Stream of the Day
PEN15 Season 2 — On Showmax Friday
The tragicomedy returns for a second season with new developments building on from season 1.
PEN15 is an 16-rated tragicomedy set in middle school as it really happened in the year 2000. Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine play versions of themselves as 13-year-old outcasts, surrounded by actual 13-year-olds.
Season 2 is an even bigger hit than its Emmy-nominated first season, with a 93% rating on Metacritic, where it’s number 1 on the top-scoring fictional TV shows of 2020. Season 2 also has a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where it’s number 2 on their list of the best TV shows of 2020. It is set to go live on Showmax on Friday 8 January.
As The Washington Post put it, “If one has to choose only one millennial-made TV series that ventures into adolescent angst in the AOL era, please make it this one. PEN15, could be almost considered an act of communal therapy. In their unflinching and even brave willingness to re-enact the range of hair-trigger emotions that turn teenagers into the worst kind of people, Erskine and Konkle (along with co-creator Sam Zvibleman) are offering a kind of catharsis to the rest of us: Yes, you were as awful as you remember being, but guess what? You were in the throes of becoming you. PEN15 is both an exquisite wallow in hormonal chaos and a belated act of forgiveness.”
The main characters include:
- Maya Erskine as Maya Ishii-Peters.
- Anna Konkle as Anna Kone.
- Mutsuko Erskine as Yuki Ishii-Peters.
- Richard Karn as Fred Peters.
- Taylor Nichols as Curtis Kone.
- Melora Walters as Kathy Kone.
- Taj Cross as Sam Zablowski.
- Dallas Liu as Shuji Ishii-Peters.
Season 1 of PEN15 is available now, to catch up before season 2.
