In this week’s newsletter: shows like Pen15 aren’t sticking around for long – and it is hard not to feel a pang of regret for the TV we’ve lostDon’t get the Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
It has been a bittersweet experience watching the final seven episodes of Pen15 (available on Sky
comedy and Now in the
UK and Hulu in the US), the cringe-inducing high-school comedy that sees thirtysomething comics Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle play 13-year-old versions of themselves (amid a cast of actual teens). The show is as brilliant and bracing as ever, full of adolescent angst, absurdist humour and the occasional moment of devastating drama. But until these episodes arrived, there was no indication that they would be the show’s last.
When that news broke, the assumption was that Pen15 – a little-watched if critically beloved comedy – had been cancelled, but that wasn’t the case: Erskine and Konkle have both just had children and have tons of other commitments (Erskine is in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series; Konkle is writing a memoir), so were conscious of burning out, and – crucially – felt that they had told their characters’ story. Still, it’s hard not to feel like Pen15 has gone too soon.