I think brushing your teeth is the worst aspect of the human experience. We've got unrequited love, impending and inevitable death, and the recurring desire to go to the bar as soon as it closes. Brushing your teeth is worse than all that.
Christian is out being a thespian this evening, so let's all wish him good luck with the show. BECAUSE THAT MEANS BAD LUCK, MUAHAHAHHAHAHHA.
Oh hey Sarah's in this episode.
Cory's been having these lines lately, where he's like "Seeeeee? I'm not always a totally shit teacher, huh? Huh? *wink*" It's pretty annoying. It's essentially the writers congratulating themselves for tying Cory's lesson in to the theme of the episode. Like.... Congrats, guys... You maintained the premise of the series.
And as we all know, today's theme is forgiveness. Yogi forgives his bombshell girlfriend in the background as the camera scrolls past. She doesn't seem happy about it, but nothing about this relationship has ever made sense, so why start now.
Unfortunately, we transition to the Riley and Auggie Show, where the fun (predictably) collapses. I hate Auggie. I hate Auggie more than I hate brushing my teeth. Apparently he ruined Riley's bear when he was 3 years old and isn't interested in Riley's forgiveness. By default, Riley's innocence rides the dangerous line between "endearing" and "excruciating." In Rah Rah, they landed on the side that we all love. Today, regrettably, we're stuck in excruciatingville. Who the hell cares about this? It's five minutes in, when can we start the actual storyline? You know why I'm here, Girl Meets World, and it's not for Auggie Theatre.
We've got yet more filler as Topanga tries to be a waitress, with, of course, no mention of her previous experience as a waitress in Last Tango In Philly.
You can tell how proud of themselves the writers are. "Oh that is good," Topanga says, about tying Cory's lesson to the theme. Nauseating. "The storm happened. You didn't," from Maya. ...Really? I honestly do like the intent here, it's just the dialogue is killing me.
Oh of course Auggie's reason for eating the bear was that he just wants to spend more time with Riley. I'm honestly sick to death of this stupid dynamic. NO ONE IS LIKE THIS. Cory and Morgan were always at each other's throats, giving actual weight to the rare emotional moments between them. Riley and Auggie are SWEET SWEET SUGAR CANDY 24 fucking 7. Add on the fact that it's taking time away from Maya dealing with her father, it's simply infuriating. I hate you, Auggie.
Okay finally, we've got what we came for. The Spilling of Beans. The Having of Outs. And now it's over. What to say, what to say. This is why it's so much easier to post second, to say "Yeah Christian explained it well." I guess I'll just start writing how I feel.
Sabrina is able to summon her emotions and acts well, and "Your job was to stay" is the first legitimate piece of writing in this episode. Kermit lands in a strong middleground where he's not a villain, but he probably still doesn't deserve forgiveness. My biggest complaint though is that I don't think I understand why he left Maya and Katy in the first place. It was some half-assed 10 second explanation about them not believing in him? I don't honestly know. And that leads to my biggest complaint with the episode, which is time allocation. This episode is a big deal. We have groundwork for this. This is a bigger event than my race with Christian. So why does it feel so rushed? The first scene with Kermit in the bakery was four minutes long, but there wasn't any real content. We learned that he's Maya's dad, and, what? What? That he left? We already knew that. That doesn't take four minutes. The final confrontation between Maya and Kermit was only three minutes. It had plenty of content, but it was all crammed in there. Take time away from LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE IN THE EPISODE and give it to this scene!
So she doesn't forgive her father, and that's fantastic. Maya thought she was supposed to forgive this guy, but acted on her own, as an individual, free from the confines of Cory's stupid classroom.
EXCEPT NO SHE DIDN'T! SURPRISE! IT WAS CORY'S PLAN ALL ALONG!
Cory "Nostradamus" Matthews never expected her to forgive her father, he just wanted her to forgive herself. Which she did, evident from her tearful embrace of her teacher. That is just shit, man. That is shit. What is up with this Puppetmaster Cory bull shit? Do you think Feeny expected Shawn to actually show up at the Super Bowl? He explicitly didn't want Eric to actually teach the citizenship class. But they made their own decisions. They had agency. This feels like Maya riding the rails of the Cory Express and I can't stand it. I'm gonna rewrite this ending for you, are you ready?
Maya: "I couldn't forgive him. But you know what? I forgive myself. Because it wasn't my fault."
BOOM. DONE. ONE THOUSAND FIREWORKS AND AN IRISH RIVERDANCE. Let Cory react to Maya's own decision, rather than this "ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN" mustache-twirling crap.
It's a good episode, but if we could cut the god damn puppet strings for one minute, it could have been great. That's a big part of why Texas was great that I hadn't considered. The kids were making their own decisions. They weren't living out Cory's grand master plan. Sadly, Maya wasn't so lucky today.
 |
| Pictured: The Prophet of Ages |
Christian will be here eventually, maybe. There's a strong chance he'll waltz in here and claim that he got hit by a car while saving a puppy, but let's be honest, that's exactly what a liar would say.
I did get hit by a car while saving a puppy! That's absolutely true! He got that from my real life! I'm fine though - as is the world's dumbest and cutest dog.
Where's your teeth-brushing beef coming from? Both, in life, and in context of this review? What am I missing? Also, no, brushing your teeth is whatever. You know what's fucking weird though now that I think about it? Baby teeth. Auggie's missing some I noticed in this episode, something I hadn't noticed before, probably because he wasn't before. Baby teeth are weird, man. You start off with these teeth right, and then you're specially designed for you to lose them all, like, right off the bat. A handful of years in. And then you got a whole bunch of backups waiting in the wings because your mouth is going to get all big and those original teeth aren't going to be big enough for you. That's crazy. Good for us. God didn't blow us off on that one.
So, I'm going to start off by saying there's three major things here you didn't like that I had no problem with.
The first is that Kermit gets jokes. So what? Bad guys can get jokes. Hell, they gave Mr. Mack from The Center a joke or two And he's a cult leader! What's the problem? And I don't think Kermit's explicitly, like, a villain. Like you, I was also concerned about this episode because of the assumption that it would lead to Kermit being forgiven too easily for too unforgivable a transgression, and like you, I'm very glad that it turns out Maya did not forgive him after all. But I don't hate the guy, and I don't think he's pure evil. So he can have some jokes. They're, like, pretty light jokes after all. The dude's not hilarious, and the show doesn't treat him like he is. And they felt like pretty benign "Woo, this is uncomfortable, isn't it?"-type jokes someone would really make in this situation. They have to make something at least semi-likable about this guy, otherwise, like, why would Katy have ever been with him? Why would Maya want anything to do with him? etc. Also, like, assuming this show last a few more seasons, I don't think we've seen the last of him. I wouldn't mind if we have, since it kind of seems like Maya got her closure and Katy needs none, but I just don't see them not coming back to this at some point, especially with Cory implying forgiveness in this situation is not impossible, just not so quickly forthcoming. And I'm fine with that. Maya should not forgive Kermit over the course of one episode, but I wouldn't mind it happening over the course of the series if I feel like Kermit works for it.
You know what I would like to hear though? That Kermit has been, at least, helping out financially since he left. To not do so actually would be unforgivable. I get the impression that he's not rolling in the dough even now, and may not be any better off than Maya and Katy are (he mentions he wouldn't have been able to afford all the food Katy threw at him, but that may just have been a joke about how much it was, but with shaggy hair and beat up clothes seem to be implying a poor guy) but you still gotta send a check every month dude. An at-least-50%-of-how-much-it-costs-for-Maya-to-exist check. I think you gotta do that by law.
I do feel like I get why Kermit left, though. He has no excuse, and it's not a good reason, but I get why it happened. I think it's why most fathers leave. My guess is the majority of fathers who abandon their kids don't do so out of complete disinterest, but it sounds like he wasn't doing any of them any good, and so he just left. He had a line that I liked which was (roughly) "You screw up enough times, and it begins to feel like leaving. So, then you do." He mentions, also, that he'd always blow through his paychecks. He doesn't say on what, because it's a Disney show, but my guess is it wasn't on video games. Also, based on their ages now, it seems like Kermit and Katy would have been about 20 when Maya was born. Most people aren't quite as stable as Cory and Topanga at that age. Come to think of it, do we even know if Katy and Kermit were ever married?
I also didn't mind Cory in this episode at all. Nothing about this seemed diabolically mastermind-ish and, despite your accurate examples of the contrary, it's not like you have to search high and low for examples where Feeny was rather unbelievably sage-like as a teacher (and I kind of think Feeny was somehow expecting Shawn to get to the Super Bowl, wasn't he? I mean, they tried to come back and be like "We get it, it's about doing your best." and he's like, "Fuck you. Go to the Super Bowl.") but, like, this isn't an insane leap on Cory's part. If we know anything about Cory as a teacher, is that he explicitly only cares about the education of Riley and Maya, so if he's going to do this forgiveness project, I don't think it's a huge leap that he'd come up with the idea that Maya needs to forgive herself for Kermit because it's not her fault. Anyone can see that she has inferiority issues relating to that, and so, sure, Cory might try to get her to address that. Also, while he never expected her to forgive Kermit right off the bat (which is reasonable, who the hell would expect someone to forgive their wayward father, so quick? Cory saw the complicated Chet/Shawn dynamic, he's got some experience here) he also did mention that he hoped she would do so eventually. It felt like he wasn't expecting it, but he did think that would be nice. He's Cory, he wants everyone to forgive everybody and then all hug and get cake and go to bed. I don't know, I thought Cory was fine here. I liked Cory in this episode. For me, it doesn't take away from Maya's moment at all that Cory expected it to go this way. Feeny, Alan, Turner, and Amy were all often unsurprised at the moves Cory and company made, even when they themselves were. Adults do know more than kids do. Kids are figuring shit out for the first time, while adults have already been there, done that. It just seems like a version of that.
