If you missed my last article on The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, you can find it here.
Hi guys, long time no see. I am back with the show 30 Coins. If you remember, I watch the first two or three episodes of a show and tell you if I think you should watch it. 30 Coins was made for HBO Europe and comes to us from Spain and can be found on Max. The show began airing on January 4th, 2021. Obviously, since it was made in Spain, the language spoken in the show is Spanish, but here it has subtitles.
My husband and I decided to give this show a try because the trailer looked intense. I was already interested because of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Harry has to deal with a few Denarians in his adventures. The denarii are thirty fallen angels that are bound to the thirty coins paid to Judas when he betrayed Jesus. I figured this was a similar idea. The synopsis is a disgraced priest who is trying to escape his demons while living in a small village in Spain. Apparently, Hell has other ideas. In the opening video of the show, it portrays the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the payment to Judas for his betrayal.
The opening scene is intense. An older man walks into a bank, starts gunning down the security guards, and goes into the safe. When he gets into the safety deposit box room, he blows open the boxes to get to a specific one. He bypassed money and other stuff to get an old coin. A singular coin. While retrieving the coin, the man was what should have been fatally shot, but he walked it off like nothing happened. He also had incredible strength, able to throw the guards like paper plates. When he got out of there and back to those who wanted the coin, they took both coins from him, and he died right there in the car.
We finally meet Paco (Miguel Angel Silvestre), the mayor, and his vet, Elena (Megan Montaner). We also meet Paco’s wife, Merche (Macarena Gomez), and the priest in question, Father Vergara (Eduard Fernandez). They live in a little village in Spain. I’m not clear on how little because Paco and Merche own and operate a big slaughterhouse, but there is a lot of open land. One of Paco’s cows is in distress while birthing a calf. Elena is there as the vet and helps deliver a human-looking baby instead of a calf. They, of course, visit the village priest for guidance, and stuff just spirals from there. The coin comes back into play at this point because the priest has it from an exorcism that landed him in prison, and the church’s Cardinals want it back and will use demons to do so.
I will say the show is gritty. There is abuse, teen pregnancy, demons, graphic violence, blood, and magick of sorts in the show. And that was just in the first two episodes. They didn’t shy away from the crazy. Rather, they leaned into it, both in the content of the show and the characters’ mental stability. There weren’t buckets of blood, but there was some. Most were expected amounts, but one I can bring to mind is gross but not overly so.
I must say, though, the episodes are tiring. AJ and I can’t watch more than one episode at a time. I don’t think it is because I have to read while I watch, but it’s possible. The show is slow. I still have no idea of the importance of the coins. What do they do? Is it like The Dresden Files or something different? Why does the church want them? I can tell it isn’t for the good of humankind. I am not quite sure if we will continue watching because it is such a hard watch.
Have you watched this show? What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, have fun storming the castle.
