‘Punky Brewster’ 2021 TV Show Review

On May 27, 1988, the stories of an abandoned girl by the name of Penelope “Punky” Brewster, her dog Brandon, and the kind old Henry Warnimont came to an end. But as it is with media in the mass binge content era, ‘Punky Brewster’ has found a way to return to TV, Computer, and mobile screens almost 33 years after the show was originally canceled. In this modern world, can a child turned adult who couldn’t even get 2 shoes to match create a successful sitcom as funny and deep as the original? Well, only one way to find out.

Title: Punky Brewster
Production Company: Armogida Brothers Productions, Main Event Media, Universal Television, Universal Content Productions
Distributed by: NBC Universal Television Distribution
Produced by: Jordan Black, Mary Kay Kelly, Kira Kalush
Starring: Soleil Moon Frye, Cherie Johnson, Quinn Copeland, Noah Cottrell, Oliver De Los Santos, Lauren Lindsey Donzis, Freddie Prinze Jr.
Based on: Punky Brewster by David W. Duclon
Release dates: March 12, 2021
Running time: 23-28 minutes
Rating: PG
Available on: Peacock Network Streaming

Punky Power is back!

When we last saw Punky in 1988, she had been apart of making a wedding happen between her dog Brandon and a neighbor’s dog Branda. Since that weird ending, over 30 years have passed. Unfortunately, Henry has passed on (The actor who played Henry, George Gaynes, passed away in 2016), leaving his apartment to his adopted daughter, Punky, who herself has grown up and become a Mom to her biological daughter Hannah (Lauren Lindsey Donzis), and adopted two boys: Diego (Noah Cottrell) and Danial (Oliver De Los Santos), while her ex-husband Travis (Freddie Prinze Jr.), a touring guitar player, keeps popping in and out of the house when not on tour.

Punky is more of the “Mom as a friend” type, understanding that parenting is a hard thing to do when she never had a mother to learn from, but she does her best to instill lessons and morals to all three of her kids, including the usual life lessons mixed in with more modern free-thinking and feeling nature caregiving millennial parents attempt to give their kids. This has resulted in all three kids being very different from each other. Hannah is the more typical teenage girl who is into fashion, but also the GenZ “superior emotional maturity” mindset, making her a bit more uptight and adult than her mother at times. Diego is your typical pre-teen guy, playing basketball, video games and not showering. Then there is Daniel, who is more outsides the lines than the rest of the group, representing the middle-ground “I don’t go with labels, pronouns, gender-identity” style of living, but also the very advanced and sophisticated way of thinking of dealing with the world. You also have Brandi, the family dog, keeping the memory of Brandon & Brenda alive.

This mixed family dynamic is flipped on its side when Punky runs into Izzy, an abandoned girl who reminds Punky much of herself from over 30 years ago. Izzy is a little sassy bundle of a mess, grunge, con-artist, and loveable smart mouth that Punky would have been if the original series was set in the modern era. Punky’s friend Cherie (Cherie Johnson – returning as her character from the original series, though with an LGBTQI+ representation) asks Punky to take Izzy in for a few days while she finalizes the paperwork with Izzy’s potential adoptive parents. After meeting the potential parents at the handover of Izzy, where the potential parents want to change everything about Izzy, Punky takes a stand and brings Izzy into her family due to the fact that Izzy is a mini-Punky.

From here, the show tackles a lot of the hardships that an abandoned child would face going through to foster system and how a family needs to adapt and adjust to the addition of a new family member. Things are also shown from another aspect of this as Punky’s mother calls up asking about her, leading to Punky confronting all the thoughts and feelings she has had about such a moment for over 30 years. Included in all this is Travis, who just can’t seem to keep out of Punky’s life, leading to a “will they or won’t they” on if they will or won’t get back together. There are also other stories added into things, including the treehouse Punky grew up in either needs to be repaired or demolished and the relationship between Cherie and her partner, Lauren (Jasika Nicole). Punky Brewster does the gamut of stories from things that can be solved in one episode to multi-episode progressing stories that unfold over time.

