Saturday, March 12, 2016

Episode Review: "Girl Meets Legacy" (#2.30)

Neither of us has even watched it yet. It's telling that neither of us has any motivation to watch or review the season finale of this show. Jacobs has managed to disillusion two of his most dedicated fans. It sucks.

The review will be up eventually, most likely later today, but yeah, that's why it's not up yet. There's no guest stars, no Charlie, the shit with Lucas is going to live for another half season, nothing gets resolved... I am excited about nothing.

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Well Christian and I are both desperately hoping for the other to post first, so I guess I'll just bite the bullet. I worked two hours longer than I was supposed to tonight, and I'd really rather watch House of Cards and work on some Photoshop painting, but here I am. This post had ~430 views at the time I'm writing this, which is a lot of people that I have personally disappointed, and I don't want to disappoint a whole lot more. So let's kick this pig.

I just invented a new game. As soon as my delicious Belgian tripel gets cold in the freezer, I will begin drinking. Maybe you can pick out a tonal shift in my writing when that begins.

Anyway.


Woops, wrong blog.

(Hint: That is not when the drinking started.)

Ok I'm pressing play for real now. 

Just... lemme eat a couple more of these french fries... 

Lucas has decided to address The Triangle, which is great for real life, but bad for television. I love that he has notecards. I saw Cryptid stomp his feet in the comments about hating Lucas, but I definitely don't hate him. I hate the writers who made the two leads fall for him, but the character has been funny and engaging once they stopped writing him as a Disney Prince. He still looks a little too perfect, but I doubt Disney is handing out vouchers for Jim's Plastic Surgery down on 4th and 22nd.
If I were watching this with no knowledge of Jacobs's recent interview, I would be excited. I would expect some resolution, at last. You see, I want to discuss this subject even less than Maya up there, if that's possible, but it does need to be done. Unfortunately, "done" is staying late at the office and won't be home in time for dinner. We allegedly have another half-season before this is "resolved," but they also said it would be finished in Texas part 3, so I honestly don't even believe that shit. They'll drag it out again because it draws viewers and because they hate me. 

Fuck, Daylight Savings just hit. That's a real downer.

Anyway this scene is very satisfying. The girls finally ask Lucas what he wants, and we get a quick showcase of his rapport with each of the girls. I've got about six thousand dollars that says we'll come back after the theme song in a completely different location with no notion of how the intro's tension was resolved.

FUCKIN NAILED IT! WE'RE AT SCHOOL! YOU'RE SO EASY, GIRL MEETS WORLD. YOU'RE SO EASYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.

Sigh... They just don't know how to make a show anymore. Anyone here can easily imagine Shawn and Cory and Eric and probably even Topanga realizing all on their own that they want to leave a Legacy, to make a mark. But here we are once again with Cory explicitly delivering the plot to his students. 
It's actually almost profound. The Girl Meets World characters are mostly interested in a love triangle, while this last remnant of Boy Meets World is waving his hands in the air, "No! No! Do a real show! Please! Do something important!"

Here it is again, agh, these little hints of a good show, peeking through. I love Topanga's motherliness, I love her exaggerated comforting of Maya's exaggerated moping. This Topanga is magical and it makes me feel like I'm watching the real Topanga Lawrence, but they always WASTE this maternal side of her on characters we don't care about. Like Ava. God damn it, it's just enough to keep me on the hook. I have to watch the rest of the series because something like this might happen again.

"He's the best teacher you'll ever have."

Oh.

"The most important thing you can do in life is give people a reason to remember you."


That does not sound like Cory. Well, it sounds like season 2 Cory. The Thrilla in Phila Cory. How the fuck did pen meet paper and write that as a line for Cory Matthews? It's beyond words. Total utter nonsense. 

I continue to enjoy Lucas here in the classroom, it seems like he's as lost and frustrated as I am with this romance crap. He just wants it to be over, and no one else in the world will let it be over. I can empathize with that

Maya thanks the art teacher for believing in her. I'm a fan. This dynamic deserved way more time than the two episodes it received, but it was satisfying nonetheless. I could rant about this "you've been given a real gift" crap, but it's not worth it.

