ReviewK-drama review: The Penthouse season three – high-society melodrama, long past its prime, wraps with disappointing finale

What started as a popular series about bad behaviour in Korean high society, with crazy set pieces and surprises, felt forced and tired by the end

With plots that defy logic, dead characters returning unscathed, cultural appropriation and empty apologies, we’re glad it’s all over

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Kim So-yeon in a still from The Penthouse season three.

Published: 11:59am, 16 Sep 2021

This article contains spoilers.

2/5 stars

All good things must come to an end, but for hit K-drama The Penthouse, which just brought its third and final season to a close, the “good” petered out a long time ago. This drawn-out closing season, which was extended by two episodes despite flagging ratings, lazily cycled through imitations of the show’s earlier highlights, until it reached a perfunctory and sappy climax.

Korea’s makjang dramas, akin to Western soaps, rely on peaks of feverish melodrama, often capped off with major deaths. In many cases these deceased characters will come back to life, or perhaps their long-lost twin will appear – or sometimes even both will happen. The Penthouse gave us several such moments in its run, but the body count truly ramped up in season three, and surprisingly few characters made it to the finish line.

Major character deaths can be hugely emotional moments in serialised drama, but in The Penthouse characters repeatedly died and came back to life with alacrity.