Girl Meets World (Season 2): A Look Ahead

I don't have a ton of time right now, but I wanted to get this ball rolling. Let's start with this:

Some things of note:

1. I'm not positive, but I THINK that's Riley doing part of Eric's all-time greatest Feeny call there in Feeny's back yard. Which suggests to me that her biological father uncle once taught her exactly what to do the first time she meets Mr. Feeny. Which automatically makes this show a success.

2.  I don't care about the clones. But I do like new teachers. Maybe Cory won't be their teacher at all this season, rather than them somehow ending up back in his class at the end of that episode. Maybe, right? May. be. 

3. Real non-ghost Feeny is almost as exciting as Eric. I'm so glad William Daniels is still here to be a part of this. Just hearing him say "Mr. Matthews, Mr. Hunter," is like Mozart.  He's in TWO EPISODES of the premiere week. TWO. 

4. I also adore that they actually went and rebuilt the Feeny backyard set (you know there's no way it still existed somewhere) The Matthews house and the backyard are extremely iconic sets to me, so just seeing them really makes me feel something. Now, if they somehow get the school hallway from Seasons 2-4 in there (not the shitty Season 5 one) I may cry.

5. So, okay. I hate that Eric is Plays with Squirrels on a variety of levels. I made a whole post about it. But it doesn't appear he's REALLY living his life as Plays with Squirrels. He's actually clean-shaven and well-dressed. He may have a job! And a home! And DA MATTHEWS BRUTHAS scene at the end looks like it'll be cute, even if they're borrowing a Cory/Josh bit for some reason. The Eric/Cory relationship is one of my favorites, even if it didn't always get the attention it deserved.

So, that's all I have on that. So Sean, you can maybe start us off in full. Your thoughts on that promo, the casting announcements, what you think about it all.


Oh, also I have this: http://www.livingthedreamshow.com/will-friedle/

It's a recent interview that Will Friedle did (the host is Phil Morris who played Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld!) It's an hour long, and a lot that you, frankly, can skip. But towards the very end he starts setting the record straight about all the rumors that we've been hearing about him and why he took a step away from live action work. He apparently has been suffering from anxiety attacks (but not, as people have reported, agorophobia) but it really did get to the point where he could only do voice over work. That seems to be why he didn't appear in Season 1, he didn't think he could do it. But he finally became convinced that if he was ever going to get back into it again, this would be the way to ease himself into it and see, because he'd be surrounded by friends, playing a character he knows and loves. And it sounds like it went well, he's done 3 episodes so far. So... welcome back Will. I'd love to see him in more things.

My initial response is OH MY GOD. See, this is where we can all come together. There are many different classifications of Boy Meets World fans, and there are some hostile rivalries among them, but... I don't think there's a single fan on earth who heard "Mr. Matthews, Mr. Hunter" in that clip and didn't experience intense joy and excitement. And that's what really matters. Mister Feeny, the uniter of souls. Before his majesty, we are one. I'm so happy right now, man. 

My reaction to pretty much everything else is positive as well. 

Christian I'm not sure what you mean about the Feeny call. It just sounds like the the voice-over guy is elongating the "h" on "history." 

From wikipedia for the first episode, "Riley and Maya ... are eager to transfer out of Cory's class. The change, however, doesn't offer the excitement and independence they hoped it would." Sounds like it doesn't offer the things WE hoped for either. If the world is truly cruel, it'll be a one-off story and they'll end up back in Cory's class at the end of the episode having learned some sort of lesson. I mean it's bullshit from the beginning, Cory lets them do whatever they want in class from start to finish, I have no idea why they think any other teacher will be more fun. 

Feeny and Turner coming back is absolutely fantastic. Angela coming back is pretty terrifying. Does Jacobs think that anyone in the fanbase likes Angela? You wrote why this is a bad move in your review of Girl Meets Master Plan, so I'm just gonna say that I completely agree with you and leave it at that. I'll always love Chet Hunter, but his death was so important! Having his ghost pop in and out all the time really takes away from that for me. It's fine though, Blake Clark is amazing, so everyone is going to enjoy seeing him no matter what. 

