8 Thriller Shows to Watch If You Love Money Heist

Money Heist has gone down in history as Netflix's third-most popular show ever. The Spanish crime thriller ranks behind only Squid Game and Stranger Things in the tally of the most-watched Netflix Originals in any language. No matter where you go in the world, you'll meet someone obsessed with Money Heist. 

The series, which started on Spanish TV in 2017 before getting picked up by Netflix and turned into a global megahit, ended in December 2021 after five parts. (Money Heist's confusing delineation of "parts" vs. "seasons" is one for the Professor to figure out.) Creator Álex Pina's series follows a crack team of thieves as they work to pull off a pair of unorthodox heists and the law enforcement officers trying to stop them. People's lives and extremely large amounts of money are on the line, so emotions run high, which leads to sexy, soapy entanglements. Money Heist is an unpredictable, visually slick, well-acted show, and anyone who's watched even one episode knows why it became such a phenomenon. Because once you start, you'll get as addicted to watching heists as the Professor (Álvaro Morte) is to planning them. 

Money Heist Watch on Netflix

If you've said "Bella ciao" to Money Heist, we have some recommendations for other shows to add to your streaming queue. Our list includes other Álex Pina shows, heist thrillers, and sexy Spanish dramas, as well as one straight-up Money Heist remake. Watch these while you wait for the prequel spin-off about Berlin's (Pedro Alonso) origin story.

Money Heist: Korea - Joint Economic Area

Joint Economic Area puts a uniquely Korean spin on the Money Heist premise. It's set in an alternate reality where North and South Korea have opened up economic relations, which inevitably leads to the rich getting richer and the poor getting screwed. So a crack team, led by criminal mastermind the Professor (Yoo Ji-tae), takes over a mint for a heist with a political agenda. Park Hae-soo, best known as Squid Game's antihero Cho Sang-woo, plays Money Heist's antihero Berlin, while Burning star Jun Jong-seo, an actress with an absolutely riveting screen presence, plays Tokyo. It feels very familiar, but it's different enough from the original Money Heist to be worth watching on its own merits. 

Lupin

Netflix's third-most-popular international series (behind Squid Game and Money Heist) is this French series with a heist component. It follows Assane Diop (Omar Sy), a charming man with great sneakers who, inspired by the iconic French character Arsene Lupin, becomes a gentleman thief and sets out to steal a priceless necklace from the Louvre. Twenty-five years before, Assane's father was falsely accused of stealing the necklace from the Pellegrini clan, which ruined him and his family. Because of this, Assane goes on a quest for revenge. Like Money Heist, Lupin is a stylish European thriller with a flashback-heavy structure, unpredictable twists, and emotionally engrossing drama involving characters you quickly grow to love. And if you don't come out of this loving Sy, there might be something wrong with you.

White Lines

You might be thinking, if these people actually heisted all this money, where would they spend it? The answer is Ee-bee-thuh, or as we Americans know it, Ibiza, the Spanish getaway that's a haven for pasty British clubbers looking for sun and fun. Money Heist creator Álex Pina captured the same energy from his most famous show but transformed it into a murder mystery for this series that aired on Netflix between halves of Money Heist Season 2, and it's every bit as bingeable as Money Heist, but more picturesque. The setup is simple: Zoe (Laura Haddock) heads to Ibiza to investigate the mysterious death of her superstar DJ brother, Axel, 20 years after he died. The series is set across two timelines; one in the present which sees Zoe reconnect with her and Axel's old friends, many who still DJ and cling to fleeting fame while making cash on the side selling drugs, and one in the past when Axel was still alive and on top of the world, providing clues about what led to his demise. Though frequently dead serious, White Lines is also funny in that British partying film sense, with a killer soundtrack and outrageous shenanigans causing plenty of laughs and shock. Example? A dog does cocaine in the movie, and it's great. In fact, just about everyone and everything snorts the Devil's Dandruff in this. It ain't called White Lines for nothin'! -Tim Surette

More recommendations:

