|
|
|
|
Original Air Date: November 16, 1987 Review completed August 20, 2007 "My Fair Punky" Henry is busily preparing for a visit from a client that could connect him to some high-profile work. Mr. Charles Cantrell, social planner for Robert Whitney, turns out to be much more impressed by Henry's work than his lifestyle, but Henry's daughter gives him pause. After a bored Robert invites Punky to his birthday party, Cantrell stakes Henry's job on a drastic improvement in her refinement. Punky seeks lessons from Margaux and manages to learn how she's supposed to act. Unfortunately, her lack of actual experience shows through and she is eventually invited to wait with the help. Henry stands up for her and gets fired, but Robert turns around and fires Cantrell. Punky is then given free reign to liven up the proceedings and does so with a bout of turtle racing. Why do I bring this up, fifty-five (or so, depending on how you want to number these things) episodes into the series? Because after spending a long time thinking about it, I realized that a lot of my notes pointed towards a lot of awkward things in this episode. These turn out to be things that could easily be explained as details/placements designed for the studio audience. That does not make them good for the filmed episode, but it certainly explains a lot. Maybe part of the show's revenue was charging tickets for the show? Who knows, I'm just forming conspiracy theories as a substitute for having to do anything on a Sunday night. Conspriracy theories like, say, the trend against the rich in Punky Brewster. Yeah, you sort of expect it given that Punky was (in the earlier seasons?) a show for the everyman/everykid, and your traditional nemesis for the working class is a snooty stuffed shirt. It's one of your classic rivalries of television, like cat/dog, poor/rich, Rocket Robin Hood/Sherrif of N.O.T.T. Unfortunately, it's always been so one-sided in Punky that you pretty much don't care. Margaux is the perennial example of this theme; by the third season, she pops in every few episodes to turn up her nose and be someone for Punky to hate in various comic ways. Heck, the whole joke for the middle part of this episode is Punky having to fight against going all Killer Kowalski on Margaux's butt. But at least she's (occasionally depicted as) a friend, so she'll get the odd scene where she can show normal human compassion. There's not so much of that on the menu for the Buckworths, Punky's stinking rich foster parents of the "Changes" arc. There's all sorts of antique villain tactics oozing from these two, from a lot of references to Punky as a possession to a seething indirect threat to have Punky's toys destroyed. The final redemption of Jules Buckworth comes as a result of his middle-class upbringing more than anything, which wasn't all that bad in context, but we're zooming out right now to look at a bigger picture. We're not even done here. The quick, "oops, we need a villain quick!" nemesis in "Fighting City Hall"? An industrialist who doesn't even get a valid point to dismiss. The banks have been put under the microscope in "Dog Dough Afternoon", and Margaux's mother was a punchline a few times in Season One. It all adds up. In Punky's universe, rich people are evil. I'm not one that can really give an insider's view of the good rich people (remember, this site was shut down for three months due to no electricity at home), but certainly there's more shading to the group as a whole than this. It's all fine in small doses, but this episode just beats the theme right to death and gets a tire iron to keep going. Good God. ENOUGH WITH THE "RICH PEOPLE SUCK" COMMENTARY ALREADY! It's time to move on. Something else please. Anything else. Sadly, I already know what's coming for the next eight episodes and I already know that I'll be facing this whole dog-and-pony act yet again. Sigh. I just went on much longer than expected on that theme, so let me be less than brief on another point that I noticed. And let me also warn that if you're waiting to watch the episodes (for whatever reason) that there's one big spoiler coming up here. Look carefully at the beginning of this episode. Work hasn't been mentioned on the show in quite a long while, to the point where I've had bullet points of "Does Henry even work anymore?" for the past few episodes. Now on this episode, we're talking about dented cans and regular work... are they hinting at a dry spell at work as a way of leading up to the sale of the studio (which will happen a few episodes from now)? That is a tremendous show of continuity that always shocks me in this series, particularly as of late. Too bad it's hard to talk much about until the sale actually happens. Well, I could do it here, but that doesn't have much to do with "My Fair Punky". Not that this has been a very on-topic review thusfar, but still, I have standards. Thin ones, but standards. So, I mentioned lots of little awkward, stagey touches waaaay up there in the introduction that I've since ignored to argue themes like a freshman in Film Studies. Well, I'm about to swing things the other way as I bombard you, the reader, with points like a basketball game for the Genesis. Look at Punky overhearing a conversation when there's supposedly another person in the room who would, you would think, be wondering why she's just standing there. Unless he's been forgotten in favour of letting the studio audience watch the tense scene. The party part of the story starts with a shot of a cake that's been held in a really unnatural way, unless you consider that the camera and the audience have to be able to see it. The entrance that Punky always does when wearing costumes or formal wear? It comes back here, and... well, you can figure it out. (Though in this case, it emphasizes that Punky is a pretty girl. Yeah yeah, throw your comments at me for that one.) Those are the ones of note, but it just seems to me that the people in the studio had more fun than I did. You may not know this, but in wrestling, one of the first defences of a so-so or even bad event is, "It's always better live". That may be true, but very few fans have the kind of money and travel time to catch all of these shows, so the TV/DVD product should be up to snuff if that company want to be good. It's the same vibe here; maybe this was a blast to see the cast get dressed up and party, but I thought it was only a decent thing to watch from my own house. It was okay, don't get me wrong, but after 55 times going to the well, I'm not going to get excited about "okay". You could do worse, you could do better. In fact, I can't even think of anything else to say about it. So I won't. - Jimmy Vibes |