Make Way for PEN15 and Prepare to Relive Your Adolescence

The coming-of-age show is a mainstay on television, running the gamut in quality and genre, from The Wonder Years and Freaks and Geeks to the recent 13 Reasons Why. 

Hulu's PEN15 (yes, just like the joke you used to make as a kid), the latest addition to the great pantheon, is something special and fits right in with the past greats.

Created by Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle and Sam Zvibleman, the show stars Erskine and Konkle as two best friends navigating middle school. 

It's the year 2000 and they're fresh into seventh grade, dealing with the braces, the boys, the hormones and the burgeoning online culture. 

PEN15 excels at taking the viewer back in time, drawing on universal awkward experiences and feelings. 

Even if you weren't in middle school in 2000, you can absolutely relate to what Maya and Anna (the characters) are going through. That's what makes PEN15 so excellent.

What makes PEN15 work, and pretty much makes it the complete opposite of 13 Reasons Why, another show that captures the "magic" of being an adolescent and can make viewers feel like they're right back in school, is just how real PEN15 feels…even though the two stars are in their 30s. 

PEN15 works its magic living in the awkward comedy realm. 

The only fantastical aspect here, as opposed to 13 Reasons Why where just about every single terrible adolescent thing happens to the students of Liberty High, is the adult actors and creators playing kids.

"If you saw an actual 13-year-old going through some of these traumatic experiences, it might not be as fun to watch because you're like, ‘That poor kid.' 

Whereas if you have us as adults playing it, they can be like, ‘Oh, that's uncomfortable, but you are not actually experiencing this. Or you did, but you got through it,'" Erksine told Vulture.





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