Oh, I also didn't mind Auggie and Riley's story here. Yeah, August Maturo sucks, but he was offscreen for a lot of it, and I found Riley's continual bitterness about it funny. I don't like the resolution of why Auggie's not sorry, I enjoyed it better in my head when I assumed it was simply because Auggie can't be expected to show genuine remorse for something he was a toddler for and couldn't possibly even remember doing. There's been a few episodes where it turns out Auggie was doing this or that because he just loves his family so much. Blech. And like him sagely laying out why it happened when he's some dumb 6-year-old was lame. How is he that articulate? Who is he, fucking Calvin, philosophizing as he sleds down a hill with his stuffed tiger? That said, I'm not sure "always at each other's throats" is how I remember the Cory/Morgan dynamic. There's a few moments, but, like, I don't know. I think of them as mostly getting along. Or rather her mostly sitting quiet at the dinner table while the real characters talked.
You know what bugged me in this episode? How they felt the need to have Riley present (and commenting) in like all of the Kermit stuff. I was glad Maya finally noted that she never let Kermit speak in his first scene, because, like, all it was was Riley and Maya and Topanga having a conversation recapping stuff to each other. Kermit, like, might as well have not been there. Which is kind of a waste of one of Kermit's two scenes. The best scene in this episode is absolutely Kermit and Maya's talk, as you said, and I think we could have had more of that if we hadn't had to waste time with "And here's what RILEY'S thinking about all this!" Riley even suggests she should go at one point, and I was like "YUP!" but someone stopped her. It's cool if there's an episode where Riley doesn't really have much to do. Cory had episodes like that. Cory had a ton of episodes like that. Still, I liked Rowan in this one. Rarely do I not.
I didn't care much about the Farkle/Lucas/Zay movie C-plot one way or the other (besides that I don't think Farkle wanting to demonstrate his intellectual worth quite tracked as an excuse for his deliberately dickish actions), but I did like Lucas and Zay's dynamic here. They reminded me a lot of Cory and Shawn in the (few) episodes that wasn't about one or the other of them, and so they'd just be this like synchronized duo of morons who were always on the exact same page, but that page was a page or so behind where they were supposed to be. Cory and Shawn were always a lot of fun in those situations. There's a lot of fun to be had with the differences between them, and ultimately I wouldn't trade those difference for anything, because that more or less made the series, but they were always a ton of fun when they acted exactly the same. Helped reinforce why people with such different backgrounds, temperaments, and life philosophies could be so close. The "I'm the straight arrow!"/"I'm the wiseacre!" dynamic with Lucas and Zay has been wearing thin.Huh. No lefties of the main fivesome. For comparison, Cory's a lefty, Shawn, Eric, and Topanga are righties. I woulda put Shawn or Eric as lefties before Cory, but sometimes those don't go the way you'd think. Also, they're fictional characters, and their handedness is dependent upon their actors'. But then I'd also put Rider Strong as a lefty.
Oh, also, my favorite thing in the whole episode is the very end where everyone hands Cory a note saying they forgive him but won't explain to him specifically what he did. And he's all upset and neurotic and demanding to know. It felt very Cory. On Boy Meets World, that would be the A-plot of the episode and it would be fantastic.
Also, thanks for trying to wish me bad luck tonight, Sean. My show went well, and sold out, but then I got HIT BY A CAR, ya DOUCHE.
Episode Rating: B. All in all, I thought this was a good episode, but not a great one and they probably didn't do enough with the premise, which kind of writes itself frankly. But the final confrontation was very good, and there was nothing here I really minded.
Episode MVP: Sabrina Carpenter. She's had better performances, but it was still the best of the episode.
There you go everyone, Christian didn't mind anything, but somehow we still arrived at the same grade.
I think Feeny expected super bowl tickets, but I refuse to believe that he expected Shawn to go. That's why seeing Shawn on TV was so special, that he was genuinely impressed. Maybe that's the core issue, is that it's impossible for Cory to be impressed without being surprised. And then how am I supposed to be impressed if Cory isn't impressed? It's not genuine development as long as Cory keeps setting the whole thing up. Like could you imagine having this great personal breakthrough, and then your teacher says "Actually I planned for that to happen"? That would suck. It wouldn't feel like it's yours anymore.
On Kermit, I specifically said he wasn't a villain, but it still strikes me as weird that he's making the audience laugh. I get the whole "this is awkward huh" attempts at humor, that's natural, but having the audience laugh at it makes it confusing how we're supposed to view this guy. How are we supposed to reconcile Maya bursting into tears at the mere sight of this guy with the fact that he's making people laugh? It's not impossible for that to happen in real life, but on a TV show where you get to control those types of things, it makes more sense not to do it. I think the only joke Mack has is when he tells Eric he can't join the cult, and that wasn't really him telling a joke, it was his honest reaction.
Auggie fucking sucks and you're wrong. We might have to do a case study on Morgan. I remember her generally annoying Cory.
And yeah, Katy said they were married in a previous episode, something about exchanging vows in front of the G Man.
Rating: B.
I'm going to try to come up with something I can do instead of MVP. I never take it seriously anyway.
I still think you're wrong about the Cory thing. He didn't go "Ha! That was my plan ALLL ALONG!" like he'd just outfoxed Maya in chess. Maya came to him, crying, saying she failed his assignment by not forgiving her father, so Cory assured her that this was never something he expected her to do, so she hadn't failed anything. He was making her feel better by explaining himself. You're being too hard on him, I think.
The Mack joke I was thinking of was after Alan almost killed him, Mack going like "You know, I'm sensing a lot of anger here...." in kind of a funny way. I don't know. I think you're splitting hairs by saying "Well, see, that wasn't actually a joke, Mack was just giving his honest reaction." Whatever, the point was Mr. Mack was given lines that were meant to be funny. So Kermit said some mildly (and, I mean, mildly) funny things. So what? He wasn't like, being a jokester, he just kind of made light of some stuff like when Katy went crazy and threw food. Characters you aren't supposed to like are funny all the time in things. Maya bursts into tears because he's her wayward father, we don't need him to be SUPER GRIM in order to justify it. I don't even kind of grant your premise on this one. I don't know why this is bothering you. Dude was bland enough, and you want to take away the few semblances of personality he showed? I think what he did was completely believable, and I actually think your suggestion would have made his involvement worse, not better.
I dunno, Feeny was really weird in The Eskimo. You like that episode more than I do. It's a good episode, but not in my top 10 or anything. Feeny bothers me in it a lot. I don't get what he's going for, honestly. He always pisses me off in that scene in the classroom with the four of them.
Good, I think you should come up with your own thing! Because, yeah, man, your MVPs are weak! Recent ones have included: Sarah, Tombstone the bull (with the provision that it wasn only because Sarah wasn't in the episode), the Claymation animators from World of Terror 2, and yourself.
LOOK AT THIS GUY. This guy doesn't even have THE ESKIMO in his top 10. How am I supposed to write a blog with and have a conversation with this guy when he doesn't even respect The Eskimo. It's sheer madness. Tell me how I'm supposed to handle this.
Hey. those animators showed up to that episode. And don't get mad at me just because you don't understand Sarah.
Some good points. I will articulate more tomorrow...scratch that, later today.
ReplyDeleteWhat was good was really good. I'm thinking B+ range.
I have more thoughts, but it's after midnight.
Cryptid456 out.
Wow. Just....really?! They spent the pretty much the entire run of this show telling us about this man, Maya's father, and how he walked out on his family. And how this has shaped Maya as a person. Then, they drag their feet getting to why we're all watching. That's garbage pacing, and storytelling. Sorry everyone, I don't care about why Auggie bit the bear's face off. It means nothing to me. The boys' storyline was funny, and what I liked was that it had two scenes and a combined 2 minutes of time. That worked. And I liked how they worked together. Auggie/Riley should have been cut completely. Served absolutely zero purpose to the story, and the characters.
ReplyDeleteNow on to the whole reason we're here. Maya's father. I liked the introduction, and I loved Katy's reaction. That's the only way she could respond, and have me believe it. Then he has the balls to look at Katy and go, "You know that's not the reason" in reference to his leaving. Then...he legitimately gives no reason as to why he left at the end of the episode! I think they wanted him to be this shows Chet Hunter, and totally forgot what made Chet work was the conflict we saw him go through. On top of being a likable character despite his faults, with plenty of charisma to spare. Kermit, on the other hand, was just a magazine cover model with all the charisma of a 2x4. He was wooden the entire time, and I agree Sean, he should not have been given any punch lines. That's bad writing. That final scene, though, was tough to watch. Sabrina played it perfectly, and because of that, her dad still comes out as the villain here. His daughter looks him in the eye, with tears ready to burst, and says he should have stayed. His reaction, I'm sorry but at least I'm on my feet now. WTF! I don't know if that's how they wanted it to go, but that made me loathe this character. Kermit started the episode as a d-bag, and ended as a d-bag. So, I think all's well that ends well, so to speak.
Oh, and the "all seeing" Cory Matthews bullshit has got to end. The writers have pretty much bastardized the Topanga character, will they not stop until they make me hate Cory too? Get him out of the classroom. He's been a shit teacher, and a lousy Feeny replacement. The experiment is over, kill it now.
