Hulu's PEN15 Is the Perfect Show for Anyone Who Was Uncool in 2001
I learned nothing in middle school except that existing in middle school is its own unceasing hell. Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle understand that too, and for some reason have decided to revert to their 13-year-old selves for Hulu's PEN15. The result is one of the funniest and warmest shows about growing up you'll ever see.
Playing themselves but 19 years ago, Erskine becomes Maya Ishii-Peters, and Konkle becomes Anna Kone. Fitted with a bowl cut and braces, respectively, the two are eerily believable as early-teen best friends. A great creative decision came in casting the rest of their social peers, all of whom are played by actual kids. It adds an extra level of quiet desperation to Maya and Anna's quests to, say, befriend the popular girl, or kiss boys (as you can imagine, those kissing scenes need to be... quite creative, too.)
PEN15 focuses on the sheer glut of feelings that comes with navigating adolescence, but never for a second does it stop being funny. Like we do thinking back on our middle school years, PEN15 has the benefit of hindsight. Every heartbreak, every falling out, every un-replied-to AIM message stings just as brutally as it did then, but also invites warmth. Man, remember when my biggest problem was not getting a solo in the school band? There are heavier moments, though, for those seeking them: Anna's parents are mostly background noise for the first few episodes, but their bickering slowly morphs into something more sustained, more real, with a well-earned emotional payoff.
PEN15 walks the fine line between "coming-of-age story" and "raucous" sitcom, benefitted by its very separate episodes. While all eight installments will be available on Hulu this Friday, this is no breakneck binge-watch show. My personal favorite is the episode we'll call "the one with the thong." The closest we get to a "very special" episode deals with Maya's innocent childhood discovery of racism (her own included), and her very earnest quest to figure out where she fits in with both her family and friends. But while PEN15 always has a point to make, it never hits the brakes on the jokes for too long.
It's hard not to imagine this is how people felt about the '80s-set Freaks and Geeks when it aired in 1999/2000. I'm a fan, of course, but as someone who was growing up, awkward, and deeply uncool in 2003, PEN15 punched me in the heart and gut over and over, and I couldn't be more grateful.
