‘The 8 Show’ Review: ‘Squid Game,’ This Is Not

If there is something that we have learned in the past few years from productions such as Parasite and Squid Game, it’s that South Korea sure has a lot to say about capitalism in its current state. From whopping class disparities to the humiliating lengths to which people have to go in order to have enough money to just live a decent life, these productions tackle the agony of the system in its late state with courage and intelligence. Now, this canon receives the addition of a new South Korean project that is all about pointing out the crassest aspects of inequality, labor exploitation, and just plain poverty. Based on the webtoons Money Game and Pie Game, by Bae Jin-soo, Netflix’s The 8 Show is a dark comedy that sees eight complete strangers locked up in an unknown location where they have to compete in a progressively more extreme game in order to leave with the biggest amount of money possible.

From the get-go, it is impossible not to look at this synopsis and be reminded of Squid Game, the death game series that took Netflix by storm in 2021 and is set to get a second season in 2024. However, though the comparison remains inevitable throughout the entirety of the show’s eight episodes, The 8 Show does manage to set itself apart. For starters, the rules of the game are different: instead of a sponsored bloodbath, the contestants find themselves having to earn more and more time in the “arena” so that each can leave with a larger sum of money. The basic scenario is a lot more similar to a reality show like Big Brother than to a playground version of the Hunger Games. Then, there’s how both shows treat their characters and their plots. By opting for a smaller cast and a more comedic tone, The 8 Show avoids being too similar to its predecessor, instead becoming something totally different.

‘The 8 Show’ Doesn’t Know Who Its Audience Is

Sadly, despite showing a lot of promise in its first few minutes, The 8 Show quickly loses its footing, particularly because of its often misplaced humor and the way it treats its ensemble. Poop jokes abound even as the show starts to get darker, and as physical and psychological torture becomes the norm inside the bizarre apartment complex in which our heroes and villains live, we are left to wonder who this series was made for. The comedy seems like something out of Nickelodeon in the early 2000s, albeit with some spicier undertones, but the rest of the action looks like a tamer version of the Saw franchise. Surely, there must be an audience for this specific mash-up of elements, but we’re not sure who that audience is.

Then there’s the ensemble cast, whose characters are known only by their apartment numbers. First Floor (Bae Seong-woo) is a circus performer with a limp and a heart of gold, while Second Floor (Lee Joo-young) is a hardened woman with a strict morality code. Fourth Floor (Lee Yul-em) is the wide-eyed, innocent girl next door, Fifth Floor (Moon Jeong-hee) is an older woman who just wants everyone to get along, Sixth Floor (Park Hae-joon) is a brutish man with no morals, Seventh Floor (Park Jung-min), a mysterious intellectual, and, finally, Eighth Floor (Chun Woo-hee) is a flaky woman that uses her sexuality as a weapon and might not be as dim as she first appears to be. If these descriptions make the characters sound a bit one-dimensional, that’s because they are. We’re not going to tell you who the bad guys are, but let’s just say that you can guess it from the moment they pop up on-screen. Very little time is devoted to exploring these characters in their complexities, and, as a result, it doesn’t seem like we’re watching real people fighting for their lives on screen, but merely walking, talking stereotypes.

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You may have noticed that we have not mentioned Third Floor (Ryu Jun-yeol) yet. Though the cast functions mostly as an ensemble, Third Floor is The 8 Show‘s de facto protagonist. He’s the one whose life story eventually takes us into the game, as well as the one whose thoughts we hear in the form of voice-overs. Essentially, he serves as our guide to the world of The 8 Show. The problem is that he’s not a very interesting guide. A blank slate upon which we are supposed to project ourselves, Third Floor has virtually no personality, which ends up making him a very boring protagonist. Far from insightful, his narration is more often than not redundant, explaining to us things that we have already realized on our own.

‘The 8 Show’ Doesn’t Know What to Do With Its Resources

In a series with so much math involved, in which time is money in the most literal of senses, we sometimes need an explanation regarding what additions and subtractions are going through everyone’s brains. However, we really don’t need a voice telling us that the characters are being exploited when we can plainly see with our own eyes that they are. That’s just a symptom of a larger problem with The 8 Show. The series uses a lot of stylistic resources to make itself more interesting and appealing, but it doesn’t know how to wield them. In the first episode, there are inexplicable silent movie title cards all around indicating the passage of time and whatnot. These title cards completely disappear in the following episodes, coming back only in the finale.

There are instances, of course, in which these stylistic elements result in something interesting — like the aspect ratio change when the characters enter their new home, indicating a widening of their perspective just as their universe is being narrowed down. However, most of the time, they are nearly as pointless as the violence that we are forced to witness. If you’ve already seen the trailer for The 8 Show, you know that things are about to get pretty intense, no matter how peaceful the first episode might be. And, for a moment, the violence makes sense, saying something and shocking us. However, after some time, it just feels repetitive and devoid of meaning. Perhaps this is the point. One can argue that violence is always meaningless and that we have grown so accustomed to it that it does nothing but bore us. Still, it doesn’t feel like The 8 Show has anything to say through its increasingly dehumanizing dynamics. Instead, it feels like it’s indulging in misery porn.

‘The 8 Show’ Is Strongest When It Looks Like a Real Reality Show

The problem, here, is that there is a secret audience watching the game that is taking place on The 8 Show, an audience that determines how much time the contestants will have to spend in that place. The cycle of violence into which they eventually fall is a result of this audience wanting more and more entertainment from them. Violence and humiliation, The 8 Show tells us, in a somewhat shallow critique of reality TV and influencer culture, equals entertainment. But if we, on this side of the Netflix screen, are not entertained, why are the unseen viewers in the story? The 8 Show is pointing at something it doesn’t know how to properly criticize. Instead of making the gradual move from regular reality show dynamics to something more disturbing, forcing its viewers to delight themselves in the degradation of its characters without realizing it, the series makes a sudden shift from normalcy into a bloodbath that is bound to immediately make you uncomfortable.

The larger question becomes: why on Earth are we watching this? Why on Earth would anybody watch this? It’s hard to understand, except for the few moments in which The 8 Show does resemble an actual reality show. When the characters have to band together to vote for who will be responsible for the trash, something goes on that is fascinating to watch: we get to see their personalities working with and against one another, and that right there is what makes people fall in love with influencers and reality show contestants. We feel as if we know them, as if they are our friends or our enemies. We don’t just want to see them humiliate themselves or others, we want their stories. That connection is pretty hard to come by in a show that, for most of its run, doesn’t even bother to name its characters.

The 8 Show (2024)

Netflix’s The 8 Show might garner comparisons to Squid Game, but the new series struggles with underdeveloped characters and disjointed humor.

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Pros

• Despite superficial similarities, the show manages to set itself apart from Squid Game, creating something completely different.
• The 8 Show soars highest when it resembles a real reality show.

Cons

• The violence often feels pointless and a bit like misery porn.
• The characters are underdeveloped and the action is predictable.
• The series’ childish humor does more harm than good.

All episodes of The 8 Show are available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix