If you are in the early 30 age group with me then I can guarentee that you at least remember the ABC show, Boy Meets World. It was in the TGIF block and starred Ben Savage, little brother of Fred Savage, as Cory Matthews: a preteen boy trying to make his place in the world. The show lasted from 1993 to 2000 and ended with Cory and his longtime love Topanga, graduating collage, getting married and moving to New York. I loved this show. My family and I watched religiously all seven years it was on. I was one of the few girls my age however that DID NOT think Ryder Strong was attractive. I actually thought the curly haired, Ben was way cuter. I have a thing for nerdy, white guys lol. Anyways, love the show so 14 years later when I heard that there were rumors of a spin off which would follow the daughter of Cory and Topanga, called Girl Meets World, you can imagine my excitement! Especially when I found out that the rumors were true!
So I kept an eye out for the show. It was announced that it would be on the Disney Channel and that slightly worried me. The Disney Channel? This isn’t a Disney show, this was a family show that kids and parents could sit down and watch together and even use the topics on the show for jumping off points for those important kid/parent converstations that eventually have to happen but we usually don’t know how to bring up let alone have a lecture prepared for. But, you know, Disney has some pretty good shows. I often find myself completely zoned out, staring at the TV watching Sam & Cat because I got sidetracked as I was walking through the living room with an armload of laundry; And I can’t even try to lie, I cried my eyes out at the last episode of iCarly. Even the other half would find himself stopping his channel surfing when he came to Victorious…although I can give you one guess why that was and it’s ok, we checked, she’s legal.
So recently the pilot episode of Girl Meets World finally debuted so here is the summary and my thoughts.
*SPOILER ALERT* Do not continue reading if for some unexplainable reason you are super concerned about know the plot of the pilot episode….instead you may want to go talk to someone…please.
So the show opens with Cory and Topanga’s daughter Riley and her friend Maya sitting in her room contemplating climbing out Riley’s window to go ride the subway. You can tell right away this is going to be one of those spin off’s where they make sure they have all the same general characters. Riley is obviously Cory and Maya, the bad girl trying to influence her best friend to do something dangerous with her, is Shawn. Although I’m not sure how dangerous riding the subway is….smelly and colorful yes. Daytime dangerous? Eh, Disney Channel.
Anyways, they decide to go ahead with the window plan and you see them crawl out and promptly back right back up into the room with dad Cory blocking their way. There is applause at his return and subsequently at Topanga’s as well as she comes in the door shortly after. At this point there is a sort of passing of the torch which I actually really liked, and the two girls skip off to make the world their own.
This becomes the message of the episode as Riley, in an attempt to make the world her’s decides she really wants it to be like Maya’s because she is free spirited and rebellious. While attemping to be Maya, Riley meets the boy who will be her Topanga, who’s name is Lukas, on the subway. Of course he ends up being in her class and of course Cory is her, Maya and Lukas’s teacher. Here we also meet the son of our favorite geek in BMW, Farkle Minkus, who is in love with both Maya and Riley. I’m not a fan of this character. While all of them are trying to fit the bill from the original, Farkle is too forced and too cheesy. While the senior Minkus was annoying, he was tolerable. I can’t say the same for his offspring.
For the kids’ first assignment, teacher Cory wants them to write an essay on something they would fight for. Maya uses this to start a campaign against homework, which Riley, wanting to be Maya, promptly decides to become a part of. When the protest gets out of hand and leads to the fire alarm and sprinklers being triggered, Cory gives Maya detention and proceeds to tell her that she is being a bad friend to Riley and learns that Maya is fighting against homework because she has no one to help her with hers at home. MESSAGE!
Maya takes her BFF’s father’s advice and tries to tell Riley they can’t be friends anymore. Queue the second cameo by Jackee Harry. They get a big win for this one and she looks AMAZING for her age. Riley realizes their friendship is the thing she would fight for and stands up to her father telling him that he can’t break up their friendship, to which he replies that was never his intention. Can you hear the happy family conclusion music rising yet? Here is where is gets weird. They end the episode with a second, passing of the torch scene with almost the exact same wording as the beginning. The difference being that you get a glimpse of the best teacher ever, who is apparently now the stay in school poster…man, Mr. Feeney.
All in all, I can’t say I was dissapointed. It was cute. It was very Disney and the acting wasn’t amazing but I will likely watch it again. I probably won’t actively make plans to watch it like I did the original but if I happen to be moving laundry across the living room and it’s on, I will probably space out.
GMW picture courtesy of http://www.zap2it.com
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