It is Aug. 28, 2000, and everything is happening for the first time.

PEN15is built around an unusual conceit.

Erskine and Konkle are adults, co-creators of the show with Sam Zvibleman.

They play 13-year-olds; the other kid characters are all child actors.

Sounds bizarre, but the leads give such committed performances that the gimmick fades immediately.

They seem to be re-enacting autobiographical versions of their own younger selves Erskines own mother plays Mayas mom!

They are each others constants through the miserable variables of junior high.

Their dedication to one another represents love beyond words.

But they are childhood friends at the moment when very young teenagers begin to aggressively set aside childish things.

At an age when everything is changing, can their friendship stay the same?

Multiple tidal waves of social terror crash on their heads.

A couple dudes hint that they like Maya.

Anna accidentally smacks one dreamboats face with a well-placed kickball.

You dont even look bad with blood on your face!

she tells him, trying to be flirtatious.

Bullying ensues, but the first smart thing aboutPEN15is how it sidesteps the usual cliches of teen cliquery.

The supporting cast is great.

Mutsuko Erskine gives a remarkably sensitive performance playing herself, basically, as Mayas patient mom.

Liu is some Platonic Ideal of the Older Sibling, wise and annoyed.

The time period has been rendered with loving detail, but the humor goes beyond lame referentiality.

We watch in horror as some Spice Girls roleplay goes way wrong.

Then they tell her she has to play a servant, because shes the most tan.

Soon, Annas asking AskJeeves, Why is racism a thing?

I wanna choose which Spice Girl Im gonna be!

Maya demands, a plea for playground colorblind casting that brought a tear to my eye.

And yet, theres a sweetness in the wayPEN15takes the girls puberty as a nonchalant fact of life.

The specificity is microscopic; the kids even hum theWild Thingssoundtrack!

Erskine might look familiar from comedies likeInsecureandCasual, while Konkle was a series regular onRosewood.

WithPEN15, theyve given themselves star-making roles.

Maya is the bolder of the two girls, always pushing forward into ever-freakier realms of young adulthood.

I feel, like,older, concludes Maya.

Its a line infused with bittersweet triumph.

OnPEN15, growing up is exciting and maddening.