Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle real-life BFFs turn their on-screen cringe-worthy middle school selves in the Hulu Original “Pen15.” “Pen15” exudes the awkward quirky stage of our lives we all seem to abolish from our memories. Though more or less documented across generations, the nostalgia is provoking. The cringiest yet most comforting part of the series is how co-creators Maya and Anna play their middle-aged selves while the rest of their middle school friends are played by real-life tweenagers. The quirks that go unnoticed are the way they strategically film their first kiss scenes (and such ;)) to look like their thirty-year-old selves are kissing underaged actors, which makes it all more of a cringe comedy.
Despite their power in conveying the innocence and naivety of middle schoolers in the early 2000s with new instant messaging technologies like AIM and curfewed landline phone calls, Erskine and Konkle explore the troubles of divorce, racism, peer pressure, puberty, and slut-shaming in the purest of ways. The values of friendship are especially questioned as they swear to each other to share their deepest secrets and experience their firsts together, no matter what. With their miscommunicated arguments and tweenage angst, they’re bound to rocky roads.
While middle school Maya and Ana barely survive seventh grade, they cope by romanticizing crushes and “being cool,” a mechanism all too familiar in teenagers today. “Pen15” is a life-changing series that reminds us that we’re all inherently the same, working through the trials and tribulations of finding our way, just at different stages in life and with various amounts of confidence. In the end, life imitates art and it’s all just a phase. Revisit your own unpleasant and suppressed prepubescent era with a binge-watch of Hulu’s “Pen15,” I, unfortunately, was reminded of my exact awkwardness and praising of middle school boys and you should too!