Penelope review: Stott's performance keeps the viewers engaged 

Penelope is a coming-of-age drama series written and created by Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn. The show, directed by Eslyn, premiered on Netflix on September 24, 2024, and is produced by Duplass Brothers Productions.

The show follows Penelope, a teenage girl who feels disconnected from the technological chaos of her world. She decides to embark on a journey in the wilderness to reconnect with nature. On the journey, she meets many people who uniquely impact her thoughts.

Netflix picked the show for streaming in May this year. It stars Megan Stott as Penelope, whose work will help in keeping viewers interested in this quiet journey. Austin Abrams and Krisha Fairchild also play prominent roles in this show.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the author's opinions.

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Megan Stott's performance keeps the show going despite flawed narrative

The series begins with a scene in which the teenage protagonist, wearing her headphones in a club, sees a wolf lingering around the place. Whether this is real or in her imagination isn't clear, as she also suffers from hallucinations in the last episodes of the series after being attacked by a cougar and suffering other such wilderness traumas.

Nevertheless, she decides to pack some hiking gear using a $500 gift card, hops on a train without a ticket, and goes to the campsite without a permit. But why is she doing all this? Unfortunately, the viewers don't get a clear answer to this question till the series' final credits roll.

What the viewers do get is a good performance from Megan Stott, who plays the titular character. Her commanding presence and expressive eyes convey enough emotions to keep the viewers engaged in her journey and hooked to the screen till the last minute. However, apart from the lead performance, the show falls mostly flat after the first episode.

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Penelope is beautifully shot

The show is visually stunning from the first shot to the last. As showrunners, Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn are experienced enough to give the audience a visual feast, even in a small-budget indie show, where nothing much happens in terms of drama.

The camera angles and imagery bring the viewers right into the wilderness, along with the teenage protagonist. As she gets emotional hugging a giant tree for the first time, so do we. Her struggles and accomplishments feel personal as well, mostly because of the camera work and Stott's performance.

The opening scene of the last episode, in which Penelope is hallucinating while moving through the forest, deserves a special mention for its exquisite filming.

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Penelope ends with a shocking twist

In the show, the lead character takes an unusually drastic step to leave her normal life and settle among the trees. Along the way, she makes one bizarre decision after the other, like spending the night inside a stranger's van in the first episode and sleeping on an old man's couch in the last episode.

While her struggles against wildlife and climate change are intriguing, the portrayal of strangers she meets in the show, all unrealistically helpful and polite, can be questioned. Netflix is known for streaming chilling true crime stories, and Penelope seems like something out of a fairy tale.

However, the ending of the show is dark and shocking. Penelope goes to a library and hesitantly checks her social media account, where she comes across a post that reveals that her parents have tragically died.

Stott's reaction in that scene is hard to read. This has led some to speculate that her parents died before she started her journey, and the entire show is about a teenage girl coming to terms with her grief. The makers have not said anything about the show being about grief, so for now, it's just a theory. However, it certainly puts the show into a new perspective.

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Penelope is currently streaming on Netflix.