News culture I found this Netflix series much better than Squid Game and I strongly advise you to watch it

The ideal series to entertain you until the release of season 2 of Squid Game

In recent years, fans of films and series have become passionate about a whole bunch of Korean programs. Feature films, k-dramas… The craze has become palpable and it has not escaped certain platforms including the American giant Netflix. While these programs have experienced growing popularity, there is one series that has allowed Korean productions to shine in the eyes of a wider audience: we obviously want to talk about the series Squid Game. As surprising as it may seem, it is not necessarily the series that Netflix had bet on when it was released, so much so that the craze surprised everyone, gaining momentum day by day and rivaling programs very well installed in the catalog.

Week after week, nothing stopped the phenomenon Squid Game. In the space of 11 days, what would become the most watched series on the platform with 265 million views, or more than 2 billion hours of viewing, had already been viewed by more than 111 million households. It’s difficult to match or surpass such a global hit, but that hasn’t stopped Netflix from stepping up its efforts to fuel this all-consuming passion for k-dramas, even if it means wringing out the subject. As we know, a second season of Squid Game has been ordered and should, if all goes well, be released by the end of the current year. According to recent rumors, the series could return next December. Now, the most complicated thing for those who have devoured the series is to wait until then, but it could be that we have found the program that will satisfy this wait.

Recently, the catalog of the American SVOD giant was expanded with the addition of the series “ The 8 Show ». For our part, we wanted to take a look at it, particularly because it greatly resembled, at first glance, a k-drama in the vein of Squid Game. If it is an original creation on the part of Netflix, the story is inspired by two creations by the designer and screenwriter Jin-Soo Bae, Money Game and Pie Game, two webtoons of seven and eight episodes. As it happens, The 8 Show is a clever mix between these two stories. Bearing the same name as the author of the webtoon, Jin-Soo takes on jobs that pay him little or, even worse, put his life in danger. The problem is that he has no choice. As he tries to repay an exorbitant loan and integrate definitively into South Korean society, in a city in Seoul where everything goes at a hundred miles an hour, he is made an offer that he cannot refuse. to finally escape this life of poverty that is looming.

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The 8 Show, the new k-drama jackpot on Netflix

We grant you, the basic principle closely resembles the introduction of Squid Gameespecially since Jin-Soo is not the only individual who was contacted. As we can understand from the title of the series, there are seven others participating in a strange show whose rules are particularly opaque.. As they take turns entering a sort of completely empty theater, they must choose one card from eight then enter the next room. In this most minimalist room, everything is fake and there isn’t really much to do. As everyone takes their place in their quarters – the map corresponds to one of the eight floors present in the main room – they are provided with the first instructions, an outfit, and they become aware of a strange device present in their respective room : a kind of freight elevator that can bring them whatever they want. However, they don’t get anything for free!

Indeed, to operate the freight elevator, which provides them with the bare necessities, you have to pay with the money they collect over time: when a minute passes, each participant receives a sum of money. However, you have to choose wisely since any item is billed a thousand times its base price. More or less quickly, their respective kitty provides them with more money than they have ever had and offers them the possibility of making certain purchases without too many qualms. Enough to arrange their living space, even if there are some restrictions! In this case, they are not allowed to take out of their room what they buy with their own money, otherwise they will be charged for the item again. If they wish to acquire something, collectively, another freight elevator, present in the main room, is provided for this purpose. Conversely, it is not used with money but with… time.

As they join one after the other in this shared living area, the eight participants begin to identify the most obvious tricks of the game in which they are participating… and to understand that, although they have the same clothes and participate in the same game, they are not all equal. Far from erasing all social inequalities, the game show reproduces and exacerbates them: each floor has a larger room as you go up… and a prize pool that grows even faster. While they choose to remain discreet about their respective stories and make their mark, the eight participants gradually fit together the pieces of the puzzle and think they have identified one of the essential rules of this game. However, they will quickly understand that they are on the wrong track, and the mutual aid that was put in place will quickly fade away…

After Squid Game, The 8 Show shows us another side of humanity

Without going too deep into the details of the series The 8 Show or to reveal to you the twists and turns of the different episodes, that’s what we can say about this new addition to the Netflix catalog. For my part, it’s a series that I devoured and which, despite its faults, had a much greater impact on me than Squid Game. At the time, Netflix’s No. 1 show left me a little unmoved: an overly dehumanized side where the participants were sent to their deaths, an overall enthusiasm that seemed exaggerated, unfairly violent passages. In short, yet another entertainment, rather forgettable in addition, there where The 8 Show is more interesting on multiple levels.

Already one, the series relies more on a social experience side rather than on the formula of a battle royale where anything goes. Moreover, if we are suggested the presence of a “public” through surveillance cameras posted everywhere, there is always this little doubt about those who pull the strings. Ultimately, what I appreciated was this reflection on the place of entertainment in society. How can we renew ourselves when we have the impression of having already done everything and when we notice, little by little, that the embers of public interest are dwindling. By extension, this shows us how quickly humanity can deny its principles when an object of vice is placed in its hands, in this case money‘. As the saying goes: time is money. In the series, this escalation of gains pushes the participants to abandon all forms of morality and makes them sink into madness which takes different forms depending on the “social status” they grant themselves.

In reality, it is the participants who have the progress of the show in their hands. Nothing stops them from going against the rules and putting an end to them, rather than maintaining a sort of Stockholm syndrome towards social experience. Looking for inspirations from right to left – sometimes Big Brother And The Truman Showsometimes Clockwork Orange -, I was especially intrigued by the series. The 8 Show because it shows us to what extent humans can transform a simple game into a morbid activity : the duration is ultimately proportional to the degree of abandonment of altruism and humanity of individuals. The number 8 is not chosen by chance, it represents as much an hourglass as the symbol of infinity when placed horizontally. Although the series takes a little time to start, it managed to get me to the end of the eight episodes, in particular thanks to real moments of tension and rather effective end-of-episode cliffhangers.

If we are kept in suspense thanks to the usual artifices used by many series, the way in which The 8 Show feeds into its subtext about social inequality is also one of the interesting qualities of this new Netflix show. Throughout the eight episodes, we are shown to what extent a community balance can quickly be disrupted when some are aware of the power, linked to money and their hierarchy, that they can exercise over others. By extension, the series also questions the way in which individuals are willing to break down barriers through greed, self-esteem or other reasons or pretexts. It shows us, in a way, the way in which the wealthiest can rely on – not to say “use” or “exploit” – the poorest to enrich themselves in complete tranquility and impunity.

From there, we wonder who benefits the most from this situation: the eternally oppressed individuals, who must endure the worst situations to have enough to live on, or those who show themselves to be of unspeakable cruelty? Because, in itself, the weakest hardly have their destiny in their hands in this series. In short, this Netflix show is based on very stereotypical characters, who tend to put jokes below the belt, to poorly manage their pace, but I managed to ignore that to only retain the good ideas from this series. The most important thing is that I don’t regret watching it at all. Finally, the whole principle of The 8 Show is a nice mise en abyme on the way we consume films or series: if we are not entertained, we simply end the program. That being said, The 8 Show knew how to find the ingredients to captivate us until the end. Whether you liked it or hated it Squid Game and you are looking for a k-drama before season 2, this may be the show to launch in the next few days.

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