‘Punky Brewster’ 1×04 Review: “Under The Influence”

Punky is always on the hustle, and that’s clear in Punky Brewster 1×04 “Under the Influence.” She’s spent her life trying to be there for her kids and to make a life for them all. She’s got this heart that is there for everyone else while finding the strength that she doesn’t know what she has.

Punky wants to involve her kids in everything because she loves her children. She knows that she is where she is, because of her kids. She knows that she’s able to grow, because of her children.

She’s practicing with a new lens, because she’s gotten the opportunity to do a photo profile on Chance the Rapper. This could be big for her career, as she’s only been doing wedding as of late. But while practicing she hears a drop and turns to find that Izzy has broken her lens.

And like anyone – she snaps. She immediately apologizes, but she snaps and Izzy is scared. Izzy is a foster kid and feels like she could be returned at any moment. She feels like she has to be perfect and the fact that she isn’t at that moment, makes her scared.

But Izzy dropping a lens isn’t the only thing that Punky is dealing with. Hannah, as we know, is in her first relationship. If anyone remembers your first relationship, you probably remember yourself changing a lot for that relationship. You probably remember yourself becoming someone that you didn’t recognize at times, because you were so enthralled with being in a relationship that you wanted to do everything that you could to preserve it.

Hannah comes skateboarding into the living room and Punky is surprised to see it. She tries to figure out what is going on with Hannah, but Hannah insists that she likes skateboarding and she doesn’t need help.

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I hate to say it, but the reality is that Punky may know best here. But the thing with knowing best doesn’t always mean anything, because as teenagers we all think we know better and we’re going to ignore our parents most of the time.

But you know as we get older, we still do things for someone that we like against our better judgement. Cherie is still doing everything that she can – even if she doesn’t like it – for her girlfriend, because she doesn’t want to change her. But at 15, a cute boy can change everything. And as Cherie gives Punky a sage stick and Punky has Daniel put it in her zen drawer, Punky isn’t remembering anything about being a kid. She’s remembering that she wants to protect her daughter.

Cherie tells Hannah don’t change for a boy, but tells Punky that Hannah is 15 and gonna do dumb things. Punky wants to know how being a strong independent woman can change and cherie reminds her that Hannah has a crush on a cute boy.

Punky is so wrapped up in Hannah and what is going on and tells Cherie that Hannah’s driving her crazy. Joking about her teenage daughter, she asks if there is a return policy on kids. Izzy overhears and thinks it’s about her since she dropped the lens and gets scared.

As a kid, where do you go when you get scared? Not to your parents. But your brothers and sisters. In this instance, Izzy runs to Diego and Daniel, which may not be the smartest thing that she’s done. She tells them that she heard Punky talking about wanting to get rid of her and at first, I think that these two are going to do the right thing. I think that they are going to tell her that she’s going nowhere and stick with that. But they don’t stick with it, and after Izzy admits that she’s been given back once, they tell her that Punky doesn’t get rid of people, but he did get rid of their Dad, so she had had better up her game.

I have never wanted to slap these little shits more than I did at that moment. They are terrifying a child and they are selfish, not thinking of what another has gone through. They send Izzy down the road of double chores.

When it comes to Travis, one thing that I love more than his devilish smile is that he really does want to be there for the kids. He sees Izzy over doing it and tells her she doesn’t have to worry about going anywhere because she’s popular around there. He may not see what Izzy is completely feeling, but he’s trying to be a good dad. When it comes to Hannah, he wants to give her the benefit of the doubt. What she’s doing is normal first date behavior in his opinion.

Travis may be the only person that can get Punky to see that it’s hard for her to see her kids grow up. Travis wants to give Hannah her space, but Punky doesn’t want to do that. She wants to protect her child.

But what Punky doesn’t realize is that she is coming across like she has a crush on Shawn.

Meanwhile Izzy going overboard with chores is about to cause some issues for Hannah. Izzy is trying so hard, but for Punky, she’s deep in remembering that Hannah used to be young and it leads to her finding that her daughter is hiding a joint from her.

Like any parent would, Punky flips out. Her kid doing drugs? Ummm… hell no. Even when Hannah tells her that it isn’t hers, Punky isn’t having it. She doesn’t believe it. And she’s not giving her daughter the benefit of the doubt.

Travis and Punky decide to take this on a as team. I love Punky, but I am kinda tired of seeing her always putting Travis down. Like he’s there. He’s trying to be a good Dad. He’s ready to parent his butt off.

Though – he does come up with a good solution. Talk to Hannah, let her know whomever is giving her drugs isn’t a good influence. And this would be good advice, if Punky wasn’t insisting on taking it to a different level and thinks that they should try to break Shawn instead.