SEASON PREMIERE: Season 1 of PEN15 ended with a very touching, uncomfortable, poignant episode set at a high school dance, where the young teens played by series co-creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle endured small and large humiliations before reconnecting with the strength of their formerly fractured friendship. The bold thing about PEN15 is that, unlike other teen TV comedies from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis to The Wonder Years, the lead characters in PEN15 are played not by youngsters, but by adults. Erskine and Konkle, who write and created this series, are in their early 30s, but play their namesakes as seventh-graders (this season, eighth graders). All the other “kids” are played by actual young teens, and if Erskine and Konkle didn’t pull off their roles convincingly, PEN15 would be unwatchable. But they do, so it isn’t. In fact, it underscores the universality of the pains and joys of that age. This season: more life lessons, more indignities, more tiny victories, and more awkward moments that, sadly, are all too familiar.