User Reviews

The first episode (more or less a sort of pilot episode since it's longer than the others) is captivating from the beginning and leaves the viewer longing for the next episode. Special mention has to go to Carmen Machi, doing great work in a difficult role that easily could have been over-played. Highly recommended!

It has been a long time since I have been intrigued by a mystery story hook. JJ Abrams has effectively killed the mystery genre by permeating the film culture with his Mystery Box storytelling. You know, the "What's happening? Let's run first! We'll find out later" approach. I dream of snatching Abrams' childhood mystery box that he's famously kept unopened from his TED talk, tear it open and flash him the toy so he can get over himself.

30 Coins, or 30 Monedas in Spanish, a new horror-thriller mystery show produced by HBO Europe, breaks that wheel.

The pilot episode, titled Cobwebs, begins with a paranormal phenomenon happening in the small town of Pedraza, Spain. Elena, the town vet, while giving birth to a pregnant cow on a farm, shockingly receives a human baby out of its womb.

News of the cow-birth spreads to the town mayor Paco, who wants to stop the story from trending on social media and seeks to investigate whether it is a hoax. Paco requests the help of the town priest, Padre Vergara, a trained exorcist with a criminal past.

Being a Spanish show, 30 Coins has elements of a telenovela. To an extent, the main characters are soap opera archetypes. You can practically guess who the main characters are solely based on their attractiveness.

Paco is the most attractive man to ever be a town mayor (I call him "Mayor Abs") and also has the time to magically run two side businesses with his wife Merche, who's unloving and constantly nagging him about money. Paco has an unspoken crush for Elena, the town vet ("Doctor Hottie"), who is constantly seeking him out to solve the paranormal phenomena over town. Will this forbidden love flourish?

The standout character is Padre Manuel Vergara, the badass priest with a troubled past. His characterization fits much more to the Westernized biblical concept of a hero, someone who needs to repent for past sins, most likely through self-sacrifice. Rocking a bald head, a chin curtain beard and muscled arms, Padre Vergara looks more like a soldier of fortune, ready to do battle. I'm anxious to see what happens.

Western viewers may find the telenovela aspects as something cheesy they have to swallow and get over. None of it bothers me. It's a matter of genre. The harlequin romance dynamic is shrewdly used as another way to hook the audience to watch the next episode. I really like how Álex de la Iglesia is combining these genre elements. It plays fresh to my eyes.

30 Coins hits the mark where it matters. While it is not intensely scary, Cobwebs constructs an effectively creepy mood and intrigue around its central mystery. The scares are sparse, but when they come, they are precisely executed and induce complete shock. My brain is riddled with questions. What is going on with these coins? What happened to Padre Vergara?

Cobwebs is a strong start in all the right places. I noticed that all eight episodes of the first season were directed by Álex de la Iglesia, which is uncommon practice in American television productions. It makes complete sense as the show can keep a consistent vision. To me, that shows a lot of promise.

The writers take their sweet time to properly unfold the story to the audience. From the storytelling sensibilities, you get a sense that the story is secure and unwilling to do anything to cheapen itself. The answers to the mystery will be revealed in a satisfying manner that is earned. I have lost that faith with mysteries. 30 Coins has the potential to restore that.

This show starts like Argentina When Evil Lurks having a great and unique premise. Then these characters are so dumb and make decisions so bad that a 4 year old child would make more intelligently or realistically. Why script these characters to act like fools? Is it a cultural thing? When the veterinarian sees the large baby dies she take a picture to show others? Nope. When she describes it to the mayor does she say it's a giant size baby? Nope. These adults are not behaving normally. They ignore things that cant be ignored and act secretively when nothing needs to be kept secret. This show couldve been so good.

A powerful beginning, between hoax and paranormal events, a large slice of religious qonotations and cocktail of horror and mistery. A coin , a veterinariam the priest and the mayor and bizarre form of motherhood. Short, great premises from a great director, using the Spain as frame in more than promising manner.

WOWIE! This is super fantastic. It is definitely off to an amazing start. The pace was brilliant. There is always something going on in every scene. Great acting, action, super weirdness from the beginning to the end of this episode. Looking forward to the rest of the series!

Great Job to everyone who put this masterpiece together!!!

The series is phenomenal, the director made such a good story, I watched all the episodes and I hope to be in the second season if it will be at all. Greetings from Serbia

30 Coins started off with a real bang with this crazy episode, which is awash with a very Italian, Catholic-horror sensibility, as a cow gives birth to a human baby and things just get weirder from their.

The outline of the series is neatly sketched out - muscly priest with secrets, young veterinarian with gumption, well-meaning but rather bland mayor and his shrewish wife who is I assume getting the short end of the narrative stick so the show can do something with the vet and the mayor.

The supernatural bad guys are after something the priest has - one of the dumb parts of the episode is everytime he says "what do you want" they say "YOU KNOW WHAT WE WANT" and yet it turns out he doesn't. But that's par for a series that based on what I've seen has a lot of stupidity on both sides.

I've seen the next few episodes and they're quite enjoyable, but not nearly as weird or action-packed as this one. But *this* episode is really pretty amazing.

First of all, the pilot episode is awesome. CGI is okaish but cinematography and the music is really good.. Problem is with the screenplay.. So many logic less scenes, I know it's horror genre but some scenes like characters behavior is so weird.. Example Elena character.. artificial acting... It makes me confuse that the actress who played Elena character, is she acting badly? Or that's how the character behaves ?....

Anyhow hope the upcoming episodes will be engaging one like this, ...