Episode Grade: B The filler hurt this episode. A lot. On top of Cory "The Seer" Matthews.
Episode MVP: Sabrina Carpenter. She made this episode work as well as it did.
Yeah, "You know that's not the reason" was their HOOK! I was like OOOOOOOO WHAT'S THE REASON??? But... we didn't get a satisfying answer. And we certainly don't know how Katy feels about this "real" reason.
DeleteIt's hard to say about Kermit. I was thinking that I like how he stayed calm and direct throughout the ordeal, but you called that wooden, so maybe it's a matter of perception.
We got no answer! That's what's so infuriating there. The only thing that gives us any clue to what it could be was Katy's initial reaction, which was one of worry. Like she didn't want to tell that story yet, so we're probably not done with Kermit yet.
DeleteIt might be a matter of perception. My thing was I wanted more emotion out of him. Here's his teenage daughter begging for an explanation as to why he left, and he gave a half assed answer in a very even tone. Like I said above, I think they wanted Kermit to be Chet, and what made Chet work was his wearing his emotions on his sleeve. A little more emotion I think would have helped here.
To be fair though, if Chet had another family he left Shawn for all the charm wouldn't have overcame that. I was miffed at how well he was presented though. Even the Riley stuff about having a hard time not liking him? She knows what he did to her friend. She should have been way more upset. Like Maya when she first met Shawn and was super protective. I would have liked that.
DeleteYeah, sweet Riley wasn't needed here. Riley should have been as pissed as Katy. Here was a perfect opportunity, although probably not needed, to flesh out the Riley/Maya friendship before GMW. All the things that Riley had to be for Maya in her father's absence.
DeleteYou guys are on point.
DeleteMayyyybe I'm not sold on the writers trying to make Kermit like Chet, but what you're saying about Riley is A+
DeleteI think its kind of nice that they didnt give any special reason for Maya's father leaving. Sometimes people just leave. But yeah, if that was the case, he shouldn't have said that line to Katy, implying there was something super obvious about it.
DeleteMaybe it was one of those "Disney didnt let us say it" moments. When he said he was blowing off their money I imediatly thought of gambling or booze, but maybe that's too dark for DC.
Agree about Riley, she should've been waaaaaay angrier at Kermit in Maya's behalf.
There's been many scenes like this with Maya & Riley: where Riley belittles Maya's feelings. The writers have created a sunshiney character that says the most cutting things to her friend. I honestly like Maya a lot & in real life I'd be hoping she'd get out from under Riley & find better friendship. Seriously, telling an abandoned kid you don't see what's wrong? Way to earn the bff title.
DeleteWho are these writers? Is it that hard to imagine how this confrontation would play out?
I agree with you in almost everything here. Auggie really had no problem with Maya before except for Brother. CORY THEY ARE NOT YOUR PUPPETS. Anyways the one thing I don't agree on is your name-calling towards Auggie/Maturo. He's a kid and kids do dumb things (this is aimed more directly at Riley). BOOM. Oh crap now I have to do my own freaking review. BAI
ReplyDelete"punk ass bitch" followed by a picture of me on fire? it's POSSIBLE that i wasn't being serious.
DeleteNope. Child hater! :)
DeleteAnyone have a link to this episode?
ReplyDeleteI tried to pm you on g+ but here http://vidbull.com/sxejs96azt23.html
DeleteI honestly feel that the conversation the writers had when deciding on writing Cory "The All-Knowing Prophetic Puppetmaster" Matthews went something like "Shit, Cory learned a lot of stuff, and still managed to be so stupid in Boy Meets World." "Alright how about now HE KNOWS EVERYTHING!!!"
ReplyDeleteOh man did Sabrina kill it with this episode. Like you said Sean if there was much more to their last scene I would have still been in a sobbing puddle on the floor. As it was I was quite verklempt. She killed it. MVP without second thought.
ReplyDeleteThe Cory stuff was silly but I love him no matter what. Plus thank goodness and all that is holy they at least made the point that they didn't expect her to forgive the father. How it was done was weak, mayhaps. But I have a sister who was abused by our father as a child and if anyone ever said that she should forgive that I would be forced to murder them. This wasn't that, but still Maya owed this guy nothing at all. I'm glad she could forgive herself. That was the real lesson here. It was presented in a heavy handed contrived kind of way but Cory or someone HAD TO SAY THAT. Otherwise that part will get missed I am sure.
Also I'm so glad I'm not the only one that hates Auggie. I'm sure the kid is fine as a human, but he's a terrible actor even as child actor standards go. Morgan the First on BMW was better. Easily. That was a painful misstep in tone and delivery for an otherwise poignant ep. As someone mentioned about the three boys parts was fun. Quick, light, funny. More of that and less of Auggie would be fine. In this ep and every other.
Okay I'm done. B episode. Sabrina is the MVP. Noone else came close.
I don't know man... Sabrina used the exact same voice the entire episode. Monotone-with-sad. She was as good as always, but I wasn't overwhelmed.
DeleteAnd I agree that Maya forgiving herself needed to be explicit, but it was absolutely wasted having anyone other than Maya say it.
...side note. They were actually nice to Farkle and agreed to go to a movie with him. They pick on him so much I like that they were genuinely sweet then.
DeleteYou may have something there. Monotone sad is a good point. I'd have liked to see Maya realize it herself. Maybe even Katy. She was really good with her anger towards Kermit. Like you I always appreciate when they let characters be mad not just sad. But her Mom helping her realize things could have been nice too. Anyone really is fine with me. They wrote it poorly. Cory could have even said it if they didn't go the pre planned route.
Your'e right, Katy helping her realize it is a strong alternative. BUT NO. She has to hug fucking Cory instead of her MOTHER who's standing right next to her. It was so stuuuuuuuuupid.
DeleteMonotone-with-sad sounds right. I think Sabrina is easily the best actor of this show, but she didn't particularlt impressed me here, she's been better.
Delete"ANGER, YES. SADNESS, NO. THE WINNING FORMULA. "
ReplyDeleteLol, man, you're such a dude. Let people be sad.
This was my first time watching the show live, and you know what's annoying? Disney Channel commercials!
I pretty much agree with the review about the Riley/Augie sl, but I loved seeing Riley be so stubborn and petty for once. She is always sooo sweet, and getting out of texas, where she was all about "sacrificing her feelings for Maya's", its nice seeing her holding onto a grudge over something so small. Flaws are good, they give character dimension.
Farkle/Lucas/Zay was a nice C-story, and I have to say, I have had my Farkle moments before. I remember telling my friends waaaaaay before the sixth book came out that Dumbledore was going to die eventually, because, you see, Dumbledore's Harry mentor and the mentor always dies! It was not to impress them with my intelligence though, it was just to be an ass.
Now to the meat of the episode, I gotta say, I watched this with bias, because I am the daughter of single mother because guess what? My father bailed when my mom got pregnant. They weren't married or anything, so I don't really blame the guy, but it gives me something of a different perspective when watching episodes like this. Because it always baffled me how this story is told again and again, and its always the kid "missing out" or "blaming themselves", and that just doesn't resonate with my experience at all. I never had a father but I never missed having one, my mother was there, and she's great, so why would I? My feelings towards the dude are not anger or sadness, is mostly indeference. But you know what would make mad as hell? If he decided to just show up now and disrupt my life. No dude, you made a choice, you stepped out, you don't any right anymore, you're just a stranger. But that is never the story told, and I resigned myself to it.
So you know what, thank GOD Maya didn't forgive him, I was ready for it and super grumpy about it, and maybe because of this I wasn't really expecting the "forgive yourself" aspect. When Cory said that, it was such a gut punch that I don't even care if it was a puppet master moment. And I don't think it was necessarily, maybe he gave the assignment without any of this in mind and when Maya decided to write to her father he sorta jumped from there, it happens.
I loved it though, I started to watch the whole show around 3 weeks ago, and one of my favorite aspects of it early on was the Cory/Maya relationship, which they kinda abandon it in favor of Shawn/Maya, but its too bad, because Shawn/Maya never really got any emotion out of me, but Cory/Maya always makes me cry. Probavly because Maya doesn't try so hard to get a dad out of Cory, he is just there.
I was going to argue abou how this fits after Texas, knowing that the order is wrong, but I think the only thing that doesn't fit is Riley's peppy disposition, she should be more down, but like I said, this is the rare ep where Riley is not exclusively rainbows and unicorns, so its something. Lucas' shoulder rub was nice, and him talking to Maya like they talked about her father before was a good touch.
Whew, wrote too much.
Kermit's actor was not that charismatic, but Katy was as usual brilliant, liked her little interaction with Topanga.
A lot of people are discussing Kermit's lack of charisma, and I agree. I actually was worried, since I often things wayward father characters can often be really charismatic likable people, that I'd find myself liking Kermit too much and forget how he was really shitty, but nope. I didn't hate him, and I kind of got what his deal was, but he didn't seem like all that either. He's just some dude.
DeleteI wonder if they purposefully didn't try to make him too fun or cool or charismatic because they didn't want to run the risk of anyone like.... rooting for him over Shawn, and hoping he and Katy to get back together and him to become Maya's dad again. 'Cause I feel like the Meets World franchise is kind of, like... all in on the Shawn Hunter character and probably is gonna stick with that.
Yeah, he is just some dude. And thats an important lesson. People don't need to be monsters to be shitty and do shitty things. You know what would have been the worst? If he was some kind of tormented artist that left because happiness was too dificult for him and his creativity needed angst or something.
