The 8 Show has a Squid Game type of feel and leaves you wanting more episodes. The show has its highs and lows and only brings you into the motions of a great series, without ever fully cashing in on the premise it sets up.
If you haven't heard of it yet, The 8 Show drops eight strangers into a vertical, multi-floor set where every minute they survive earns them money — the catch being that the deeper floors pay less but come with more comfort, while the top floors pay more but demand more suffering. It's a setup that immediately invites comparisons to Squid Game, and the show leans into that energy: the neon-lit sets, the social experiment framing, the slow unraveling of who these people really are once money and desperation enter the picture.
Where the show earns its stripes is in the cast. Ryu Jun-yeol, Chun Woo-hee, and Park Jung-min all bring distinct, memorable characters to a concept that could have easily leaned into caricature. Each floor's occupant gets just enough backstory to make you care, and the show does a solid job letting personalities clash in ways that feel earned rather than forced. The production design deserves credit too — the way each floor visually degrades the higher you climb tells its own story without a single line of dialogue.
But that's also where the frustration sets in. Eight episodes simply isn't enough runway for a concept this rich. Just as the power dynamics between floors start to shift and the show teases bigger questions about class, greed, and complicity, it starts wrapping things up. Threads that could have used two or three more episodes to breathe get compressed into rushed final acts. It's the kind of pacing issue that makes you wonder what this show could have been with a slightly longer season order.
That's ultimately the takeaway here: The 8 Show has all the ingredients of a great series — a killer premise, a strong cast, and a visual identity that sets it apart from the genre it's clearly inspired by — but it only gets you into the motions of greatness before the credits roll. It's a good watch, and one that'll keep you hooked episode to episode, but don't go in expecting it to stick the landing the way Squid Game did in its first outing.
Bottom line: worth the binge, and full of drama, must watch
