TV Review: Pen15’s Season 2 Puts The Real In Really Funny
Part of what makes a comedy really special and human is when it allows itself to let serious, sad moments be just that. Yes, comedy is the choice to laugh at tragedy rather than cry, but the whole point of that is to hope a new method helps you heal and accept what went wrong. It is the equivalent to to saying “kill ‘em with kindness” to a horrible bully in hopes that the hugs his parents failed to give him will be received by you rather than punches to the face. Yeah, that doesn’t really work, but that is a core lesson Maya Ishii Peters (Maya Erksine) and Anna Kone (Anna Konkle) confront as Pen15’s Season 2, back on Hulu on September 18, displays the school horrors of bullying.
Okay, Maya and Anna were not exactly popular Pen15’s Season 1, but I am sure they didn’t expect to become the school’s “desperate sluts” and have a bunch of pre-teen boys talk about their body like one would a video game. The entire season is both funnier and sadder as it observes the viciousness of children towards each other, and even themselves, as they attempt to be “cool.” Now, in defense of kids, I can’t say adults are much better at realizing “looking good” and “being good” are two different things. Hello? We all have an Instagram with the very purpose of confusing the two. But portrayals of childhood are often wrought with too much melodrama or cheerfulness: with the truth being right down the middle. Maya and Anna are a floodgate of emotions, curiosities, and goals they are not sure they are supposed to have because they are not “adults.”
Pen15: Season 2 Trailer (Official) * A Hulu Original
Erksine and Konkle have to be ONE of the most perfect, comedic duos I have ever seen in my life. The way they play off each other in both laughs and pain is palpable, raw, hilarious, and enlightening. Both creators of Pen15, they have made their characters’ vernacular, mannerisms, and perspectives on life real and accessible enough to see children really are just younger, human beings: with the same wonders and woes as adults. As one of the most original shows I have ever seen, and one of the closest portrayals on what it is to be a 13 year old girl. this show could have struck cliches and gone through cheesy routes to prove the same narrative of “Kids…. Am I right?” Yet, Erskine and Konkle, both as writers and actors, have a respect for young girls’ intelligence and hearts; trying to show how vast they can be even if they think to grind with a boy means to have a threesome and that researched, internet spells actually makes them witches.
I can honestly say I didn’t expect to laugh as much as I did with Pen15 Season 2 because I could not imagine how they would outdo such a great Season 1. Yet, I forgot how foolish and beautiful it was to be 13 and talk about sex as if I knew what it was beyond practicing kissing with my mirror. The show reminded me how I would blush at dirty jokes and curse words as to if say them was “dangerous,” be obsessed with boys, like Maya with Brandt (Jonah Beres), that DID not mind making fun of my body with their buddies, and thinking afternoon, pool parties or sleepovers were high, societal events. Ugh! Life was so simple in its complications or, at least, you felt simpler in handling them. When you are a kid, all you can do is feel through your experiences because they are the first time, but, as adults, you have so many “first times” you hopefully learn how to feel differently about them. Thus, as the girls confront “adult” issues like divorce, sexuality, and theater club, this season is as much funnier as it is more serious. Yet, I welcome both because they are handled with exceptional wit and humanity from ALL its cast, including young stars like Sam (Taj Cross) and newcomer/ “new friend” Ashlee Grubbs as Maura.
