La Casa de Papel is one of the most successful Spanish series in recent years, it started as a television series, until Netflix bought it and catapulted it to international fame, debuted in 2017 and continues to triumph, it seems that La Casa de Papel It is here to stay, but what is the reason for its success?
It seems that anything other than English has many obstacles to its dissemination, but thanks to the Internet and new forms of distribution, we can approach productions from other countries that surely would never have reached us, so we can guarantee that much of the success of The Paper House is due to Netflix.
- However.
- A series does not succeed only by means of distribution.
- And must also contain ingredients that attract the viewer’s attention.
- The Paper House is the story of an assault.
- Not an ordinary assault.
- But a large-scale assault; they don’t steal from anyone.
- They steal the “biggest fish in the aquarium.
- “A series in which thieves who use code names and do not know each other will follow the commands of the brain of this difficult operation: “The Professor” All.
- With the exception of the professor.
- Will enter the Mint of Spain with the mission?Simple? To manufacture 2.
- 4 billion euros.
They have 11 days, hostages and everything is thought to the millimeter. From the outside, the master will give orders and negotiate with the police to save time. A claustrophobic series with its own identity, starring the festive music of Bella Ciao and the masks of Dalí (claiming its origin), which will not leave anyone indifferent.
Robin Hood stole from the rich to give to the poor. Hood lived outside the law, fought the sheriff (figure of power and oppression), was the hero of the poor. We see that a bandit doesn’t have to be a bad man, he can perfectly become a hero, a good man. There is a classic conception of the hero closely related to order; a hero who is framed by the rules and established as right in society.
Consider, for example, many medieval heroes, such as El Cid. The Cid was forbidden by King Afonso, suffered injustices and yet never rebelled, never confronted or attempted to invade his territory. Medieval heroes maintained their loyalty to a king, to a superior and powerful figure. Moreover, honor and loyalty were fundamental issues in the Middle Ages and also in the following centuries. Even now, a system considered good is established and anything outside of it will be “bad”.
Robin Hood is amazing and yet we think he’s good. Why? Because we see order as unjust, as an oppressive organ that promotes inequality. Robin Hood is a hero who probably won’t fit into the same archetype as El Cid, although they both have medieval roots. This rule-breaking hero has his own parameters of justice, and for Robin, evil and the oppressive figure are power and authority.
Challenging the rules proposes a fairer and more egalitarian society and therefore attracts the masses, that is exactly what we see in The Paper House, a group of thieves led by an unrivalled brain that, far from being considered villains, generates hope in society.
The barrier between hero and villain blurs every time the oppressor wields power, every time he suffocates the oppressed. What is the heart of contemporary life?Definitely and without thinking too much, the money. Thus, money is the center of regulation of our world, which determines whether we can live better or worse and what empowers oppressors.
Robin steals from those who have more to give to those who need him most; he’s a vigilante. Thieves won’t give those in need, but they’ll do what we all want: access the center of power and, from there, destroy it. Don’t literally destroy it, but by accessing it, they show that power. can also fail and be eluded.
In the series we see the influence of the media, how the news is manipulated and, also, how public opinion is in favor of thieves. These heroes of justice who act outside the law originate not only from Robin Hood, but also from romanticism. There is a romantic current that brings us marginal characters who refer to freedom.
We see an example of this in Espronceda, especially in his songs. Espronceda created characters that were projections of the self, of the romantic self; brings us characters like “The Caitiva”, “El Cosaco”, “El Verdugo” and, of course, The Pirate.
The pirate’s song assumes the exaltation of the absolute romantic hero, a pirate whose sole purpose is to live in freedom, an individual hero, just and generous, who rejects the values of the world and lives at sea because there is no law. In addition, he is a very recurring figure in European romanticism; authors such as Lord Byron included it in his poems.
This pirate who wants to live in freedom is a reflection of this fight against the established romantic hero, so much of the success of The Paper House is because we, as fictional viewers of the show’s current days, are ranging from these characters as heroes worthy of admiration, heroes fighting for their freedom.
In addition to the escape, what Casa de Papel offers is to doubt the establishment, it is no coincidence that Bella Ciao was chosen as the theme of the series, the music corresponds to the partisan music of the resistance against fascism in Italy, much has been said about whether the song became popular due to the series and, perhaps, partly , it’s true, but many people who sing it don’t know what it really means.
The truth is that thanks to the series and the media, the message seems, in some way, to be resurrected, that is, from a broad and powerful medium, it is possible to recover certain values of the past that seemed asleep. as with Vendetta’s Guy Fawkes V mask.
Moreover, even Dalí’s mask seems to have acquired, in part, a new meaning. This type of event fits very well into the format of the series, deepens society and generates a strong impact. In a world so controlled and dominated by money, sometimes we need to believe in heroes who save us, not heroes with coats and swords, but revolutionary heroes who invite us to reflect and resume the struggle for freedom.
The Paper House is a series that brings us just that, heroes of all kinds, some of dubious morals, but in the end, heroes. Sometimes the series sins in slowness and plots can be too misleading because of the sweltering weather it presents. However, we forgive him for giving us a corner of freedom.
What’s my boat? My treasure; what is my god Freedom; my law, the force of the wind; my only homeland, the sea?. -Spronceda