The 8 Show

The 8 Show (Korean: 더 에이트 쇼) is a 2024 South Korean dark comedy thriller television series written and directed by Han Jae-rim, and starring Ryu Jun-yeol, Chun Woo-hee, Park Jeong-min, Lee Yul-eum, Park Hae-joon, Lee Zoo-young, Moon Jeong-hee, and Bae Seong-woo. Based on the Naver webtoons Money Game and Pie Game by Bae Jin-soo, it depicts the story of eight participants continuing to cooperate and antagonize each other in an extreme setting where the game ends when a death occurs in a space where social infrastructure is cut off. It was released on Netflix on May 17, 2024, and received generally positive reviews.

Synopsis

Eight strangers are offered to participate in a game where they will be locked inside a building and earn a substantial amount of money for each minute the game continues. Each are sequestered at night in a different room on eight separate floors, during which they purchase all of their basic provisions at one hundred times their normal cost using their current prize earnings, while during the day they can use a portion of their remaining time to buy provisions for the group.

Initially, the eight people, opting to only be named based on their floor, work together to try to maximize the remaining game time and individual earnings while living with basic comfort. However, when they discover that the higher floors are earning significantly more money and have larger rooms than the lower floors, a power struggle erupts between the players, while at the same time they try to figure out the unclear means by which more time is added to the game clock.

Cast

• Ryu Jun-yeol as Third Floor / Bae Jin-su, a former convenience store worker
• Chun Woo-hee as Eighth Floor / Se-ra
• Park Jeong-min as Seventh Floor / Yoo Phillip
• Lee Yul-eum as Fourth Floor / Kim Yang
• Park Hae-joon as Sixth Floor
• Lee Zoo-young as Second Floor
• Moon Jeong-hee as Fifth Floor
• Bae Seong-woo as First Floor

Episodes

Production

Development

The series was developed under the working title Money Game (Korean: 머니게임), which was based on Naver Webtoon of the same name and its sequel, Pie Game, both written by Bae Jin-soo. Director Han Jae-rim, who directed The Face Reader (2013) and The King (2017), was looking for his next work after Emergency Declaration (2021) and joined hands with Studio N to direct the series. It is also expected that the series would release in an OTT platform. Naver Webtoon announced that Netflix has picked up the franchise under the new title The 8 Show.

Studio N and Magnum Nine managed the production while Lotte Cultureworks served as co-production and investor for the series.

It has a budget with over ₩24 billion (US$20.98 million) invested.

Casting

In December 2021, Ryu Jun-yeol and Bae Seong-woo were cast as the lead actors of the series. This would be Bae's return to small screen after self-reflecting on his DUI incident in November 2020.

In January 2022, Ryu and Bae along with Lee Ji-eun, Park Jeong-min, and Park Hae-joon has confirmed their appearances for the series.

In April 2022, Moon Jeong-hee, Lee Yul-eum, and Lee Zoo-young joined the series.

In May 2022, Lee Ji-eun left the series and was replaced by Chun Woo-hee.

Filming

Principal photography began in May 2022 and ended on December 23, 2022.

Release

Naver Webtoon announced that The 8 Show would be released worldwide on Netflix in 2024. Four months later, Netflix confirmed the release date of the series would be on May 17, 2024.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 7 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.8/10. Elisa Guimarães of Collider gave a score of five out of ten and wrote that the series "might garner comparisons to Squid Game", but " struggles with underdeveloped characters and disjointed humor". Kate Sánchez of But Why Tho? gave the series a perfect ten and described it as "one of the best limited series on Netflix" and "it ends with finality and pays off every narrative choice made along the way". Jonathon Wilson of Ready Steady Cut rated it a 2/5 and wrote that it "something fascinating for the wrong reasons". Pierce Conran of South China Morning Post gave a score of three out of five and wrote that "viewers are likely to recognize The 8 Show as a blatant attempt to piggyback on the achievement of the most successful Netflix show of all time, but so long as they are being entertained they may give it more time". Joel Keller of Decider compared the series "as dark as Squid Game, but it's definitely more wryly funny". William Schwartz of HanCinema wrote that it "refuses to caricature even its most seemingly loathsome characters" and "all of them were driven to madness by the harsh, empathy-less world they lived in long before they accepted their invitation to the game".

Viewership

The 8 Show ranked seventh in Netflix's Global Top 10 TV (Non-English) category after three days of its release and received a warm response in 11 countries being listed in the Top 10. The following week, the series topped the chart with 33.2 million hours watched by 4.8 million viewers, and still remains on the chart for the next three consecutive weeks.

References

External links

• The 8 Show on Netflix
• The 8 Show at IMDb
• The 8 Show at HanCinema