‘PEN15’ is a completely honest show, completely about Asian-American childhood

The show’s first great episode, set at the turn of the millennium, was Season 1’s “Posh,” in which Maya, Anna, and three friends decided to make a fun video about the Spice Girls. Maya wants to be Posh Spice, but she is told by one of the other girls that she “looks[s] most similar to Scary” because of her “tan”. When cameras started rolling, Maya, now wearing Mel B’s signature cat ears and leopard print, was instead given a new role: a Mexican butler named Guido. “Why should I become a servant?” she asked her classmates, all of whom are Caucasian. “Because you’re, like, different from us,” she said.