30 COINS: A Delicious, Twisted Rollercoaster Ride

Everyone who has had contact with the productions of Álex de la Iglesia even once knows that with this director one can expect practically anything. It is no different in the case of 30 Coins, that is, the series which de la Iglesia made in cooperation with HBO. It is without a doubt a total rollercoaster ride, at times reminiscent of The Evil Dead, with calmer episodes delving into the nature of evil and the history of the characters, and an ending capable of making one’s head spin.

The plot focuses on Father Vergara, a former exorcist who is sent to the Spanish countryside. From the moment of his arrival, increasingly strange things begin to happen in the town. Mayor Paco and Elena, the local veterinarian, join forces to find out who, or perhaps what, is behind the tragic events in their town and what part Vergara and the mysterious coin play in all of it. To discover the truth, they will have to face ever stranger challenges, including fighting demons straight from the depths of hell.

For fans of Z movies, The Evil Dead, and pitch-black humor, this is a perfect proposal for spending a weekend. The dialogues are sharp as a razor, the characters determined, and Father Vergara himself will more than once prove that no one dares mess with him, not even demons. This is on the one hand an undeniable advantage of the series, but on the other hand also a flaw, because not every viewer will enjoy this style.

In addition, blood flows in streams, more corpses appear on screen, and the strange child from the first episode is just a trifle compared to what happens in the following ones.

Therefore – although the whole thing is fantastic to watch – it must be kept in mind that the production will appeal only to a selected group of people. The Spanish director, like no one else, can create a perfect opening, whether it is a film or a series, as is the case with 30 Coins.

For example, in one of his films – Witching and Bitching – men dressed as Jesus, Spongebob, and the Invisible Man try to rob a jeweler, while at the same time one of them looks after his underage son, who also takes part in the heist. As for the HBO production, the whole thing begins when a man breaks into a bank, and the attempt by the guards to shoot him ends in nothing, as if bullets could not harm him at all. The man dies only in the car, when a mysterious priest removes a necklace from him.

The next opening is the scene connected with the opening credits.

It is an interesting sequence, made in the director’s classic style. So we have macabre, grotesque, and kitsch mixed together, attracting the viewer’s attention from the very beginning. There are dramatic blood splatters, a good soundtrack, and the mannered behavior of grotesquely depicted characters that chill the blood, and all this is interwoven with the last minutes of Judas’s life, who, after betraying Jesus, hangs himself from a tree.

Following the director’s career, one may conclude that everything he has done has led to this moment.

It is a one-of-a-kind world where secret societies are an everyday matter, and biblical chaos is the only thing we can be sure of. So we have the image of a Church that fights evil, without noticing that it has crept into its house and is wreaking havoc there. One could even say that the stories of Elena, Paco, the Vatican itself, and the secret congregation are like something taken straight from a South American telenovela. And that only adds to the enjoyment of watching the whole.

Of course, for a nitpicking viewer, nothing that has been used and presented in the series constitutes any novelty. But on the other hand, the references to well-known clichés and their distortion make the production very engaging to watch. Vergara himself, a character with a mysterious past who smokes like a chimney and is at the same time a boxer keeping a small arsenal of weapons in his closet, is like a worn-out cliché. But he is not the only one fitting into the convention.

From the very beginning it is obvious that the main characters must end up together, that Paco’s wife is a potential candidate for a madwoman, and that the religious conspiracy has tentacles reaching so deeply that only the initiated are aware of it. So we have passion, corruption, love, hatred. Practically everything makes it seem that any moment now the world created by the director will collapse under the weight of references. But this is also the strength of the production, which plays with familiar motifs, distorting them in such a mocking way that they cannot be forgotten until the grand finale.

What probably captivated me the most was the motif of the sinister clergymen who try to gather the titular 30 coins. For it is interesting that de la Iglesia explores throughout the subsequent episodes the question of whether good cannot exist without evil. More precisely, whether good would exist at all if not for the terrifying things that can be contrasted with human empathy and selflessness. This is one of the more interesting motifs in the series, and what is more, it does not provide the viewer with any unambiguous answers. It also draws attention to the fact that each of us carries within ourselves a secret just waiting to come to light.

I really liked that the creators once and for all decided to deal with the issue of machismo and the fact that modern women very often become the subject of gaslighting (that is, a form of psychological manipulation in which doubts about one’s emotional stability and mental health are planted in someone).

Initially, the townspeople belittle Elena because her husband disappeared. Most claim it is her fault, and that she herself is insane. As a result, many people do not take what she says seriously, while the rest completely reject her as a member of the community. In the end, it turns out that the conservative and gossiping community of a small town can be just as dangerous as monsters from another world.

In my opinion,  30 Coins is an interesting, unique, and memorable work. Although the director perhaps does not feel as confident in the series format as in film, it is nevertheless clear that his work is thought out from beginning to end. The production is engaging and incredibly twisted. If someone is a fan of this kind of atmosphere, they will love the HBO production from the very first sight, but for others it may be a bumpy road impossible to overcome.