July 21 (2023-07-21) – August 18, 2023 (2023-08-18)
Praise Petey is an American animated sitcom created by Anna Drezen for Freeform, which aired from July 21 until August 18, 2023.[1] In November 2023, the series was canceled after one season.[2]
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.
The series premiered on July 21, 2023, on Freeform. Two episodes were released in a back-to-back order each week,[11] and were made available for streaming on Hulu the following day.[12][13] The series was made available on Disney+ internationally via the Star hub as a Star Original and Star+ In Latin America.[14] Consequently, Praise Petey was removed from all of Disney's streaming services from February 29 as a result of the company performing tax write offs on shows that are not successful.[15]
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."[16]
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".[17]
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."[18]
