What I’m Watching: Pen15 (Mid-Season Premiere)

Pen15: Season 2, Episode 9 “Bat Mitzvah” (B)

I’m watching this episode after catching up on the first half of season two when it got Emmy-nominated, though I skipped the animated special that served as a bridge between the two and debuted back in August. I’m still not completely sold on this series, but given that it’s now been cancelled, I think I can watch six more episodes to close it out. I was interested in this episode in particular because of its title, which mostly had to do with a big party that Maya and Anna got to attend and of course made awkward. Anna was quite bothered by what she was learning about the Holocaust and the fact that her ancestors may not have been on the right side of history, which she made much worse than it needed to by presuming things that hadn’t been confirmed and then getting very into them. Her relationship with Steve has taken an optimistic turn, though that’s likely to have a negative impact on the already fragile dynamic that exists between Anna and Maya. Even more uncomfortable was Maya’s obsession with getting a very fancy gift for Becca, which her mom wasn’t okay with and tried to dissuade her from, only to have her get it and then steal it back when she realized that Becca wasn’t even remotely appreciative. This show loves to live in the awkwardness that comes from moments that could easily pass by without happening, and I’m sure we can look forward to many more of those in the remaining episodes.

Emmy Catch-Up: Pen15 (Season Finale)

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 7 “Opening Night” (B+)

The actual performance of the play went about as expected, with Maya not necessarily finding her light but doing a pretty incredible job of conveying the material that most of the audience didn’t seem to realize was definitely not appropriate for this age group. Gabe covering his mouth when they were supposed to kiss threw her, but overall things went pretty well. I like that, at the end of the show, everyone went out together and we got to see the dynamics at play. Maya, as usual, was worried about her parents embarrassing her as she left, which her mother definitely did when she reminded her to brush her teeth. Anna wasn’t at all nice to her mom when she rejected the flowers she had gotten her since that’s apparently not a tradition with the stage crew, and then she heaped praise on her father for getting them when he then too criticized her mother for not picking out the nicest possible arrangement. The fancy car he got was a great setting for Maya to find out from Gabe that he didn’t feel the butterflies, an unfortunate development but one that he delivered somewhat nicely, and after she was flirting with her own potential boyfriend who seemed completely clueless (or likely just too old for her), Anna sweetly stepped in to check on her best friend. Even more uplifting was that she went to check on her mom, who did need that, and then the episode ended with her finding out that things are about to change in a big and irreversible way. I did enjoy some of this season more than I expected to, and though it’s still not my favorite, I will plan to continue watching it when it returns with the second half of its second season, at which point I’ll also watch the animated episode that just dropped last week.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle

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.

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 5 “Sleepover” (B-)

This episode returned to more miserable full-on awkwardness, starting with the terrible idea for Anna to ask Maya with Maura on the phone what she would rank her out of ten, which resulted in Maya very clearly saying a four and then trying to pretend that she had actually said, “for sure ten.” Things got much worse when Maya creepily unzipped the suitcase from the inside and burst out of it, extending a bit that already wasn’t going very well by way too much, and the idea of playing truth or dare wasn’t going to lead anywhere good. Making Maya feel very uncomfortable about the whole bathroom situation was unkind and unpleasant, and it only got worse when things got physical later in the episode. The boys’ night in wasn’t much better, though at least they weren’t being horrible to each other. The idea of staying up all night didn’t work too well, and, as her mother knew would be the case, Maya called to be picked up. But the most significant development, of course, was Anna finding the magazine which showed her that Maura had been lying all along about her very cool doctor friend. Maura didn’t react well, and I hope that this is the last that we’ll see of her, though I’m sure the final two episodes of the season will involve plenty of discomfort and pettiness, even if someone like her isn’t around to cause it. Maya and Anna seem to be back on good terms, which should last at least partway through an episode.