DeleteOther teen shows would do that for certain, so its nice that her father was just sorta there.
I'm so glad you shared your personal experience, la texana, because I've always seen Maya's situation from that perspective. As somebody with one parent who literally couldn't be a parent and another who was emotionally and at times physically abusive, I've always felt Katy's legitimate presence in Maya's life sort of undercut this whole Maya's-survived-hard-knocks beat the writer's keep trying to emphasize. I'm not trying to belittle what I'm sure are very real insecurities/scars that come with abandonment but I've always thought Maya undervalued the counterbalance of having Katy there. Yeah, with work and such, I know she isn't a constant presence all the time exactly but, by the same token, she kind of is. Even when Katy isn't there for this art show or that whatever, you know she isn't there FOR Maya. She's working to make money to support them and so on. And while parellels could be made, I don't think it's fair to equate necessary physical distance with real emotional neglect. I mean, I get that the writers are trying to make Maya and Riley the next generation Shawn and Cory and I know it's not fair to compare them but the contrast between how Katy steps up every day and how Chet constantly faltered always made Maya's "resemblance" to Shawn fall a little flat to me, especially when the writers keep saying "see how they're alike? SEE?" every time Maya and Shawn interact.
DeleteAnyhow, I'm just glad Maya acknowledged Katy in this episode because being a true single parent should never be overlooked/under-appreciated, particularly on a show that prides itself on teaching the audience a lesson. Which...ugh.
Speaking of thing that aren't working for me, it's always going to bother me how attached at the hip Maya and Riley are. Look, I'm not the poster child for normal adolescence so maybe it is perfectly typical for teenage best friends to want to spend every waking second together but it can't be right that NONE of the their parents mind? Like at all? Ever? Even sunshine-and-roses Riley knew she didn't belong in that scene and when Maya yanks her back down, Topanga doesn't back Riley up?! KATY doesn't back Riley up?! She clearly recognizes the need for Maya to speak with Kermit privately but when it comes to a confrontation where she, MAYA'S MOTHER, is still physically in the room, it's a "don't you dare leave, Riley" situation? I call foul. I adore Riley but a blind man could see that ther was nothing she could contribute to that situation. And that's okay. Nothing comes to mind immediately but I know there were several times where Shawn dealt with things without Cory and vice versa (wasn't that half the point of the Eskimo episode?) and I sincerely hope that those times are soon coming for Riley and Maya. Cory and Shawn were the gold standard of bromance and we're supposed to believe they were out of touch for THIRTEEN years. These girls have got to be able to do without each other for an episode. It's a disservice to both of them and to their INDIVIDUAL potentials for character growth to believe otherwise.
As always, I'll try to clarify. There's nothing wrong with being sad. I'm sad lots of times. But from a storytelling perspective, there is more action and power in anger. The original example of that came from Topanga, a female, so I'm not sure what being a guy has to do with it.
Deleteoh anon, I wrote a foot-long response but blogspot ate it. let me see what I remember:
Deletefirst, my situation is different from Maya's because like I said, I never had a father, so I never knew how it was to have one. Maya had one and he bailed when she was 5. She was young, but not young enough to completly forget him and that must have been traumatazing as hell. Especially because it has been pretty spelled out that Katy protected Kermit's image somewhat. Until the last year Maya was convinced that Katy had done something to drive him away. And them you have a complicated situation because if Maya was aware of how much Katy worked hard to provide for her it is difficult to accept that her mother did anything SO bad, so I think subconsciously she has been blaming herself all along.
Like I said, I would like ONE TIME in the history of stories ever told, that one son/daughter of a single mother/father would have an attitude more similar to mine regarding an absent parent, just because I think is a fresh aproach in fiction, but eh, as long as that doesnt happen, I think Maya's issues are well justified in-universe enough.
about the girls relationship though, I buy it. Completly. They might exagerate it, but only very slightly. Girls relationships, especially among young teenagers are scary intense. this kind of co-dependency is pretty run of the mill. God knows, my friendships with my girl friends were the most complex and crazy relationships I had in my life. Romantic relationships don't hold a candle to them. Now, if those are anyway healthy is not something I would argue, is just something that happens.
That said I'm looking forward to the next episode, due to the promo. Even the best of friends need to take breaks from each other every once in awhile, and yeah, it usually shakes the friendship in some way or another.
Sean, my claim was just a joke based on stereotypical assignments of gender roles. Like, if I commented how I cry watching even commercials I'd say "I'm such a girl". And I wasn't' commenting on characters, but on your repeated claim that seeing characters angry is more narrativelly interesting than seeing than sad, which I don't agree at all.
Actually, la texana, I think we're both leaning towards the same perspective but coming from different directions. I'll buy that Maya was subconsciously blaming herself and that may very well explain the not-so-subtle discord we saw last season but I don't think that explanation justifies it. Especially since we now know that Kermit didn't just up and leave one day but actually distanced himself further and further away until the day he just didn't come back. And, yeah, totally traumatizing for a five year old, sure, but... not in a complete shock to the system kind of way? I kind of envision young Maya half waiting, half hoping for a while until she just sort of stops waiting. And with that scenario in mind, I'm not sure why or when this misdirected anger at Katy would've manifested. I guess I just would've preferred Maya having your attitude towards the whole single parent/abandonment thing because, even with the differences, it's pretty clear that Kermit was absent as a father long before he actually left.
DeleteAlso, the over-analytical part of me is put off by this sense that she gravitates towards the Matthews clan because of something inherently lacking in her own home life. Something, I think, that's more an issue of quality over quantity. Yeah, Katy isn't able to always be there. But when she's there, she's THERE. And I just think that the girl mature enough to hear her father out and let go of her anger without forgiving him for a very real betrayal should value what she has in her mother and, aside from a throwaway line on Friday, I haven't seen that yet. Plus, I really think Maya could've pulled off your fresh approach in a way that few, if any, Disney characters could and I would've liked to have seen that instead of using this abandonment angle to tie her and Katy to Shawn. Which is yet another setup revolving around Katy and Maya's relationship without actually exploring/developing Katy and Maya's relationship.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just frustrated by the lack of mother-daughter interaction on this show as a whole and I'm just honing in on Katy and Maya because being a mother and daughter IS the sum total of their family. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's why Riley and Maya being attached at the hip bothers me so much. It's getting to feel like Maya doesn't have anywhere else to go once school lets out. On iCarly, Sam's mom was practically anti-Mom but even though she was never seen on-screen (to my knowledge), she was consistently mentioned to explain why Sam popped in at this odd time or for that odd reason. On Girl Meets World, Katy is only mentioned when she's a part of the episode and I think I'm just now realizing how much that bothers me. Okay... stepping out of the soap box now. Thanks for "listening" ;)
Yeah, this show is way more interested in father-daughter relationships than mother-daughter ones. We rarely ever have Riley-Topanga moments, and I don't really understand why, other than that being the creators wishes. At least Maya-Katy is better designed.
DeleteThe Mathews pretty much adopted Maya, and I've seen this happen a few times, bigger, more stable families, including kids that are only-children. It happened to me when I was younger, I'd go to my friends' house everyday after school, sometimes spending the whole week sleeping over, and even traveling with them. I would go to family gatherings and was introduced as "the foster one". It didnt really affect my relationship with my mom though.
But yeah Christian, I dont think there are any checks coming from Kermit regarding Maya. Thats why Katy is so short on money and had to do all those extra shifts. Now that Kermit returned, maybe they'll come.
ReplyDeleteIm also glad that Shawn wasnt even mentioned. That story is not about him.
Yeah, but if Kermit himself was short on money, Katy may still have been struggling to make ends meet, even if Kermit was giving what he could. It's not like they didn't know where Kermit was. I just don't buy Katy letting 9 years go by and not demanding he pay his fair share.
DeleteAs for Shawn, I agree the story wasn't about him, and that's why I think it's for the best that he never appeared. But I do think it's almost odd that he wouldn't even have come up in conversation considering his relevance.
DeleteNot to mention, they're in New York. I think the laws regarding alimony are pretty strong there.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI more I think about it, the more this episode bugged me, but at the same time I thought maya was great, glad they brought dad in the picture and was a simple disney episode. I didn't comment on any of the Texas ones because I wanted to jump on the screen and burn Riley's face off for how she treated Lucas...but I digress.
ReplyDeleteI DO find it interesting how people are responding to Kermit and if he is a villain, is he not concept. I understand he left when MAYA was a baby, but I would bet 10 million dollars that people would not be responding this way to Shawn's mom when she left (I understand shawn was older, I get the concept) but honestly, is it that different? I don't think people would be on her like they are with Kermit ( and about dead beat dads, child support stuff) It's in interesting story connection I don't think people Are getting.
I also did not like Katy's reaction...bad parenting!! What are you teaching your child? go to therapy and fucking cry about it. Don't assault a dude with perfectly good pastries dickweed! I don't like Katy so it is rare for me to be okay with anything she does. However I wish the ending was not between maya and Cory ( though his lesson) like riley it is none of his fucking business!!! It should have been between maya and her mom, which could have been a possible parenting redemption moment for her.
On to the story lesson. Okay. I have said before I watch BMW for the lessons, they help me in real life more than I should probably admit, but I am getting PISSED at this abstract history class. I love it! I love that history can be taught abstractly and how we can change our history and relate to real life and stuff, but we need to learn some facts here people! We need to learn about WW2, and how many presidents we have or how many people don't know how WW1 started, or the history of the pilgrims, Cuba, Asia, British royalty! What GMW is missing that BMW had is the kids still had homework, they took tests they still followed a curriculum, it's like Cory wakes up in the morning and opens the dictionary and points at a word and is like 'i choooooose that one!' (A lawny moment) And teaches about it. That isn't history class, thats English! Ya moron!