Farkle says goodbye to the science teacher and NOBODY CARES!
Pictured: Real life
"I respect a nice place where good decisions get made." No Squidward this time, that line is awesome. It's original and genuine. He sounds like an actual character, with motivation, which is in short supply on this show. I have learned something with actual weight about Harley in this scene. When was the last time I said that about Riley? I really appreciate that they gave Harley an ending with a certain amount of gravitas. I am satisfied. It doesn't really help Lucas at all, but yeah. This was worth watching simply for giving a Boy Meets World veteran a proper ending.

"I've been trying to teach you to keep your feelings inside." I'm not doing Squidward again, but WHAT THE FUCK MAN? No he hasn't! Who wrote Cory's lines for this episode! In fact, Topanga said the exact opposite earlier at dinner. 

Oh good, let's relive all of Michael Jacobs's brilliant, you heard me, brilliant life wisdom. I mean, in all seriousness, "people change people" is pretty damn solid. Probably the only real lesson I've taken from this show. But this scene feels like "Hey in case you guys forgot, I'm a genius." Oh and of course Maya is on the verge of tears, it's, mmm, just checking those check boxes, huh? Just checkin em off, one at a time. Check check check.



I apologize for the gifs if you're on your phone, but I have to follow my heart when I write these things.

Oh come on, you might as well do a clip show at this point, with all this yesteryear crap. You already did it in Brave New World, Jacobs, just do it. Do a clip show, I won't be mad.

I'll be a little mad. But not as mad as watching this forced god damn Riley crying CHOKING BACK THE TEARS BECAUSE THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH PAIN! 
Will they ever not cry in an episode for the rest of time? When is the next episode where they don't cry? 

Suddenly Cory brings up "how will the school remember you," which, again, none of the students ever cared about on their own. It's middle school. Who the fuck cares? The characters don't care! Why does Cory care!?

Apparently the incoming class at JQA middle school consists of six students. But don't worry. They're ethnically diverse, so they can still do a McDonald's commercial. This bench unveiling is pretty standard Girl Meets World forced-sentimentality. They Chekov's Gun'd us with the bench and I really wish they hadn't. Where is everyone else in the school? How did these children get here? How will they get home later? In Harley's van? No thank you.

From Riley, "I think everybody should leave their mark." And by "everybody" you mean you. You personally Riley Matthews. What about, like, Yogi? Does Riley think Yogi should leave his mark on the school? What's Yogi's long lasting legacy at JQA? 
Oh right.

This is hilariously insensitive though. Harley gave this emotional speech about how he takes care of this bench, and he loves what it symbolizes, and I love what it symbolizes and how it's meaningfu- FUCK IT! LET'S JUST REPLACE IT WITH A NEW ONE! At least it's not a bay window... They probably had to beat Joshua Jacobs away from the writers' room with a stick, "Guys guys what if they donate a Bay Window to the school, guys please my dad makes the show!"

I'm glad Zay made it back for the ending. This dialogue between Zay and Lucas feels organic, like two relatable characters having a real conversation. Dare I say, I had fun. Riley and Maya used to feel organic, they used to be fun, until they starting trying to turn EVERY SINGLE SCENE into the ending of god damn King Lear. I'm so HAPPY, I'm so SAD, the TEARS THE TEARS they just won't stop, WE'RE THE BEST FRIENDS AND CORY IS THE BEST TEACHER. But we snapped back to reality for a minute with Lucas and Zay. It was nice. It was refreshing.
So the kids JUST A PRANK BRO'd Cory into high school with them. Riley refers to Turner as "Uncle Jonathan," and "Jonathan" sounded wrong at first, but on second thought it's the right decision. "Jon" is reserved for Shawn. Even Kat Tompkins called him Jonathan. Eli might have called him Jon but Eli's not canon *cough*. 

In the final scene at the Bay Window we see that we have, unsurprisingly, made zero progress. My favorite thing about this episode was the bench and they replaced it with a new stupider one, so I don't even know. 

