TV’s latest attempt to capitalize on our nostalgia comes in the form of Disney’s latest series, Girl Meets World, a sequel/spin-off to the popular series Boy Meets World. Before I had even heard of the plans for the series, my roommates and I had started TIVO-ing the Boy Meets World repeats airing on ABC Family, so it would be fair to say we are still fans. The news of Girl was particularly exciting once we knew that not only would Danielle Fishel and Ben Savage be reprising their roles as Topanga and Corey, but many other beloved characters would be returning periodically as well (though no word on Will Freidel’s Eric is concerning). As I said in Part 1 of my Summer Watch List, Girl was one of the new shows I was most excited for this summer. But for all the excitement and the hype, can Girl hold its own against Boy?
This is the obvious question on everyone’s minds and one of the things that kept running through my head while watching the first two episodes. Before I had even heard of the plans for the series, my roommates and I had started Tivo-ing the Boy Meets World repeats airing on ABC Family, so it would be fair to say we are still fans.
Boy Meets World was on TV before Nickelodeon and Disney Channel had reached the heights they have today. These kid-geared shows aired on broadcast TV (in Boy‘s case, ABC). It was before every kid had to be a triple threat?able to sing, act, and dance?and before the days of these multi-talented kids playing characters seeking fame (Hannah Montana, Shake It Up, Austin & Ally, A.N.T. Farm, iCarly, How to Rock…). Corey and his friends were as average as they came and so were the life lessons they learned. Enter Girl, where Topanga and Corey have grown up and live in New York City. Corey is a school teacher at his twelve-year-old daughter Riley’s school and Topanga is a lawyer (there were rumors that she was supposed to run a pudding shop where Riley hung out after school, thankfully that did not turn out to be the case). Maya is the new Shawn of the show, coming from a troubled home and dragging the more innocent Riley into trouble. Although there is no Eric surrogate, we’ve also got Auggie, the youngest Matthews child, taking the place of the adorable Morgan. (This one of my favorite Morgan scenes.)
In episode one Riley is taught that she has to make the world her own and stand up for what she believes in. Part of that is standing up for her best friend Maya and making sure she doesn’t get into unnecessary trouble. The pilot shows us an overacting Rowan Blanchard as Riley (typical of Disney-fare), a more subtle Sabrina Carpenter as Maya (who undoubtedly studied Rider Strong’s Shawn for tips), a way over the top Farkle (the Minkus of the group who may or may not be Minkus’s son?does that make his full name Farkle Minkus?), a silly introduction to love interest Lucas (who isn’t a much better actor than Riley, but also hasn’t been given much of anything to work with), and a completely inappropriate Corey (what school lets a father teach his daughter?!). Topanga is sadly absent most of the time and although there’s an adorable moment with Auggie, we don’t get a sense of him doing anything more than making a cute cameo.
Episode two is a little more well-balanced with all the characters and thankfully, they do not feel the need to repeat the word “world” as frequently as they did in the pilot (12 times according to an Entertainment Weekly article). Suddenly it seems Farkle is part of the gang and not just the annoying kid in class (a step up from Minkus), which feels abrupt, but not terrible. There are still plot lines that make little sense (like why Riley and Maya trust Farkle to teach them to flirt when he so obviously can’t get a girl), but we get to see more of Topanga and she is still great. Corey is a little over-acted when he is talking to the kids (he sort of takes on a “this-is-me-talking-to-kids” voice), which isn’t totally off from Corey himself. There are a few moments where Corey is just so…Corey and those were some of my favorite moments.
What I perhaps most appreciate is that although Riley has a crush on Lucas, she is self-aware enough to know that she is not ready for a relationship. I can’t think of the last time a show had a character make such a mature decision. There are the types of lessons that made Boy Meets World so great. The episode where Eric’s girlfriend Linda is called a derogatory term and Corey connects this with the Diary of Anne Frank. That episode still gets me to tear up every time I watch it. At this point, Girl Meets World does not have the charm of its parent show, but there is a lot of potential there and I am looking forward to seeing where things go. Also, the theme-song is surprisingly catchy (though I would be lying if I said I hadn’t been hoping for a re-purposing of Boy‘s theme song).
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