• The Best Shows to Watch Based on Shows You Already Love
• The Best Shows to Watch on Netflix Right Now
• The Best Murder Mysteries and Crime Dramas to Watch
  

Sky Rojo

Álex Pina clearly has a certain affinity for action, violence, and babes, and all three are plentiful in his 2021 series Sky Rojo, a zippy crime drama that quenches Pina's most pulpy thirsts. The three main characters are a trio of sex workers from a club in the Canary Islands who are on the run from their pimp after they decide they've had enough. It is absolutely outlandish, but it relishes in it, making it an easy watch, particularly for the eye candy of gorgeous people doing bad things to each other in an exotic locale. But Sky Rojo is also grounded by its three genuinely interesting leading ladies, who all seek some form of redemption and deserve freedom from the abuse they've endured. The adult content — a LOT of drug use, a LOT of sex — will keep it from being a mainstream hit like Money Heist, but as a cool, fun follow-up to Money Heist, it's the perfect chaser. A third season is in the works. -Tim Surette

Elite

Elite tells a different type of story than Money Heist — the Spanish drama is about three working-class friends who enroll in a luxe private school — but it has some soap and twists that will feel familiar to Money Heist fans, as well as some faces that will look familiar. An ideal mix of unhinged camp and actual high-stakes drama, the show centers around the inevitable culture clash between the less-privileged new kids and their exorbitantly wealthy classmates, but there's also a murder mystery woven throughout the plot. Like Money Heist, it filters real issues about money and class through a captivating dramatic lens. But the real connection between the shows is that they share three cast members: Jaime Lorente (Denver), Miguel Herrán (Rio), and María Pedraza (Alison). -Allison Picurro

Ozark

Netflix's hit crime drama is about illegal money laundering, not illegal money printing, but it shares a sense of relentless breathlessness with Money Heist. Ozark follows Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman), a penny-pinching money manager from Chicago who happens to be a Mexican drug cartel's top money launderer, as he uproots his family to Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks region and gets involved with the area's criminal underbelly. The experience is both addictive and necessary — once you get into this business, it's hard to get out alive — and he and his even more ruthless wife Wendy (Laura Linney) search endlessly for new ways to launder money and try to keep the ways they have going under constant pressure from the cartel, law enforcement, and local criminals. Like Money Heist, Ozark has many moments per season that make you jump out of your chair and scream "¡Madre mia!" 

Heist

Surely more than a few people started watching this similarly-titled Netflix series thinking it was Money Heist, only to turn off this docuseries when they realized it wasn't. If that's you, you should try turning it back on, because you might find that it's a fun little true crime caper that serves as a palate cleanser after Money Heist. After having your heart ripped out by fake people who commit a heist, why not watch some real people reminisce about the time they got a bit in over their heads? Heist came out in the summer of 2021, and consists of six episodes that tell the wild true stories of three big, quirky crimes – like a Kentucky bourbon-theft ring – told by the larger-than-life personalities involved, as well as through reenactments. None of these crooks are as brilliant as the Professor, but they're interesting characters. 

The Kill Point

In the mid-'00s there were a handful of short-lived heist TV series. One of them was FX's Thief, which was a very good limited series — Andre Braugher won an Emmy for his performance as the leader of the crew. It was the '00s heist show most like Money Heist, as it's very character-focused. Unfortunately, it's not available to stream anywhere at the moment. So the mid-'00s heist show we're recommending today is The Kill Point, which ran for one season in 2007 and is available to stream for free. It's about a team of Marine veterans led by Mr. Wolf (John Leguizamo) who rob a Pittsburgh bank but get trapped inside, which leads to them taking the bank's customers hostage. Crazy-named hostage negotiator Horst Cali (Donnie Wahlberg) is called in, and he and Mr. Wolf start a high-stakes battle of wits. The Kill Point is more macho than Money Heist — it aired on the now-defunct men's entertainment channel Spike, after all — but both shows' heists have a political agenda, great action, and edge-of-your-seat suspense. Plus, The Kill Point's supporting cast is stocked with ringers from The Wire — J.D. Williams, Leo Fitzpatrick, and the late, great Michael K. Williams.