The Voyeuristic Gratification Of "The 8 Show" Where One Must Imagine Sisyphus Happy (And Yes, It's Better Than "Squid Game")

Netflix

If you watched this show, you're the problem. Or, at least, that's what "The 8 Show" wants you to believe. Easily one of Netflix's finest productions of the year, "The 8 Show" is a masterful exploration of sociopolitical philosophies that govern our world today, repackaged as a sadomasochistic survival show where time is money and content is king.

Starring Ryu JunYeol, Chun WooHee, Park HaeJun, Bae SeongWoo, Park JeongMin, Lee YulEum, Lee ZooYoung, and Moon JeongHee as the eponymous "8", this show is absurdly realistic and breaks the fourth wall more times than I can recall. It keeps the viewer at the edge of their seat, not because of how thrilling it is, but because it makes us uncomfortable and almost faults us for continuing to watch the show that unravels artfully in front of our very eyes.

 

What's With The Aspect Ratio?

In "The 8 Show", the screen aspect ratio changes between scenes that happen outside of "the show" and those that take place inside. Any "behind-the-scenes" shots where the audience is shown the backgrounds of the contestants are presented in a 1:1 ratio in a tragicomic tone. As soon as they enter "the show", the drama switches to a more traditional widescreen aspect ratio, and a more serious or "blank" tone, that is filled up by the contestants as we move forward.

What I loved about the "show" was how intelligently its entertainment quotient, which determines how long the game shall continue, correlates to the entertainment quotient of "The 8 Show" itself. This is why, just when you think that the story is not quite as riveting, the plot reveals tha