In the show, what at first seems to be a visual gag turns out to be a powerful argument for the sustainability of female friendships-specifically, friendships grounded in forms of creativity and play that have historically been devalued in middle school and Hollywood alike. And so the show invites the question: If not marriage or long-term romantic partnership, what options exist for female BFFs-who hope to both maintain the friendship and carve out their own worlds for themselves-to be as close as possible and to be individuals? PEN15’s premise-two adult collaborators playing teenage best friends-allows the viewer to simultaneously perceive two different time frames of a female friendship. It also points to the ways in which our friendships formed, and continue to form, who we are today. It points to the ways in which 30 is not that far from 13: the ways you can slip back into that hunched, emotional, bleeding weirdo you hoped you had left behind years ago. While the premise is a fantastic joke that highlights the discomfort and embarrassment of puberty-Maya and Anna the characters are made even gawkier by the actors’ height and the wigs and fake braces that were added to make them into their teenage selves-it also serves a formal and emotional purpose. It is rude and brutal and tender, taking on masturbation and microaggressions and gel pens with equal seriousness. Watching adults smile through their braces and talk on corded phones in their childhood beds feels like both a great joke and a great tragedy, because we know, from our own experience, that seventh grade is probably not going to be amazing.Īt first glance, PEN15 seems to be purely a sketch show, thrilling in the deep humiliation and gross-out humor of the two adult women discussing every detail of their awkward middle school years. (The rest of the cast is made up of real middle schoolers).
There was only one TV show this year that made me cry, and it wasn’t This Is Us it was a TV show about two girls, one with a bowl cut and one with braces, who deeply, desperately believe that seventh grade will be “amazing.” PEN15 takes place in 2000, and the two stars and writers-Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle-are 31-year-old women playing their 13-year-old selves.
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