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 4 “Three” (B+)

I actually liked this episode so much more than the three that came before it, which is strange given that it was theoretically even more cringe-worthy than all of those. The difference may have been that, for the first time, Maya and Anna weren’t embarrassing themselves, but instead being sought after by someone who was apparently motivated enough to win the “Best Best Friends” superlative that she was ready to invent a lifelong relationship and bribe every student with a ring pop. What was most jarring was the way she spoke to her mother, which of course influenced Maya and Anna to start doing the same thing with their own mothers. I didn’t realize how much I would appreciate the opportunity to see Mutsoko Erskine’s Yuki and Melora Walters’ Kathy interact and bond over the fact that their daughters were being terrible to them. I enjoyed Yuki’s initial response that they didn’t need anything before she saw what Maya was doing, and how the two moms affirmed each other after their daughters indicated how little respect they had for them. Yuki trying to conference in Maura’s mom at the end was entertaining too. There was nothing subtle about that three-piece heart necklace, and, while Maya is starting to catch on to Maura’s nefarious behavior, Anna seems blissfully unaware in a way that’s sure to provoke tension very soon. Finding out that she bribed people to vote for them isn’t likely to be a problem since they would do the same thing, but she’s rewriting history in a way that just won’t work for these two best best friends.

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 3 “Vendy Wiccany” (C)

This episode was an unfortunate combination of two things that I’m not terribly fond of – the awkwardness of this show and occult storylines. The latter is just something I almost never enjoy, especially when it’s out of place and wouldn’t ordinarily be featured. As if Maya and Anna don’t have enough trouble fitting in, now they had to go and chant as if they were possessed so that they could try to make their greatest wishes come true through magical means. Buying into that was the biggest issue for me, and so I didn’t find myself terribly engaged in this episode. I think fans of the show will accuse me of not getting the point of this show, and I do think that’s true, but I’m not sure what I can do to change that other than try to have an open mind while I keep watching. While it wasn’t entirely clear that anything supernatural was going on despite Anna being convinced of it and freaking Maya out in the process, there was a much more direct conversation that happened which isn’t really open to interpretation. Brandt told Maya that he didn’t like her and that he wanted her to stop being obsessed with him, and while I’m sure that unsubtle request won’t go over so well with Maya, it’s likely to spur her in a different direction, whether it’s to win someone else’s affection or to get revenge on the boy that she now believes has broken her heart.

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 2 “Wrestle” (B-)

This show is reminding me more and more of “Chad,” another show where a thirtysomething actress plays a teenager, and in that case portrays a teenage boy. But the idea is that awkwardness is key to every moment, and I just don’t enjoy cringing all that much. I’m sure I wasn’t particularly cool during my middle school and high school years, but I don’t remember it being quite that awful. It was obvious that Maya’s eagerness to wrestle wasn’t going to result in her getting Brandt to notice or show interest in her, and after she ended up having to wrestle Anna first, she then found out that he hadn’t won his match so she wasn’t going to be taking him on at all. Maya and Anna’s ability to move up to the weight class was impressive, but, again, it didn’t do them much good. Open, honest conversation is hard to find on this show, and whenever it does happen, it’s very fleeting because those moments are interrupted and the desire to seem impossibly cool and not at all emotional kicks in for everyone. The adult relationships on this show aren’t going that much better, and Anna is witnessing that firsthand as the go-between for her feuding parents over an incredibly symbolic pillow that speaks to the fights they’ve had and the things that they can’t stand about each other. Theoretically, it’s a painful dynamic that Maya could help Anna process but she seems far too preoccupied with being with Brandt to think about anything else.

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 1 “Pool” (B-)

I saw two episodes of this season from season one – the pilot and the installment that earned a writing nomination last year – and I put off starting this season even though I was pretty confident that it was going to crack the Best Comedy Series lineup this time around. My feelings towards it are about the same, that it’s mildly entertaining but not exactly my kind of comedy. Apparently a lot has happened since I last tuned in, namely a shared sexual experience that both Maya and Anna have been told by the impossibly cool Brandt not to tell anyone about, which of course is the opposite of what they did. It should say something, I suppose, that this is the only one of the seven episodes that were Emmy-eligible that weren’t submitted for consideration as part of its Best Comedy Series bid, which indicates that the best is likely yet to come. If there’s one thing about this show that stands out more than anything it’s that its characters like to talk, especially about the things that they’re instructed by others not to talk about, and when they’re confronted with a truth they don’t want shared, they double down and aggressively fight it. The drama of, say, not being able to go inside a house while wet is highly exaggerated here, making minimal problems seem like the biggest deal in the world. Six more episodes isn’t a huge commitment, and hopefully I’ll become more endeared to a show a lot of people really like by the end of it.

