Underplayed Gems

PEN15 (2019)

PEN15 poster
Directed by
Andrew Deyoung
Genre
comedy television series
Country
United States
Length
2 seasons, 25 episodes
Rated
TV-MA
Rating
8.3 of 10 from 311 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Two adult women play exaggerated versions of their 13 year old selves navigating middle school in the year 2000. They deal with friendship, embarrassment, and the small dramas of adolescence while surrounded by actual teenage actors.

cringenostalgicawkwardcomedicemotionally rawsentimentalrelatableunflinchingly honest

What happens

Pen15 is an American cringe comedy television series, created by Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, and Sam Zvibleman, that premiered on February 8, 2019, on Hulu. The series stars Erskine and Konkle, who also serve as executive producers alongside Zvibleman, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Becky Sloviter, Marc Provissiero, Brooke Pobjoy, Debbie Liebling, and Gabe Liedman. In May 2019, Hulu renewed the series for a second season of fifteen episodes, the first half of which premiered on September 18, 2020. In November 2021, it was reported that the series' second season would be its last. Pen15 is described as "middle school as it really happened". Erskine and Konkle – who were both 31 years old at the start of season one – "play versions of themselves as 13-year-old social outcasts in the year 2000, surrounded by actual 13-year-olds, where the best day of your life can turn into your worst with the stroke of a gel pen." The show takes its name from a school prank involving tricking someone into writing the word "PEN15" (which looks like the word "penis") on their hands by asking if they want to join the "Pen 15 Club". (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.