How to watch PEN15 – where is it streaming?

What’s worse than being a teen? Being a teen in the 1990s. Two brave souls relived the NSYNC-themed dark days for TV – here’s how you can stream PEN15.

Yes, the name means exactly what you think it does. Only a kid would think about writing a rude word like this… but thankfully, all our inner children find it funny.

The binge-worthy TV show follows Anna and Maya on a journey through high school, battling mean girls, boy crushes, and their own jealousies towards each other.

You’ll have likely seen little clips broken up on TikTok, but which streaming service can you actually watch PEN15 on? And even more pressing – how do you watch it outside the US?

How to watch PEN15 including outside the US

PEN15 is a Hulu original, meaning US fans can watch it there. For international fans, Sky Go or Now TV subscriptions are your best bet.

However, there’s a slight catch here. Whereas both seasons of the new TV show are on Hulu, only the first season is available internationally.

It’s unclear whether the second will get added at any point, but given Season 2 has been out for three years, it feels unlikely.

While Sky Go and Now TV are the only two international options, US fans have a lot more choice. If you aren’t subscribed to Hulu, you can also buy and/or rent the comedy on Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+.

Better yet, you can get access through a variety of Hulu bundles with Disney Plus. There’s no “free” alternative, unless you stick to watching out-of-order TikTok clips that make no sense.

The pandemic shut down PEN15 after two seasons

Creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle said they envisaged PEN15 to be three seasons long, but the show was canceled after Season 2 due to pandemic filming restrictions.

Hulu

The show’s end was announced in November 2021, with the series swept up in a barrage of TV shows that couldn’t carry on amidst the pandemic.

According to Konkle, the pair went into creating the final episodes knowing they’d be the last… but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still a glimmer of hope for PEN15’s future.

“I think our language at the time was, ‘You never know what’ll happen in the future,’ and we still feel like this,” she explained to Vulture. “But we wanted to tie up the story in a way we felt was appropriate and write the episodes in a way that we would be proud if they were our last ones.

“If, in the next ten years, there are any other stories that come to us and we’re like, ‘Oh, we have to tell this,’ this frame allows for that. But the characters are in seventh grade forever, and the show’s just not going to go on forever. That was always the idea.”

No plans for a revival – or a straightforward Season 3 – have ever been announced.

Anna and Maya look old… because they are

You’ve possibly wondered why Anna and Maya look older than the other kids – it’s because they’re adults playing their 13-year-old selves. The pair were in their early 30s at the time of filming.

Hulu

Technically, they’re not exact versions of their teenage selves. Fictional Anna’s surname is Kone, while Maya’s is Ishii-Peters. You might also catch throwback TikToks featuring photos from their real teenage years, suggesting the pair have really hammed up the stereotypes on screen.

There are plenty of explicit, non-teen-friendly scenes during both seasons of PEN15, meaning a cast under 18 would have been out of the question. But as Erskine and Konkle told IndieWire, the move was very much intentional.

“Part of what was freeing was knowing we are rejects in this world, so even if we don’t disappear, [it’s OK],” Konkle said. “We are 30-year-olds in bizarre clothing trying to do it authentically, and maybe it’s OK [if] we don’t fit in — it can just enhance that, which was the idea.”

“The physical transformation is incredibly helpful,” Erskine added. “You’re being placed into these clothes that are ill-fitting for adults. You’re wearing low-rider jeans […] and squeezing your stomach in and out like a sausage. […] When I put my retainer in, it transformed the way I spoke. I wanted to hunch over and hide my flat chest.

“I wanted to hide my face because I hated how my hair looked. It was a constant self-consciousness that was almost liberating because we were showing what we were most afraid to show.”

PEN15 is available to stream on Hulu now. You can catch up with the best TV shows of the year so far, as well as more TV shows streaming this month. For more comedy, check out Time Bandits, Emily in Paris Season 4, and our Season 3 review of The Bear (just trust us).