Oh, also, that scene from the theme song where the girls are doing Jazz Hands on the dishwasher conveyor belt, did that ever actually happen? I feel like I've been waiting for that scene since the beginning of the season. 

By the by, you should be very excited for our "Season in Review/Looking Forward" post because I, Sean Of Golden Text, have solved it. I had an epiphany today and figured out why I don't like this show. And this is something no one on this blog has ever said, or even implied, really. I think I'm going to blow everyone's mind. It is the discovery of a lifetime. And this isn't some setup for an elaborate Sean-joke. I'm completely serious, I figured it out, and it is elegant

Hey guys. Sorry for the delay on this, it's been kind of a hectic time in my life for a variety of reasons (some good, some bad) so, honestly, this just wasn't a priority for me. With us being a week out from the airing of this, seems silly to go too in depth, but I have just watched it.

It was mainly bad. It's amazing how they could have spent so much of an episode (a season finale, no less) focusing on a triangle without anything in the triangle actually even occurring. It's astounding the degree to which they're willing to spin their wheels on this. It seems like the show is just as uncomfortable with the lack of progress as we are, they call it out all the time - how they keep doing the same thing and sitting in the same spot and feeling the same way and not doing anything, how their last conversation about this was New Year's and it's now graduation - and yet it doesn't keep them from continuing to not advance it. 

Are they network mandated to keep this going or something? Do they just not know how they want to end this, and so they're stalling? I'm confused. This can't be the story they want to tell, because they're deliberately not telling a story here. I honestly think there's something else going on here, though I can't think of a plausible example of what that could be. 

Either way, I now don't want either of these couples together for a new reason - the same reason I was ardently against Farkle being with them. If Lucas' feelings for them are this equal, if he truly can't decide who he likes more, than he doesn't like either of them enough. No matter who he chooses, he just took way way way too long to decide so obviously his feelings for her aren't that real. Lucas had the right idea - this obviously is meant to be on either front. Just stay friends. Yes, it was awkward at first, and it may be awkward for a while, but you'll get over it. 

The legacy stuff was all pretty stupid. I agree leaving a legacy is important in life - one should always try to leave the world better than they found it. But, honestly, the legacy one leaves to their middle school is pretty minor. You're only there a couple years. And you're not enough of a person for it to be important that you leave something behind. It's really not that important that John Quincy Adams Middle School be profoundly changed by the fact that Riley Matthews and her friends attended it. And how did they renovate that bench? With whose money? Is this what Maya did with the charity foundation she's apparently running now?

It was nice to see all the teachers get a bon voyage, but I was surprised we didn't see Harper - certainly the most prominent non-Cory faculty member besides Harley. I guess they wanted to do individual goodbyes, and the only person Harper would have made sense talking to was Maya, and the art teacher made more sense, but still. Oh well, guess that's it for Harper. Thanks for making us watch a whole dumb episode about who you are. 

Harley's goodbye was nice, and while I've said that I haven't really understood the reasoning behind making him such a prominent part of this revival, I do think if this is his ending (and it should be, don't make Harley follow them to high school. Jesus Christ.) it was nice. Though I'm not sure I remember him having a particular relationship with Lucas.

It was weird that they went out of their way to not have Zay be in the school scenes and even explained an absence for him, if he was in the episode anyway. It's weird how little we see him. They have to fish or cut bait in Season 3 - either he's on the show, and we see him all the time, or send him back to Texas. I've warmed up to him, but he doesn't matter to me, so either's fine. But this half measure is weird.

The one thing I will give this episode is that I'm glad they set up Cory going to high school here, and not in the premiere of Season 3. In both instances of Feeny following them to the next school, the kids all went there first and we were led to believe that it was it for Feeny as their teacher, and then they found a way for him to show up. This was better - though Turner should have delivered this news in person. Would have been nice to see him.

