![]() The series stars Erskine and Konkle, who also serve as executive producers alongside Zvibleman, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Becky Sloviter, Marc Provissiero, Brooke Pobjoy, Debbie Liebling, and Gabe Liedman. That you believe in Anna and Maya, both the alter-egos and the actors that spawned them, is perhaps the show’s greatest observation – you’re not as far from your inner teenager as you thought.PEN15 is an American comedy television series, created by Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, and Sam Zvibleman, that premiered on February 8, 2019, on Hulu. It’s an insight into lockstep friendship, one of many joys over of the course of the series. “You’re my rainbow gel pen in a sea of blue and black writing utensils,” Anna tells Maya by the end of the first episode. Erskine and Konkle so convincingly effect the “no duhs” and knee-jerk emotions of the tweener years that I genuinely forgot they were adults for most of the series (the only reminder: Konkle stands at least a foot taller than her classmates, who are played by actual, and extremely capable, 13-year-olds). ![]() Erskine and Konkle’s longtime friendship (they met as juniors in college, according to an interview with Vulture) translates vividly to the screen the bond between “My” and “Na” is by turns warm, desperate, playfully generative, frustrating, vulnerable yet as durable as the retainer Maya removes at socially inopportune moments. That’s in part due to the richness of adolescence as a means of shedding light on adult themes, but also a credit to PEN15’s stars, whose performances outshine the nostalgia porn of the show’s set pieces. PEN15 nails its context, but plenty of the everyday conundrums of middle school – eyeing your crush in gym class, total confusion over what is happening to your body, screeching band concerts – are likely to transcend the target audience. For someone only a few years removed from the 7th grade butterfly clips in the pilot’s 28 August 2000 start date, the polo shirts, low-rise khaki pants, silver chunk chain necklaces and Lifehouse lyrics peppering PEN15’s scenes trigger visceral flashbacks, buried but absolutely not forgotten. It’s hard to say how familiar viewers outside the millennial window of the show’s characters will find PEN15’s portrayal of adolescence. The show plays like a lived-in, live-action version of Big Mouth – the popular Netflix series that also mines the hormone monsters of early adolescence for gross-out laughs and insight – or a zanier take on the movie Eighth Grade. ![]() Like the lead performances, the storylines are intensely embodied Erskine plays a masturbation storyline for all the curiosity, shame and excitement that someone looking back on such a discovery can bring, while Konkle pops a bra strap with the confidence of a teenager who finds thongs both alluring and terrifying. ![]() But despite PEN15’s studied commitment to the Y2K aesthetic (and it’s committed, Limited Too sweatpants and all), the show lands firmly in the current zeitgeist with its no-holds-barred examination of puberty’s private shames and discoveries – particularly the ones which, for girls, rarely make the screen. Over 10 half-hour episodes, PEN15 works in the staple scenarios of being uncool in middle school there’s an inadvertent bowl cut, a mortifying prank, and mean girls who “already had reservations, sorry”.
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