Praise Petey is an animated series airing on Freeform, created by Anna Drezen and starring Annie Murphy, John Cho, Kiersey Clemons and Eve Plumb.
When her long-absent father dies, aspiring fashion writer Petra "Petey" St. Barts relocates to New Utopia, a town that he founded, as he told her that he needed someone to continue his life's work. Unfortunately, for her, said "life's work" was, in fact, running a cult, and she's now the new figurehead. As Petey has no self-confidence whatsoever, she has big shoes to fill.
On November 13, 2023, it was announced that the show had been cancelled after one season.
This series contains examples of:
- Adam Westing: Alan Tudyk shows up in the first episode as a parody of himself who's so used to being the center of attention that he gladly allows the cult to sacrifice him.
- Ambiguous Situation: Petey inherited her dad's wives, but it's not entirely clear if they're married to her or if they're more like dowagers, especially as the cult has prophesied that she will take a male love and conceive a child to succeed her. Adding to the ambiguity, in the finale, Petey off-handedly mentions that she had sex with all three of them at some point.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: In the second episode, Petey sets her subjects free to do whatever jobs they want. She soon faces the backlash that these people desperately need direction.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension:
- Bandit has sworn that he will force Petey to leave New Utopia if it's the last thing he ever does, and he does everything he can to make sure that she knows he wants her out. But he also admits that he'll probably end up having sex with her at some point.
- Eliza has this with Connie, the local grease-trap lady. In "The Tangible Secret", Mae Mae gets fed up with Eliza's fumbling and helps her win Connie with a crazy scheme.
- Biting-the-Hand Humor: In the stinger for the first episode, Petey considers which celebrities she should try to recruit for her cult, and decides that she should start small, with one of the actors from a Freeform show.
- Capitalism Is Bad: In "We Need $30", Petey desperately tries to make thirty bucks to pay for Mae Mae's medicine without resorting to the underhanded tactics her dad used to bilk people out of their savings, but finds it nearly impossible to make money honestly. Subverted at the end when she discovers that the Elder Houses are all made of expensive marble and realizes that she can just move all five of the Elders into one house and sell the others.
- The Chosen One: Petey's dad chose her to be the new leader of his cult.
- Cliffhanger: The series ends with Petey instead of deprograming the cult, she "rebrands" it and manipulates people to stay with her by their side declaring "I am the comet and I have arrived". Feeling betrayed and used, Bandit and Eliza are angry at Petey for what she did and point out that she became a liar like her dad. Suddenly, the real comet came with a goat-looking alien and took one of the Elders, just then all three are aware of the comet's existence. Meanwhile, the journalist named Seredith Mump-Klein is about to expose Petey and New Utopia on her live podcast much to White's anger.
- Disappeared Dad: Petey never really knew her dad; he spent her whole life running New Utopia. She didn't even know she had a father until after his death.
- Foil: Bandit is skeptical of Petey and serves as a necessary counterweight to the rest of the town which takes subservience to extremes.
- Freudian Excuse: Bandit claims that his deep-seated hatred for the cult is because he was exiled when he came of age so that he wouldn't compete with Petey's dad for the women. The reality is he wasn't exiled. He was a gangly, awkward teenager and thus he was allowed to stay.
- Happiness in Slavery: In the second episode, Petey attempts to dissolve the entire cult, announcing that she is discontinuing all the weird jobs that her father assigned everyone in the misguided belief that they'll all seek out their own purposes. This causes a widespread panic, as almost everyone in town liked their assigned roles, and have no idea what to do with themselves outside of it."I didn't spend six years in wife graduate school to be a 'gal pal'!"
- In Vino Veritas: In "Drippy Drips", Petey approves the venting of swamp gas into New Utopia, leading to everyone getting high and horny for the day. While hopped up on swamp gas, Eliza records a video in which she admits that she regrets getting involved in the cult and wishes that she'd left when she had the chance.
- Naturalized Name: Petey's mother was born in the town that became New Utopia, with the name "Tammy Overalls". She changed her name to "White St. Barts" when she relocated to New York City, and has had every resident of New Utopia sign an NDA disavowing any knowledge of her.
- Not-So-Forgotten Birthday: In "Crowning Day", Petey is frustrated that her birthday coincides with the titular annual holiday in New Utopia, where her mother travels down to put on a show for the cultists. After spending the whole episode moping about it, she discovers that the whole town actually planned a surprise party for her, but Eliza was put in charge of planning it, and her only understanding of how to stage a surprise party came from watching old TV shows, so she assumed that they all had to pretend to ignore Petey, because that's how it works on TV.
- Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Mae Mae reports on Petey's progress to a council of old men in robes. It's not entirely clear what their function in the cult is, as they're obviously not advising Petey.
- Only Sane Man: Bandit and Eliza are the only residents of New Utopia who are not completely under the cult's spell.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Downplayed. While she has everyone's best interests at heart, the first season shows Petey slowly getting used to her role and the power that comes with it. It comes to a head in the finale, when Petey is struggles with the choice of deprogramming everyone in town, as it means losing everyone she cared about in the process. She ultimately decides to double down on the leading the cult and manipulates everyone into staying by their side.
- Solve the Soup Cans: In "The Tangible Secret", Petey goes on a quest to find the cult's hidden wisdom. Said wisdom is hidden behind a whole lot of weird puzzles, and she is forced to rely on Bandit and Harold to solve them for her.
- Town with a Dark Secret: New Utopia is a small Southern town almost completely controlled by a cult.
- Toxic Friend Influence: As the season wears on, Petey's constant neediness and self-absorption takes a toll on Eliza's already-fragile sense of self, to the point that she breaks down crying after taking a single day off to take a cooking class. Her girlfriend Connie outright tells her that Petey is toxic and she needs to cut her out of her life.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: In the season finale, Petey recruits Bandit for a scheme to deprogram the entire town, but reneges after realizing that doing so would ruin her financially and socially, as she would be admitting to scamming the entire town. Instead, she decides to refocus the cult away from the supposed comet and around herself, creating an even worse cult.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Petey throws up in some bushes after seeing Alan Tudyk get sacrificed.
