PEN15
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From the first episode ofPEN15, Ive been wondering when the show would take on the late-90s Wicca craze.
Pentagram necklaces, Ouija boards, andBloody Marywere sleepover fixtures.
For two girls as outcast as Anna and Maya, the appeal is obvious.
Anna, ignored by her parents, wishes she wasnt a problem.
Maya wishes she was blonde and hairless instead of Asian and for a group of friends that love us.
Both wish the closet incident with Brandt had never happened.
Maya, still fixated on Brandt, creates a voodoo doll designed to ensnare him.
In a show with no end of rough subject matter, the Kones divorce might be the most brutal.
Theyre also upbraided by the principal for Mayas habit of repeatedly stuffing hanks of her hair into Brandts locker.
(With its usual fearlessness, the show displays the raw bald patch shes torn on her scalp.)
Are you in love with my dad, or are you just a Monica?
she asks her mom, before explaining, sotto voce, Lewinsky.
At home, a mortified Shuji twists the knife, telling Maya she should just go away.
Adolescence is a curse, and theres no breaking its spell.
