This review may contain spoilers
Why… ?
I don’t know what to say about this show…I didn’t read synopsis, articles nor reviews about it so I didn’t know what to expect from this (I wanted to watch it just because of Chun Woo Hee).
And hmmm… It was a disturbing show and I feel a bit uncomfortable.
This is a critic about power of/and money, hierarchy in society, human nature/behaviors, survival, etc…
So we quickly understand the message behind this show but I feel uncomfortable about the way it has been delivered.
I’m probably a bit too sensitive but I think it could have been delivered with lower level of sadism, brutality, cruelty, torture… (I agree with another reviewer, it made me think to movie « Saw »).
I don’t like this kind of shows but if I’d have to watch a similar show I’d prefer Squid Game which is a bit « fairer » regarding status of each character.
Casting and acting were good (tbh I prefer Chun Woo Hee portraying nicer characters).
Directing/prod good as well (8 episod is enough).
Didn’t pay attention to music.
No rewatch value for me (too much free violence)
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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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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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Utterly Disapointing
This show was so underwhelming, I checked it out because it’d been compared to the likes of Squid Game and Alice in Borderland but it’s nothing like them.It centres around eight characters who I frankly couldn’t care less about. They’ve been left to their own devices with limited but continuous resources. There aren’t any real stakes, they have an out if they really want it.
There was no plot by the second half, just violence, it was just pure torture porn.
There are so many better shows that show people at their lowest or whatever this show was trying to do.
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This review may contain spoilers
WATCH IT
Don't delay it only took me 1 day to finish this drama its sooo moreishSuch a unique concept, and some really good comical moments. It was nice to learn more about the background of each person but not spend too much time on them. I never really knew what was coming next especially when Level 8 took over the show. Each actor really portrayed their own character so well.
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Tragic and brutal, but quite superficial
A great representation of the social ladder within a limited setting, it was able to fit in huge social commentaries that were remarkably brutal and precise. The plot however is slightly superficial for most of the time, even though it was psychotic enough to raise enormous emotions, it lacks the logical sense that could realistically reflect against the outside world, and the excessive use of abstract concepts can only serve that much for its artistic purpose.Was this review helpful to you?
The 8 Show
- It's hard to make these kinds of shows stand out where it's a death gameshow?? There's just too many shows with the same plot for it to really stand out. (I.E: Squid Game etc.)- The characters were all portrayed differently and unique in their own ways.
- The show is not as bad as people put it to be, but don't have high hopes for this to be your next favorite show.
- It's nothing special. It's funny, scary, suspenseful, and relatable because the show demonstrated reality.
- If you fully understood the show, the meaning behind it is really deep.
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Radiography on society
This show deserves much more than a 7.7 lol. The people that has rated this drama poorly is because they cannot stand violence and sadism, which is, if course, valid, but it is not an objective criteria for rating it so low. I hate musicals with my whole soul but I wouldn't say that all musicals are terrible because I simply do not like them and I cannot stand people singing instead of talking.Of course the drama has its plotholes, and it does not explain who or how they did what they did to them, but that is not the point of the drama. The drama through the game/show portrays society, human behavior and how privileged people oppress middle and lower classes.
The people that says that human would not behave like that in such small scale needs a reality slap. Search the Jail Stanford experiment for example.
Overall, very good drama with on point actors and satisfying ending in my opinion.
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well...same concept as all the other survival games but nothing new
I finished this show in a few hours cause honestly you can x2 speed it and watch...there wasnt any strategic plays or smart tricks so if you were hoping for those kind of shows you can skip this. This show was mostly just surviving and and once again showing how greedy humans can be. I guess one interesting thing about this show is that apart from other shows where games are set of the participants here its a blank canvas and they have to do everything themselves.If you are bored and just want to watch something you can watch this but there isnt much of a deep plot or anything.
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YOU SHOULD WATCH IT
this is a really nice short fun and good series to watch it’s fairly brutal but really good and I recommend I’d say it’s like a cross between squid game saw and maybe like the platform it’s really good I do recommend I binged it in 2 days so it was really enjoyable the story line is SOO GOOD don’t listen to what others are saying I thought it was really good and you should definitely give it a shotWas this review helpful to you?
besides that, the show was okay. not gonna do a rewatch tho, and im suuuuuuch a rewatch person!!!
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Too slow-paced but great concept.
It was too hard for me to watch as it was very slow-paced, especially the first half of the drama. The second half was slightly better. I did not find it very violent as I read in a comment. To be honest, I have seen worse. The violence is on a normal level.I love the message behind the drama as it effectively portrays the harsh reality where the wealthy can exploit the lower class without repercussions. The lower class will always suffer, and some will do anything to get money. Long live capitalism!
The acting is great, and number 8 was a nice surprise.
The ending was not that satisfying, but I guess the end is very realistic.
Although the storyline has great potential, comparable to "Squid Games," the execution falls short, hindering its overall impact.
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