10 More Shows Like Berlin
Berlin is the latest spin-off coming right from the Money Heist (La Casa De Papel) universe. It’s an action-packed romp full of romance and drama abound.
If you’ve finished watching this and are looking for alternate series, fret not! We’ve combed through the archives and saved you the hassle of having to try and find something similar with our top 10 picks for alternate viewing.
To keep things simple for skim-readers we’ve added what similarities these have.
Of course for all the shows we’ve reviewed, we’ve also added a handy link so you can check out our full thoughts on that series and see if it’s something you want to invest your time with.
So without further ado, we present 10 TV shows that should whet the appetite when you’ve finished streaming Berlin!
Great Pretender
Similarities: Heists & Great Reveals
Great Pretender is a really, really great anime. Across its 14 episodes, this confident animation combines elements of Carmen Sandiego and the affluent style of Picasso surrealism to create one gorgeously rendered heist series.
Great Pretender is well written, beautifully paced and easily one of the most visually striking anime to be released in quite some time. The different arcs allow each of the characters a chance to hit the spotlight and the flashbacks are consistent and enhance the material on screen.
While the second half does lose some of the momentum the first had, it’s easy to look past this with such a satisfying conclusion. This is easily one of the best anime of 2020.
You can read our thoughts on Great Pretender in our full season review here!
La Casa De Papel (Money Heist)
Similarities: Heist & Evading The Police
Netflix’s Spanish heist thriller La Casa de Papel is an incredibly tense piece of entertainment. Every episode leads to the next, building up drama into an explosive finale during season 1. This opener manages to channel the same nervous tension the first season of Prison Break conjured and does so with a really simple hook.
Gain entry to the Factory of Moneda and Timbre and steal a substantial sum of money. The main character to conduct this mission is codenamed Tokyo, a woman who’s mourning the death of her partner in crime.
When The Professor approaches and recruits her, along with a number of other formidable and colourful foes, what follows is a cat and mouse game adopting all the hallmarks of the heist, espionage and thriller genres into one enticing cocktail.
You can read our thoughts on La Casa De Papel in our full season reviews here!
The Great Heist
Similarities: Thriller & Heist
In 1994, Colombia played host to the one of the most elaborate and surprising bank heists in history. With a little over 24 billion Colombian pesos stolen (the equivalent of 41 million dollars in 1994) and no fatalities, this truly was the Robbery Of The Century. That craziness continues to this day too, with the heist holding the record for being the largest robbery involving paper currency.
With six episodes clocking in at around 40 minutes a piece, The Great Heist is an incredibly easy show to watch and a genuinely enjoyable too.
While this is unlikely to be as highly regarded as something like La Casa De Papel (the first 3 seasons at least), there’s enough here to recommend nonetheless.
Sherlock
Similarities: Mystery, Plot Twists & Characters
Adapting a classic novel and making it contemporary and relevant whilst maintaining the essence of the original is no easy feat. It’s something we’ve seen many shows and films struggle to achieve.
Steven Moffat’s modern adaptation of Sherlock is one that bucks the trend for the most part, nailing the feel and authenticity of the book and its characters.
The natural chemistry between the two lead characters, John Watson and Sherlock Holmes, is ultimately what makes this show so appealing and together they elevate this show into one of the best in recent memory.
The cases themselves are pretty good and while the later seasons do career off into the usual convoluted Moffat plots, the opening two seasons are absolutely fantastic and enough to recommend this one.
You can read our thoughts on Sherlock in our full season reviews here!
Lupin
Similarities: Mystery, Plot Twists & Characters
Lupin is a well written heist thriller adopting the name of Arsene Lupin and twisting that to fit a modern audience. Instead of rewriting what’s come before though, Lupin draws inspiration from the fictional thief to create something wholly new and exciting.
With echoes of anime series Great Detective, sprinklings of Carmen Sandiego and the grittiness of detective shows like Luther, Lupin draws a medley of ideas together to create a harmonious symphony of noise that hits all the right notes.
You can read our thoughts on Lupin in our full season reviews here!
