Stream It Or Skip It?

Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato created the Netflix hit Money Heist, so they have a good handle on creating shows with outlandish, high-concept premises that are very complicated. But in their latest series, they throw in a twist at the end of the first episode that makes viewers question everything they just saw. But we’re not sure how sustainable the premise is after seeing that twist.

Opening Shot: A boy draws while sitting at a table during a birthday party; he looks across and sees a girl that will become the love of his life.

The Gist: The boy is Max (Pau Simón) and the girl is Ane (Monica Mara). Eventually, they would fall in love as teenagers, but their romance came to a tragic end when the two of them got in an auto accident when they were 19; Max was at the wheel and was impaired at the time. He ended up going to prison for vehicular homicide; at first he used his family’s extensive resources to keep his fellow inmates at bay but eventually learned to fight and view his days in prison with a more positive outlook.

Three years into his sentence, he’s suddenly released, and met outside by his father Rafa (Carlos Santos). At the moment, the global situation is in a tenuous state, and a nuclear escalation might actually happen. But Max’s family and other wealthy families in Spain have bought into a luxury underground bunker called Kimera Underground Park, run by a mysterious woman named Minerva (Miren Ibarguren). At first he’s reluctant, but ends up going when he hears that Ane’s family will also be there.

In the bunker, all the residents wear blue jumpsuits and have their vitals monitored at all times; video screens show the news going on above their heads. Max meets Ane’s father Guillermo (Joaquín Furriel) and sister Asia (Alícia Falcó) and sincerely apologizes for his role in the accident. While it seems that Guillermo is willing to reconcile, Asia isn’t. But, when Guillermo is in private with his new wife Mimi (Agustina Bisio) — Ane’s mother died a few months after she did — he expresses how angry he is that he has to coexist with Max for however long they’re there.

As things escalate on the surface, the bunker starts to rupture; all of the residents scramble to the “dome,” the safest spot in the complex. On screens, they see that the world they once knew is being destroyed, which is emphasized when Minerva sends two workers outside to reattach the satellite dishes that communicate with the outside world; the billionaires see a desolate and dangerous environment.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Billionaires’ Bunker, created by Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato (Money Heist), seems to be a combination of Lost, Paradise and Silo.

Our Take: The ending of the first episode of Billionaires’ Bunker gave us pause. As Minerva was leaving the scared one-percenters to address her crew, we had a feeling something was up, so we were only mildly surprised at the episode’s twist. But that twist brings up a whole lot of questions that we’re not sure we’re going to get satisfactory answers to. Spoilers below.

It seems that Kimera Underground Park is an experiment. But just how much of what convinced these wealthy families to go into the bunker is fake? Did Minerva use the threat of nuclear conflagration to lure these families underground? It feels like she couldn’t possibly fake the news that the families saw when they were above ground. But she certainly could make things seem worse than they really are once she has them all trapped below. And what’s the purpose of the experiment? Just to show these wealthy families chafe at having to serve themselves food and live with other families that they’ll grow to hate?

From a storytelling perspective, we’re not sure why Pina and Martinez Lobato would reveal such a twist so early. We could see the billionaires — especially Max and Guillermo — be at each other’s throats for a few episodes before we found out this whole thing was a hoax. The entire series seems to be about things not being what they seem, like when Rafa details what happened right after the accident or when Max’s mom Frida (Natalia Verbeke) bitterly rebukes her domineering mother Victoria (Montse Guallar). They obviously have their reasons for the early reveal, but it seems to complicate what will end up being a complex story even if we didn’t have the twist.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: We see what things really look like on the surface.

Sleeper Star: Montse Guallar’s character Victoria is dying of cancer and pretty much looks down on everything and everyone, including her daughter Frida and son-in-law Rafa.

Most Pilot-y Line: Guillermo, in a moment of anger, says to Mimi, “Why do you think you’re my wife? You were my mistress. Then my wife died. Then I married you.” Could he be any more cruel?

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re not sure if the high-concept premise of Billionaires’ Bunker will play out in a way that makes sense. But there’s enough good stuff in the first episode that we’ll keep watching for a bit to see if that happens.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.