All the major problems I didn't touch on are the problems they always have. The characters are too impressed with the seriousness of their own dialogue, and every situation is made incredibly overwrought. There were some good performances - from Sabrina, from Danielle, from Ben, and even from Peyton - but it was a boring episode and I kept checking to see how much I had left.

We'll do a more complete look at Season 2, but this bottom half of it was weak, man. If we broke up the show in to four quarters - Season 1.0, Season 1.5, Season 2.0, and Season 2.5, then Season 2.5 is the weakest of all (followed by Season 1.0, with Season 2.0 as the strongest)

Episode Rating: C
Episode MVP: I'll give it to Peyton, actually, he had some moments where I was impressed. He was funny in the cue cards bits, and I actually really felt it when he was talking to Riley and Maya in the classroom about how friendship's not working anymore either.

Lucas and Harley bonded a bit in Girl Meets the Forgotten. What did you think of the exaggerated comforting between Topanga and Maya in the apartment? I haven't seen any comments agree with me about that. 

I don't have anything else to add. 

I give this episode a C because there are actually a few hints of a good idea in here. But Christian's right. Ultimately, the major problems are the same problems they always have. 


I liked it, it was fun. Topanga was good in this episode, from the little we saw her, and Maya's exhaustion with the situation entertained me a lot more than Riley's prim earnestness about it. 

Yeah, Lucas had interaction with Harley in the Forgotten, but Farkle was there too. Meanwhile Farkle and Harley had a meaningful chat in whatever the one he was being picked on was. I think Farkle may have been slightly more deserving, especially than the random science teacher from STEM, though I get that having Farkle talking to a science guy (like Maya talking to an art woman) has more to do with him. But then I guess that would have left Lucas with no one since Harper doesn't make sense with him either. 


Word.

111 comments:

  1. I am this close to hate watching the show from here on out.

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  2. Legacy wasn't half bad. They did something I hated in the beginning but after that I felt like it was fairly good.

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  3. I haven't seen it yet, but I am in no rush.

    Why oh why?

    We have spent two years on Lucas...and I honestly can't say there's any character that I hate more.

    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!
    I HATE LUCAS! I HATE LUCAS!


    Now then...on to Season 3...where do we go from here? Oh, I have words, but right now I need to collect myself.

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    1. Hi Cryptid, I don't think Legacy is gonna help.

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    2. Ah Milestones, my friend, you're here. You could have fled and saved yourself, but you stayed.

      Such loyalty! Such valor! Such honor!

      Say, last time we spoke, you were about to watch "Everybody Loves Stuart." How was it? I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your take on Boy Meets World from an outsider's view.

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    3. Yes Cryptid, my young friend, I wouldn't leave you in your time of need (actually I'm almost out the door but will check in later or tomorrow).

      I really liked "Everybody Loves Stuart."

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    4. Cryptid, go and watch Legacy. It was really very good.

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  4. Sans the last minute, it is a perfectly good episode of television and maybe an even better-than-good season finale. It hits the right spots emotionally, had a few really nice jokes and, most importantly, tried (at points very successfully) to redeem itself for some of its past mistakes by addressing them head on ... until the last bleeping minute which undid almost all of the goodwill it built up with me for the rest of the episode.

    As an episode it gets a B+, but it could have legitimately been an A if the writing staff would just stop trying to be so dang cute.

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    1. Long time lurker, first time poster.

      I agree, Ryan. Compared to the filler episodes since "New Year", this is actually a decent episode. It still has the same default issues like the rest of the show (kind of cheesy, Cory still being wise-sage-Cory, the writers dropping the ball at the last minute of the episode, etc.) it was personally a pretty entertaining episode. I liked the jokes (particularly the ones involving the parents), and I liked that there was at least some rationale behind the actions of the characters this time around (e.g. Cory is preachy this time because he doesn't think he'll be teaching the kids anymore, even though we as the audience know it's a given).

      The episode itself, while a bit cheesy, is nowhere near as preachy as the past few episodes (it's hard to top "Commonism" and "STEM" in terms of preachiness). Lucas actually has a presence and actually demanded that people consider his feelings on the matter (which, if I recall, Christian and Sean, one of you wanted him to).

