What To Watch: Netflix’s ‘Billionaires’ Bunker’ could have been better

2026-03-06 - 06:03

Happenstance the big picture premise of the Netflix series Billionaires Bunker could not be more relevant right now, given the global geopolitical mess that the world is in. It’s the brand-new show from Money Heist creators Alex Pina and Esther Martinez Lobato, and from the opening scenes in the programme, there’s a lot of promise for the next seven episodes. But, just like politicians the world over, Billionaire’s Bunker promises much more than it ultimately delivers. It tries to be the wild ride that Money Heist gave audiences, but unlike its stablemate predecessor, the series drags its feet through at least a third of the storyline. Producers should learn that pensive, dramatic moments and sex scenes can only carry dead time across the line for a limited number of instances. Most expensive Spanish show in history Billionaire’s Bunker, according to reports, is the most expensive Spanish television production in history. Watch it, and you will see why. The sets are lavish, costuming Star Trek-like and the cast is massive.= The show opens with escalating geopolitical tensions and a group of ultra-wealthy clients being escorted into a luxury survival complex called Kimera Underground Park. The facility lies roughly 300 metres beneath the Earth’s surface, underneath a lake, and is designed to be the ultimate insurance policy for the global elite. Each family has paid around 50 million dollars for a place in the bunker for the privilege of surviving Armageddon. A precautionary bunker-down is called when tensions escalate to an all-out war in Europe, and clients are summoned to the bunker. They are assured that their stay would be brief, but then all-out nuclear war breaks out and, according to news reports played down below, civilisation has been erased. They were now likely the only survivors. Well, that’s what everyone was led to believe. But at the end of the first episode, the twist is revealed. The nuclear holocaust was a fabrication as part of an elaborate scam by Minerva, the director of Kimera, the company that created the shelter. Watch the trailer The bunker’s residents remain sealed underground, convinced they are among the last humans alive, while the truth slowly begins to surface. From that point, the series flips from disaster drama to something far more cynical. The bunker becomes a strange social laboratory filled with billionaires and centimillionaires who have spent their lives insulated from consequence. Cut off from the outside world and from reliable information, their carefully curated realities begin to crack. It becomes a story of survival, and a social commentary about the bubbles that the rich and untouchables live in. ALSO READ: What to watch: ‘Born to be Wild’ will steal your heart The hero of the show, Max, is the son of one of the billionaires, fresh out of prison. He was locked up for manslaughter after his girlfriend was killed during a drunken joyride that ended in disaster. His parents, grandmother, the parents of his deceased ex and her sister count amongst the residents. It’s the first layer of tension that carries through the series as relationships and the irresistible promiscuity of the ultra-rich are served up. Irresistible promiscuity of the rich Meanwhile, as birdsong and sunshine continued in the real world, Minerva uses AI and cloning to empty the coffers of one of the residents in the bunker. Max discovers that everyone in the bunker is always being watched and listened to, and an Orwellian underground social construct begins to take shape, with a rebellious plot to seek freedom, enjoying runtime from around episode four. Bunker mastermind Minerva. Picture: Supplied All in all, the plot is fantastic, the scam is elaborately and exceptionally clever, the sets, well, everything, including the dubbing into English, is superb. But the show falls short on delivery, and, as noted, it drags its feel lazily across much of the sum of its parts. Billionaire’s Bunker is a concept thriller that could have been much more than what it becomes. By example, seduction scenes in some parts feel superfluous and meaningless to the greater direction of the plot; it almost feels as if Pina tried to build too much into the show but instead left loose ends that never connect fully. Watching the series is like running with loose shoelaces; there’s a stumble every now and then that lets you take a bathroom break without pausing. But it’s distracting and negates the potential brilliance that the show could have achieved, like Money Heist did. NOW READ: Airports and the things we forget when we fly