The 8 Show (2024)

Society in 8 episodes

Note: the rewatch value is only low because i dont rewatch this type of shows.

I have enjoyed every second of this show. True it is a mash up of the platform and squid game , so maybe i m being subjective by saying this show was better because , this exact cast hit the nail perfectly for me.

In a very detailed manner, this show depicts life as we know it.

From the moment we r born, our life is partially dictated by our social class, An important factor that gets assigned to each one of us randomly.

Just like the characters picked the cards with no pre notice of the consequences, that absurdity and randomness of that moment is really what we all share in life. A moment that is familiar to all of us. A moment we have no control over, even though they made the choice themselves, we can hardly pin the responsibility of that choice on them. If you believe in luck , then that just might b the answer to this controversy.

Life starts off by randomness and absurdity. Like a cards game, the cards are dealt by chance, what you do with the cards later on is up to you. But if we r being honest , what can you even do when u r dealt a losing hand, just like the 1st floor man. He had his hopes up , just like all poor people, dreaming of climbing the social ladder, and changing their fate.He was dupped by the organizers , and thought that he could change rooms if he had 1 billion. Just like how the bottom class in society is sold fake dreams of going from rags to riches if only they work hard, if only they save up a certain amount of money. Only to find out , their dream is not really attainable. The 1st floor man walking on a tight rope -literaly- was a beautiful metaphorical image of how poor people struggle between life and death , in their journey to the top of the pyramids. The way he kept jumping only to fall in a fiery pit -literaly- and burn away to his death, was a devastating image of desperation.

I find the 3rd floor man the most intriguing one, i assume he reflects the common man in its most common aspect. During the talent show, he had no talent to show, he s not the smartest compared to the 7th floor man , he s not the strongest compared to the 6th floor man . He s not the most candid as the 5th floor woman , he s not the most sly like the 4th floor woman, he s not the bravest like the 2nd floor woman and he s not the cruelest like the 8th floor woman. If he was a drawing , he would be the stickman. easy to draw , with nothing to catch the eye. Simply trying to fit in within the crowd , his strategy was based off not attracting attention, to stay invisible. And i think it s brillant how he was the one to destroy the cameras. By doing so , he stayed true to his motto, to stay invisible.

Throughout the show we see the different ways people within a society organize themselves. They displayed many political regimes and economical currents.
Capitalism: each room had a different income , and the whole concept of the game "time is money" , the consumerism displayed by 8th floor woman ...
Socialism : sharing the work load when they climbed the stairs aswell as sharing the food..
Democracy: voting and sharing ideas as a whole community...
Totalitarianism / dictatorship: When the elite was making all the decisions , while the rest were merely suffering the consequences....

And plenty other concepts were referred to, like slavery, weapon acquisition , technocracy and others... A theme that was most memorable to me , is when the 8th floor woman bought the CCTV tapes of the other players. Just like the elites in our modern society gather data of us , track us, and have us under a microscope through social media, street cameras and satellites ...

The 8th floor woman was the perfect illustration of the rich category. The best part was when she started painting people s pain and then quickly moved on and bought a cute dog. As you may know, the high class people take interest in stupid paintings , spending fortunes of a couple of splashes of paint, pretending that they have deeper meanings, and possibly reflect someone s suffering. They love to run donation parties to help the poor, pretending to sympathize and care, but at the end of the night they all go back to their high towers, to their spoiled cute little pets who get groomed and fed 10 times the salary of the lower class man.

Now, since the game was a show meant to entertain, who r these people that are being entertained? and what were the acts that entertained them the most ?
I dont have an exact answer for the first question, that should be left to
everyone s interpretation.My theory was that the audience were the gods, because when the 1st floor man was floating in the sky, it seemed like he was ascending to the heavens. But this theory seems so far fetched since i can confidently say , the audience was entertained by the most immoral and heinous acts like sex and torture. Which doesnt align much with what
gods represent.

In conclusion, there are alot of things to analyze in this show, many human traits to study, and so much of the human's tragic comedy to think about.

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Waited for so long and… IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT !

I BINGE WATCHED IT (IN 3 DAYS) AND WOULD TOTALLY RECOMMEND IT !
I already knew the series before even knowing it because I’ve read the webtoons from which it was adapted (money game and pie game by bae jin soo and both available on the WEBTOON app if y’all want !). I’ve waited for so long for that series to be released and two days ago, on the first day I started watching and immediately recognized the essence of these WEBTOONs : I clicked when I saw the money counters in the rooms.
But in this review I won’t deal with whether it’s a loyal adaptation or not !