However... that's all coming from someone who desperately loves Boy Meets World. Perhaps it's worth evaluating from the perspective of a young GMW fan who never saw Boy. I would love to know the population split between those groups, but the GMW-only fans are probably a majority. To them, this mysterious lover from Shawn's past is probably pretty interesting. Cory's old teachers are probably pretty meaningless. Like that Minkus episode, that was pretty awkward even for me, and I loved Minkus. Imagine how weird that was for people who only knew him as Farkle's dad. It's interesting that the reception to each character may be completely reversed depending on which camp the viewer is in.

I think Eric will be Playswith Squirrels for about ten seconds, and I'm actually disappointed that the trailer spoiled that. Like, don't show us the immediate transformation in the preview, come on. The only way to describe seeing Eric again is pure childish excitement. Hell, that even extends to Will himself. It's a genuine delight for me that he's overcoming that anxiety, and it's almost a fairytale ending that he has the Boy Meets World atmosphere as support. That makes my heart SING, Christian. It's a beautiful thought that he finds comfort in the place where he gave us so much comfort. 

You're up, buddy. Time to gush. If there was EVER A TIME IN YOUR LIFE for fanrolling gushyness, that time is now.

Also Lauren from Boy Meets World is in the new Avengers movie.

Yup, she's Mrs. Hawkeye. Linda Cardellini is also on the new Netflix series "Bloodline" which I recommend. And she played Don Draper's mistress on Mad Men last season. But, even before Lauren, she'll always be Velma from Scooby-Doo to me. 

When Riley goes "What what what what what" near the beginning of the clip. She's appears to be doing an impression of Eric doing the same thing in Eric's all time best Feeny call. The one in the college classroom that ends with him clawing like a cat or something. He does a similar "What what what what what?" during the middle of that, and since she's in Feeny's backyard, I think she may be doing that Feeny call. Find that clip and then watch this again, you'll see it. She's not doing it perfectly, but I think she's doing it.

Yeah, I have all the confidence in the world that the new class episode will wind up with them all back in Cory's class. I hate that they'll do that. But they'll do that.

Here's my thing with ghost appearances in shows. I'm fine with them, and even think they can be powerful, under two conditions. 1) That each dead character only gets ONE shot at being a ghost. More than that, and it's lame. So you better make your one count. 2) That it's made abundantly clear that this is in the surviving person's head. It's just them working through their grief, not actually being visited by a ghost. Chet abides by neither rule. What is this, the fifth time we're seeing him as a ghost? It's getting close to him appearing just as much dead as he did alive, since we didn't actually see all that much of living Chet. And other than his first appearance, which is the only time it was done right, he's seemed to be an actual ghost. He provided Shawn information he didn't already know about his mother, and I think he like grabbed Rachel's ass or something another time. So, as much as I liked the character of Chet, I'm not a big Ghost!Chet fan. Still, it's the only way to get him into the series so as long as it's just the one time on GMW, and as long as he's not too ghosty, I'm okay with it. it. But, hey, what do we know. Maybe he's real Chet. Maybe Chet faked his death. I wouldn't entirely put it past him. This picture's all we got to go on. I bet Shawn's doing some lame thing where he's responding to things Chet's saying and Katy and Maya think he's talking to them and are like "Huh??"

I hope the moment Shawn sees Angela with that hair he's like "Ah, y'know what? Over it."

