No period of life is more dramatic, transformative, or as endlessly weird as your middle school years. It’s that universal truth that PEN15 understood, time and time again. Though it’s nice to know that Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle’s Hulu comedy ended on its own terms, it’s hard not to be sad at its finale. Just like your best friend who sympathy cries with you during your stupidest temper tantrum, PEN15 just got it.
PEN15′s take on preteen years has always been what set it apart. There have been a countless number of shows designed to appeal to 11 to 13-year-olds, everything from The Baby-Sitters Club to the far more scandalous Riverdales and Gossip Girls of the world. There have even been more instructional shows about this time period, shows like Big Mouth that simultaneously mock this age for adults while offering preteens a funny guide to their endlessly changing bodies. PEN15 never sought to relate to or educate modern middle schoolers. Instead, its goal was to celebrate a very specific time in Erskine and Konkle’s life, one that was equally defined by intense love, low-rise flare jeans, and deep heartbreak.
It’s a time I know well. Just like Maya and Anna, I spent the 2000s in middle school. I obsessed over ominous away messages on AIM. I wore bright blue eyeshadow and even brighter pink lip gloss, convinced that I was exemplifying the height of fashion. I screamed at my mom and lost my mind over weird impulses, like wanting to buy a cool friend a too-expensive necklace for her birthday. And I had a best friend who meant the universe to me, a woman who remains the most important person in my life. To me, PEN15 has always looked a bit like a funhouse mirror. The image may be a little off, but the important details were always there.
The most important of these details, and where PEN15 has always excelled, has been in its portrayal of best friendship. When we first met Maya and Anna, they were straddling the openhearted nature of childhood and the terrifying chasms of impending adulthood. Theirs was never a perfect friendship. Anna never fully understood the racism that Maya faced, nor was she sympathetic enough in the wake of Maya’s deeply upsetting blowjob. Likewise, Maya was often selfish and rarely tried to understand how Anna felt as her parents divorced. But through this sorrow and messiness, their friendship became beautiful. The fact that they stayed supportive and joined at the hip despite never fully understanding what the other was going through gave even the darkest moments in this show a sliver of hope. This duo started their journey clinging to one another. They may have loosened their grip from time to time, but by Season 2’s finale it becomes clear that they will never fully let go.
It’s that sweet, quiet thesis that has made this Hulu comedy such a remarkable show over its two seasons. Life, the series argued, will always be confusing and difficult. But as long as you have someone you love on your side, you can tackle just about anything. Through its optimism, PEN15 was able to make our most embarrassing years not only funny but into a time worthy of pride. At what other age do people love as openly, loyally, and intensely as middle school? There isn’t any other time. There’s something precious and wonderful about wearing your heart on your sleeve like that.
I will never miss my time in middle school. But I will miss PEN15.
Watch PEN15 on Hulu