I appreciated the story line and moving forward with maya and not always being about riley and I agree there were scenes she should have just left! but every week I keep seeing plot holes left and right and man, it is pissing me off.
Emily, I do think that people would treat Virna differently than Kermit, at least I would. While the situations are similar, they are not the same. As you said, Virna didn't leave for the final time until Shawn was 16 while Kermit left when Maya was 5. But the biggest difference I see is that Virna WAS NOT Shawn's biological mother. Now having said that, neither Shawn nor the audience knew that until season 6 after Shawn had gone to college. But my point is that while Virna was there she dedicated her life to helping raise Shawn and she only left for good when her issues with Chet became too much to bear. While from Shawn's perspective her leaving was his mom abandoning him, I would give her some slack because she never once treated him as if he weren't her child.
DeleteKermit on the other hand would get more of a pass from me if he had left when Katy told him she was pregnant. While that would still be shitty, I understand the not being ready thing more than one day after 5 years of being there just walking out. At that point Maya was 5 and knew her dad and had grown attached to him, but was too young to understand what was going on, so it had to have been harder on her than on Shawn. And it does appear that Kermit is a deadbeat dad, which is pretty unforgivable.
I'm inclined to agree with 1960. While normally, I would argue that Emily has a point, we're comparing two very different situations and I believe in examining things on a case-by- case basis.
DeleteVirna left because of Chet; by Chet's own admission the only reason Virna stayed around as long as she did was because of Shawn. Jack mentioned that his own mother left Chet due to his alcoholism. Virna did not leave Chet until much later.
As it happens, I think the writers said that Shawn's half-brother Eddie the Thug was Virna's son, not Chet's. So, Virna had issues. A lot of issues.
And certainly, Kermit flaking when Katy announces a pregnancy would be more understandable. You could chalk it up to panicking. But walking out when Maya is five years old crosses the moral event horizon. And Kermit didn't really show remorse. He was sorry he hurt his daughter, but I don't think we saw him apologize to Katy.
I do agree though that there was definitely some history to be learned here. In the aftermath of WWII, the United States under President Truman sought reconciliation with the Japanese. In contrast, Britain and France were out for blood in the aftermath of WWI, pushed through the Treaty of Versailles that punished Germany and sowed the seeds necessary for fascism to arise.
I get she wasn't the biological mother but she was the mom he had and then at 16, which is a crucial age, she bails...after 16 years of believing she is his bio mom and actually...does that matter? because to him she was his mom, bio or otherwise.
DeleteI don't see a major difference because despite the ages it is two parents walking out on their kid and she wasn't treated with nearly as much malice.
I also don't know if we have enough of his real story or just bitterness from Katy to really say much. He should have helped as much as he could, absolutely! but isn't that relative? I got from the episode that he didn't believe he could be a good dad or that they didn't believe in him either so why stay? so he bailed. Was it the best move? No! I'm not saying it's okay but my point is, we have another storyline to fall back on and they are being received totally differently when I don't think they should be, we had understanding for virna, we need some more understanding for Kermit.
Honestly! Is t that hard to get an actual history lesson in here! No! Thank you crypt!
DeleteThank you kindly, Emily. I understand your frustration and as someone who wants to become an English professor (I love history, but it really is more of a hobby) I want to be able to teach and connect.
DeleteCory's teaching abilities are something we've all complained about. I don't mind Cory knowing a lot more now. He's grown up and he's Genre Savvy. He's seen this show before. But why, oh why, is he a teacher? Why isn't he a guidance counselor?
I absolutely agree! They try so hard to have the same backbone to BMW like him being a teacher but it's not working! I think a counselor would be a much better fit because the abstract teaching would make more sense, not in a classroom where he is teaching that 100% of the time...if this show ever makes it to high school or college years how are these kids going to make it? Even their senior year in BMW they went back to basics...do these kids even know the basics!?
DeleteI'd also say in Virna's defense that they seemed to be implying she had mental illness (as much as you can with a family show with some pretty poor continuity.) and she did stick around (with a violent drunk) until Shawn was a young adult. She's far less culpable than Kermit.
DeleteThat's an interesting point, Slinkhard. I don't remember them implying a history of mental illness, but it's possible. Virna may have been an alcoholic herself.
DeleteAnd did they ever establish whether or not Chet stopped drinking? "If You Can't Be With The One You Love" implied he stopped, but "Turkey Day" takes place only a year and a bit before and Chet has no reservations about drinking boxed wine.
I just wonder if Kermit would have stayed would it have been a home like shawn had growing up...alcohol, possibly abusive ( we know emotional abuse did occur), but I'm curious around if he did stay would it have been this fairytale idea they make it out to seem if he did? Knowing he couldn't handle it he left, so maybe it being maya and mom was the best for maya. The terrible part is this little girl thought she was to blame the whole time, but is being in a home that isn't nurturing, which we are led to believe better?
DeleteShawn says he got a letter from Virna every week or every day she was gone and tried to tell him why she left. Yes, 16 is a crucial age, but it's not 5 years old and your dad having zero contact with you anymore.
DeleteChet does ask if she's been drinking in 'Turkey Day'.
DeleteThe mental illness bit I kind of get the vibe from Cory calling her 'loony' in BMW and GMW (Cory is obsessed with normality, of course, but Shawn doesn't argue the point), and Chet's comment in BMW about her 'bouts' and the part in Turkey Day where she thinks it's a luau.
Chet...I don't think he's the type to ever quit drinking altogether, but he probably had phases where he was drinking more or a meaner drunk. He seems like the kind of guy who'd try for a while to be a better dad and husband, and that would probably include not drinking, holding down a job, staying in one place, etc.; but can't sustain it in the long term.
A thought struck me about Virna. Is it possible that she was suffering from depression? That would explain a lot.
DeleteSlept on it. Man, this episode...as usual, what was good was good, what wasn't so good was not good at all. Who wrote this one? Oh, Matthew Nelson...let's see he wrote some of "Texas" and "Hurricane" and "Pluto" and "Maya's Mother." So he's the go-to guy for Maya-drama.
ReplyDeleteOkay...I am usually the first to defend Auggie on the virtue of "Finally, a pair of non-twin Disney siblings that love each other!" But, yeah he didn't do much here. I get what they were going for, with Riley being petty and Auggie being not-particularly sorry about the whole thing. But they made some serious missteps for this B-plot.
This is the first time we've seen Riley genuinely angry at Auggie as opposed to frustrated or annoyed. So the set-up is good, however....
The destruction of Beary the Bear Bear. The first problem is that we have never met Beary the Bear Bear. While it certainly suits Riley's character to have a stuffed animal, we've never seen her sleep with one. We didn't even see her clutch one for comfort in "Rileytown." If there is going to be a destroyed prized possession, the audience should feel attached to the possession as well. The only time we saw Riley cuddle a stuffed animal of her own was when Farkle gave her that stuffed hippo way back in "Farkle's Choice."
And then we're supposed to believe that Riley has held a grudge for three years? That's just...counter to every single Auggie-and-Riley interaction we've seen on the show. Riley adores Auggie--this has been one of the most consistent elements since the beginning.
Third, we learn that Auggie destroyed Riley's teddy bear because he was jealous and wanted to spend more time with her. Not only have we seen this before, we have seen it better, in "Brother." Now, Auggie's had a smaller role this season, true, but the majority of his storylines concern him with his friends. And he still interacts plenty with Riley.
Fourth, for argument's sake, how could this have been done better? Other than having the prized possession of Riley's be something we've actually seen before, this needs to have been very recent. Either have Auggie destroy Riley's teddy bear out of spite for something like not letting him watch Mr. Googly and he isn't sorry at all, or have it legitimately be an accident and have Riley be more resentful. What we got just didn't work.
That said, it was funny to see Auggie trapped on Riley's lap. Be careful what you wish for.
On to Maya's story. There should have been more here. A lot more. Riley's issue with Auggie definitely could have been held off on. Maya's story was what mattered here and we didn't spend nearly enough time on it.
DeleteThe confrontation was good. Katy was angry and anger is definitely what the situation called for. Kermit quite literally walked away from the family. Something significant I noticed--was it just because I caught the West Coast airing and it was nearly midnight and I heard wrong, or did I actually hear Kermit say that his new family doesn't know that Katy and Maya exist? If that's true, then Kermit is a *insert swear word of your choice here.*
Now Kermit was definitely human; I didn't mind the jokes he got to tell, though I don't recall actually laughing. But he was human and Riley said herself that it would have been easier to hate him if he were a monster. I actually think it was good that Riley said that--it would have been the easiest thing in the world for Kermit to be an irredeemable, mustache-twirling villain. Other Disney shows would have done that--heck, this show probably would have done that if it were still Season 1.
The confrontation itself was pretty good. Maya wanted to know why, and Kermit essentially said that he was not ready. Now this raises the question of why he didn't return when he got his head on straight, but from a story-telling perspective, what mattered was Maya.
Kermit is quite simply, a coward. While Chet Hunter was a tortured soul who was simultaneously too ambitious while suffering an inferiority complex and itchy feet, Kermit doesn't have any of that. Chet was essentially "Okay...this new "job" could work for ME, and then I can help my boy" when he was introduced, and even in the worst of times, one could argue that he had Shawn's best interests at heart.
