Hulu has just released the first trailer for PEN15's animated special, "The Jacuzzi." The episode follows Anna and Maya on a low-budget family vacation with Anna's dad, exploring how their insecurities manifest in an alien environment of southern Florida.
Picking up immediately after the events of the midseason finale, "Opening Night," the trailer reveals that Anna and Maya are just as uncomfortable outside of their comfort zone as they are in it. Even so, the temptations of new boys, fake tans, and boardwalk caricature artists prove too powerful to resist, landing them in truly cringe-inducing situations. Along the way, they're as temperamental as ever, vacillating between pouting about not having a good time and fantasizing about marrying boys they just met.
The trailer also hints at how the episode takes advantage of animation to heighten the drama, with Maya and Anna becoming the grotesque caricatures they posed for on that boardwalk. Initially planned as a live-action episode featuring prosthetics and camera tricks, the decision to animate the episode was in part a response to COVID, though that wasn't the only consideration. "We needed to be passionate about it being animated to do it; it couldn't just be like second fiddle to the ideal," said co-creator Anna Konkle when the special was first announced. "So we started digging in creatively." The result is clearly as bizarre as anything the series has come up with before.
As ever, the events of the episode are drawn from the adolescences of creators Konkle, Maya Erskine, and Sam Zvibleman. "I grew up going to Fort Lauderdale, where my grandparents lived in a retirement facility," recalled Konkle, who also directed the special. "I was excited to go, but then I would get there and remember, Okay, Anna, you’re sleeping on a mattress in the sunroom. So you’re going to wake up in a pool of sweat on rubber. And you will not see a person your age for a week, and if someone agrees to play cards with you, you’re lucky."
The special arrives as fans wait for the second half of Season 2, the first half of which was released in September of last year. The Season 2 episode "Play" is nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, marking the second time the series has been nominated in that category. Hulu has not yet announced when to expect the second half of the season, but the new special is sure to help tide fans over until then.
"The Jacuzzi" arrives on Hulu on August 27. Check out the trailer below: