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PEN15
February 8, 2019  | By David Bianculli

Hulu, 3:00 a.m. ET

 

SERIES PREMIERE: Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle are two of the three co-creators of this comedy series, which looks at life from the perspective of 13-year-old girls just embarking on seventh grade in the year 2000. It’s the same basic framework, with the genders reversed, of when Kevin Arnold and his friend Paul attended the first day of a new school on ABC’s The Wonder Years. Except that series was set in 1968, and the adult Kevin looked back on his life as the unseen narrator of his own story, played by Daniel Stern, commented from a more knowing perspective. In Pen15, it’s as though the adult isn’t just looking back on youth, but reliving it – literally, by playing the part. In other words, acting opposite actual 13-year-olds in this show (and some judiciously inserted body doubles) are the 31-year old Maya Erskine and 24-year old Anna Konkle. Erskine plays Maya Ishii-Peters, an Asian-American with a new bowl haircut courtesy of her mother, while Konkle’s gangly Anne Kone is blonde with braces. Sam Zvibleman is the show’s third co-creator, who directs half the first season’s eight episodes. I didn’t take to it, but try it. You just might. For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower

 
 
 
 
 
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