Maya is not able to forgive her father for abandoning the family. That's good, it'll allow her arc to continue. I think she'll forgive him one day, but that might not be for a while yet. We're probably going to see him again. We have to at least hear him get referenced again. Maya still has abandonment issues. There's still something to tell there.
While we're on the subject, I think Topanga was wasted here. Sure the waitress thing was kind of stupid, but I'm thinking actual plot and character development were missed. Topanga's own issues with her father having an affair while she was in college could have come into play. Topanga falling into despair when her parents divorce was a drag to get through, but her mother imploring Cory not to tell her what happened was something that could have been called back. Katy was willing to be the bad guy to protect Kermit; Rhianon (sic?) was willing to be the bad guy to protect Jedidiah.
The writers definitely could have had something here, since as I recall, the last time we talked about this, we were split as to whether Topanga had forgiven her father.
Overall...this was good, but it could have been better. I don't think it was because of Disney mandates; I'm more inclined to think that the misfires were more an attempt to keep the episode from getting too down-hearted.
Grade: B
MVP: I actually think I have to give it to Cheryl Texiera. Sabrina's the runner-up.
Nailed it with how Topanga could have been really useful here! I think it could have been amazing to see how Topanga has grown from when she smashed that pop can in her hand!
DeleteWow I totally forgot about Kermit saying his new family didn't "know what he'd done", like they didn't know katy and maya existed. Man that was cold blooded. If that's true there is a gold mine of stories right there when Maya finally meets her half siblings. I mean that is realllyyyy fucked up. And you know that probably means kermit hasn't been helping out very much financially. Like there's no way he could pay child support without his wife knowing right? Jeez that makes this a lot more intereesting I can't believe there was n't more focus on that, that should've thrown maya and katy into a tailspin. I just rememeberd how much I hate kermit.
DeleteActually that could've been a great alternate ending. Like maybe Kermit seems really nice and seems like hes come back to give Maya closure but before he leaves asks her not to contact him again because he doesn't want his new family to know about all the skeletons in his closet. Maya could get a chance to leave that monotone sad and experience new and genuine anger at him and that is the reason she can't forgive him. But she forgives herself because she realizes how horrible kermit is and that it couldnt have possibly been her fault.
Thanks for the vote of liking my idea, Detective.
DeleteYeah...the more you think about it, the worse Kermit seems. His new family doesn't know what he's done. I'm not sure how that's possible exactly, but maybe Katy saw him just walking around one day with his new wife and child. Or maybe Clutterbucket wrote Katy a letter some years ago and explained that he'd found someone else.
But how isn't Kermit paying alimony? I'll have to check, but I'd wager that New York has strict laws about enforcement.
This episode wasn't as good as it could have been, true, though I agree it was good.
And I like your idea for the alternate ending. It'd be reminiscent of "George Lopez," where his recently deceased father asks him in a letter to /not/ attend the funeral.
Maya has half-siblings. If one of them is in Auggie's class, then there's definitely some potential there. Heck, that could have been the B-plot instead of Beary the Bear Bear. Auggie has a new friend...Kenny Cluterbucket, and when Kermit comes to pick him up from a playdate, he encounters Maya and Katy.
And I still sort-of wish we could have something with Sarah the Extra being an estranged cousin of Maya's. When you marry someone, you marry their family. Has no Clutterbucket had anything to do with Maya or Katy in the last nine years?
Oh, and I just learned something new. Apparently, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was instrumental in organizing the re-conciliation of the Japanese and Americans following WWII. Most everyone except for him was out for blood but MacArthur was adamant about peace.
DeleteMacArthur could teach us a thing or two about forgiveness, I'd say.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3rw20v/why_was_there_no_insurgency_in_germany_and_japan/
Actually I believe they said mayas father lived a few hours away so theres almost no way they had contact with his other family, although the idea would be cool. As far as the child support thing goes, no one would probably enforce it unless Katy went out of her way to get them to do so. Granted she certainly has a legal claim to a certain amount of his money but it would require her to pay for very expensive lawyers to actually get him to pay it. And if he's poor, as Sean pointed out, then it might not be worth enough for her to take him to court. Also a lot of times moms wont bother to ask for what they're due because they don't want to give the other parent any legal claim to the child. Another reason she might not ask him to pay is out of pride. There could be dozens of reasons why Kermit is not paying child support.
DeleteGood point about the George Lopez episode, too. I forgot about that.
Hey Cryptid, yeah, this episode could have been better and could have used more/better Topanga, or more Katy, and definitely more Maya.
DeleteI don’t think I’ve ever wished for less Riley, and I’m not going to start now. The stuff with Auggie was good when they were playing it for laughs.
The thing I disliked about Kermit, besides, you know, what he did, was how basically calm he was. If I were meeting with a young girl I had abandoned in childhood, I would be very apprehensive and guilt-ridden. I didn’t get much if any sense of shame from him. It should have been hard for him to look her in the eye.
I heard what he said, and I have watched a few times now, as his new family not knowing what he used to be like. That doesn’t preclude your interpretation, though.
I would place this episode at the lower reaches of the top tier. Given the topic, it behooved Forgiveness to rank with the very best of the series. It produced a couple of A+ moments, and that is usually enough for me. I rarely grumble about everything else, but I did this time. Complaints about timing/pacing are well made, when the second, mawkish, Riley/Auggie scene arrived, I was looking at the clock in alarm.
Yeah, I don’t think it is Disney mandates so much as GMW knowing its audience.
Forewarned may have been forearmed for me, as GMW has hit me the hardest when I didn’t see it coming. It may not have helped that I knew Maya’s father would show up, and that I knew what he looked like.
That said, a few minutes of monotone + sad was all I could handle.
Ah, Milestones. Splendid to hear from you. I agree with some of your points. For as much time as it took up, Auggie winding up being trapped on Riley's lap for approximately three hours was amusing.
DeleteI've actually been looking forward to your comments most. You bring something very special to this blog and I am proud to know you consider me your friend.
Cryptid you just hurt my heart.
DeleteBless you, Cryptid. Thanks.
DeleteI've said before that I love this blog and everybody on it. I truly mean that.
DeleteI know you do, Cryptid. Christian and Sean have done a really good job with this blog. I love it too, and it has attracted an interesting and growing group of followers.
DeleteA few months ago, when I blundered into it as clumsily and serendipitously as I blundered into the show itself, you were the one that engaged me and, along with your brother, encouraged me to stick around. Thank you. I was doing well anyway, and I don’t want to overstate the situation, but this place has kind of added to the quality of my life, just like the show has done.
Bless you too, Milestones. And you as well Tim. I don't think any of us anticipated how much we'd grow to love this blog.
DeleteWell that's more like it. I just wanted a little love hahaha...and you're right. I love this little community Sean and Christian built.
DeleteThis was a very solid episode. We've all been wanting this A-plot since early on. Some thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThe C-plot was solid. Took very little time, allowed Zay to make some jokes which he's become really good at. Farkle being that annoying guy at the movie theater makes sense. Why he does it is lame but not out of character. The cowboy/cheerleader both being "dead" made me laugh. I may be overthinking it but I think it's minor foreshadowing that Lucas the Cowboy and Riley the "Cheerleader" aren't ending up together. I'm getting so tired of the "We love our friends just the way they are." They seemed to be making fun of it a bit this time, but it cheapens the emotional blow if you say it every. single episode.
The B-plot...really didn't do anything to me. We haven't seen Riley be mad about literally anything with Auggie before. He bit off a bear's head 3 years ago? Okay....because Riley didn't spend time with him? How about "He was 3 Riley. Let it go." I'm not exactly a fan of August Maturo because of the garbage storylines (Oh, God, how I hate that Doy/Dewey joke) they've given him but I don't hate him.
The A-Plot. Okay, this is what we all wanted. Kermit comes back. He left. Why? He wasn't ready. They didn't make him as likable as Chet/Verna who never started a new family. But he wasn't as big a jackass as Will's dad from Fresh Prince. We got a guy somewhere in the middle. He has a job, he's obviously a recovering alcoholic/gambler judging by how he wasted every paycheck. But Disney won't go that dark. Just do it Disney. You want this show to mean something. Then test the censors. Screw the Helicopter Moms. We know nothing about his new family. I would have loved for him to have had stepkids. That would have been a huge slap in the face. I honestly don't think that he's been around. Maya said in season 1 that he doesn't send her anything and I don't think he gives alimony. So for that he's a grade-A slimeball. Why did it take 9 years for him to show up again? Why did it take Maya reaching out? I think we needed one or two more scenes. I LOVED the scene where Maya talked about the thunderstorm and Katy made her feel safe. A+ right there. The end scene was really sad, but it wasn't a "How come he don't want me, man?" That's the ultimate level though, and we can't compare a bunch of teenagers to Will Smith.
Forgiveness means a lot to me. I went through something in March and I decided to finally get over my enormous ego and seek forgiveness from someone very dear to me and I ended up getting one of my best friends back. So the lesson of "forgiving yourself" while important shouldn't of been Cory's Masterplan. And it shouldn't have been from history class. Have some assembly at school about ethics or something.
Grade: B
MVP: I actually really liked Cheryl Texiera in this but...yeah, she's not in it enough for the MVP. Sabrina, by far.
This may just be me letting my inner-shipper flag fly but if the cowboy and the cheerleader BOTH end up dead, doesn't that mean that they do, in fact, end up together? ;)
DeleteHardly, Anonymous. It means that the ship of Cowboy/Cheerleader (I am NOT giving it a cutesy name. Once you name it, you start getting attached to it) is going to sink.
