Though certainly a bit cheesy, and featuring the comedic style of many Disney Channel shows, Girl Meets World has just enough of Boy Meets World to be considered a success.
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Episode 3: “Girl Meets Sneak Attack”
Overview
The focus of the episode is growing up too fast.
Review (with Spoilers)
Without a doubt, this show is equally cute and corny. Cute because it features moments like Farkle having crushes on both Maya and Riley, but ultimately just wanting them to be happy; Topanga and Cory trying to deal with their youngest growing up; and Lucas sticking to his friends rather than being seduced by new character Missy. Then, when it comes to being corny, well that is mostly due to Riley almost coming off as Lizzie McGuire 2.0, though twice as awkward and embarrassing. Yet, even with the type of moments and scenarios you can’t imagine happening in real life, the show still brings a sense of nostalgia. And not necessarily for Boy Meets World, but your own youth and thinking about how awkward and strange things were when you were in 7th grade.
Topic 1: All Grown Up (Part 1) – Auggie
With Auggie being 5, it seems stuff like “Mr. Googly” suddenly no longer interest him. He wants to act more mature, wear boxers instead of pajamas like his dad, and no more good night kisses! Men shake hands. And, as you can imagine, losing those good night kisses and trying to deal with your son suddenly trying to grow up too fast is frightening for Cory and Topanga. Though Topanga especially since she learns it is all for an “older woman” who in fact is just a 6 year old down the hall named Ava. Someone who maybe older than Auggie, but certainly doesn’t fit the maturity he is trying to exude. She still likes Mr. Googly, and even tries to take Auggie’s, but Topanga puts a stop to that and though Ava thinks she is the boss because she is older than Auggie, Topanga reminds her that she is the real boss since she is older than both of them put together.
But just because Ava gets kicked out of their apartment, don’t think Auggie is going to drop this all grown up persona. He keeps it going until Riley talks him out of it. Which was corny, but it was slightly cute to see their little nuclear family together talking about not growing up too quickly. Even if it did sounds very PSA-ish.
Topic 2: All Grown Up (Part 2) – Riley
Even though this is only the 3rd episode (though 2nd released), I must say that I really am more interested in seeing what Maya’s home life is compared to anything Riley’s story may offer. For this child is so out there that you can tell that if given the opportunity, she could potentially make Riley into the Piper of Girl Meets World.
That thought aside, with a new character named Missy showing up Riley feels her future relationship with Lucas is threatened and after a bout of despair, jealousy ends up making her act foolish. How so? Well Missy *boops* Lucas and Riley goes to prove she can do it too and ends up with her finger in Lucas’ nose. Needless to say it made me roll my eyes since that is clearly a corny Disney joke, but can’t expect perfection.
Anyway, post-nose pick, Riley now wants to know how to flirt in order to compete with Missy. And despite Maya’s actions and talk in the first episode, suddenly she doesn’t know how to flirt, much less how to teach Riley to. But, thankfully, Farkle is up on the fire escape and ready to save the day! Well, at least verbally. We don’t see him try to teach Riley to flirt at all, but at the very least he shows, despite how odd he is, he does genuinely care for the girls’ happiness. Even if they may not want to date him.
So, the following day, while Riley may not try to flirt with Lucas, Farkle does try to snatch Missy’s attention, and may have succeeded? I mean, she doesn’t say “ew get away from me” and seems slightly intrigued by his leg so… Actually I don’t know what was going through her head, but I think with this show you have to accept that it is going to go back and forth from random to relatable. Anyway, while Riley may not get the courage to flirt with Lucas, she does let her feelings known that she thinks Lucas shouldn’t hang out alone with Missy. And luckily for her, while Lucas certainly did seem interested in Missy, and even mentions how nice he finds Missy’s legs, he ultimately turns her down because he doesn’t feel ready to date. Though it might have also been that Missy was just a bit too aggressive for him.
Either way, it is hard to argue that as the show tries to balance the expectations of Disney, as well as those familiar with Boy Meets World, that there aren’t some growing pains. For me, I found the nose picking and Farkle’s leg moment to just be so unnecessary to get the point across. But, at the same time, the show does have to fit Disney’s style of humor so it can’t be helped. Luckily though, between Auggie’s desire to seem grown up, Maya being there for Riley, as well as Farkle having his little cute moment of just wanting Riley to be happy, in the end everything balances out.
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