Emmy Episodes: Pen15

It’s always my policy to watch every Emmy-nominated episode each year, which leads me to sample a handful of shows that I don’t tune in to on a regular basis. For the fourth year in a row, I’m making a special effort to spotlight each of those installments to offer my perspective on shows that I don’t review each week.

Pen15: Season 1, Episode 9 “Anna Ishii-Peters” (B-)

I was truly surprised to see this show earn an Emmy nomination in any category after really not liking the pilot. Looking back at my review, I guess I didn’t hate it quite as much as I remembered, but it surely wasn’t anywhere near the best comedy on television. I’ve also developed an affinity for co-creator, co-writer, and co-star Maya Erskine still watching this pilot back in February thanks to her fantastic turn in the Tribeca film “Plus One,” which is far funnier than anything on this show. I will say that this installment was slightly better than the pilot, if only because of the focus on friendship that it offered as covered in a weekend where a best friend started to replace the daughter in all the ways she didn’t realize she feared. There is some comedy gleaned from the fact that both Erskine and Anna Konkle are much older than the teenagers they’re supposed to be playing, but none of it worked particularly well or added anything substantial in my opinion (I understand that many do like this show and its format a lot). Its storyline was a bit more compelling, though I’d actually have recognized this episode more for its direction than its writing given the way each of the scenes were framed. I thought I recognized two of the parents from previous projects, though I could only peg one of them. Richard Karn, who plays Maya’s dad, should be familiar to most from “Home Improvement,” and I’ll always remember Melora Walters, who plays Anna’s mom, from her standout turn in “Magnolia,” even if I couldn’t identify her here. I wasn’t a big fan of the “Barry” installment nominated against this episode at the Emmys, but this is still probably my last choice in that category.

Pilot Review: Pen15

Pen15 (Hulu)
Premiered February 8

Now here’s a show that isn’t even trying to be mature, starting from the point of having its title serve as an infantile reference to genitalia. There have been many shows recently that have tried to approach the teenage years from a novel angle, including “Sex Education” and “Big Mouth,” two very different interpretations of oversexed young people and the outlets they find for their fantasies and real-life issues. The notion of having two thirty-year-olds play versions of themselves going through middle school is mildly appealing for the visual humor it provides, but that’s about it. This show makes its protagonists seem like bullies because they’re so much bigger and evidently older than everyone else, and not in the way that many high school-set shows and movies often feature clearly older actors. I didn’t think I knew either Maya Erskine or Anna Konkle, who serve as co-creators along with Sam Zvibleman and star as Maya and Anna, respectively. A quick look on IMDB shows that Erskine played Rae on “Casual,” a role I enjoyed greatly. Little of this opening half-hour reminded me of the actress’ spark there, and it’s hard to find much to applaud on this show that delivers exactly what it promises: efforts to be inappropriate and crude at every juncture in a way that’s supposed to be made funnier by the physical presentation of adults reflecting back on their childhood while surrounded by actual kids. It’s a gimmick, and one that doesn’t end up being nearly as transformative or revelatory as its star-creators seem to think it is.

How will it work as a series? I can’t imagine that much more of it, since most of the bases of seventh grade have already been covered, from dolls to drugs to kissing. Their friendship will no doubt be put to the test time and time again, and I suspect that, true to form to the people it presents, they’ll manage to get over each hurdle even if considerable drama occurs until each eventual moment of forgiveness.
How long will it last? The reviews are surprisingly good, which baffles me but probably shouldn’t since I know that I’m not in the target demographic for this show. Hulu is trying to build up its brand as it goes up against competitors Netflix and Amazon, and having fare like this will help it diversify the type of content it airs and keep it relevant. I don’t see why a second season wouldn’t be commissioned.

Pilot grade: C