DeleteTo be clear, no one said anything about the Cheerleader being dead. Cory questioned why there was a cheerleader and Farkle states "That's what I said."
DeleteNo need to read into something that didn't happen.
Auggie works best in small doses, in scenes with his family. I thought his storyline worked, but they could have spent less time on it. The writers needed to do a better job of explaining why Kermit was able to stay and be a father to his new family, but not to Maya. It could've been something like, "I had problems but I worked through them and I'm okay now," or "I was just too young" or a combination of the two.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fair point. It's not that the Auggie storyline was bad, necessarily, it was that it took up too much time. This was one of the potentially most important episodes of the season and it was hampered.
DeleteApart from you, I'm probably the fiercest supporter of Auggie's presence. "Girl Meets Brother" is one of my favorite Season 1 episodes. And maybe, if Riley was holding a grudge against a more remorseful Auggie only to realize how bad it is to hold onto anger, it would have been better.
And Kermit definitely could have been refined. Why did he stay with the new family? Why, if he got whatever it was he needed, didn't he come back? And what's going to happen next--I think Kermit said his new family had no idea of the existence of the old...which is slightly bewildering in itself.
Uncovering Kermit's newfound ability to "stay" would have been well worth the effort. It sucks that we didn't get enough out of that scene.
DeleteYes it wasn't completely clear but they did somewhat address why he was able to "stay" wit the new family. He said You keep letting people down and you stop showing up to things and eventually it starts to feel like leaving and one day you do. He had already let maya and katie down so many times, he felt like he couldn't recover from what he had done. They helped him reach a point where he realized he didn't want to be that bum parent, the let-down. But he felt like he'd already screwed up his chances with them, so he left. It was cowardly and terrible and selfish and wrong and something that hopefully most of us would never do. But who of us can't see the appeal of a fresh start? His new family offered a clean slate because "They only know who he is, not who he was". Now thats bullshit because we all know that who you were is a big part of who you are. But I thought it was a pretty well articulated explanation of why a lot of people probably leave. It's too hard to fix their mistakes so they go for a clean slate.
DeleteI appreciated this episode a lot. I think it probably could have been better but that doesn't make it not a great episode, there was a lot of good stuff. I agree with about half of what you had to say Sean. I actually liked Maya's little speech that you seemed to roll your eyes at. I thought the storm story was nice and I genuinely didn't know where they were going with it. Like I thought she was gonna say something about how he used to be a good father and then one day it just stopped. And then she said that it never happened and I still wasn't catching on, and I was like wow that was a really detailed and elaborate story you just made up. But then she said it was her mom and i thought that was a genuinely heartwarming moment. I really really wanted Maya to show some appreciation for what her mother has done for her all these years and I felt like that was it, so I actually loved that scene. In fact I liked it about as much as her final confrontation. I don't think "The storm happened, you didnt" was a particularly cheesy line either. I thought it sounded very very planned, but that was actually the best part about it for me. Like that speech she gave sounded like the speech she's been writing in her head for the last 10 years or so just waiting to be able to finally give it to her father. Think about all the times you write out a whole speech in my head to the people you hate just waiting for a chance to give it to them, but you never do. Well Maya did, and that's what she wanted to tell him and I appreciated that they all let her say it without him trying to interject or protest, he just took it, so it didn't feel like a waste of a kermit scene to me. I also found Riley's sidenotes about Maya not knowing what the aurora borealis was pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteVery happy they didn't have her forgive him and instead had her forgive herself. Although I wish maybe in earlier episodes they had made more reference to her blaming herself for kermit's leaving cause I don't think she ever really has said that. She blamed her mom for a while but got over that, but I don't think we've heard much about her thinking it was her fault.
Also you're right that the end scene with her hugging Cory was not ideal, as I would have preferred her having a sweet moment with her mother because I like Katy a lot and I don't think she gets enough credit. But you also have to remember that there were a lot of years before Shawn where cory very much filled in the role of father figure. He bought her a phone and a birthday cake and danced with her at the father daughter dance and gave her advice etc etc. I think sometimes we forget how strong that bond is off screen and the history these two have.
Also I reallly liked Riley introducing herself to Kermit, and he says "are you maya's friend?" And she just looks utterly appalled and offended. What a great tidbit to throw in because it very clearly demonstrated just how estranged Maya and her father are. Maya has repeatedly called Riley the most important thing in her life and the fact that he has never even met her makes sense but was still kind of shocking.
As for the side stories they were completely irrelevant and this episode should have been entirely centered on Maya. Althought overall I liked the lesson that it's a lot easier to forgive someone if you really listen to and try to understand their side of the story. that's just the truth.
Also last thing I really liked Topanga in this. I thought her being bad at waitressing was really funny and played on what we know about her as a character. It made sense to me that she'd be bad at waitressing and that she's gotten more intense as she's gotten older. it would have been dumb to have a reference to last tango in philly. Ive waitressed before, it doesn't mean I'm any good at it or would be 10 years from now. And I liked her taking the cake from that guy and saying "You should've said please". And katy's reaction? I liked the anger but i also liked christian's idea to have her cold and indifferent. Both solid reactions
DeleteSean I like your idea for the alternate ending a lot though, Would've been much stronger if maya said "I couldn't forgive him but I forgave myself cause you know what? It wasn't my fault" That wouldve been great and now I’m really really mad they didn’t do this.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSo I was watching Fresh Prince of Bel-Air recently; this episode reminded me of the one where Will's dad just shows up out of the blue. Will's dad also walked out when he was five years old. Anyways, I did not think this episode was very good. But seeing this right after watching the Fresh Prince episode just makes this is look awful.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't seen it, you should check it out. It's pretty much the perfect dealing-with-dead-beat-parent episode.
omg yes, will's emotions and everything at the end of that episode were amazing!! a character in my book has a deadbeat mother (shocking right) and she comes back in her life. i've seen both how Fresh Prince handled deadbeat parents and how GMW handled it and Fresh Prince slays GMForgiveness. disney show or not they could've done more but they didn't.
DeleteThis is what Maya should have said: "Mr. Matthews it's okay. I'm a big girl who can I mean, It's not like I'm five years old anymore, you know? It's not like I'm going to be up every night asking my mom "When's Daddy coming home?" Who needs him? I mean, he wasn't there to teach me how to draw my first picture, but I still learned, didn't I? I got pretty damn good, too. I got through that storm without him, I got through elementary and I got through her first date without him, I had NINE great birthdays without him. He never even sent me a damn card! THE HELL WITH HIM!!! I don't need her father then, and I'm sure as hell don't need him now. Because I'm going to get through high school without him. I'm going to get a good job without him. I'm going to eventually get married to a hot guy, and we're gonna have a whole lot of children, and my husband be a better father to them, than my dad ever was. And I'm sure as hell won't need him for that, because there AIN'T A DAMN THING HE COULD EVER TEACH HER ABOUT HOW TO LOVE MY KIDS!!! How come he don't want me, Mr. Matthews?" :(
DeleteI think Auggie is just mixed. Sometimes he's okay, sometimes he's not. I can at least put with him if the episode is good enough.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the reason Kermit and Katie split, I totally heard a loaded "You know that's not the reason" too, but by the end of his talk with Maya I figured out what I think they were going for. Katie asked why they (she and Maya) weren't good enough. So he said that wasn't the reason, but rather that HE wasn't good enough for THEM. I'd say it was a case of showing not telling but it was a really roundabout and unclear way of showing it.(At first I thought Katie might have done something to make him leave after all but we'd already gone over that.)
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree, this episode could have been much much heavier if they had focused more on Maya and her father, but they wasted a lot of time on the intro of Kermit and on the outsiders' opinions. This show would be 100% amazing if they could tackle these issues more head on. I expected more drama since they hyped it up, so it was a bit of a let down. But Sabrina nailed it.
The less of Auggie the better, his character just isn't necessary.
I want more interactions between Topanga and Katie, but not if she's going to be shown as incompetent. Topanga may not be skilled at everything but she's not so dumb as to not be able to figure out how to take a man's order, or think "I didn't know I could do that!" when Katie pie'd Kermit.
Do you remember that episode of Boy Meets World where Cory was being Mr. Romantic-Know-It-All and told Shawn to do everything he did with Topanga, with Angela? (The scene where Shawn grabs Angela and pushes her against the locker is flashing through my mind as I type this). Well, I think the writers were going for that same comedic shtick. Yeah, I know. It fell incredibly flat. And not in no small part because it felt way too familiar and, like you said, completely out of character for Topanga.
DeleteWhoever decided Daniella/Topanga should be comedic relief should be banished to a dark corner of the writing room and made to re-watch every scene she's ever had on Boy Meets World until he or she can never forget who the character is and who she just isn't. And then the rest of the staff can each be allotted a day to review Ben/Cory scenes because Mr. Feeny, Cory Matthews will never be.
Hiya, I'm Sue, a long-time reader, first-time commenter.
ReplyDeleteThis episode was done very well, especially for a Disney Channel show handling this type of material. There were several things that seemed off, but I also think that the episode got a lot right. This also felt like a really important subject for the show to tackle because growing up, I had several friends with absent parents in their lives, and it was incredibly difficult for them. It's not really an issue that kids' shows these days focus enough on.
So here are some things I liked/disliked
The Zay/Lucas/Farkle plot was well-done. It wasn't given a ton of time, but it gave some necessary comic relief that balanced out the emotional parts. (I will openly admit that I cried during the scene with Maya and Kermit.)