      I'm really sad to hear you guys are all so disheartened by the show. I'm still hanging on; I'm trying not to compare it to its predecessor (because I've accepted that it never will be the same) and instead giving it the benefit of the doubt on its own merits as a Disney-run, tween dramedy that just happens to have cameos from the old show. Believe me, it's miles ahead of the other kidcoms on Disney right now. I don't mind Lucas (he took a long time to find a niche in the show but I've been enjoying his comedic moments in the past few episodes as a "straight man" to his friends' antics).

      I understand the frustration, though. They always seem to fumble the last few minutes of every episode. They sometimes bite off more than they can chew. And it's clear that some episodes had some Disney executive meddling involved (which Jacobs now admits), but I'm still enjoying the show and looking forward to new episodes. I'm kind of sad that a lot of you think otherwise now.

      That said, reading the post-Legacy interview, I think Jacobs needs to take his head out of his ass and can the artistic pretentiousness. GMW is a good show, but it's nowhere near as grand as they're making it.

      (Am I being too flip-floppy on the matter?)

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  5. I can't really get too much at this show since they are clearly trying hard. Being preachy just means it's at least trying. Maybe I'm jaded from the other disney sitcom stuff i happen to watch, i don't know.

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  6. FWIW I watched the episode and liked how it finally addressed the fact that Lucas would have HIS OWN FEELINGS in this love triangle. That took long enough. While nothing got resolved, I at least feel that the wheels or the train have grabbed traction and will start moving finally.

    I also found it touching that the kids thanked each of the teachers that we met over the series so far. While corny, I ate it all up because it showed that the world wasn't Cory-centric and that the characters found value and appreciation in what others had taught them. I especially appreciated Lucas reaching out to Harley, that was a nice moment.

    Finally, I like how they "promoted" Cory to teach at the High-School. While "far-fetched" it certainly was moving how the kids and parents got together and surprised him with news on the night of Graduation. It's much more believable than how in BMW Feeny just kept showing up. Kudos for the writers for at least giving this fixture of "Meets World" universe an organic way of happening.

    Two questions though about the episode.

    1.) Are Middle School Graduations a thing?!? I certainly don't recall anyone ever giving a flying f*** when my class went from 8th to 9th grade. There certainly wasn't a graduation ceremony. That stuff only happened in kindergarten and senior year. I'm sure it was a contrived event to spur the story along, but I just want to make sure. Also, no kid is going to freak from moving from Middle School to High School. At least I don't think so. Although, the kids giving a tour to the Elementary kids was a neat touch. That's something that I could see happening in real life.

    2.) My recording cut off right as Lucas came through the window at the tail end of the episode? What was said during this scene?

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    1. I actually hate Cory's promotion to high school. His classroom scenes are my least favorite parts of every episode and now I know there's going to be more of them.

      I had a middle school graduation. My middle school wasn't connected to my high school so they graduate 8th graders. Most of the regular background actors will probably return like Yogi, Darby and Sarah. Withstanding any of them getting cast on another show.

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    2. In my city there were no middle schools, we went K-8 at the same school, but we had a big graduation at the end. My 2 sons also had them when they ended grammer school and they went to school in 2 completely different places then I did.

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    3. When Shipping and I were in middle school, we had a graduation. And a party at the YMCA. And we won history awards--a copy of a very nice book that I read over the summer.

      You know, looking back at my graduation makes me more forgiving of Maya and Riley's insecurities at leaving middle school. There's no high school in our teeny, tiny town so the kids went to one of two schools in the city: the public school and the private, prep school.

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    4. im from Australia we only have primary school and high school no middle school. my primary school went from prep to grade 6 when i graduated from primary school in 2003 they did have a graduation ceremony thing with family, friends, awards and graduation dinner.

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    5. I'm with Megan, primary school graduation that's a big affair and dinner afterwards. Though, personally, i went to an all-age school, so it went to grade 9 (I left at six, as you only go to seven if you fail).