I love the concept of showing us rough yet realistic things using this series because eventhough everyone knows a group of people can’t stay still for a long period of time especially when money is involved, writers found a way to make it entertaining AND realistic. They showcased how people would grow greedy and the toughests will ended ruling and that’s what the show demonstrated ! We saw gradually, as each episode went by, the downfall of the serenity, the downfall of each character !

(Btw I loved how each episode -the intro and the first minutes- was always dedicated to one character, to getting to know them better, their lore).

The fact that the levels of the flats and the space of which each person disposed of was a reflect of society is even more deep in my opinion.

The characters winning time from being progressively violent to each other (they quickly went from the ´cute ´ version of the king game to tasering each other then hitting each other with bats…) was also accurate considering humans under pressure and with the illusion of gaining money would do anything.

Also, don’t get fooled by the synopsis that might make you think of squid game ! I’ve watched both and they have nothing in common except them showing humans being greedy, being guided by their will of money, to escape their debts !

Besides, I might sound weird or psycho but a few parts in the show really made me smile or giggle out of nowhere 😭

Before I break down why I did like or not each character, I would like to say the intro and especially the song used is such a good idea. And that part where it speeds up is genuinely addicting, I don’t know why !

The acting/ the cast : I loved them all. Every one did such a good job, for example floor 1´s actor playing the pitiful character, floor’s 7 playing the intelligent one and helper to turn his back afterwards or even floor’s 8, who really embodies the apparently naive yet very controlling and manipulative character ! I also saw people boycotting ryu Jun yeol because of what’s going on with Han so hee and tbh I still don’t get the goal of this (I don’t support him dating shortly after breaking up especially if it’s to date Han so hee tho) but I respect your choices .

The characters :
- Floor 1 : I don’t know why but I adore him so much and from the beginning ! He is so sweet and caring but he also knows why and how to step up for himself ! I was gladly surprised by his performance during the talent show lol ! 😭
He is so talented as a clown and mime ! May he rest in peace because even when he lost it, he stayed human in a way !
I loved him so much 😭❤️.

- Floor 2 : That woman is so badass and doesn’t let someone else decide for her (ex : before the vote for to decide about who will get to keep in their room everyone’s feces). Maybe once or twice she would lightly lowers under the pressure but she always knows how to bounce back.

- Floor 3 : He seems rather realistic and by that I mean he always let what others will think of him and how he might looks like to them rule how he acts (ex : when he helped floor 1 during the days they had to go up and down the stairs to gain time or even when they had to write down the amount of pieces they want and the only condition was them receiving the amount they were willing for if the addition of what everyone wrote made the number they would have to partake from the beginning. Another example would be him choosing to get tasered to not look like a depraved or even him refusing floor 8´s favors for the same reason).

- Floor 4 : I hate that woman so much I swear ! Her trying to sound ´cute ´ with this voice really pisses me off to be fair… As well as floor 8. It feels too unnatural to me.
Then her character in itself is so much self-centered ! She acts like a clueless and naive character but when the leaders stand out she would willingly follow them and harass the others ugh.
- Floor 5 : I don’t know what to think of this woman to be honest lol. She felt like if we had to choose a not-so-well-written character, it would have been her but she was cute among all those people. It was funny seeing her always hitting at not being bothering doing spicy things etc..
She might looks stupid, naive etc… but she’s actually the most human among them ! And her avenge against floor 6 was so good !

- Floor 6 : This man is so exhausting. He is one of the reasons of why everything went downhill… He thinks with his d!ck and his knuckles to put it down mildly… I really hate him. BUT at least he paid tribute to floor 1 by sending flowers and not coming to his funeral after all he did to him !

- Floor 7 : I had faith in him is all I can say… BUT he still is my favorite character because even when we thought he would continue betraying he would end up helping. Overall he was a really good character, loyal even when he was threatened with a gun by floor 6 for example. The only time he deceived me was a moment of weakness compared to other characters (esp 6,4,8 that will always be the real villains to me !).
- Floor 8 : Even if I hate this woman I have to admit SHE is the QUEEN here. She controls everything eventhough she might seems naive and stupid at first sight (what the actress really embodied !) !
For example, when she got them changing the politics after they voted her off to be the one keeping everyone’s trash and then she punished them and got them waiting for food and water for days. Or even escaping the taser’s sentence and then with the help of inferior floors (7,6 and 4), taking the lead other the others.

I loved her duality despite her being a really despicable person in herself. Maybe the system of winning money being different (the sound of money won per minute being different from a floor to another) etc… but once again the series reflects society and it’s difficulty !

