Praise Petey is an American animated sitcom created by Anna Drezen for Freeform, which premiered on July 21, 2023.
Premise
Petra "Petey" St. Barts is a wealthy New York socialite who had it all until her mother informs her that she inherited a small town from her recently deceased father called New Utopia. Upon arriving, she discovers that her father was a cult leader and that the residents have been brainwashed to mindlessly follow her due to her father's influence. Now with a new purpose in life, Petey hopes to have New Utopia think for themselves and be normal by starting with the abolishment of human sacrifices.
Voice Cast
Main
Annie Murphy as Petra "Petey" St. Barts
Christine Baranski as White St. Barts (formerly Tammy Overalls) Stephen Root as Petey's father John Cho as Bandit Amy Hill as Mae Mae Kiersey Clemons as Eliza Brian Jordan Alvarez as Emmett
Recurring
Joel Kim Booster
Anna Drezen as Ella
Sheryl Lee Ralph
James Austin Johnson as the Pharmacist
Kenan Thompson as Elder Amos
Fred Tatasciore as Elder Duncan
James Hong as Elder Belshazzar
Paget Brewster as Wife Beth
Debra Wilson as Wife Joslyn
Alex Song-Xia as Wife Wendy
Paris Sashay as Grease Trap Connie
Eve Plumb as Big Judy
Guest
Alan Tudyk as Himself
Alfred Molina as Human Shih Tzu
Michael Cera as Little Einstein
Episodes
Production
In December 2021, Freeform announced a series order for the animated series Praise Petey. The series was created by Anna Drezen and is executive produced by Monica Padrick, with 20th Television Animation, a division of Disney Television Studios, co-producing the series, alongside Mike Judge and Greg Daniels of Bandera Entertainment, and Alex Bulkley, Corey Campodonico and Monica Padrick of ShadowMachine. Animation services were provided by Jam Filled Entertainment, a division of Boat Rocker Media. Production began in early 2022.
Release
The series premiered on July 21, 2023, on Freeform. Two episodes are released in a back-to-back order each week, and are made available for streaming on Hulu the following day.
Reception
Judy Berman of TIME named the series "Summer TV's most delightful surprise." She praised Drezen's "keen awareness of the absurdity of setting a female-empowerment narrative within a bloodthirsty cult" and called the series "a distinctly post-girlboss comedy, one that acknowledges Petey's determination to turn New Utopia around as the girl-power trope it is."
Jenna Scherer of A.V. Club gave the series a B- rating, noting that it felt too reminiscent, or at least serving as a parody of Schitt's Creek (which also had the involvement of Annie Murphy), and referred to it as "generic by design", but was still able to find the show "undeniably charming" with "mile-a-minute jokes" that she considered worked around "70 percent of the time".
Daniel Kurland of Bubbleblabber gave the series an 8.5 out of 10, specifically praising the rom-com part of the series between Petey and Bandit, saying "There’s a playful will they/won’t they rom-com energy between Petey and the town hottie, Bandit. It’s pretty telegraphed, but still works and becomes more natural over time even if it’s born out of a hackneyed place. Praise Petey’s writing is still smart enough to get ahead of it all and actually make you want to root for these two crazy kids’ love. If nothing else, it’s just encouraging to see a show that has so many strong female characters where all of the best lines come from women."