A New Generation

• Soleil Moon Frye as Penelope “Punky” Brewster
  Seeing Soleil return as Punky is an absolute treat. First of all, Soleil doesn’t look to have aged from the last series I saw her in, which was Sabrina, the Teenage Witch from 2000 to 2003. But seeing her step back into the mismatched shoes of the character that first brought her to our attention over 30 years ago was a delight to see. While she isn’t the kid we knew back then, we can see that she still has that spirit inside her, but with the maturity that comes from a life that has been lived. Seeing her come into her own in the mentor role, complete with reference and reverence to Henry, really creates a complete circle for her character.
• Cherie Johnson as Cherie Johnson
  Cherie would be one of those characters that would normally be all over the newsfeeds due to one change to her character, that being that since the original series ended, Cherie as a character has come out as LGBTQI+, complete with a partner throughout this series. However, Punky Brewster doesn’t go out there to shove such a change in your face but instead allows this situation to be seen as normal, as it should by today’s standards. Cherie is more so seen as a strong best friend to Punky, as well as an administrator to the Fenster House, the boarding house where Izzy comes from. Cherie’s support and defensiveness of her friend and their family are played with a good mixture of comedy and drama that really makes for a happy return for Cherie.
• Quinn Copeland as Izzy
  What can we say about Izzy… She’s Punky if she was made in the modern age. Izzy is street-wise, tough as nails, a bit of a con-artist and manipulator of emotions, and very independent. I think the series could have gone a very different way if Izzy wasn’t a part of things, having her be a mini-modern-Punky really gives Punky a mirror into her own life, and through helping Izzy find the family, she wanted, it helped bring closure to Punky’s own past. Mostly a comedy character, like Punky before her, Izzy is a highlight of the series and a wonder to behold.
• Noah Cottrell as Diego
  Diego is your straight up for laughs character here. He’s the young male that most male kids would relate to. He plays video games, he is playfully annoying to his younger brother, he doesn’t have good hygiene skills, plays basketball, and would do anything he thinks he can get away with. Diego does really well as a middle child, not standing out too much but always being there to help out the other members of his family at a moment’s notice. He knows he isn’t the smartest one around but is one of the emotional pillars of the family.
• Oliver De Los Santos as Daniel
  Daniel is the modern young Gen-Alpha type of character. He’s very much different from the “normal” or older ways. He sits around and paints his nails, would wear a sarong to school without caring about the opinions of others, and generally switches things up just because he has the emotional freedom to do so. A really nice allegory for all the gender-identity, non-conformist thinking of the new generation of kids, but he or his identity types do not take up huge amounts of talking time. Daniel is actually quite smart and plays things in a very mental conformist style, where he thinks everything in overall, almost OCD style of proper expression and dressing at times. A good mixture of character traits that can start conversations while watching without being all in your face or overwhelming for the older crowd.
• Lauren Lindsey Donzis as Hannah
  Hannah is your very GenZ type of teenager, thinking herself to be more mature than the parents she has. Always trying to play the superiority card in conversations, thinking she will know everything anyway, Hannah does come off as annoying at times, but like most teenagers, can be quite sweet and relatable once the emotional walls come down. At times Hannah does seem like more of a mother than her own free-spirited mother, but in the end, she still has a lot to learn about herself and the world around her.
• Freddie Prinze Jr. as Travis
  Punky’s ex-husband and Hannah’s father, Travis, is meant to be one of those Dads who didn’t spend enough time with his kids and now regrets it, so he makes up for it by being around way too much after being divorced from Punky. While Travis is there for the kids, including helping Izzy get accustomed to the Brewster style of the family, he does seem to be in this series, so there could be some sort of romantic interest for Punky to re-fall in love with, giving divorced families the hope that things can happen and the unit can return to being together. Mostly played off as the more immature of the duo, Travis is the more modern Yin to Punky’s older Yang.

Nostalgic and Emotional Perfection

Punky Brewster is a great follow-up to the original series. It brings all the nostalgic feelings that you get from a sitcom revival like this but also updates it to deal with the modern world (See Fuller House for another great example of this). Seeing Punky take on the role of mother and mentor really brings her own personal journey full circle, showing that one can grow from a sad beginning into a happy ending. Having the family be this mixture of both biological and adopted members really brings that sense of Punky’s upbringing as an adopted child as something she holds very dear to her heart, especially once Izzy joins the fold. As I’ve mentioned before, Izzy is almost a mirror image of Punky in a modern wrapping, and having his mirror for Punky to see herself in really adds to the emotional weight of the show, as who wouldn’t want a chance to speak to their younger self with all the life experience that you gained to this day. Izzy gives Punky that opportunity, helping Izzy move forward emotionally when having to deal with some of the hardships that come with abandonment and moving through the foster system.

