‘The 8 Show’ Netflix Series Review - Another Show Like Squid Game?

What will happen to a group of people when they find themselves trapped in a game? 8 individuals find themselves in a building in which they will participate in the games and earn money. At first, the show felt like watching Squid Game but the drama is not exactly like Squid Game. The eighth show starts off with the character Jinsu, played by Ryu Junyeol, who is in debt of 900 million won. The loan sharks keep knocking at his door all the time. Hence, he decides to unlive himself. He decides to jump into the Han River when his phone suddenly rings and he sees money being deposited in his bank account without him doing anything.

Then, a limbo comes in front of him. He, without giving much thought, gets into the car and comes to a theatre. There, he sees an envelope that says he can either participate in a game or he can just take 20 million won and walk out. He decides, after much hesitation, that he'll play the game. There were cards placed on the table, from 1 to 8, with a few cards missing. He chooses card number 3.

Then, he enters the game arena and sees a luxurious room, that has everything in it but all fake. He finds a staircase. As he moves up each floor, he understands that the number 3 on his card denotes his floor.

It had a small room with almost nothing in it. But it had a telephone and a machine that showed that he won 30,000 won per minute. Then, he was asked to hand all his belongings over and get changed into the game's clothes. With those came a rule book that said he could buy anything with that money, but at a "special rate." A blanket, and even a pillow, were extremely expensive. He decides to buy a few boxes and newspapers.

The drama started to get interesting in every episode, and I am happy enough that all the episodes were released at once. I could binge-watch the whole drama without any pause. The plot starts to get more interesting when The next day, he hears voices and comes down to find seven other people from seven other floors. They decide to visit each other's rooms. The rooms started to get bigger and more spacious with each floor.

The 8th floor was exceptionally spacious. They also found out that all of them were not making the same amount of money with each minute. Then, they discovered that the game was following a sequence named the Fibonacci sequence where the 3rd floor receives the sum of the 1st and 2nd floors' money, the 4th floor receives the sum of the 2nd and 3rd floors' money, and so on, which makes the 8th floor win 340,000 won per minute.

Now, the game area has a timer, which shows how much time is left for the game to end. It is also the source of buying things of necessity. While they were busy upstairs, the girl on the 8th floor spent almost all of their time buying clothes, and then they were left with only 15 minutes. Everyone started freaking out as the game was about to come to an end when she said that she had noticed that by climbing the stairs up and down, they could increase their time. That actually worked. But after some time, it stopped working, and the time didn't go up anymore.

Then, they figured out that the controllers of the game wanted to see something entertaining to increase the time. Hence, they decide to do a talent show. They show each other's talents and manage to increase the time.

But this made everything complicated. The upper-floor people started to take control of the lower-floor people and started torturing them. Everything turned into a mess. But then again, somehow the lower floor people emerged back and took the upper hand. Eventually, the game ended with the death of the man from the 1st floor.

After they came out of the game, they decided to part ways. Jinsu decides to hold a funeral for the 1st-floor man and shows an advertisement for the other floor members to see. The women from the 2nd, 4th, and 5th floors came to the funeral and the man from the 6th floor sent flowers. The drama ends with the fact that whatever may happen, you just need to cheer up and never give up on what you need.

Final Score- [8/10]
Reviewed by - Ayasa Mallick
Publisher at Midgard Times