‘Penelope’ review: Teen girl logs off to touch grass, literally

Few rejoinders sting fairly the best way “contact grass” does. For many who aren’t chronically on-line, the phrase basically means it’s essential to sign off and go outdoors, however the deeper undercurrent is that you have misplaced contact with the true world and desperately must reconnect to one thing tangible. It is “get actual,” minus the classic attraction. But in Mel Eslyn’s pilot for the YA drama Penelope, the idea of touching grass proves a healthful jumping-off level for a contemporary teen’s journey of self-discovery. 

Written and directed by Eslyn, who additionally created the under-sung sci-fi gem Biosphere, Penelope facilities on a 16-year-old woman (Little Fires In every single place‘s Megan Stott) who abruptly decides to sign off of every thing and wander into the wilderness. Nevertheless, whereas Penelope is basically seeking to contact grass (and timber and bunnies), the present is bled free from the vitriol that sometimes accompanies such a stinging sentiment. As an alternative, Penelope relishes the surprise and freedom of chopping unfastened from cell telephones and social media. 

Penelope is a comfortable fantasy set in the true world. 

Although that is the story of a runaway fleeing from her household and all she is aware of, Penelope shouldn’t be pressing with drama. There isn’t any grim inciting incident that spurs its younger heroine to strike out on her personal. As an alternative, the pilot, which is premiering as a part of Sundance’s Episodic Pilot Showcase, begins with Penelope fortunately bopping round at a silent disco, the place headphones enable the dancers to really feel related whereas not disturbing the animals of the encompassing forest. Penelope is not just like the others, although. Whereas they’re caught up within the music and one another, she makes eye contact with a wandering wolf. Identical to that, she appears destined to depart her household’s tenting journey for components unknown. 

The script from Eslyn and Mark Duplass (who co-wrote and starred in Biosphere) is scant intimately, purposefully sketching Penelope’s backstory as one among a child with loving dad and mom who test in along with her through textual content to remind her she’s received SAT prep developing. As she’s performed by Stott, Penelope does not appear burdened by tech or the pressures of her dad and mom; she simply appears bored by them. So, she goes on a “solo hike” that leads her to a store to purchase tenting provides. She turns off the “share location” possibility on her cellphone and hops onto a prepare automobile like a Mark Twain hero, giddy at her daring. 

Dad and mom — or these of us who grew up within the Stranger Hazard age— may flinch at her selections, as she hitchhikes, places her belief in randos, and goes out of her approach to make it possible for her of us cannot monitor her down. A lot of it looks as if a recipe on the best way to change into the topic of a future 20/20 particular report, however Eslyn is not making a harrowing drama about isolation or teen homelessness. The could-be threats of the true world are softened by a colour palette that’s breezy and welcoming, and the rating, which reverberates with electronically filtered ladies’s voices, seems like a synth-y siren luring Penelope ahead. The strangers she meets within the first episode present assist and heat smiles or curt recommendation, however by no means a cause for concern. Penelope gives us all of the dream of strolling into the nice and cozy woods and never trying again. 

Megan Stott is pitch-perfect in Penelope’s pilot episode. 

Megan Stott and Austin Abrams play kindred spirits in “Penelope.”
Credit score: Sundance

The place a lot of YA reveals and films are stuffed with snarking Imply Ladies or emotionally overwrought heroines, Penelope blooms from a spot of quiet reflection. As its protagonist strikes out on her personal, the present does not provide flowery speeches about her motivations. As an alternative, Stott’s wide-eyed expressions talk the surprise, curiosity, and pleasure of every step of her journey. Deceptively easy cinematography lingers on her fingers as she reaches for tenting provides in a retailer, all on her personal. The chances of the world are simply at her fingertips! A honest grin splashes throughout her apple cheeks as she overcomes a monetary impediment with a intelligent resolution. Her physicality is alive however by no means anxious, like a child ready their flip at a diving board. And so, by her each movement, Stott urges us to dive in with Penelope. 

Nonetheless, as a grown-up watching the present, it is simple to slide into our considerations in regards to the risks we all know lurk outdoors Penelope’s dreamy tunnel imaginative and prescient. Maybe we surprise what was so dangerous that she needed to run away to start with. The one concrete clue the pilot gives is a textual content that she does not ship: “Mother… Was I a contented child?” 

Implied right here is that regardless of seeming to have all of it — a cellphone, Apple Pay, loving dad and mom who help her schooling and take her to issues like silent discos — Penelope feels forlorn for some cause she will’t put her finger on. So, she follows a path again to nature to find who she is outdoors of social media and societal expectations. Who may she be within the woods with herself as her solely firm?

We’re invited to share in Penelope’s awe and pleasure as POV pictures enable us to vicariously expertise the fun of actually hopping onto a dashing prepare, watching the world rush by. However there’s nonetheless a distance between us and our eponymous heroine. 

Mel Eslyn offers Penelope her house. 

It is a thrill to observe a TV present that does not really feel the necessity to spell every thing out for you. (See additionally: True Detective: Night time Nation). By means of her path, Eslyn offers us entry to Penelope’s unstated considerations and needs, however she additionally permits the character some house for thriller. A scene the place she walks into the woods and out of focus reminds us that this journey is hers, and we’re witness solely to what she permits us. When she takes a photograph of nature on her cellphone however seems to be dismayed on the outcome, there isn’t any dialogue explaining why. Later, a dialog with a touring musician (Austin Abrams) offers us some readability. 

Penelope asks gently why he is bothering touring at tiny espresso retailers when Spotify exists. Why not “be part of this century”? Because it seems, his expertise with on-line communities has additionally felt missing. He explains that enjoying music stay versus distributing it through the Web is the distinction between visiting a river and seeing an image of a river. The distinction is being there, a romance with the true that’s undeniably beguiling by the eyes of those kindred spirits. 

Primarily based on the primary episode, it is laborious to guess the place Penelope may go subsequent. Will this play like a highway journey story, bringing the woman from one curious location to a different? Will the main target shift away from Penelope and to her dad and mom, who’ve been left behind to fret and surprise? Will it mix these could-be threads as a way to enable fantasy conflict with anxiousness? I could not say, however I am unable to wait to search out out. As pilots go, Penelope is completely enchanting. 

Penelope, all eight episodes, at the moment are streaming on Netflix.

UPDATE: Sep. 23, 2024, 10:53 a.m. EDT Penelope was initially reviewed out of Sundance, January 22, 2024. The evaluate has been up to date to mirror the sequence streaming debut.