Angela... I don't know. As much as we both disliked her, we can't say that nobody in the fanbase wouldn't want her back. You'd be surprised at how many Shawn/Angela fans there actually are. I can't count the amount of message board arguments I've underwent over the year arguing with people who insist that Shawn and Angela probably ended up together despite the series clearly ending with them apart for a reason. And, then, when GMW happened and they were given definitive proof that, yes, Shawn and Angela did indeed break up for good, a lot of those people were pissed. So, if you want to throw those people a bone, give them an Angela appearance that gives some closure to the relationship. Maybe show that Angela's in a good place in her life, and is perfectly happy and wishes Shawn all the best in a new relationship, fine. Go for it. I don't like Angela, and I don't need to see her, but her coming back is not like... outrageous. The relationship could use some closure since Shawn clearly still has issues with it, and her visiting Cory, Topanga, and Shawn during a trip to New York doesn't feel egregious. They were all close. Just... then that's it, okay? She gets a curtain call. Then we're done with Angela, right guys?

Turner I'm into just because I want an explanation of what the hell happened with him. But I struggle to see how he organically fits into an episode. Shawn's not in the one Turner's in, first of all. So Turner will be interacting with Cory who, sure, he had a good relationship with. But not one that really... needs exploring? I can buy that Shawn and Turner stayed in touch all these years, I have trouble believing Cory and Turner would. The Matthews brothers were exclusively Feeny disciples. Turner was Shawn's guy. To have Turner in an episode that doesn't feature Shawn just seems like a waste. Like if you brought back Jack and neither Shawn nor Eric were in the episode. What's he there for, to talk to Topanga?

And Feeny... well, yeah, obviously Feeny coming back is great. And I just fucking love that they're going home to Philly to do it. What I'm really curious with him is the fact that he's in two episodes. One of them will be this one where they go home to Philly and are in his backyard. What's he doing in the other one? 

With regards to how non-BMW watchers would take all these appearances, I think it varies. I have definitely seen a contingent who just care about Maya, Riley, Lucas, and Farkle (and Josh, who's really popular and no one really considers a BMW character) and, although they understand who these BMW people are, they sort of actively resent their appearances. Which I find silly. At the end of the day, they're still going to miss way more episode than they're in. M, R, L, and F are in absolutely no danger of not continuing to be the focal points of this show. And, in my opinion, Shawn (like Cory and Topanga) is really a full-blown Girl Meets World character in his own right by now and should be able to show up whenever he wants now. He's not just being like "Hey! Remember me from the old show?" He's got like his own story on GMW and his own connections to much of the cast.

Oh don't even fucking try, Lucas.

I'm good with appearances that don't seem gratuitous. I don't think Harley or Minkus were necessary - I don't think Harley's were particularly well done and he wasn't even that popular a character. Minkus was handled better, but it's, frankly, kinda dumb that he's Farkle's father. And it's not like they've even done that much with it. But the core BMW characters like Shawn, Eric, Feeny? Not only should they appear because it's natural for them to do based on their strong connections to present cast members, but... they're such a big part of BMW that it'd be wrong if they didn't. Yes, it's its own show and needs to stand on its own legs. But they made it a sequel to Boy Meets World for a reason. If they didn't want to also continue the stories of BMW characters, they would have just made it a brand new show about a girl growing up and her friends. It's not like Disney Channel doesn't do that kind of thing. You want to hoodwink some adults into watching your kids show? Fine. We'll watch your kids show. But you owe us a little Shawn, Eric, and Feeny too. That's the deal. Because, I'll tell you this, if it was just Cory and Topanga and we'd gotten this far and not heard about more people coming in? I doubt I'd still be watching. But this little amount is enough to keep me pumped about the show.

Yeah, and Eric, I don't even know what to say about Eric. I'm just so excited. There are precious few fictional characters I care more about than Eric Matthews. I'm glad you're so excited too. I know you like Eric, but I always thought of you as more of a Shawn guy. 

In fact, rank your 5 favorite BMW characters in order. I'm curious. For me it's 1. Eric, 2. Cory, 3. Shawn, 4. Feeny, 5. Alan. I feel pretty confident that's your five too, but I'd guess the order is mixed up?

You're spot on about Chet The Phantom and Angela. I was unaware that Shawn wouldn't be in the same episode as Turner and you may have been able to hear my heart break when I read that. I... can't imagine what they'll have him talk about. I guarantee you that we won't get a satisfying explanation for his disappearance. Just another throwaway joke comment like Minkus made in "Graduation". "I was just in the other part of the school. You know, over there." 