The 8 that is a number really present in the series even in the title is really symbolic to me. It is showed as the number of the power (floor 8 is in a way the powerful one here) but also symbolizes how this game is made for no one to get out. They are stuck in for infinity (if you turn the 8 to the side it looks like the infinity sign ♾️) since there will always be someone who will want to stay in due to their greed (like floor 1 did and really disappointed me on this eventhough I always had the feeling he was the one who did these horrible things to elongate the time they will have to stay in). There will always be also the powerful one deciding and stopping everyone to get out just for their interests as floor 8 did. I was genuinely scared and horrified by how far she went for her own pleasure (depriving many from sleep and forcing floor 5 and 4 to heal everyone and keeping them ´enough ´ alive to keep the game going on)….

At ep 6, I remember how I was so glad floor 2 said louder what I always thought of, leaving since everything was for once going on good but then floor 1 destroyed everything for what ??? Changing room. My jaw dropped at him explaining why he always wanted those 1 billion just to change room 😬.

I loved their revolution otherwise because the whole time (approx. 160 hrs) by themselves without those toxic leaders, they were genuinely enjoying each other’s company and living life ! I was so relieved at first when they were 10 hrs from the liberation but guess what 😭💀.

Btw something doesn’t click : weren’t they not supposed to not be out of their rooms from midnight to 8 in the morning ?? because at the end (from ep5/6 to the end) they kept doing that 😭.

Watching the show made me feel like those psychos that were watching from behind the cameras. Idk the way it’s filmed, the POV we had in each single of those episodes made me feel that way.

The end got me so emotional and everything ended ´well ´ in a way. May Floor 1 rest in peace !
Would have liked to see floor 7 at the funeral but he did something really important on his side as well !

To sum up, my faves were floor 1,2,3,5 and 7 !
The question is why didn’t they buy something after the two first months they decided to stay ? They could have used the amount of time the creators kept adding so that at one point the time would have came to 0 yk…

I know I wrote so much. If someone has read that much then congrats lol !

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A doable weekend sitting binge if you like survival shows.

If you like survival shows then you might enjoy this. It felt predictable and I definitely went in expecting this to be no different than Squid Game. The story doesn't really have a takeaway for the audience. I guess it doesn't need one since this theme of human greed and flaws is repeated in every survival show. I think the characters are pretty interesting to watch and what made me want to get through it. In reading the comments, everyone seems to have connected with a different character for different reasons which might make the show feel relatable to viewers. I thought the game rules were solid for the most part and easy to remember. It's not rewatchable though. I don't think survival shows have a lot of rewatch value unless there's a second season, then you'd rewatch to remember. It is bingeable if that's what you're in the mood for.

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They took everything that made the webtoon a masterpiece, and threw it away.

Great casting, based on a very good story, this drama had everything to become one of the best... but no.

The beginning was ok, but it started to get very messy in the middle. What made the story good was the fact that human beings are very weak in front of money, and they can do ANYTHING to gain more. There is no specific bad or good guy, only desperate people wanting to get rich. And that's what the show is missing. Here, they strictly threw the line between the good ones and the bad ones. They got rid of the biggest plot twist ever which made the main point of the story (won't spoil it to ppl who want to read the webtoon after watching the show). It's supposed to be a very complicated and psychological story, and I think that the show is not showing that AT ALL.

Biggest disappointment of the year so far.

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A thriller done right.

This series for me was that sweet snack you need, not too short but needlessly to say not too long either.

The cinematography from the very beginning is good and OST fitting, i didn't think much for the series as i began watching last week but i was subdued within a few epiodes and it crept up on me when i wasn't watching. The conclusion was good, in terms of how you'd like a short series to end. I'm a sucker for the Thriller, Mystery, Psychological tropes and genres and ofcourse this ended up being right up my alley. I can't stress enough how well the actors did their jobs right, and while the plot had its basis one can never know until you see it for yourself. The human psyche and what us humans can really do to one another for money is truly disturbing, and the show portrays is throughout the whole show- it felt as each step of greed and envy from every character, well more specifically the upper floors is what laid the groundwork for this series to eat my thoughts up. The little detail of not sharing their in show names to each other was really cool too, it added a layer of mystery and reality to it.

