Round 6: 5 finance lessons from the new Netflix series

Netflix needs no introduction, right? The company, which has become a major powerhouse and opened doors for the wave of streaming services, is a hit-making machine. Have you watched round 6?

Original series such as Stranger Things, Dark, La Casa de Papel, The Crown, Bridgerton and The Queen's Gambit are just some examples of content that, in addition to winning awards, also won millions of fans around the world.

First of all, what is Round 6?

If you are someone who frequents social media – be it Instagram, Twitter or Facebook – you must have come across the commotion caused by the release of Squid Game.

The series, which is a South Korean production, was released on the 17th and, since then, has been a topic that has been making waves on social media.

With 9 episodes of about 1 hour each, the plot is as follows: highly in debt and desperate for money, 456 people receive a mysterious invitation to participate in a competition where the prize is 45.6 billion won - something around R$ 208 million.

What they don't know is that whoever loses the game doesn't make it out of the competition alive. This means that, in addition to fighting for the money, the participants also have to fight to survive this dispute and make it to the end.

After its release, the series quickly entered Netflix's list of popular content, even surpassing Sex Education, a British series that is one of the platform's flagships and whose third season was also released on September 17th.

This only helped to cement the newly launched series as a truly meteoric success.

Is anything worth it for money?

How far would you go for money?

This is perhaps one of the main questions that the series raises.

Money, which is the main motivation for all the characters in the plot, puts everyone in a position of questioning moral issues as the story unfolds, and makes us think about that old question: Do you control money or does money control you?

The importance of focusing on goals

As if the fear of not coming out of the competition alive wasn't enough, the cash prize is the tool used to encourage competitors to give their best.

After all, each participant has their own goals. This is a way of illustrating the importance of motivation. And it turns out that money is also the main motivation in our society.

It may seem a bit silly to compare the two situations, but in financial life, by setting a goal/target in a well-structured way, you are helping yourself to stay focused on achieving what you want so much.

For example: I want to save X amount of money to put down a deposit on an apartment or to achieve any other type of dream. To achieve this goal, I will need focus to stay motivated.

Additionally, I may need to give up some things and make some adjustments to my routine so that I can save up this amount even faster.

Of course, the motivation presented for them in the series is very different, but I think you get the idea, right?

The influence – and danger – of excessive consumption in our society

Basically, the series shows how greed and desperation can lead human beings to do unimaginable things.

Another theme that is highlighted as we learn more about the characters throughout the plot is the social inequality in which society is inserted.

After all, all participants are there in search of the cash prize that will change their lives forever, while there are investors behind it, moving this entire structure.

Beware of rampant debt

As stated at the beginning of the text, the participants of Round 6 are people in debt and desperately seeking money to solve their lives.

The protagonist is Seong Gi-Hun, played by actor Lee Jung-jae, a divorced man who lives on the outskirts of Seoul and who, as a gambler, is in debt with banks – and loan sharks – and needs an immediate solution to resolve his daughter's custody issues and help his mother have surgery.

Even though it is fiction and does not portray reality, debts – mainly with loans and other lines of credit – are constantly present in the lives of a large part of Brazilians and, if there is no correct approach to control them, they can become a real snowball.

Even though things never reach the point that the participants in the series face, excessive debt can also cause a series of conflicts and headaches in anyone's life.

Netflix's investment outside the US

While this isn't necessarily a lesson, it's something interesting to point out. It's very important to see a South Korean series be so successful on a global content platform.

This just shows the quality that exists in productions that are not produced by North Americans.

And Netflix is already aware of the importance of this cultural plurality when producing its content.

So much so that, nowadays, the number of productions originating from countries other than the United States is only growing – and the trend is for it to continue growing even more!

So, what did you think of the comparison we made? Are you interested in watching Round 6?

Did you like the content?

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