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    6. I work at a middle school. There isn't a graduation ceremony, but the 8th graders do freak out about going to high school. It's new. They're back at the bottom. It's a little scary. So that reaction was believable. But the whole graduation with gowns and diplomas? Yeah, it's a little much. Maybe some middle schools do it, though.

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    7. My junior high school gave us the whole enchilada. Diplomas, caps and gowns, everything. We even graduated in the Brooklyn Museum for crying out loud (I had a pretty good middle school). So in terms of realism for this, GMW gets a gold star.

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    8. I'm going to be COMPLETELY honest with you guys here. This is the single least important aspect of the episode. Why does this have ten times more discussion than everything else?

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  7. I want to post my review now and I'll come back and respond to whatever Sean and Christian post later.

    So we open in the Bay Window and Lucas finally has something to say after almost 6 months. Lucas doesn’t want to hurt the girls, so all he does is nothing! But at least he isn’t the one ignoring it now. At this point Cory won’t even chase Lucas out of Riley’s room because he knows nothing is going to happen and they need to talk more than he needs to be a protective daddy. Some needed growth for daddy Cory.

    Back to school and Einstein Academy has captured Farkle as their end of the year prank, so the kids have taken their goose mascot. He looks great in that blazer. We find out that Vanessa has invited Zay to her spring formal so at least they finally have an excuse why someone is missing from class. However Charlie is conspicuous by his absence and not a soul mentions this. This is really strange considering Charlie has been chasing Riley for the better part of this school year. Farkle returns and they bring back the Donnie Barnes joke (regular goose), which I liked.

    Dinner time at the Matthews’ house and Riley is worried that life is getting harder and she wasn’t expecting it. Perhaps she should have paid more attention. And here is Maya, needing mommy Topanga once again. Nice to see they all blame Cory for their problems. Maya saying “you didn’t teach us enough” was so over the top. From what we’ve seen at school it doesn’t matter who teaches her, she isn’t interested in learning. Now here is Lucas finally growing a spine and saying that he is putting both girls in the friend zone. They seem disappointed, which is strange considering that earlier that day they were afraid he would choose one over the other and destroy their friendship. No matter what Lucas does, the girls are unhappy, and they are too stubborn to just agree to be friends with him and pursue other relationships. They deserve whatever pain this brings.

    Back to class and we waste another minute with all this Riley/Maya/Lucas shit. Cory should at least stop this in class. Now Riley says she isn’t ready to leave middle school. Wasn’t the entire last episode based on the fact that she was ready to grow up and go to high school? Did I completely misunderstand “Bay Window”? Boo writers.

    Maya, Farkle and Lucas take some time to say goodbye to some school folks that were important to them. Not bad. It does seem like this is goodbye to Harley Kiner. If that is the case, that is too bad. I much preferred this version of Harley to the BWM version.

    Time for one last lesson in Cory’s class. Looks very much like the end of BMW here and I assume that it was done intentionally to ensure that the “class prank” that gets revealed later is a surprise. I liked Cory asking questions whose answers were lessons from previous episodes. Unlike BMW where they remembered almost nothing after the episode it was taught, in GMW, they are making an effort to make sure that the kids, and the kids watching, are really learning this stuff. Bravo for that. But … now Lucas moves the girls back from the friend zone. UGGH!

    We see the kids giving a tour to kids that will attend JQA next year. And the 5 of them have refurbished the bench as a going away present to the school, complete with a signature Riley crappy purple cat. The plaque seemed like a little too much though.

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    1. Graduation party on the roof, and it’s nice to see Katy and Stuart Minkus there. Farkle telling his dad he wants to go to college wherever his friends go displeases Minkus, and probably with good reason. While I believe Riley and Lucas could get into Princeton, unless Maya changes pretty radically she will have trouble getting accepted in CUNY. Shades of Cory wanting he and Topanga and Shawn to go to college together. Now Zay is back and I like his joke about who Lucas should choose, Farkle or him. Nice ending to the party and the kids “class prank” is to drag Cory along with them to high school. Well done there, though not unexpected since Jacobs had said that Cory would be with them in school as long as the show is on the air. This seemed like a reasonable way to do it, more so than even Feeny joining the BMW kids there.

