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- Peacock
- Feb 25, 2021
- Peacock
- Feb 25, 2021
Summary Foster kid Izzy (Quinn Copeland) meets Punky (Soleil Moon Frye), who is now is a single mother raising her three kids.
Created By: David W. Duclon
- Peacock
- Feb 25, 2021
- Peacock
- Feb 25, 2021
Summary Foster kid Izzy (Quinn Copeland) meets Punky (Soleil Moon Frye), who is now is a single mother raising her three kids.
Created By: David W. Duclon
Season Episodes
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Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 Critic Reviews
48
20% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
70% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
10% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 Critic Reviews
48
20% Positive
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
70% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
10% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Sure, the new Punky Brewster is still a sitcom aimed at younger viewers. But it’s got a warmth and sweetness to it that feel genuine. And it’s smart enough to deal with Punky as she is now, not trying to make her into some grown-up version of her 8-year-old self.
Your tolerance may vary for sentiments like “You don’t need to make room for Izzy in the apartment, you need to make space for her in your hearts” — mine is low — and there’s nothing here that strives to be remotely novel.
Fans of the original series will find themselves well served by this reboot, though others may want to take a “Punky Power” nap instead.
Peacock's new Punky Brewster is a pretty safe and average example of a neutral nostalgia reboot. It's not oblivious to the differences between 1984 and 2021 and it's conscious of the new challenges of wearing the sitcom-with-heart moniker today. But in its broad approach to both the "sitcom" and "heart," it's basically just Punky Brewster, with all the inconsistencies that entails.
Rather than tinker with the Brewster-verse in order to bring it to the present, the creators seemingly place these characters right at the edge of something potentially interesting before ultimately resting on rote storytelling.
If viewers are looking for a blithe skip down Memory Lane, “Punky Brewster” trips on the untied laces of its pink and orange Converse. ... It’s difficult to tell whether the dialogue by executive producers Steve and Jim Armogida (“School of Rock,” “Grounded for Life”) is as insipid as it seems or if that laugh track is just throwing things off balance and stifling the rhythm. Much of “Punky Brewster” would be funnier, and perhaps even endearing, if it weren’t trying quite so hard to be both.
It saddens me to report that the Peacock sequel represents just about everything that can possibly go wrong with this sort of project. ... It isn’t just the nostalgia that grates early and often. The writing on the show is almost uniformly atrocious, with dialogue toggling between parental bromides (“I don’t know what I’m doing—it’s called parenting!”) and sub-Disney Channel silliness.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 5 User Ratings
6.8
60% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
20% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
20% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 5 User Ratings
6.8
60% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
20% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
20% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
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