Praise Petey Review: A Cult Cartoon Comedy Worth Praising
- Absurd jokes hit much more than they miss
- Intriguing characters with great voice actors
- Many aspects feel a bit "been there, done that"
In "Praise Petey," the first original animated series made for Freeform, the life of a trendy, privileged young woman falls apart, forcing her to move into a small rural town owned by her wealthy father. Petra St. Barts, aka Petey, is voiced by Annie Murphy, whose "Schitt's Creek" character Alexis Rose found herself in a similar situation. The big twist here is that the town is a cult, and Petey has become the cult's prophesied leader following her dad's (Stephen Root) death.
In the past few years, we've seen a number of adult cartoons from women creators addressing strained parent-child relationships via dark and twisted settings. There was "Inside Job," a conspiracy theory-based workplace sitcom that was canceled after one season by Netflix, and "Little Demon," a violent spawn-of-Satan comedy that got deleted from Hulu. "Praise Petey," created by Anna Drezen and executive produced by "King of the Hill" showrunners Mike Judge and Greg Daniels among others, is playing in a similar arena but does so well enough that one hopes it can avoid the unceremonious fate too many shows in its genre have faced.
Welcome to New Utopia
"Praise Petey" gets off to a strong start — of the five episodes Freeform has provided for review, the pilot, "Taxi to the South!" might be my favorite. Drezen, whose comedy credits include editing Reductress and writing for "Saturday Night Live," is an expert at skewering girlboss corporate feminism, so the opening scenes of Petey's pre-cult life are a constant stream of spot-on zingers. The show's willingness to go weird and wacky is established especially well in any scene dealing with Petey's boyfriend — who is a non-speaking piece of wood. The premise of the gag might not be entirely original (shades of Plank from "Ed, Edd n Eddy"), but the way Petey and her friends take all the relationship drama so seriously is comedic gold. It's no coincidence that the other "best episode" contender is the one where the boyfriend returns.
Even after leaving New York for New Utopia, Petey takes much longer than the viewers to catch on to the fact she's entered a cult. The events that lead her to realize what she's gotten into I dare not spoil, except to say it involves a lot of blood and one of the most inspired "actors playing themselves" celebrity guest appearances I've seen in a while. Ultimately Petey embraces getting to lead the cult, but not without making some major changes to the way things are run.
Each subsequent episode finds Petey brushing up against some aspect of how her father used to run New Utopia and seeing just how hard it is to make changes without causing chaos. She's weirded out by everyone trying to serve her, but what if someone really feels it's his life's purpose to be her human Shih Tzu? She refuses to recruit new members to the cult, but how else can they make enough money to supply food beyond ketchup and pickles? And most importantly, is it wrong to bring a sex tortoise to a wedding?
There's lots of potential for character development
As is expected in the streaming era, Petey's episodic misadventures are balanced with more serialized character development. In the first half of the season, the supporting character we learn the most about is Bandit (John Cho), a hunky potential love interest who is firmly opposed to the cult's existence — but not for the reasons you might first suspect. Petey's new bestie, Eliza (Kiersey Clemons), who is slightly more savvy to the outside world than the other cult members, has her own big secret that's revealed to the audience fairly early on but Petey takes longer to realize. Petey's uncaring mother, White (Christine Baranski), only appears sporadically, but given she's among the top-billed cast, we expect her to get more development in future episodes.
Like many adult cartoons, the comedy in "Praise Petey" is first and foremost driven by fast-paced dialogue. The writing and voice acting are the main attractions, and the animation itself takes a backseat. Visually, the show isn't low-quality, but it's not exceptional either. The character designs are simplistically appealing in a "Daria" sort of fashion, while the movement is on the stiffer side, but the animation has its impressive moments in terms of delivering the visual gags and facial expressions.
Halfway through its 10-episode first season, "Praise Petey" has kept me entertained enough to want to keep watching. It's so packed with humor that if one gag misses the mark, there's sure to be another to crack you up just a few seconds later. While the story can feel a bit too "been there, done that" in places, the presentation is strong enough that there's real potential for the narrative to build into something even better. Also, Freeform's scheduling team gets maximum trolling points for premiering this edgy cult comedy right next to "The 700 Club."
"Praise Petey" premieres at 10 pm EST on July 21 on Freeform, with episodes streaming the following day on Hulu.
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being reviewed here wouldn't exist.