I don't know what Peyton Meyer thinks he's doing taking a picture with Will. You get outta there, Peyton. That's not for you.

You're right that Shawn is an actual character now, rather than guestspot fanservice, but I was worried about that at first. Girl Meets Home For The Holidays was 100% throwbacks and I honestly didn't care for it. Now that I think about it though, that may just be because I went through the series on my blog so recently. BMW Shawn is still very much alive in my head, still fresh. If it had been, you know, a decade since I watched Boy Meets World, then Home For The Holidays probably would have been more fun. That's an interesting thought.

 If you take the characters at their best, Eric is definitely the best. So I'm really hoping we see that here on Girl Meets World. I'm wary, though, since Jacobs thinks season 7 Eric is the real Eric. But looking at the series as a whole, Shawn is my favorite. So if we're looking at the series as a whole, it's gonna be, in order, Shawn, Lauren, Griff, Dana, and the kid playing his Game Gear in the windowsill.

Okay fine, Shawn, Eric, Feeny, Cory, Alan.  I want Eric to be my favorite, but all that screaming and slapstick and nonsense in seasons 6 and 7, I just can't. If we're weighing their cardinal sins, Shawn's poetry is a lot less obnoxious than Eric being an unfunny dumbass. As much as you want to deny it, "What A Drag!" did actually happen. That's canon, my friend.

I feel like we're wandering. Is there anywhere else you wanted to go with the look-ahead? Something I didn't respond to that you wanted to talk about?

Okay, I can maybe grant Eric-at-worst is worse than Shawn-at-worst, but, in Eric-over-Shawn's defense, Shawn's lameness is not solely concentrated to the final seasons like Eric's. It can be easy to forget, but early Shawn is really dumb. Eric-level dumb. Even into Season 4 sometimes, he's startlingly dumb. Especially in like Seasons 2 and 3. So, to that end, I tend to make the stupidity thing a wash, even if Eric's stupidity is more... aggressive. 

But yeah, for me, he he probably gets third (after Eric and Cory) because I just don't think, all things considered, he's as funny as they are. I guess that's ultimately what it comes down to. Because Shawn's story certainly means more to me than Cory's (though not as much as Eric's) but whenever Shawn and Cory interact (especially once they get into their groove in Season 4) I just find myself enjoying Cory more. It was a weird day when I realized that, that I was more into Cory than Shawn. I was in, like, college by then. 

I agree with you on "Girl Meets Home for the Holidays" being just fanservice. I wasn't wild about it either. I mean, I gave it a B+, I was still a fan being... serviced. But I could recognize it wasn't really that great an episode. Plus they just, like, invented a new personality for Amy - who, granted, was never rife with one to begin with. "Master Plan" was the far superior Shawn appearance.

You're right though. We're off topic. I was just curious. 

Alright, here's some things to talk about:

1. Morgan's supposed to be back at some point. We don't know when. We don't know whom. What do you think? Who would you prefer? And what role do you think she could have in the series? One of the things I like about GMW is how it justifies Josh's entire existence. He was pointless on BMW, but here he matters. Could Morgan be an example of that too?

1.5. Did we touch on Josh much in our Season 1 lookback? What're your thoughts on Josh?

2. In an ideal world, what would you like Eric to be up to? What seems right to you? And what kind of role would you want him to play here?

3. Are there any things you've heard about, moves they've made for Season 2 that seem like a bad idea to you? Anything you're less excited about? Besides Angela of course. 

I don't know. Those are my questions, I guess. I didn't plan this out. Hard to have as much to say about a season we haven't seen yet compared to one we've seen all of! 

See that's interesting, humor was a big part of it for me. I'd say Shawn is funnier than Cory every day of the week. Different strokes and all that, I suppose.

