Penelope

December 30, 2024 /

Penelope is an immersive and quiet coming of age story, about a 16 year old girl who, seemingly on a whim, leaves her family, friends, and technology behind and decides to live a hermit-like life in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

The 8 episode Netflix series (about 1/2 hour each) begins with Penelope who is at some kind of camp with a lot of other folks, including her parents. The first episode begins with a ‘silent dance party’, where a large group of teenagers are dancing near some cabins, wearing headphones to dampen the noise. Penelope spies a wolf on the edge of the party, and is stunned. She appears to be the only person to see it. She looks away for a moment, and when she looks back, it is gone. The next morning she wakes early and goes out to the spot where the wolf stood, and now there is a rabbit there, which hops off into the woods. Penelope decides to go for a walk, and walks into town, where she finds a kind of general store that sells camping gear. She buys a bunch of gear and sets off, eventually leaving her parents a voice message, telling them that she is not running away from them, she is moving towards something, and wants to figure out what that is. Then she turns her phone off.

From there we follow as she finds her way to the deep of the forest, where she learns the dangers and triumphs of living without technology in such a remote place. The photography is beautiful, and the story is so quiet and immersive, you may find yourself considering such a life.

My only issues with Penelope (aside from how terrified her parents must have been when she effectively disappeared) were that her clothes stayed astonishingly clean, and the final two minutes of the last episode. I’m not sure why the writers decided to end it that way, but it left me very unsatisfied. I think it would have been a 10/10 for me otherwise. Completely bingeable (I watched the entire series yesterday while nursing my head cold.)

16 Comments

  • Maya

    December 30, 2024 at 6:33 am

    I think you’ve nailed it:
    It sounds beautiful if I imagine it for myself and terrifying if I imagine it for my kids…
    I’m going to take a peek…

  • NGS

    December 30, 2024 at 8:02 am

    I would be so stuck on her poor parents and their worry that I wouldn’t be able to think of anything else. What a weird premise for a show!

  • Suzanne

    December 30, 2024 at 9:13 am

    Oh my goodness, this sounds terrifying. WHY would she do that? Did her parents just… let her go? Or did they spend the whole series trying to find her? I am completely overwhelmed by the idea of immersing oneself in woods where there are KNOWN WOLVES.

    • J

      December 30, 2024 at 10:23 am

      The series is entirely from Penelope’s point of view, so you get nothing of what the parents are going through. Terrifying though, right?

  • Ernie

    December 30, 2024 at 11:14 am

    Oh my gosh. What an interesting concept. Yeah, her parents had to be freaking out. The clothes would’ve thrown me off. Coach and I just started watching A Man on the Inside or something. Ted Dansen. We watched a few episdoes and liked it. It’s the perfect easy breezy, light show with quick episodes for those of us who are old and tend to fall asleep at night or are too busy doing other things to really sit and watch something lengthy.

  • Alexandra

    December 30, 2024 at 1:16 pm

    Oh, now this reminds me of a movie I saw last year starring Robin Wright who after the loss of her husband and kids in a car crash, secludes herself up in the mountains, during winter and, well, nearly dies. It was a bit of a stretch in parts for me, but this sounds vaguely similar.