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Original Air Date: February 24, 1985 Review completed March 5, 2006 "Punky Brewster's Workout" Henry's come home with some brand new technology; a video camera and a VCR. As it's for work, though, he strictly forbids Punky from even going near it. Punky is willing to listen at first, but between her friends goading her on and the fun it would be, she can't help but make an exercise video. Unfortunately, during a scuffle with Allan after the shooting, the lens is cracked. Punky fears being found out, but Henry has a similar accident before seeing the damage and blames himself. Punky is glad to have gotten off the hook, but her conscience won't let her just stay quiet. She owns up to the damage... after which Henry reveals that he'd figured out the truth, thanks to the movie that Punky had left on the VCR. I have to laugh a bit at the opening scenes where we see through Henry's point-of-view through the video camera. Reason being; the video on that part is clearer than some of the scenes from the first few episodes! I don't know if that's a comment on some of the video transfer, or laughing a bit about a mid-80s camcorder preserving video better than some no doubt very expensive production-quality equipment. Also, this episode contains one of the best moments of unintentional humour in the series, for Cherie's loud question of "What's a VCR?" Pop-culture fanboys love to snicker at that one; I just feel extremely old for hearing that, knowing that our house didn't even HAVE one until I was nine. Yes, even older than reviewing Punky Brewster, or being able to remember prayer in schools. Or remembering when Sony only made TVs. Okay, enough with the technical notes and the history lessons. Unintentional humour can stay though, as I'm now wondering why the camera is fully set up in an apartment full of kids who aren't supposed to touch it. Instead, I'll just note that the beginning of the episode knows full well what we're shooting for (sorry) and makes the setup quick. It all goes fast; a man, his camera, and forbidding a kid to touch it. Anyone who's every talked with or been a child knows full well how that's going to work out, so the episode is just going to quickly run us towards the show within a show that we know is going to happen. Smart move. Actually, one quick note before the video; I like the quick bit showing Punky leading the group again. Even better, she's definitely in control, but she's shown to be swayed by the group opinion (or she wouldn't be in this mess). For someone who's supposedly very outward and take-charge, we haven't seen so much of that lately. So this is a nicely timed scene, if you're going through the episodes in order. (And it lets Margaux be a smug, er, princess without drawing more thoughts of, "Why is she friends with them again?") About the video; I have to wonder whether it's completely scripted, or if it might be one of those things where they let the kids do some controlled ad-lib for the effect (ie. the room building from "Punky Gets Her Own Room"). Obviously, there's some parts that have to be scripted into it by the writing team (like Henry's phone call), and Casey Ellison obviously didn't get the chance to have fun with the camera (too smooth) but could this have been a bit of an opportunity for the kids to do their own writing? Just a thought. I'm not going to pick through the video point-by-point, because you really need to see it for yourself to get the feel of it. Let's just hit a few small points. Like; why does Cherie have stage fright all of a sudden? She seemed fine during the Miss Adorable pageant. Then again, Margaux's still a giant ball of ham on-stage, which ranks as one of my biggest guilty pleasures about the show. Don't ask me to explain it; I just laugh like heck when she does that. We'll slot the parody of the MGM logo in with that too. (That so needs to be someone's avatar.) Something odd to note here (though it started in "My Aged Valentine") is Cherie and Allan's on-screen relationship. We actually see them kiss here, so what happens to this in later episodes? Messy off-screen breakup? With Season 3 on the horizon, I'm sure there'll be some good conspiracy theories as to Allan's disappearance from the show; maybe there was thoughts of it even further back. I've got to laugh a little at the exact way Henry thinks he broke the lens (yep, those laundry baskets full of clothes are always breaking things). Then again, the initial drop was pretty ginger too, with Punky and Allan holding on for as long as they possibly can and still have the camera actually drop. Methinks breaking a vintage 1984 camcorder wasn't in the budget. Then again, if video recording is still expensive now, it must have cost about as much as a small car back in the day, enough to make me cringe anyway. Having laughed at that part, though, I also have to comment on a couple of positive notes. For one, the dialouge has been fairly strong in this episode, and keeps on going here with well-timed puns and a certain natural feel. Second, obvious though it is that we're leaning into a morality play for the second half of the episode, it's based on a very familiar premise to... well, any kid, really. Something else to notice (which I thought of watching Henry grouch about photographing the rat with hair) is that Henry is nicely balanced in this one. As I'm sure I've indicated several times so far in the Reviews, I like Henry's grouchiness; there's something about the sheer force of his sarcasm that makes me laugh. But the best of times with Henry are when we also get to see some of the good vguy underneath the double-layered grumpiness, and this is a rather good episode to see that in. Onward, now, to our payoff scene; two people sitting and talking. Okay, that sounded boring. This is where the level of dialouge in the episode comes through; enough so that writer Barry Vigon even brings this episode up as an example in his interview on the DVDs. Specifically, he brings up the example of Punky's comparison of her aunt-ciety-ridden conscience to a bottle of shampoo, which is really is a good example in context. I think we'll let Barry be a little smug on that one. At the risk of sounds really pretenious (what, me?), though, I'd say the best part of the conculsion isn't so much the dialouge as it is the moral wrestling. It's a bit simple through adult eyes, but it's perfectly matched to the level of most kids without being stupid. It's yet another example in a fair list throughout the series that simple concepts, fleshed out a bit with good humour and characterization, make the best Punky stories. A lot of my favourites so far have had simple points that could really be summed up in a line or two, and trust me when I say that that's not likely to change throughout next season. (Or, I'm sure, the next two.) Then, of course, we have our twist ending. It comes up at just the right time; the first time I watched the episode, the thought of, "Hey, what happened to the video they shot?" was interrupted by Henry revealing that he knew. Beautiful. I thought that it made sense that Punky didn't remember either; fear of punishment causes some strange oversights. Either way, it seems to slip everyone's mind until the end of the episode; that's what works about it. So, all told, this is a very good episode, built around a moral lesson and a lot of monkeying around with a video camera. It's a fluffy sort of episode, but it's the nice kind of fluffy; the kind that seems to have dropped off the radar in the past few years. Great nostaglic value, great dialouge, good unforced message; it all equals a great example of Punky. "Punky Brewster's Workout" comes highly recommended. - Jimmy Vibes Do the click If you're wondering where the screenshots from the actual workout video went, they have a gallery all their own! Click here to see lots of hand-painted signs and suspicious-looking ice cream. |