Criminal Code
Similarities: Thriller
Criminal Code is a Brazilian Netflix original, and the first police action series from that country on the platform. Maeve Jinkings and Rômulo Braga headline the show as they portray two federal police officers trying to track down a heist gang.
The story follows Benício, a federal officer in Brazil who is looking for a heist gang leader who killed his partner. As a result, he teams up with Suellen, and together, they work to bring down a gang known as ‘the organization.’
Kaleidoscope
Similarities: Heist & Characters
Kaleidoscope is the latest heist thriller on Netflix but it comes with a big twist – you can watch the episodes in any order. The show is loosely based on real events and centers around the largest heist ever attempted. At the heart of this is a man named Leo, a veteran in the field. Leo is desperate for revenge against a man named Roger, who happens to front the security firm SLS. As fate would have it, he also happens to be sitting on billions in unclaimed bonds that could give Leo a pretty tasty payday.
Leo can’t go it alone though and on his journey, he’s joined by a diverse group of players that each have their eyes on the prize. There’s getaway driver RJ, Leo’s old prison buddy Stan, his oldest friend Ava and oddball couple, Bob and Judy. Together, they work to infiltrate SLS and pull off the greatest heist ever.
You can read our thoughts on Kaleidoscope in our full season review here!
Money Heist: Korea
Similarities: Heist, Premise & Characters
Netflix have have been on a roll with their K content recently. And it seems those in charge of Money Heist: Korea went in with the thought of: “Well, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” For some, that’s going to be very annoying and a bit of a disappointment given how similar it is to the original Money Heist. For others, they’ll be quite happy to take that trip down memory lane.
To be fair, the story does have a few differences, namely that of the first 15 minutes or so of episode 1. An intriguing prologue whisks us forward to some time in 2025. North and South Korea have come to a political agreement and open up their borders to one another. The fighting is over and for now, Korea is one.
As part of this historic unification, those in Pyongyang and neighbouring North Korean villages are free to head down South to try and make a name for themselves. With high hopes and dreams for the future, it doesn’t take long for the crushing reality of capitalism to rear its ugly head.
Eking out a living in the midst of this happens to be Tokyo, who becomes disillusioned with her current life and ends up on the run. Wanted by police and with nowhere else to go, in a neon-lit alleyway one night she takes a gun and prepares to fire. Step forward The Professor. The rest, as they say, is history!
You can read our thoughts on Money Heist: Korea in our full season review here!
Sky Rojo
Similarities: Thriller
What do you get when you mix Euphoria, Killing Eve and La Casa De Papel? Probably something close to Netflix’s latest intoxicating thriller. Created by Alex Pina, the brainchild behind La Casa De Papel, Sky Rojo is an exciting, dramatic and absolutely thrilling series. It’s an artistic and vibrant show, one that balances out its rich world with some surprisingly deep characters.
Set on the sunny isle of Tenerife, Sky Rojo dives deep into the shadowy world of pimps and hookers. Specifically, we center on three girls – Gina, Wendy and Coral – who work at Las Novias Club.
After a slick montage to start us off, the girls quickly find themselves in over their heads after a nasty accident involving their pimp, Romeo.
It’s a simple set-up in truth but one that works incredibly well by weaving in a really unique tone. There’s a lot of poignant, hard-hitting material here but equally some dark humour and incredulous scenarios.
Prison Break
Similarities: Thriller, High-Stakes Tension
Prison Break is relentless. It’s a tense, claustrophobic, action-packed shows and boasts one of the best opening seasons to any series.
The story focuses heavily on Michael’s bond with his brother Lincoln, who’s wrongfully accused of an assassination and subsequently sent to death row because of this. In order to free his brother, Michael gets himself arrested in the same prison as his brother and launches a scheme to break him out before his sentence is up.
Of course, things don’t go according to plan and what ends up as a simple escape, escalates and becomes considerably more complicated, eventually escalating to crazy levels as the seasons tick by.
So there we have it, our 10 TV show picks to check out when you’re finished with Berlin on Netflix
What do you think of our picks? Do you agree? Are there any notable omissions? Let us know in the comments below!