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 Season 2 Original Air Date: February 2, 1986 Review completed February 12, 2007 "Changes, Part 1" One night, an awful lot of fire engines going down the street ends up being bad news for Henry, as his studio has burned down with nothing recoverable. With the savings having been invested in new equipment and very old fire insurance, the debtload grows to be too much. Unfortunately, the stress also proves to be too much, and a bleeding ulcer brings Henry into the hospital. Of course, during this time social worker Simon Chillings comes to call with adoption papers, but is quick to withhold them after seeing the situation. Given the situation, and given that Betty does not meets the requirements for temporary custody, Henry is faced with having to give up Punky to go back to Fenster Hall. At the end of the episode, a half-informed Punky bursts into the talks to celebrate her adoption, not knowing the truth of the matter... Actually, Changes' starting point is pretty light, what with playing poker for cookies and Brandon being a dirty cheater. Doesn't it always? The light mood lasts for about two minutes, so if you're not a fan of melodrama, you might want to turn off this episode. And then turn it back on it about... well, somewhere in Season Three. There's not a lot of laughs in this episode. Heck, the studio audience barely pipes up past the first minute. Of course, without even the ultimate handicapping of a laugh track to help it, it makes the whole gag with the intrusive reporter (complete with tons of misinformation) not really that good. Well, it wasn't good in the first place, but the timing it bizarre. Henry's standing in the ruins of his business and we have a bad gag spring up in the middle? Weird build there, guys. From there, the build goes more as expected, and I want to point out the scene where Henry tallies up the bills for one good reason. For one, this entire story arc will have a lot of references to past episodes, both in scene set-ups and dialogue, and this is the first one you can see. The framing and positioning of everything makes it look like the negative version of the bill tallying in "Dog Day Afternoon", which is probably intentional, and serves as a nice bonus to someone who's been following the series while bringing the point across well to someone who can't or wouldn't remember. For a running point that's easier to remember, the scene where Betty and Henry talk about the aftermath of the fire has a short conversation that's a great culimation to every moment they've had throughout the series thusfar. It's not the first time that the fact that they're friends is acknowledged, but this is the plainest it's ever been put. Almost like, hmm, they're wrapping that thread up. Also, since this is a critical review, I have to point out that the scene also has Henry's collapse, which seems... timed. That's the best word I have for it. It's like the dialogue is a verbal stream of build-up that causes the collapse at the end. Honestly, they could have spaced some of the explanation out a bit and made the build more smooth. Hey, that would have been a great use of the scene that ended up being a bad riff on intrusive reporters, eh? After my harping on the reporter scene above, you'd think I'd have a few words for the exchange with the doctor. Nah, I'm cool with that one. At least that one is relevant to the story, and the breaking of the mood is a little more necessary there. This is a family show, after all; I don't think it can afford to keep thirty straight minutes of mood. A little mix helps, after all. Simon Chillings drops into the mix in the next scene, and it's interesting in that at this point, he's more of a counter-point to the way... well, EVERYONE in "Punky Finds A Home" worked. You know, more by the book. It's interesting because he's meant to be the bad guy of the arc right off the bat, but he's pretty subtle about it. Heck, he seems pretty regretful at times when he interviews Henry, and that's a milestone on a show where characters are introduced just to be EEEEvil. The thing about making Simon more "by-the-book" than evil is that it makes him all the more formidable. Since our main characters will have to, directly or otherwise, work against him for most of the story, it'd be a large let-down to have a guy with no motivation other than being nasty pulling the strings. Timothy Stack deserves a lot of respect for the way he played this part; he perfectly showed small twinges of regret and sadness at what he was doing at times, but also showed that he would be unwavering in sticking to the rulebook. That isn't easy to do, but necessary to make the whole arc work. That he has done, and it builds anticipation for the rest of the story to boot. Well done writers, and well done Timothy Stack. The cliffhanger moment is very well chosen in my opinion, with Henry and Betty knowing the full truth of what's going on, but Punky still a little unclear on the details. A little contrast of moods helps to make the moment all the more painful, not to mention that it builds for the big relevation and parting scene next episode. This show doesn't do mulit-part stories that often, but I've noticed a pretty good sense of when to break it up, and that is in full effect here. The biggest effect that the episode has is that it makes you care about the central crisis. Okay, the part with the reporter just sucked. But the rest sets up the end of this story, the tone of the next four episodes, and leaves you wondering, "But what happens to the girl?" Overall, the episode says this: "If Punky Brewster is going to go out, it's going to go out swinging." - Jimmy Vibes |
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PUNKY: Goodbye... HENRY: Oh no, it's not goodbye. It's see you later. CHILD: Fosters never take you back! PUNKY: Henry will. CHILD: Forget it, kid, you're dreaming! CHILLINGS: I'm considering placing Punky with other foster parents. PUNKY: Henry! HENRY! |