Emmy Catch-Up: Pen15

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. Last year, I started watching the entire season of each show to get a better idea of the quality I missed, and I’ve decided to continue that this year.

Pen15: Season 2, Episode 6 “Play” (B+)

Okay, so I can see why some people like this show, even if I still don’t get the unending praise heaped upon it by so many. This is the episode, written by Maya Erskine, that earned one of the show’s three Emmy bids this year, for writing in a comedy series. It definitely doesn’t feel like the other installments I’ve seen so far, so enmeshed in the experience of starring in this play that has such profound implications for Maya and Anna’s friendship dynamic. Maya did her fake sympathy act when Anna didn’t end up on the cast list and she briefly said that she wouldn’t do it either, but the adoring attention of others quickly robbed her of that sensibility. It was Anna who ended up on the real power trip when she was at first bored working with the rest of the stage crew and then got told that she had great ideas by the eternally quoting student supervising that group. The way that she made Maya and the rest of the cast constantly freeze midway through rehearsal was incredibly obnoxious, and Maya had an entirely different experience acting in the wholly inappropriate play written by Greg, played by past Emmy nominee Michael Angarano from “Will and Grace” and “This Is Us.” I enjoyed her brief opportunity to really get into the role in a way that showed why it’s not right for children, and the fact that she and Gabe decided to take for real right before having their first kiss was somehow more sweet than awkward. That wasn’t quite the case when they both put masks on each other thinking that he was sick, but I suppose it’s endearing.