Welome to the 120th K-Drama series I’ve finished — The 8 Show. The 8 Show is about 8 people from different walks of life. They all need or want money. Much like the Squid Game, these 8 people are mysteriously picked up by a chauffered limo and asked to play a game. But that’s where any similarity ends. After agreeing to play, players are asked to pick a number. The events initially unfold from lead actor Ryu Jun-yeol’s (of Reply 1988 fame) point of view. He picks the number 3. When he gets to the game venue, he finds that the number he picked corresponds to the 3rd floor. Soon, he finds out that he earns 30,000 won a minute just by staying in the game.
Later on we find out that there are 8 players, so there are 8 floors. The higher your floor, the higher you earn and the bigger your room… and so 8th floor earns 80,000 won a minute. That said, 1st floor has the tiniest room and the smallest earnings at 10,000 won a minute.
But there is a catch. The clock is always ticking and time is running out. The time you play the game can however be extended by entertaining whoever are watching. At first, all the contestants do talent shows. The more entertained the people behind the game are, the more time is earned by the players. The game will end if any player dies so this is always a consideration for those who want to earn more money.
Later in the game, talent shows are no longer enough to entertain the game masters. The game becomes more and more twisted and violent, injuring some of the players. It’s a short, interesting series with only 8 episodes. I couldn’t stop watching because I had to see how it was all going to end.
Ryu Jun-yeol may be a lot of things but he is definitely a good actor. To be fair, everyone in this series turns in a stellar performance. It’s just that 3rd Floor (the characters are referred to by floors and not by names) is the glue that holds the entire series together. Most of the plot unfolds from his point of view. His character is ultimately a good guy at heart and this sometimes causes him a lot of pain and suffering in the game. In the course of the 8 episodes, you see how the characters slowly become unhinged. Some want to quit due to the harsh conditions the players are subjected to, while some want to get more money. It’s unpredictable to say the least because even when they agree it’s a whole new game again when someone changes his/her mind and goes off to do something else.
The 8 Show is based on the Korean webtoon The Money Game which was released in 2021. This series is exclusively available on Netflix.
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