opening theme is absolutely fantastic), the religiously soaked atmosphere has something to it, and when it comes to monsters, there is definitely something to watch, but the fact that they show up only in two episodes is a disappointment for me. The most interesting character is the Priest. In the opening episodes we see him boxing into a punching bag, but that more or less it doesn't lead to anything, because from the second half onwards he is constantly traveling somewhere and is mostly locked up, so his potential is not utilized. The veterinarian Elena also stands out, she is quite enjoyable, but the rest of the characters didn't really grow on me and I was rather indifferent to their fate. If the storyline had focused on hunting the coins in interesting locations all over the world, I think 30 Coins could have been much more interesting, but in its current state, it loses its breath from the second half and rather than being a horror series, it resembles a historical fantasy drama that unfortunately bores rather than entertains. I don't regret watching it, but there were only few good moments that wouldn't even even be enough for one episode. Storyline****, Action>No, Humor>No, Violence***, Entertainment***, Music***, Visuals****, Atmosphere****, Tension***. 6.5/10. (18/01/2021)