The Riley/Auggie plot was decent at first, but it got old pretty fast. By the time we found out Auggie's reason for destroying the bear and that it happened three years ago, it just felt kind of off to me. The part where Riley refused to let Auggie leave her lap was pretty cute though.
I believe this was mentioned before (as the majority of my thoughts were, I feel so unoriginal), but Kermit's lack of emotion in the scene with Maya bothered me a lot. His daughter was on the verge of tears, and he didn't seem at all affected by that. While I liked Riley's comment about him not being a monster, I would have liked him to seem more human and show more emotion to really cement that idea. I do give the writers credit for attempting to humanize him, but it fell a little short.
I agree with Sean about anger being a much stronger emotion than sadness. While Maya's sadness seemed justified, it made a lot of sense for Katy to simply be angry. She had moved past it, but she still clearly wanted an explanation and resented what Kermit had done.
I liked Cory's role in the episode and how at the end, he showed that he was much more of a father to Maya than Kermit. However, I do agree with what other people have been saying about how Maya should have acknowledged her mother more. Her mother protected her from what her father had done and supported her for years, and she should have gotten much more credit in terms of that.
Overall, I think the episode was very solid, but not as good as say, Pluto or Texas parts 1 & 2. Some things missed the mark, but it was easily one of the better episodes.
So I guess I'll go with the grade and MVP because that seems to be the thing here.
Grade: B
MVP: Sabrina Carpenter, Cheryl Texiera is runner-up
Sean, what will you do instead of MVP? I always find it funny when you piss on the concept with some hilarious winner. I'm not a fan of the MVP section, ether.
ReplyDeleteHaha. Yeah I'm not sure yet, hopefully I'll think of something by next episode.
DeleteI have dibs on "Awesome Scene of Awesome."
Deletelink to belief!! http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3cxxsg_my-funniest-home-video_tv
ReplyDeletemuch appreciated
DeleteOdd. It didn't work for me. That said, I saw most of the clips on Instagram.
DeleteThanks for the link. I really enjoyed it.
DeleteI'm not sure whether or not I enjoyed it. I think I need to sleep on it.
DeleteThere's certainly a conversation to be had, though.
Well, it worked better for me than 50 15 second Instagram clips, that's for sure.
DeleteThanks for the link, anonymous, but you guys can't discuss the episode here.
DeleteSorry, Christian.
DeleteNumbers are in guys.
ReplyDeleteGirl Meets the Forgiveness Project scored 2.5 million viewers. Very nice, and it should be noted that the show right before it, Bunk'd, only drew 1.8 million.
I'm assuming that's that the show is doing well and is safe. But, I have a sorry track record for embracing shows that wind up getting cancelled.
DeleteMilestones, GMW is far and away the highest rated program on Disney. However since Disney doesn't rely on commercial sponsors for their channel, they can completely ignore the ratings when making decisions regarding renewal and cancellation.
DeleteHaving said that, unless Disney has a compelling reason not to renew GMW, it appears safe for the time being. Disney has 2 new live action programs debuting next year (1 in the spring and 1 next summer) and Austin & Ally is ending in January so if they do not renew GMW they would have only 4 shows running new episodes (L&M, BFW, Bunk'd and KCU) until the new ones get going. So I wouldn't worry about GMW going away for at least one more season. As recently as July they had eight shows running new episodes. I don't think they will drop down to 4 after February as that would leave too much programming time showing reruns.
It's true that numbers don't mean as much to Disney. But it's unlikely they'd ax their top show. While I'm disappointed the show hasn't been renewed yet, but I honestly think it would be a PR nightmare for them to end the show after Season 2. Odds are, it'll end on a cliff-hanger like five of the seven seasons of Boy Meets World did. It's just too popular and they'll want to bank on these kids, especially Rowan and Sabrina, as long as possible. I also think it'd very hard to cancel after two seasons because fans would start campaigns to keep the show. It actually happened with the show 'Kim Possible.' While it's original ending was very good, great even, the fans begged for more and another season was made.
DeleteThanks, guys. This is outside my experience. It is puzzling.
DeleteI was agreeing with you Christian until you said The Eskimo was not in your top 10.
ReplyDeleteHere are 10 episodes offhand better than The Eskimo, in no particular order:
DeleteSecurity Guy
Learning to Fly
And Then There Was Shawn
Eric Hollywood
You Can Go Home Again
Shallow Boy
Brother Brother
Raging Cory
Uncle Daddy
Hair Today, Goon Tomorrow
And there's bound to be others. That's very Season 4 focused. The Eskimo's a good episode, I'm not saying it's not. It's just not one that I name when I think of my favorite episodes. Mainly because I find Feeny extremely obnoxious in it. I feel like the show thinks we're supposed to be taking his side, but really he just comes off like a petulant douche on a power trip for much of the episode, only redeeming himself with the ending. And I also always think of it as the beginning of Shawn's self-involved whining, which isn't my favorite aspect of him.
But again, it's a good episode. There's a lot of funny bits with Topanga trying not to help, and the scene on the billboard's good despite emo Shawn. Also the Eric/Jack subplot's kind of meh, as most Eric/Jack subplots tend to be.
Those are mostly reasonable and there is of course room for differing opinons, but I can't get on board with Learning to Fly or Hair Today. I don't live in the same universe as you if Cory awkwardly avoiding some sorority girl's advances is better than The Eskimo. The overarching message of "Eric knows he should aim higher" is awesome, but most of the content is about Cory.
DeleteOkay I reread my review of LtF because you deserve the benefit of the doubt, and there are several Eric scenes that I had forgotten. I still wouldn't put it over the Eskimo, but I probably wouldn't fist fight you over it now. Hair Today though, that still sticks out as not-really-a-game-changer compared to the other nine. If you put City Slackers instead of Hairy Today then I could respect you.
DeleteWhat makes Shallow Boy so good other than being hilarious? That one sticks out too.
1. Man, I can't believe you'd even argue with Learning to Fly. It's one of Eric's best episodes. The confrontation with the Dean, the scene in the kitchen where Eric gets into college, even his conversation with Cory is really good, one of the few key Eric/Cory real talk convos. I hardly consider Eric a subplot there, that's 50% of the story. And the other 50% is a lot of fun, I actually like that storyline of Cory being mad at Topanga and tempted, plus we get psychic dream Shawn. It's a great great episode.
Delete2. "Hair Today..." has Good Looking Guy so..... that should be all I need to see. The Good Looking Guy montage is like my favorite scene that ever happened. That entire Eric B-plot is aces. That's like the best B-plot there's ever been. And I actually think it's one of the few good Topanga episodes and I like that whole story too. But Good Looking Guy should be all I need to say.
3. Shallow Boy is flat-out the funniest episode of the show in my opinion. So it's not just that it's hilarious. It's the most hilarious this show ever gets. It's okay for just funny episodes to make it into the top 10. It's still a sitcom. I like a top 10 for a comedy to mix comedy and drama. After all, I have Eric Hollywood and And Then There Was Shawn in there too.
A big factor is that for all three of these episodes, there's no bad points. It's all good. No, "Well, this part was all great, but that other part?" I don't think The Eskimo can say that. It's not *all* good.
Same would go for City Slackers. It doesn't get good until the late night scenes with (and about) Feeny, and that's well into it. And Eric's B-plot is pretty filler. It's not *all* great.
DeleteYou Biasedy Biaseder. Hair Today makes it because of Eric's B plot, but City Slackers doesn't because "it's not 100% great."
DeleteAnd Then and Eric Hollywood have a lot more going on than just being funny. I wouldn't say Shallow Boy is the funniest. We're on different planets.
Au contraire. Hair Today is especially great because of Eric's B plot, but Cory's plot is still great too, even if it's not the highlight. Meanwhile, Eric's B plot in City Slackers is kind of meh and just feels like they needed to something for the other characters to do. And the first half of the cabin stuff is only so-so too until it gets dramatic at the end.
DeleteWhat does Eric Hollywood have going on besides being funny? I mean, I know it's the most meta episode too, but like... it's all in the service of being funny. But now that I think about it, yeah, I guess Eric Hollywood is funnier than Shallow Boy. And Then There Was Shawn may be up there too. But still, I adore every second of the Corinna story.
I like The Eskimo because it is pretty much the climax of the Shawn story arch but hey we all got our opinions
DeleteAm I the only one that likes Auggie? Yes, the reasoning for him destroying the bear is stupid, but that's on the writers, not the kid.
ReplyDeleteThey probably would not say so, due to being a Disney show, but to me it sounded like Maya's father had been an alcoholic. He finally got sober, but chose a fresh start with a new family over Maya and Katy. Maya was too young to really understand what was happening (as a four or five year old), and Maya's mother protected his reputation, because she thought that "a girl should think well of her father." I think that it fits with the constant cycle of alcohol/drug use/insert-addiction-here, then when the effects have worn off-- feeling guilt and ashamed, then promising to never do it again, and then doing it again. As far as likability goes, some drug addicts/alcoholics can be superficially charming and can present a likeable public-personality. I feel like this episode may have been set up to be an anchor-point for an episode about Maya trying alcohol in high school, as Shawn did in BMW-- of course that would require Disney to be willing to do so.
ReplyDeleteI did like y'all's review.
UguiviPylnu Jason Harris https://wakelet.com/wake/XSj0e0fjfId2tQGLRGroc
ReplyDeletemendelevo
YtempceKtracse Nathan Albright DesignCAD 3D Max
ReplyDeleteAvast Pro Antivirus
Camtasia Studio
profdecsystro
VfefiQlueseRancho Cucamonga Thomas Newman
ReplyDeleteFree download
maesuncopa