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Original Air Date: December 16, 1984 Review completed December 25, 2005 "Yes, Punky, There Is A Santa Claus" It's just about Christmas time for Henry and Punky, and Henry is slowly but surely looking forward to the celebration this year. Punky is a little more reluctant without her mom, and a classmate makes it worse by casting Santa into doubt. Henry, determined to give Punky a merry holiday, dresses up as Santa and appears at Punky's school, where he finds out that Punky's Christmas wish is her mom, delivered by Saint Nick. Henry has no idea what he's going to do, as his search continues to be unsuccessful. On the way back from an unsuccessful lead, he warms up at an antique store, where a funny old man tries to give him a jewelery box. On Christmas morning, an excited Punky gets up and finds her mother missing. Henry convinces her to at least open her presents...and Punky discovers that one gift is her mother's jewelery box, the same one that the old man tried to give Henry. On a hunch, Henry dials Information and finds that he was at an non-existant store. As he hangs up the phone, Henry thanks Santa for making the impossible happen. Long-winded episode description, isn't it? There's a crapload that happens in this episode, and that's not just because it's an hour-long special. Indeed, this is a full and rich story, with lots happening and all sorts of details that it'll do you good to pay attention to. So, is there any way to shorten this? Yes, there is: This is my favourite episode, the gold standard by which all others are judged. Well, now that I've set the bar somewhere about the level of the Skydome's upper deck, I have some backing up to do. Relatively easy, in my mind. What are some things I constantly talk about in my reviews? Character, story flow, consistency, connection with the audience, and the ability of the story to let you turn off your brain and let you believe what you're seeing. How many of those five do you think the story hits? Character...well, technically, it's "depth of character". But it still works. Even the supporting characters show a lot of personality here, like Allan managing to freakin' shine in all of about five lines through the episode. But this is Punky and Henry's story by far, and this story does a lot to illustrate both what we know about them and what we learn about them. Some episodes are content to focus on one side of the characters, but here we have a story that uses all of them. I'm not really sure why it's a novel concept that Punky can both be ovewhelmingly positive and still ache for her mom, but she does here. Likewise, Henry is boyishly charming, a steadfast authority figure, an unsure but devoted parent, and even bitingly nasty at a few short times. Our mains are oceans deep in this story, and not once do we have to be informed; every trait is shown and demonstrated. Story flow, by my definition, is how well all of the different parts of the story flow together to make a whole, and how well they build to a point. And nothing else in the story emphasizes that as well as the scene where Punky opens the jewelery box to hear her mother's song. Not only is it a tender scene in and of itself, but it incorperates everything that's happened throughout the story and makes it all a unified whole. Think about it; in order to see that as a climatic moment, we have to know that the song playing is Punky's mother song, we have to know just how much Punky wants to see a sign of her mother again, we have to know that seeing this moment should technically be impossible, we have to know that Punky's happiness would be Henry's ultimate goal in his Christmas shenanigans, AND it has to tie into the theme of finding faith on Christmas. Done, done, done, done, and done. Every single thing written into the episode smoothly builds in a realistic way towards that moment, which means that the writers were obviously putting a lot of thought into the whole story. Very nice. Consistency doesn't sound like a tall order; all it is is making sure that the characters act and are motivated in the same way scene to scene. However, you sure notice if the consistency of the players is broken, and it's an easier mistake to make as your story gets smarter and more complex. In this case, the consistency of the characters is marvellous. The motivations behind what everyone does is fixed throughout, even as the means to them change. The more noteworthy thing, though, are the character traits, which don't even waver. For instance, Punky is established quite quickly as positive and outgoing, but she spends a lot of the episode in stressful times and strange feelings. Does it ever feel like those positive traits are really abandoned? No, because she bounces back quickly and tends to use her energy to help herself along. There's all sorts of examples like this, but I don't write to spend that much time writing about it. We've more ground to cover. Connection with the audience is a simple but mostly overlooked point. It's hard to really get into a story, an episode, or a series in which nothing is familiar to you, and the best things to read or watch are those where you could picture yourself in that situation, or would want to. This episode is one everyone can identify with. Who among the older crowd hasn't been confronted with the problem of the truth of Santa? Who's never been lonely? What parent, or anyone who spends time with kids, hasn't wanted to move the world for the wee one? Even if you go out to the realm of "what if?", there's a lot. What kid would want to be missing a parent for Christmas? Who among everyone doesn't get at least a little giddy around Christmas (well, those that celebrate it, anyway)? This is a very human story, and you can easily feel that you're there, and feel for at least one of the characters. I suppose I could have boiled that last point down to "suspension of disbelief", but I didn't think of it up there. So sue me. The point is that in addition to having familiar elements to draw the audience, a story must also have the ability to let you believe, or at least go along with, the things that couldn't actually happen in our reality. This is the kid's cue to skip the next bit, or the parents to turn their heads. Don't say I didn't warn you. There's actually a fair bit to swallow in this story. We have to accept, by the end, that Santa Claus is a real person and that he has even more little tricks up his sleeve than he's normally accredited with. We also have to believe that even though Susan Brewster left in a hurry, her jewelery box would somehow turn up in the middle of Chicago. Finally, we have to believe that that is the only jewelery box in the world marked with "SB" and that plays that particular song. Now, this is where it gets down to personal preference, even moreso than the other points. But I say that the story does a good job of doing all of those things. Particularly, the bits with Santa working his magic are very well done, mixing in just enough realism that you think, "Hey, that could work." And I'm talking about both the temporary antique store and the gift switch. Very, very slick. Okay, come on back. Well, I've taken a more academic approach to reviewing this episode so far, but that's enough of that. I LOVE this episode. It's a joy to watch, and it even scuttled my usual way of doing things (starting the review while watching the episode) because I had to devote full attention while the story played out. Never mind that I've seen this episode a few dozen times already, and even more than the usual because it's such a favourite, I just had to watch it again! The most telling thing? I can't find a thing to nitpick. Every actor hits their part perfectly, with Soleil Moon Frye and George Gaynes handling all the heavy lifting with a smile. The music is a nice mix, including a few old-time selections that neatly fit with the newer stuff. The ever-irritating montage sequences happen TWICE in this episode, but their use makes perfect sense when they happen, as they quickly show sequences that would drag if done with full dialouge and transitions. Even Eddie gets whipped into place, getting a thirty-second walk-on part that hits his one-dimensional traits quickly before putting him away to avoid damage to the rest of the episode. How many first season episodes can boast that one? Yes, this is an episode for which I can say, "This is my favourite; this is the best one". To go into shallow reasons like "oh, it got more time" would be an insult; this episode does it all, and it does it well. I made a bold claim back when I reviewed "Parent's Night"; that any true Punky fan should enjoy that episode. I'm re-issuing that claim: Don't bother to watch future episodes if you don't like this one; it's the best of the series in an hour. You can bet your giant stocking on that. - Jimmy Vibes Do the click BONUS: The song of the jewelery box, with or without the scene leading up to the tune. |