One of the better things that Punky Brewster does than other reboots/sequels/update series have tried to do is deal with modern topics. A prime example is the inclusion of Cherie as an LGBTQI+ character. Where most shows would make this Cherie’s central character trait, Punky Brewster, on the other hand, treats this as a more normal and passé thing that people like myself would expect such character traits to be in 2021. Yes, we get moments where the past isolation and terrible denial though processes are mentioned, but they are done in such a way that makes you feel good that we live in 2021, and not 1988. Cherie and Lauren’s relationship gets to cover such things as they would not have been able to go to prom together as a couple in high school, but get a chance to do so at the 1980s themed block party, and then the big one about LGBTQI+ marriage rights, which is highlighted by the two gettings engaged. Other topics are tackled, too, like gender-identity and people accepting the non-binary nature of today’s choices.

One other thing that really makes Punky Brewster stand out is the use of nostalgia. Rather than relying on it to get cheap moments, the nostalgic moments in the show are used to progress or hand the baton to the next generation. From the beginning of Punky Brewster, where you see Punky, complete with mismatched shoes, talking to a photo of Henry, you feel that this is one of those things where moving forward with life is a big part of the show. Punky has taken over the Warnimont photography studio but mostly works in modern technology, and she lives in the same apartment as she did as a kid, so she is doing what she can with everything she has learned and inherited from Henry. One episode that stands out involves the old treehouse that Punky and her friends built in the original series, which has been used by all her kids over time, begins falling apart when Izzy tries to use it and falls through the rotting wood, leading to Punky to restore the treehouse in the way she remembers it to be, but eventually changes it around to fit Izzy, passing it along to her. Then there is the 1980s block party, which features some familiar looks and moments that will make you cry. Anything nostalgic done in Punky Brewster is done with purpose, and it works really well.

Nothing is Perfect

The unfortunate side effect of handling so much really well is that sometimes some things slip through the gaps, mostly with some topics getting confused, jumping characters, and almost feeling too dated for a modern audience.

One of the issues I had with the topics was in an episode tied to identity, which started out with Izzy meeting her favorite WWE wrestlers, Alexia Bliss and Charlotte Flair (What would a 1980s revival be without a 1980s style wrestler cameo?), leading to Izzy wanting to create her own wrestling identity. What gets a bit annoying here is that instead of keeping the focus on Izzy and her search for an identity, the story shifts the topic to Daniel and him possibly having a different gender-identity than he/him, then switching back to Izzy for a final gag about being herself. I felt that this story and topic could have been explored purely through Izzy and her wrestler identities, having her go through both male and female wrestler references instead of shifting the whole topic to Daniel for the second time in the show, which already established that he doesn’t care about such labels.

Another story problem comes from Travis being in the series at all. Outside of a possible love interest for Punky, his purpose in the show is completely pointless and could have been left out, leading to more topics for the show to cover about absent fathers and the struggle of a single-parent family. But Travis is there being supportive of Punky and sometimes adding a line or two in family conversations when Punky can’t articulate her feelings or thoughts properly. Yet overall, Travis really didn’t need to be there and feels like his inclusion was mostly to remove some very hard-to-write conversations from the series.

The final thing when it comes to Punky Brewster is one storyline where Punky’s mother returns near the end of the series. The reason why Punky was abandoned at the Grocery Store all those years ago is a pretty boring one, especially when another series that is about to wrap up (CBS’ Mom, ending this year with Season 8) that tackled that topic a lot better than this show ever could. I felt that while Punky’s Mom returning was a good thing for closure. I feel that it was added as a wait to bait NBC into giving the show a second season, as this storyline, along with the relationship status of Punky and Travis, has been left unresolved by the end of the season. Punky Brewster did well without Punky having a Mom over 30 years ago and didn’t need the story now. It could have done this a lot better with Izzy and her mother returning instead, but in order to keep the show in a manner where things can be wrapped up, they went this other direction.

Overall, Punky Brewster is a really good series. It continues all the good moral lessons that the original had in it but also keeping things relatable to all audiences. Punky Brewster combines nostalgia with modern talking points in a manner that will get people talking after having a lot of feelings about moments that happen to invoke the good nostalgia, but sometimes suffers from rushed storytelling methods or ideas that were designed, on purpose, to try and get Punky Brewster picked up for a season 2, but it also wraps things up in a good enough manner that if this is just a one-season return that those of us who grew up watching Punky is left with a sense of closure and things coming full circle. A highly recommended watch for the 1980s/1990s adults and also younger audiences too.

Review Disclosure Statement: Punky Brewster (2021) was provided via the Peacock streaming service for review purposes. For more information on how we conduct and handle reviews here, please visit our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info. Thank you.