Punky Brewster (2021)

While this show isn’t exactly new or ground-breaking as so many savvy viewers perhaps expect a comedy to be these days, Punky’s rainbow-lens goggles and penchant for finding the joy in life may be the fare that ragged families everywhere need right about now.

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.

In the end, “Punky Brewster” definitely has an uphill battle to stand out from the endless reboots. Compared to Peacock’s other revival, “Saved By the Bell,” this retread does feel toothless and safe. But if you’re looking for family entertainment with a dependable cast, this will work.

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.

The original series showed some restraint, keeping Punky’s mom, who abandoned her, off-screen for the show’s four-season run. Having exhausted all there is to say about 40-something Punky in its premiere, the revival grasps for something new and in so doing suggests restraint may be off the table.

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.