If there’s something that we now have realized up to now few years from productions comparable to Parasite and Squid Game, it is that South Korea positive has rather a lot to say about capitalism in its present state. From whopping class disparities to the humiliating lengths to which individuals need to go with a purpose to manage to pay for to only stay a good life, these productions deal with the agony of the system in its late state with braveness and intelligence. Now, this canon receives the addition of a brand new South Korean undertaking that’s all about declaring the crassest elements of inequality, labor exploitation, and simply plain poverty. Based on the webtoons Money Game and Pie Game, by Bae Jin-soo, Netflix’s The 8 Show is a darkish comedy that sees eight full strangers locked up in an unknown location the place they need to compete in a progressively extra excessive sport with a purpose to depart with the largest amount of cash doable.

From the get-go, it’s inconceivable not to have a look at this synopsis and be reminded of Squid Game, the loss of life sport sequence that took Netflix by storm in 2021 and is about to get a second season in 2024. However, although the comparability stays inevitable all through everything of the present’s eight episodes, The 8 Show does handle to set itself aside. For starters, the principles of the sport are completely different: as an alternative of a sponsored massacre, the contestants discover themselves having to earn increasingly time within the “arena” so that every can depart with a bigger sum of cash. The primary situation is much more much like a actuality present like Big Brother than to a playground model of the Hunger Games. Then, there’s how each reveals deal with their characters and their plots. By choosing a smaller forged and a extra comedic tone, The 8 Show avoids being too much like its predecessor, as an alternative changing into one thing completely completely different.

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

Sadly, regardless of exhibiting plenty of promise in its first jiffy, The 8 Show rapidly loses its footing, notably due to its typically misplaced humor and the way in which it treats its ensemble. Poop jokes abound even because the present begins to get darker, and as bodily and psychological torture turns into the norm contained in the weird condominium complicated by which our heroes and villains stay, we’re left to marvel who this sequence was made for. The comedy looks as if one thing out of Nickelodeon within the early 2000s, albeit with some spicier undertones, however the remainder of the motion seems to be like a tamer model of the Saw franchise. Surely, there should be an viewers for this particular mash-up of parts, however we’re undecided who that viewers is.

Then there’s the ensemble forged, whose characters are recognized solely by their condominium numbers. First Floor (Bae Seong-woo) is a circus performer with a limp and a coronary heart of gold, whereas Second Floor (Lee Joo-young) is a hardened girl with a strict morality code. Fourth Floor (Lee Yul-em) is the broad-eyed, harmless woman subsequent door, Fifth Floor (Moon Jeong-hee) is an older girl who simply desires everybody to get alongside, Sixth Floor (Park Hae-joon) is a brutish man with no morals, Seventh Floor (Park Jung-min), a mysterious mental, and, lastly, Eighth Floor (Chun Woo-hee) is a flaky girl that makes use of her sexuality as a weapon and may not be as dim as she first seems to be. If these descriptions make the characters sound a bit one-dimensional, that is as a result of they’re. We’re not going to let you know who the dangerous guys are, however let’s simply say which you could guess it from the second they pop up on-display. Very little time is dedicated to exploring these characters of their complexities, and, consequently, it does not look like we’re watching actual individuals preventing for his or her lives on display, however merely strolling, speaking stereotypes.

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You might have observed that we now have not talked about Third Floor (Ryu Jun-yeol) but. Though the forged features largely as an ensemble, Third Floor is The 8 Show‘s de facto protagonist. He’s the one whose life story ultimately takes us into the sport, in addition to the one whose ideas we hear within the type of voice-overs. Essentially, he serves as our information to the world of The 8 Show. The downside is that he isn’t a really attention-grabbing information. A clean slate upon which we’re purported to undertaking ourselves, Third Floor has nearly no character, which finally ends up making him a really boring protagonist. Far from insightful, his narration is most of the time redundant, explaining to us issues that we now have already realized on our personal.

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

In a sequence with a lot math concerned, by which time is cash in probably the most literal of senses, we generally want a proof relating to what additions and subtractions are going by everybody’s brains. However, we actually do not want a voice telling us that the characters are being exploited once we can plainly see with our personal eyes that they’re. That’s only a symptom of a bigger downside with The 8 Show. The sequence makes use of plenty of stylistic sources to make itself extra attention-grabbing and interesting, nevertheless it does not know methods to wield them. In the primary episode, there are inexplicable silent film title playing cards throughout indicating the passage of time and whatnot. These title playing cards utterly disappear within the following episodes, coming again solely within the finale.

There are situations, in fact, by which these stylistic parts lead to one thing attention-grabbing — just like the side ratio change when the characters enter their new residence, indicating a widening of their perspective simply as their universe is being narrowed down. However, more often than not, they’re practically as pointless because the violence that we’re compelled to witness. If you’ve got already seen the trailer for The 8 Show, you understand that issues are about to get fairly intense, regardless of how peaceable the primary episode is likely to be. And, for a second, the violence is smart, saying one thing and stunning us. However, after a while, it simply feels repetitive and devoid of that means. Perhaps that is the purpose. One can argue that violence is at all times meaningless and that we now have grown so accustomed to it that it does nothing however bore us. Still, it does not really feel like The 8 Show has something to say by its more and more dehumanizing dynamics. Instead, it feels prefer it’s indulging in distress porn.

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

The downside, right here, is that there’s a secret viewers watching the sport that’s going down on The 8 Show, an viewers that determines how a lot time the contestants must spend in that place. The cycle of violence into which they ultimately fall is a results of this viewers wanting increasingly leisure from them. Violence and humiliation, The 8 Show tells us, in a considerably shallow critique of actuality TV and influencer tradition, equals leisure. But if we, on this facet of the Netflix display, usually are not entertained, why are the unseen viewers within the story? The 8 Show is pointing at one thing it does not know methods to correctly criticize. Instead of constructing the gradual transfer from common actuality present dynamics to one thing extra disturbing, forcing its viewers to thrill themselves within the degradation of its characters with out realizing it, the sequence makes a sudden shift from normalcy right into a massacre that’s sure to right away make you uncomfortable.

The bigger query turns into: why on Earth are we watching this? Why on Earth would anyone watch this? It’s arduous to know, apart from the few moments by which The 8 Show does resemble an precise actuality present. When the characters need to band collectively to vote for who will probably be accountable for the trash, one thing goes on that’s fascinating to look at: we get to see their personalities working with and in opposition to each other, and that proper there’s what makes individuals fall in love with influencers and actuality present contestants. We really feel as if we all know them, as if they’re our pals or our enemies. We do not simply wish to see them humiliate themselves or others, we would like their tales. That connection is fairly arduous to come back by in a present that, for many of its run, does not even hassle to call its characters.

(*8*)

The 8 Show (2024)

Netflix’s The 8 Show would possibly garner comparisons to Squid Game, however the brand new sequence struggles with underdeveloped characters and disjointed humor.

Pros

• Despite superficial similarities, the present manages to set itself aside from Squid Game, creating one thing utterly completely different.
• The 8 Show soars highest when it resembles an actual actuality present.

Cons

• The violence typically feels pointless and a bit like distress porn.
• The characters are underdeveloped and the motion is predictable.
• The sequence’ infantile humor does extra hurt than good.

All episodes of The 8 Show can be found to stream on Netflix within the U.S.

Watch on Netflix