The Success of Money Heist from the US to Serbia
A small budget spanish show, La casa de Papel, was at the top of the netflix charts during quarantine resonating with people across the globe. The reason it resonated with so many people is because it touched upon financial hardships, anti-capitalism, and breaking the rules and boundaries of the system we all live in. In some ways, the show gives hope to people as it showcases our ability to go against the norm and create change. While it is clear why the American audience displayed such a strong love of the show, it is interesting to explore why it resonated with other countries such as Serbia. The creator Álex Pina takes advantage of the increasingly distrustful and at the same time conformist gaze of society towards the capitalist system and proposes robbers who still have the Robin Hood attraction.
The show follows an unusual group of eight criminals and petty thieves who have nothing to lose, led by the ninth, the brain of the operation, the so-called Professor who decides to rob the Royal Mint of Spain. The plan is for the robbery to last for several days and to injure almost no one. After the team of robbers breaks into the Royal Mint in broad daylight and find themselves locked inside with hostages, a real drama follows that is harder to unravel than the Gordian knot. This imperfectly perfect team of misfits captures the heart of the audience so much so that it makes you forget they are actually committing a crime. The audience is on the side of the so-called “bad guys” because, “These misfits might be brute, crooked, or just tacky at times, but deep down, everybody cares and has a prevailing emotional quotient.”
As pointed out by a famous Serbian newspaper, “We are obsessed with crimes and stories that contain robberies, kidnappings, robberies and heroic deeds”. The adrenaline and lively, energetic action that takes place in the series is dangerously reminiscent of reality scenes that have been aired on Serbian televisions for years. The concept is very familiar. The creators of the series introduce you to each character and their deepest, darkest, most unbearable life situation that you can see exclusively in reality — among people locked in a house whose behavior is filmed 24/7. Of course, this may be a matter of fiction, but when you realize that you have seen mostly everything and that nothing can surprise you, you yourself become a part of the life of those characters you watch. One begins putting themselves in the shoes of the characters, thinking about how they would act, whether they would be ashamed, whether they would have regret and whether the whole sacrifice has a price.
It is quite clear that the authors want the series to be different from everything else that is offered on streaming platforms, and this especially refers to the constellation of characters who can completely change the story at any moment and cross the path from heroes to villains and back in a second. This concept is quite similar to that of the reality shows watched in Serbia where their favorite person in the show is just one mess up away from becoming the least favorite. There is a certain appeal to watching complete strangers attempt to get by living in the same space, and in the show this is only amplified by the fact that these people just became the most wanted criminals in Spain who are in the middle of a heist. In describing the appeal of reality tv, Albertina Nelson-Holmquist, a writer in the Frankfurt magazine explains, “It is this specific combination of watching drama-filled catfights and following pulse-raising competitions which creates a rewarding and addictive sensation.” Money Heist offers just that and more. It gives us characters to be invested in and keeps us watching because we want to see them overcome adversity.
There is nothing that could capture people’s attention better than a show where the outsiders attack capitalism at its very source a decade after a financial crash. A global financial crash that hit the Serbian economy so severely that it is still recovering from it to this day. While the show has had excellent ratings since its inception, since the onset of the pandemic, numbers have risen significantly and no one expected the European series to achieve such success. The reason for the popularity probably lies in part in the anti-capitalist themes that probably found fertile ground in these uncertain times. In Serbia specifically, the show is like a spark of hope showing people that they can rise against the capitalist system and get out of the financial hardships they are in. As said by the creator of the show, Álex Pina, “Money Heist is rooted in Spanish literature’s great foundational text: “To rise up against the system is reckless and idealistic — it’s Don Quixote”. Namely, the translation of the original name of the series is House of Paper, and in addition to referring to money and the instability of such a house, it is also a metaphor referring to the falsity of a system and capitalist society run by banks without understanding the needs of the “little man”.
The same message is hidden by the masks and costumes of the robbers, which are a symbol of resistance, resentment and skepticism towards the system. Namely, in addition to red overalls, the robbers also wear the masks of the famous artist Salvador Dali, who created a large part of his works in the period of Dadaism, an artistic movement whose goal, among other things, was to reject modern capitalist society. The red color that predominates in the series is a symbol of love, death, but also resistance. After many revolutions around the world, red has become a symbol of new freedoms, and as reality mimics art, costumes from the show emerged during a protest in Puerto Rico where protesters demanded the resignation of Governor Ricardo Rossell last July. Another one of these symbols is in the music, which has a special kind of meaning in the show. The most striking song is Bella Ciao which runs through the entire series. Created during the Second World War, this song represents much more than easy-to-remember verses. Namely, this is a song of desire for freedom, and the fact that robbers wear red overalls and masks with Dali’s face, Bella Ciao represents the fight against injustice and a corrupt system. As pointed out by Sushrut Gopesh in his article, “Using that song made sure that the heist became something more magnanimous than what it was actually… It turned a bank robbery into a noble affair.” Through the use of these symbols of resistance throughout the show, the creators give the audience something tangible to directly connect themselves to the show and its message.
The show does a powerful job of spreading the message of what it means to be an outsider as it showcases the struggle of robbers — proletarians, against an unjust and corrupt system. While those times in Serbia seem to be long gone, there are many ways in which the audience can relate to being an outsider and as can be seen in how well the show has done in this region, Serbians very much relate to it. Although the plot of the series is not revolutionary, since robberies, crime, and love are not novelties in the world of television, what is indisputable is that the show contains masterfully and deeply elaborated characters and an extremely interesting plot, making Money Heist the ideal show for binging.