To put it bluntly, Lily Nicksay is hot now. Very good looking. Now, I would love to be wrong about this, but I can already see Farkle doing his sexual predator shit to Nicksay's Morgan, if she ends up in the role. So that's one thing. I have no real preference between the actresses, but by all accounts Ridgeway deserves it more. 

Morgan's only interest that I remember is singing, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's her job now. 

I doubt we'll see as much of her as Josh. We almost certainly would have heard more news about her if she were going to be that big a player. I'm betting on a one-off "this is what she's up to, oh look it's that actress all grown up" situation.

Near the end of season 7, we see a brief return of the big-hearted ambitious Eric when he talks to his father about his future. "Either a veterinarian so I could help animals... Or a weatherman, so I could warn people when there's a flood. Or when there's sunshine." I pulled up the episode to get the exact quote, it's such a great scene. That's the Eric that I love, so I hope he was able to reach one of those goals. I read your imagined future for Eric, and it was compelling, but I really don't want to see Eric down and out. Boy Meets World wanted us to end with this feeling of "Eric is ready." We did a ton of work to get there, but he was ready at the end of the show. To find out that he is now unsuccessful would be devastating. I'd wonder why we did all that work in the first place. So yeah, he better be a weatherman or a veterinarian. 

As for his contributions to the story, I can't even begin to speculate. It was easy to theorycraft the pairing between Shawn and Maya because they're analogues. Then again, Riley is quite similar to Eric, for reasons that you and I are both privy to. I guess we all just sort of assumed that Riley is the "Cory" of the show, but maybe she's supposed to be both Eric and Cory. I don't know if that's possible. So yeah, maybe Eric will provide guidance for Riley. It could be anything, honestly. As long as he has at least one scene with Feeny, I'm happy.

I already wrote a lot, so a brief answer for the third question. It seems to me like they're moving everything in the right direction. I expect a much better season than the first.

Yup, I agree. Some things still bother me, notably Eric's return being so PWS-y, but I'm seeing Eric Matthews again. So I'll shut up.

I don't like to talk about how I think Lily Nicksay's hot now. It's weird. But, yeah, she's hot. I don't think we're going to see her as much as Josh either, but I think it'd be good for Riley to have like a twentysomething cool aunt as a role model. 

Veterinarian and Weatherman always felt like too... "TV" of jobs for Eric. I mean, weatherman? C'mon. And veterinarian is a stereotypical "job little kids say they wanna do when they grow up after they've outgrown stuff like spaceman and princess" I could see wanting Eric to have his dreams come true if these were like... deeply held dreams that were core to his character. But the weatherman thing got featured in two episodes of Season 3, then was dropped besides a vague Season 7 mention. And that was the first we were hearing about the vet thing. I don't buy those as Eric's dreams. I think it's just... the possible career paths that were on his mind when Alan asked him that question, since they'd just been talking about them. And the weatherman thing seemed to be more about Eric wanting to be a TV star. 

Really, Eric-as-Actor I would even prefer because he's shown some aptitude for it, and we have his successful weatherman run, The Goodlookin' Guy, his one man show, and, of course, Eric Hollywood as points of reference. Plus Eric's general histrionic personality and occasional narcissism. But Eric ending up an actor is also kind of a "TV job."

As for my plan, obviously I wouldn't have Eric stay a bartender forever, I would have Cory maybe encourage Eric to go get a teaching license. And THEN you could have recurring stories where Eric starts teaching elementary school and is Auggie's teacher! You wouldn't see that all the time, since we wouldn't have Will Friedle all the time. But that could be a cool bit.

Another common suggestion for a good job for Eric from others is social worker. I buy it.

But I like seeing Shawn and Eric struggle. I like that maybe in 2015, their big problems are more adult versions of the problems they had in 1998. I don't want all their problems to have been solved at the end of Boy Meets World. It's too neat and clean. Did you work past all your character flaws by the time you were 22? For Eric and Shawn, their problems will likely always be chronic. Eric's always going to be immature and a bit of a screw-up, Shawn's always going to be a loner and jaded by his past. The hope is just for them to be able to take two steps forward and one step back.  Sure, Eric went out on a good note in the finale... but like.... that wasn't a great final season for him honestly. 

