“Penthouse 3” Ending Under Fire For Romanticizing Suicide

“Penthouse 3” Ending has come under fire by netizens!

“Penthouse 3” Ended its run a couple of days ago, however, the drama ending has seen mixed responses from netizens and for various reasons. It was reported that the hit drama received 831 complaints through its entire run time.

SPOILERS AHEAD OF EPISODE 14- TW/discussion of suicide

This time, “Penthouse 3” Ending is receiving backlash for romanticizing suicide.

“Penthouse 3” episode 14 ends with the suicide of three characters. First, Shim Su Ryeong turns out to have pushed herself off the cliff deliberately. Logan Lee finds out she’s been planning all of this and when his cancer relapses, he refuses treatment completely, resulting in his death. Lastly, Cheon Seo Jin kills herself from the top of a building near where her daughter works because she didn’t want to cause any more pain to her daughter.

The final scene of “Penthouse 3” Ending shows Shim Su Ryeong and Logan reuniting and going to paradise together to see their loved one.

This scene has been criticized for romanticizing suicide and showing it as if a person committing suicide will go to paradise.

The suicide scenes in the drama break every guideline the Ministry of Health and Welfare & Central Suicide Prevention Center had updated in 2019 in regards to suicide scenes on TV.

This includes not describing the methods and tools, not glorifying suicide, avoiding scenes where they commit suicide together or suicide after murder.

Many netizens are upset with the drama ending as a result.

What did you think of “Penthouse 3” ending? Did you like it or not?

Source: (A)

My personal thoughts- written by Jass K.

In my review of “Penthouse 3” ending, I talked about being personally disappointed with the ending and for a variety of reasons. I didn’t know the suicide scenes would become problematic but in hindsight, they should’ve seen this coming.

I was browsing Naver and saw a netizen comment something along the lines of how the penthouse ended without honor, which is exactly what I believe. It ended without the glory that it should have had. It ran for three seasons but managed to end so badly and so sloppily that very few were happy with it.

I think the ending was done as such to ‘surprise’ viewers. The screenwriter is writing makjang and these dramas are not particularly known for tackling mental health issues, so to see the suicide of two characters like that serves no purpose at all.

If we look at it from a plot point of view, it doesn’t even begin to make sense. Shim Su Ryeong’s death is still very odd, the woman has two children who are still so so young, they lost their father and they only have her, however, she chooses to end her life in front of Logan. This goes against every single character trait of Shim Su Ryeong. Its counterproductive above all else.

The suicide of Cheon Seo Jin also fails to make sense considering how much she loves herself. The reason why she ends her life is so weird because she demonstrated over and over again just how much she cares for herself and only herself. Her daughter took the backseat to her priorities. So for her to commit suicide because she doesn’t want to be a burden is weird. Its weird because she’s in jail and never coming out so what exactly is a ‘burden here,’ also, for her to kill herself at a place so close to her daughter’s workplace feels so self-serving.

Also, I do understand netizens complaints about the suicide parts, I get what the screenwriter wanted to do, but the way she went about it was so unnecessary and just sad. Why would she ever do that to something she worked on for one a half year… I will never know.