For those of you that still haven’t caught up with the sulfur-tinged insanity of Alex de la Iglesia’s utterly bonkers 30 Coins, I have to say you’ve thus far missed a treat. The story of a small mountain town caught in the middle of a demonic conspiracy to obtain all thirty coins paid to Judas for his betrayal of Christ was an addictive rush of horror that displayed an exhilarating sense of drive and purpose that felt impressively new.
However, if I have to be viciously honest, when the season finale came and went, I felt somewhat let down as Iglesia left us with way more questions than answers despite the fact that rhe season was wrapping up. Well, I guess it’s time to bow down and give thanks to whatever deity you pray to, because HBO Europe mercifully bestowed 30 Coins with a second series in order to answer a clutch of those burning cliffhangers. But, can a show that started with a cow giving birth to a human baby and ended with its lead character apparently dead possibly recapture that gonzo energy after a year in limbo.
Have faith, my children…
Hitting the ground running like a good 30 Coins episode should, we once again witness the Cainites start fighting amongst one another as Cardinal Santoro’s titular 30 coins scattered all over the ground after Father Vergara made the ultimate sacrifice – but once the fighting has ended and the Cainites all leave Pedraza, we find that the witch-like necromancer (Remember her? She grew spike-like protuberances from her back?) is still alive. Grabbing Vergara’s body and performing a ritual which involves skinning her forearm and stuffing it in the priest’s mouth, our hero wakes up to find that he is unbelievably, undoubtedly and inevitably… in Hell.
Skip forward a year and while we eventually get roundt to catching up with the survivors of the hellish incident at Pedraza, first we’re introduced to true crime content creators Haruka and her cameraman arrive at the deserted town for their latest episode. But they’re not there long before weird shit starts to ocurr with a mysterious company named RNUK seemingly renovating the local castle in order to turn it into a hotel. Haruka’s investigation comes to a sudden end when her cameraman’s drone suddenly gets a life of it’s own and buries itself in his chest!
Elsewhere, Inspector Salcedo is trying not to become the scapegoat for the whole incident and is embarking on her own private investigation to get proof on what happened and her quest is mirrored by Laguna and Antonio, who are living in the base of a wind turbine to avoid detection and are trying to join up the frenzied dots.
Finally, we come to Paco and Elena, with the plucky veterinarian still in the coma she was placed in by Paco’s ex-wife, Merche, and while the former mayor of Pedraza lives in eternal hope that his love will awake, we know the far more sinister history – Elena’s consciousness is also in Hell, caged and being tormented by awesome looking demons. However, coming to her rescue (or at least trying to) is Vergara, who tackles these creatures one on one to free the hapless woman.
In case you’d forgotten, 30 Coins tends to cram a lot into every episode and it’s probably no surprise to find out that my brief synopsis is woefully inadequate to fill you in on everything that happens. However, somehow, in under an hour, Ghost Town manages to not only bring you up to speed on almost all the major players a year after Hell literally struck their humble town, but we get introduced to a fra new ones too.
While we don’t get too much insight yet into Paul Giamatti’s disgustingly wealthy Christian Barbrow, we do see him bidding an insane amount of money in order to gain possession of a large petroglyph that probably has portal opening, world ending abilities, butcasidecfrom the fact that the man trying to outbid him is none other than the demonic Angelo, this will undoubtedly become horribly relevant very soon.
The other new face is the goth-like content creator, Haruka, who, in the light of two out of our three main characters being stuck in fucking Hell, will be the person who will be asking the most questions. Before the episode is over, she’s stumbled on the strange practices of RNUK, gained entrance to the castle, got attacked by the witch with a giant bloosy scythe and managed to forge a union with Inspector Salcedo who also wants answers quick sharp. It’s a neat way to keep the story moving, especially when your original leads are… shall we say indisposed, and Najwa Nimri’s character is interesting enough to keep us hooked.
However, it’s the more familiar characters that we’re on the edge of our seat to spend more time with and the episode does an amazing job getting up up to speed. Firstly, the team of town simpleton Antonio and former Pedraza police chief Laguna is a pairing I never knew I needed as the desperate duo have gone full lone gunmen in order to unravel the supernatural conspiracy they witnessed and as for the rest of the population of Pedraza? Disturbingly, almost all of them are in psychiatric wards all across the country with Haruka and Salcedo visiting a fair few with genuinely creepy consequences.
However, what of our trio of leads? Well, while I would say that Vergara, Elena and Paco all have been to Hell and back, two of them are still there, and while the sidelining of all three of them should be the source of major annoyance, yet the episode is so strong, it can handle their absence. While Paco has been earning a blue collar wage and fawning over Elena as she continues to lay, unresponsive in a hospital bed, she’s been stuck in a budget busting hellscape complete with fiery lava, ornate citadel and some fucking amazing, Cenobite-like demons who torment them with metallic whips and yawning jaws filled with jagged teeth. If that couldn’t get any cooler, the similarly hellbound Vergara shows up and starts brawling with the spindly fuckers to try and save Elena.
While the episode ends before we see if he’s successful, it’s an incredibly rock and roll way to leave us hanging and it’s very 30 Coins.
So, after a season finale that felt disjointed and confused, 30 Coins launches into its second season with more vigour that a demon supercharged with virgin’s blood. At its best, it’s the horror gift that keeps on giving, and after a return that crams in all the conspiracy and monsters you could possibly want, we’ve still got an entire season to come yet!
Welcome to Hell – I think we’re going to like it here…
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