Still, while I got my Shawn wish, it doesn't look like Eric's story is going to be anything resembling what I was hoping for him. 

Yeah, I hope as more and more times goes on the kids stop having one obvious BMW analogue and become kind of... mixes of people. Because none of them are exactly alike. They're both weird, naive, and awkward, but Riley's more sunshine and rainbows than neurotic Cory. And she's got the Cloud Cuckoolander aspect of Eric. Maya's much more mature than Shawn was at this age. Farkle's barely like Minkus at all anymore beyond being smart. And who's Lucas supposed to be? Topanga? 'Cause I don't see it. I originally thought Auggie would be an Eric/Morgan pastiche (cute little kid, but he was also portrayed as kind of weird and offbeat at the beginning) but more and more he's becoming like a little Cory and kind of lost those Eric influences I saw earlier, as Riley becomes less obviously Cory and kind of mixes Cory with old school Topanga and, yeah, Eric too. Wonder what that's about? (*cough*bigdaddyrocks*cough*)

Hey, here's something. Here's a list of all the episode titles we know so far. In order. It's gotta be almost all of them.  When certain key guest cast members are included, I'll throw them in there too. Some have synopses, but I'll not post those for those concerned with spoilers.

1. Girl Meets Gravity (Monday, Featuring: Mr. Feeny)

2. Girl Meets the New World (Tuesday)

3. Girl Meets the Secret of Life (Wednesday)

4. Girl Meets Pluto (Thursday, Featuring: Shawn, Mr. Feeny, possibly Alan and Amy?, and Katy)

5. Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels (Friday, Featuring: Eric)

6. Girl Meets The Tell Tale Tot (Featuring: Josh)

7. Girl Meets Commonism (Featuring: AVA. MORGEN. STERN!)

8.  Girl Meets Hurricane (Featuring: Shawn, Angela, Chet, and Katy)

9.  Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels Goes to Washington (Featuring: Eric) 

10. Girl Meets the Rules

11. Girl Meets the New Teacher (Featuring: Mr. Turner) 

12. Girl Meets Fish (Featuring: AVA. MORGEN. STERN!) 

13. Girl Meets Forgiveness (Featuring: Shawn and Katy)

14.  Girl Meets Belief

15.  Girl Meets World: of Terror 2 (*sigh*) [If Gravity's the first day of school, it's hard to imagine Halloween would happen this far in. That's going to be an exciting first two months of 8th grade!]

16.  Girl Meets Cory and Topanga [I hope this is a flashback episode featuring Ben, Danielle, Rider, and Will about the day Riley was born, but I have no reason to suspect this will happen]

17.  Girl Meets Genius 

18.  Girl Meets Semi-Formal (Featuring: Eric)

19.  Girl Meets Rah Rah

20. Girl Meets Normal (Featuring: Smackle)

21. Girl Meets Year Book

Obviously, this is all subject to change. Episode names, airing order, guest stars. People like Josh, Smackle, Ava, and Katy don't get press releases when they appear in episodes, so they're likely in more and we just don't know which. It would particularly surprise me if Josh was only in one episode, and that they would not use Smackle all season and bring her back in episode 20. Shawn's last episode being episode 13 also seems unlikely. But who knows? What are these episodes all about do you think? Post your theories in the comments!

NEXT WEEK IS THE BIG WEEK. You excited? We're excited. Five goddamn episodes. How will the review process work? Well... we'll see. What would be great is if we could have each review finished by the time the next episode airs. Is that feasible? I don't know. But we'll give it our best go. Some (Pluto and Mr. Squirrels) may naturally wind up longer than others (New World and Secret of Life). But we'll see. But expect us to be fairly timely.

Sean, I ended up saying a lot. I know we want to wrap this post up, but if you have any response, comment and we can take it there! And, everybody, actually, feel free to comment! Comment comment comment!