|
|
|
|
Original Air Date: September 22, 1985 Review completed April 16, 2006 "Punky's Treehouse" Punky's normal dream of playing jacks with a worm has given way to a dream of a treehouse, one that she really wants to see come to life. The promise is that her friends aren't as thrilled at the prospect of doing the work to get it done. Mike decides to help out and uses a little reverse psychology to get everyone working. After some hard work, Punky's treehouse is reality. (I am so, so sorry.) Well, this is an important episode for Punky, as it introduces a location that'll become one of Punky's unique spaces, one that will last for the rest of the series. So, it's got that working for it, but from the beginning, it seems that it also has the job of introducing Mike to everyone (never mind that we've had an episode with him as teacher already). Does that point end up getting fulfilled? Well... But let us start at the beginning, where we get to see Sugar Beasties again, from waaay back in Episode 4. Nice. Makes for that joke I missed (what is Henry talking about there; something about "Foster's" or "Fozzy's" or something?). I do really like Punky's line about the treehouse being a "overtaking", and her "wow, wow, wowie..." thing comes back (and will become more prominent as the season goes on). One other thing I really like about the opening scene is that it once again shows a real closeness between Henry and Punky that hasn't been emphasized as much in the past while. Let's introduce Mike again now, and it took about one episode for his Fenster Hall past to be explicitly mentioned. Well, if that: TV.com, before the redesign, had an episode guide for Punky that identified this episode as being the first one produced for Sesaon Two. It would make some sense, as this episode gives some small bit of introduction to Mike as teacher, rather than just plopping him at his desk and starting immediately. After that, there's something rather jarring that I saw, and that's the "scene shrinking into a sun-twinkle" transition. We end up seeing seven of them just in the episode, and... zero for the rest of the season. Probably because they're distracting as all heck. My personal theory on why they're in there is to give the special effects staff (mostly getting ready for "The Perils of Punky") something to do. Note that I have no way whatsoever to verify that, though. It's just a thought. One from the "I have to hand it to them" file; I'm rather fond of the way that the kids excuse themselves from working on the treehouse. Okay, Cherie pretty much gets a bye from without, but Margaux not even bothering to come in work clothes worked for me. And Allan just flat out running cracks me up; he can't even be bothered to come up with an excuse. He might as well have just said, "I left the oven on!" And hey, is that Henry actually doing work related to his position as apartment manager? When's the last time he did that? Never? Finally, I like the shot from above that ends the scene; I thought it was a neat angle to shoot from, to emphasize how empty the yard was and, well, because it looks cool. To start Act Two, here's a shot of Mike just sitting at his desk. Oh wait, no; he's supposed to say something, there just wasn't a reaction until a few seconds at the scene faded in. That happened (er, will happen) in "Just Say No" as well, and it's a bit irritating. I'm wondering if there was a change in main director between seasons. And to start the puppet show, both a close cousin of the "world's WORST musical cue" (see the fifth episode) and another appearance from the Asian Overblown Reaction Kid. Then again, the concept of teaching with a puppet show was plenty current; I still remember most of my French teachers from around the same time using that green octopus puppet a lot. The puppet show itself isn't that bad either. Continuing on, I've seem some criticism of Mike helping out Punky on personal time, citing that it makes him look like he's following the gang around in a creepy kind of way. I admit that I can see the reasoning behind it, and even after really looking at the episode, I can't completely clear him of it. But he does have at least a thin excuse; I've seen some teachers do personal help with their students, and Mike already knows Punky and Henry personally if "Fenester Hall" is any indication. So it's not outside the realm of possibility that this could really work. On the other hand, though, it's a little unfortunate-looking after the fifth or sixth episode he does that kind of thing. For the psychology sequence, I like the idea of stringing them all together with the line "if you insist". (And the sun-twinkle transitions, which just get annoying after a while.) I'm still wondering how only Henry catches on to the recruitment methods, though. Okay, Betty is hot-headed enough to just take the bait, and Margaux is obsessed enough with design to not question it, and Allan just flat-out wouldn't catch on. (Speaking of which, the mechanical affinity could have been used more; this is the only episode it gets mentioned in. And wait a minute; how did Mike know that Allan was coming over?!) But Punky ropes Cherie into doing the snacks? That doesn't even really need to be done, and when we see the treehouse unveiling at the end, there's no snacks there. Not to mention that I don't remember anyone agreeing to other jobs, which almost everyone does during the montage. Particularly the painting. One more note on all that; what can I say, I like Henry's dialouge. 'Bout time he looked smarter than the average photographer. The montage sequence... uh... well, it's a montage sequence. It looks a little like the ones you'd find in all five billion of the home renovation shows you see out there these days, but that's about all worth mentioning. Well, except for the outright cheesy song underneath it; I don't mind having actual songs underneath these sequences (most of them just use an unidentifable instrumental), but you've got to be kidding me. I think we've figured out that the message of the episode is cooperation and teamwork; don't hammer it into us. The treehouse itself... not bad. It certainly keeps with the general colour scheme, and it has just the right look to it that it doesn't look overly prop-ish. One odd little thing, though, is that during most of the scenes, something looks different between the ground and the treehouse. I'm wondering if the treehouse was rear-projected onto the scene, and the main filming of it was the adult actors and the dogovator. (You don't see anyone crossing the two levels of elevation in the same shot.) That would be the only way I have to explain it, expect perhaps faulty vision. Also, come to think of it, there's a review of the second season set that claimed that there was a weird echo on the actor's voices whenever they were in the treehouse, and really listening for it this time, they're right! And at the end, we close with a shot of Mike surrounded by the younger cast members. Heh. It's a lot more subtle than Punky's "I like him, Henry..." about Eddie, I'll give it that. What to say about the episode as a whole. Well, it introduces the treehouse alright, but the jury's still out on Mike. He comes off as vaguely creepy and a bit too reliant on jokes at this point. It's a bit weird, considering that T.K. Carter can definitely handle dramatic acting (check out "The Search"), but his impressions and "spontaneous" wackiness just don't come across as well as they could. At least the treehouse looks good. - Jimmy Vibes |