Another show that I came too from the Guardian's "Top TV of 2020" list. That was for the second season, but it only made sense to go back to the beginning. "Pen15" is a beautifully observed series, that I just wish was a touch funnier to really make me love it.
Two best friends, Maya (Maya Erskine) and Anna (Anna Konkle) enter the 7th grade of high school. There they face the issues of varying maturity levels amongst their peers, boys, high school cliques and the new technologies of the mid to late 1990's. Their friendships suffer across the year particularly as Anna's home life comes apart.
It's quite a clever idea. With the writers Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle effectively playing themselves as 12/13 year olds, it allows for much franker observations and performances than it would with actually teenagers taking their roles. This is evidence in the episode Ojichan, when Maya becomes addicted to . . . helping herself . . . to the extent that her relationship with Anna suffers. It's all nicely observed stuff, really nailing the inherent ridiculousness of what you think is important when you're 13th. The rest of the cast, filled out by actually teenagers all do really good jobs, particularly Taj Cross - who plays Maya's friend Sam.
I just wish that it made me laugh a little bit more frequently. That's what stopped me from really thinking that this was top tier TV. Maybe the second season can hit that sweet spot a little more often.
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