The phenomenon of the "Paper House": how a Spanish TV series suddenly conquered the whole world

"Paper House" is a Spanish TV series that premiered in 2017. Why they suddenly started talking about it now and how it turned from a failed project into an international phenomenon, read our material.

"Paper House" (in Spanish La casa de papel) was created by two friends-screenwriters from Spain-Jesus Colmenar and Alex Pina. They first met in 2005 on the set of the TV series "Paco and his people". Since then, their fruitful cooperation has begun, which has resulted in several more projects. But the most memorable and successful, without a doubt, was the "Paper House".

Jesus Colmenar and Alex Pina

The series about the robberies was originally filmed for the Spanish channel Antena 3. By the time the "Paper House" was released on TV, its plot was not thought through to the end. The screenwriters caught fire with the idea of making a series in the heist-movie genre and decided not to postpone it for a long time, but to start working immediately.

The premiere of La casa de papel took place on May 2, 2017. Then the series gathered 4.5 million viewers from TV screens, but with each subsequent series (there were 15 of them in total), the ratings of the project fell rapidly. Things were going so badly that both the creators of the "Paper House" and the Antena 3 TV channel were disappointed in the project. As a result, very soon it was "turned off".

When the hope of success was lost, Netflix suddenly drew attention to the series. The studio was interested in the short-term, but still the success of "Paper House" in Spain, and she decided to buy the rights to its international screening. Who would have thought that the purchase of the series for $ 2 (yes, that's how much Netflix gave for the series) would turn out to be such a dizzying success!

In 2018, "Paper House" became the most viewed non-English-language TV series on the platform. In the same year, three of his characters-Tokyo, the Professor and Denver-were included in the top 20 most popular TV series characters according to a TV Time survey. Some time later, The New York Times included "Paper House" in the list of the best foreign TV series of 2018. But the most remarkable merit was the nomination in the category "Best Drama Series" at the International Emmy Award.

It is worth noting that after the purchase, Netflix made some adjustments to the original project of Colmenar and Pin. For example, instead of 15 episodes of 60-70 minutes, the series was "cut" into 22 episodes with a smaller and more convenient timing for viewing. The name has also changed: La casa de papel – "Paper House" in Spanish-was changed to Money Heist – "Robbery". The studio considered that the original title of the series may be incomprehensible for English-speaking viewers, and chose a clearer and more concise one.

At the same time, Netflix did not have high hopes for the project – the "Paper House" did not even have a marketing company. Nevertheless, the series was not only able to compete with other shows on the platform, but even broke ahead. Why? Let's figure it out.

Let's start with the fact that "Paper House" is one of the few TV projects in the heist – movie genre. It tells the story of two major robberies – the Spanish Royal Mint in Madrid and the Bank of Spain. Each episode is devoted to different stages of preparation for a robbery: gathering a team, making a plan, training, etc. You will not surprise the viewer with films of this format, but the series-robbery is something new!

Another reason for success is increased realism and the most extreme conditions for robbers. This is not the case when thieves under the guise of employees of some service enter the bank, take money and quietly leave. In the TV series "Paper House", the phrase "everything went smoothly"is not applicable. Here, bandits regularly face problems, and thanks to this, it is much more interesting to follow the plot. In addition, the screenwriters "kill" the main characters more mercilessly than the authors of "Game of Thrones".

Plus, an unpredictable plot! Of course, we will not retell it, so as not to spoil your expectations from viewing… But believe me, there will be many sharp turns-starting from the death of the main characters, ending with the love line between the bandit and the hostage.

The authors of the series believe that its success is due to the fatigue of viewers from English-language projects. Spanish films and TV series have always been on the margins, and therefore it is doubly interesting to see what they were able to surprise the whole world with so special.

When viewing, bright details are also remembered: the nicknames of the robbers, the same costumes and masks, soundtracks… For example, the song Bella ciao ("Goodbye, beauty"), which was sung several times by robbers, brought a revolutionary and protest spirit to the series. Once the song Bella ciao was the anthem of the Italian partisans, and the fact that the authors of the series so subtly played this historical moment, can not but rejoice.

Definitely worth it! The project has been recognized more than once as one of the main series of the year, and perhaps even decades. Of course, it will not be able to compete with" Game of Thrones"," House of Cards "or" American Horror Story", but it is important to keep in mind that these are series of completely different styles, and in its genre" Paper House " is definitely the best.

Have you already watched the series? Share your impressions.