Floor 2 (Joo Young) was my favorite, she held her own, took beatings but from start to finish she shows true growth aswell as strenght. Our Main character (Floor 3, Jun Yeol) can be described as stupid and overcaring which to say aren't bad traits to have, but in this kind of environment it can lead to a bit of too many predictful choices that (me) the audience can see coming an episode ahead. Floor 7 and 8 are most despicable (but well done) characters and i won't write too much about them. Floor 6(Jeong Min)... Oh if only you were the main character but i understood that the series would have finished within 4 episodes if he was.

Giving this a 9.5 can for the right audience make sense and to others a headscratcher, for me personally it was great! The rewatch value is there too but i wouldn't hold it too high.

If you're looking for a short but exciting Thriller, you're at the right place.

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The most frustrating shit you will ever watch

Honestly I don’t even wanna review this. This was beyond frustrating, not even a moment of satisfaction in here. Granted I liked the first few episodes, even when things got ugly. But the amount of times things happened where I just wanted to scream…Not one likable character in there.

Reminded me of squid game but a clear replica of it. It isn’t bad but it pissed me off more than anything, and I hate Ryu Cheol so he was an eye sore throughout the show. Continued just out of curiosity and Chun Woohee my babygirl.

Everything else? Yeah. Nah. This was just pure rage show. Pissed me off so much that I disliked it. I didn’t even know it was possible to piss me off this much. Smh.

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This comment section is a mess, because the people who didn’t like it seem to REALLY hate it and believe that everyone else absolutely HAS TO hate it too, so here I am giving my very first review here. Let’s start with what I didn’t like. I wasn’t invested in the characters, so I wish that we got to know a bit more about their past, like we did with Nummber 3, so I could be emotional about how much the game and need for money affected them (for better or worse). Another thing I disliked was the music choice. It’s difficult to be emotionally invested in someones fate, when there’s a comical, uplifiting music playing in the background, even as someone’s being brutally toruted. I get that it was a "creative choice", it just didn’t work for me. I thought the descent into violence was a bit abrupt. Realistically, they could’ve sticked to the "mildly sexual stuff" a bit longer, but it was a short drama, so it makes sense. I also didn’t like the overall vibe of the last episode. It was an odd mix between comedy and brutality and I no longer felt like I knew any of the characters or their motivations.

However, there were many things I liked. I liked the concept and the metaphor. I can see people think they’re both overused. But "people playing violent games for money" is a concept as old as time. Before Squid Game and Alice, we had Hunger Games. Before that, we had Battle Royale. Before that, we had Stephen Kings Long Walk and Running Man. It still works for me, so no complaints. I think The 8 Show potrayed capitalism and social inequality MUCH better than Squid Game did. It wasn’t just the villains vs the poor. We got to seee both sides. We got to see morally grey characters. Each floor was clearly representing SOMETHING and it showed some truths. Politicians (7) aren’t the highest. The rich are (8). Politicians need the rich to actually do anything. Both need brutality, police and soldiers (6) to really have some power. They need their brainwashed, spineless pawns (4) and they need the lower class to make them money. While the poor work the hardest, only to barely get by and no matter how united they are, it’s nearly impossible to change it. It was depressing to watch, but VERY accurate, that’s what made this show stand out to me. I didn’t mind the gore, it made sense for the story. It was supposed to make you uncomfortable and it did (alhtough I could do without the sleep deprevation thing, because that was way too dark and seemed out of place, only for everyone to just immediately snap out of it later). The actors were all great. The set looked amazing. And I wasn’t disappointed by the ending.

Overall, it wasn’t perfect, but people giving it 1/10 or saying it’s the worst K-drama ever are being way too dramatic. I could understand not liking the gore, but that’s no reason to say it was trash that had nothing to offer, when it clearly isn’t the case. I think 7 is a perfectly accurate rating.

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ummm well

I just finished this show and I have some things to say.
I found the beginning of the series intriguing and it managed to catch my attention, however, as the series progressed I felt that I lost connection with the story and the characters, which didn't seem to have a major development within the plot. In the end, everything was just cruelty and sadism leaving aside other aspects that would make us as viewers feel something more than just disturbance. I don't think the show did everything wrong as it somehow made me want to finish the episodes but I do feel, and I agree with other reviews, that it lacked something more. Also, there were a lot of plotholes and things that didn’t make sense (like they could just buy a toilet in the common room). anyway I give it a 7.

