[HanCinema's Drama Review] "The 8 Show" Episode 2

As her name implies, 8 (played by Chun Woo-hee) lives on the eighth floor of the weird little apartment where all the characters in "The 8 Show" have been sequestered. Initially, the most significant aspect of 8's character seems to be that she's an obnoxious party girl, so proud of her body that she refuses to wear an undershirt for their fake uniforms. That's when we got to the cliffhanger of the first episode, where it's revealed by sheer dumb luck she makes ten times as much money than 3, and has a much nicer room to boot.

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But 8's an intriguing character far beyond her blatantly provocative attitude, as we get constant hints that she's smarter than she looks, and takes advantage of how she looks to disguise just how manipulative she is. Of course, on the flip side of that, 8's character introduction involves her quite literally falling face first into the show's fraudulent spectacle. Technically the fact that "The 8 Show" is a show is a spoiler but, well, it is in the title.

Not that any of the characters actually know that, at least not quite yet, which is why when 8 comes up with an obviously absurd explanation for how to increase the time on the board, and with it, the amount of money they all earn over the long run, the other seven characters have to go along with it. They also pretty much have to ignore that 8 started the entire crisis for a transparently selfish reason.

Selfish is a muddled descriptor here though, given that everyone technically benefits from the game being extended as long as possible. Despite her blatant flippancy, 8 is actually a fairly reasonable character as far as we can tell. As of the second episode, at least, she doesn't try to abuse the power of her eighth floor position, agreeing without question to all the group proposals.

8 notably does not, however, show any sort of magnanimity to the people quite literally underneath her. Her sense of timing about when to pick fights is excellent, is how she keeps winning them. The fault lines of "The 8 Show" are quite clearly drawn long before this episode gets to the next plot twist- everyone agrees that they need to try to make the game fair, even though it's quite obviously designed not to be. Whether 8 deserves her exalted position is besides the point. The question is, what is she going to do with it?

Written by William Schwartz

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"The 8 Show" is directed by Han Jae-rim, written by Han Jae-rim, Lee Jenny, Song Su-rin, and features Ryu Jun-yeol, Chun Woo-hee, Park Jung-min, Lee Yul-eum, Park Hae-joon, Lee Zoo-young. Broadcasting information in Korea: 2024/05/17, Fri on Netflix.