Penthouse is currently one of the most watched Korean dramas in the history of television. It has broken records upon records for the highest viewership ratings in Korea, and it is creating massive waves around the world. Everyone was gripped and hooked and kept wanting for more, and the writers kept on giving more...
... until they reached the third season and everything felt forced, stale, and bland already. So many characters dying and coming back to life, so many plot twists upon plot twists, and so many irrelevant scenes and tropes featuring the characters. Seeing someone coming back to life after dying is normal for most dramas, especially in the Southeast Asian region.
However, more people coming back to life from dead is just watching the writers play Jesus Christ and resurrect all the characters after dying. It's as if we are watching the writers grapple into the extent of their creative limits, so they just want to pour everything onto it and get over with.
At first, it was fun because Penthouse offered a breath of fresh air among the other dramas competing in the same lineup as theirs. It was the first time the Gen Z people have seen characters pulling each other's hair, slapping each other's faces, killing each other by pushing them on the building top, death threats, kidnappings, and so much more. It felt like a spicy kick in a sea of melodramas with nothing more to give to the viewers.
That's why their ratings soared. Each episode beat their previous records, even becoming a cult favorite in Korea nowadays. Tons of people have created content on social media related to the drama. You can see makeup YouTubers recreating looks from the drama, parodies of the scenes on TikTok, and tons of reviews and other interesting content about the drama.
The drama has played with the people's thirst in seeing more on the lives of the ultra-rich and famous. Dramas with the same genre include Sky Castle, which also broke records and achieved a superstar status in current Korean dramas, so with Penthouse, this offers a rare glimpse on how rich people take care of their lives and solve problems on their own.
So much was the fans' clamor for the drama that they announced a second season. Again, this was well-received by the audiences around the world. However, towards the middle and the end of the second season, some viewers have grown pale and lost the interest they once had on the drama.
There were so many unnecessary characters, scenes, and tropes that should not be included because they'll just make the story confusing. Then there were people dying and coming back to life. Of course, this shocked everyone, but this is the start of the writers' struggles in keeping the drama fresh, relevant, and connected to the first two seasons.
Penthouse is still airing, and by now, most viewers have complained that the plots are either repetitive, recycled, or unoriginally lame at all. Once the writers realized that killing people off and bringing them back to life works wonders, they decided to exhaust it by killing several characters and bringing them to life, such as Logan Lee. Now, there are rumors that Oh Yoon-hee's still alive, and at this point, we just want it to stop.
The writer has admitted at one point that she had ran out of ideas already, and it shows. The episodes of today do not bring the same level of excitement towards the viewers. They just watch the drama simply because it's ridiculous, to the point that it gets lame sometimes.
Sure, not a lot of people will side by me in this opinion piece, and some might find themselves in denial. It's okay, that's how it works.
Sadly, the writers of the drama decided to play along the tricks that will generate revenue to the production, and though it is not entirely a bad idea, it just doesn't sit well with some people.
I wish the writers would come up with fresher ideas that would grip the audiences once more. Playing the resurrection card every now and then gets tiring, to be honest.