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if squid game met the liar game

at first, i was sceptical to watch it; i kept seeing people compare it to squid game and i wasn’t the biggest fan of squid game but this was genuinely so messed up.

would i recommend it to people? yes, a 100% but i would personally never rewatch this because not only was this traumatic as hell but the sheer anger coursing through me while watching it was like nothing i could ever explain.

there will be spoilers after this so read at your own risk!!

unlike squid game, there was no actual games that the contestants played to earn money; everything was fair play and it was because of this that people became greedy.

the main goal of the game was to entertain the hosts and while watching it, it started to feel like we as viewers became the hosts because as much i don’t want to admit it, i found myself hoping for certain things to happen so that they get more hours.

now, the characters. the characters were the most infuriating part of the whole show.

1F : at first, i felt pity for him and i genuinely wanted him to leave with a good sum of money but he started to become greedy. way too greedy!!! and it ruined his whole character. when he was doing the performance in the last episode, i was thinking to myself ‘wouln’t it be nice if he juust fell and just died?’ for someone who tried to be a good person to everyone actually turned out to be the most vile and vexing character. at the end, i couldn’t care less if he died or not. he deserved to.
-10/10

2F : she was actually the only sane one with morals. i actually wanted her to succeed out of everyone. that’s all i have to say about her. she did nothing wrong and was only wronged to. because of all the shit she had to endure, i was literally only wishing she would live by the end of it.
10/10

3F : like 2F, i just wanted him to leave with his head in tact. i couldn’t even care less about how much money he won.
8/10

4F : i felt bad for her then i hated for most of the episodes and she managed to redeem herself in the last episode. do i forgive her? absolutely not!!!!! yeah, sure, she was forced to do all of the things she did to them but it doesn’t excuse the fact that she did them!! and she knew what she was getting herself into when she joined 6F and 8F. she is not a good person. she just profited of them because they had a higher status in there.
-3/10

5F : i just felt bad for her. she was clearly delusional and should not have been a contestant at all.
5/10

6F : THIS PIECE OF SHIT!!! NO ONE MADE ME MORE MAD THAN THIS GUY!!!! HE WAS NOT A HUMAN!!! oh my god, he had my blood boiling!!!! what 5F did to him in the last episode was very much well deserved. if it was me, i would have straight up wrung his neck in the chute! how could a character be this cruel and vile?!?!? i was praying for his downfall on every single episode.
-3638178/10

7F : i liked him and then he lost me in the middle. i keep seeing people hype him up like are we forgetting that he still teamed up with 4F, 6F and 8F?!? i’m sorry but that’s actually inexcusable. sure, he helped them out in the end but he still did it. like 4F, he knew what he was getting himself into. i’m sorry but i can’t defend this man. i really can’t.
1/10

8F : she was an abomination to the game. at the beginning, she was so entertaining but she lost me after episode 2. she was a sadist and she is what capitalism is. someone in one of rhe early episode said something about how the rich breath and they make money while the poor have to slave away to make even 1% of what they’re making and she proved it. she got the room with the highest money per minute so money was never a consequence for her. we saw how lavishly she lived in her room and even with everything she was buying, her money was increasing rather than decreasing.
-8727/10

overall, the enjoyment level was subdued by the sheer amount of anger coursing through me because i was just hoping to get to the last episode too see the outcome of everyone.

would i recommend? yes
would i rewatch? absolutely not!
would i watch if there was a second season? yes

and at the end, we, the viewers, became the host. they entertained us to the end and the show only stopped because there was a death.

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Repeated mindset of plot, not that unique

After watching Squid game, Alice in borderland and the movies Parasite and The platform (and other disturbing things) this show didn't excite me at all. It just depicted the brutality of the human kind under extreme conditions ruled by the power of money and "your death my life mindset" again with a similar concept. As tbh though if I haven't watched previous similar shows/movies I would've been more shocked with everything I saw and perhaps rate it more. The more you watch stuff like that the less you get truly shocked to the point of never completing them.

PLOT:

Most of the time I could predict the next move. I'm not minimizing the actors skills at all. They all made me feel mostly the anger of all scenes. The physical strength matters a lot as well and for a good amount of times is more powerful than the cleverness. What I got in the end is that we all were the audience and we all somehow were adding them more time on that "cage" bc of our curiosity of what's gonna happen next. So, if we all stopped watching the show from the first time a cruel thing happened then their time was over and they were free. Concluding, we as the watchers of the show somehow supported all their actions till the dramatic end. We wanted to help, we knew the answer of helping them and didn't choose it.

ABNORMALITIES:

How is it possible for them to be beaten that hardly and not have a concussion, an internal bleeding, a severely broken part i wont understand it. Its out of reality and dont tell me that the lady that was a nurse treated them correctly bc shes just A NURSE that the only do BASIC TREATMENT. This whole thing is unrealistic and cant accept it.

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