      End scene and more of this triangle/not triangle. We could have done without it at this point, but I guess we expected it.

      Grade: A - Everything was solid from beginning to end. No cringe worthy dialogue or moments. The jokes were there when they needed to be and it was serious and sincere when called for. For me this is a top 5 episode for season 2, coming in right behind Pluto.

      MVP: The entire regular cast - to me no one stood out here, but everyone was on their A game and it was an ensemble episode that delivered.

      What I liked: Saying (probably for real ) goodbye to Harley, the entire mascot/goose stuff, and the final lesson in Cory’s class.

      What I didn’t Like: Farkle felt underused, but he isn’t in the middle of the triangle/not triangle, so it was probably necessary. Charlie’s absence without anyone mentioning it would have been common before this episode, but Cory took the time to point out Zay’s absence in class. Also, Riley bemoaning the fact that she wasn’t ready to leave JQA for high school while in the previous episode she was shouting to the world that she was. Still it was a short list to be unhappy with.

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    2. Another thing to note, in Gravity, Riley and Maya were dying to get out of Cory being their teacher. Fast forward to season's end and they are the architects of his coming to high school with them. They better not complain about him being there watching them in the future.

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  8. it was dumb as hell where the fuck was Morgan!!?!!,!,!,'fjdjdjkskxkd

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    1. I just realized you're right. She was supposed to be there, wasn't she?

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    2. She sends her love, but she's too busy in San Francisco running her fashion empire. ;)

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    3. Nice. Virtual cookie for you Mike.

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  9. What you will read below was my live thoughts as the episode aired.

    Hi, everyone. I’ll be live blogging as best I can between commercial breaks.

    At the first break, and I’m happy to see where jumping right in to the mess that has been this storyline. Lucas is so petrified to say the wrong thing, he’s using note cards. Which, while understandable, is a little gimmicky. But, it works. The girls are just as confused, and that’s on them, and it’s a good opening scene. “Legacy” is a little strong for middle school. I know I left no impression on my middle school, and I didn’t think I was supposed to. So, to ask these young kids to think about their legacy is a little heavy. Farkle and the interchangeable goose, I laughed. I honestly did. I really liked the dinner scene. Riley being worried she isn’t ready, and we finally have Cory and Topanga finally giving some really decent advice about always being there for here. An actual parental moment, kinda. Yay. Then Maya bursting in, and collapsing was cute. Topanga’s baby talking a 15 year old girl was not cute. Like, at all. No, please, stop. Again, we have Lucas relying on note cards, and the joke isn’t as funny, but I like the consistency. The subsequent classroom scene was really good, and the 3 kids not being able to even look at each othr was weird, but good weird. Except for Riley. She was weird. Get in your seat. She gets away with more than necessary and to only reach her seat 15 seconds before the scenes end is bogus.

    Second commercial break, and the mentor appreciation stuff was ok, right up until Harley/Lucas. No, I’m sorry, Harley Kiener could not have any negligible influence on Lucas. He just couldn’t. Not off screen, or on. Sorry, I don’t buy it. And then we have the “one final lesson” bit with Cory, and I think we finally have the best scene so far in the classroom. That had the right emotion, tone and message that scene needed. And enough laughs to break it all up. It was refreshing to see.

    Annnnd, fuck that ending. Just…..WHY!! Ok, first off, the “recap” of their most important lessons was ok. I doubt they needed to bring Missy Bradford up as the reason they became friends, but whatever. I guess that’s ok. Where they lost me was the “Friendship Bench”. Holy crap, that was some corny, hamfisted shit, wasn’t it? Wow, that was bad. Then, we go to after graduation, and I was happy to see Katy, Minkus and Zay. All had good little initial bits. Zay’s stuff was the best of the bunch, and he does do an excellent job at comedic relief. Then, we come to the moment, when they’re all saying good-bye to Cory, accept…I’m not hearing goodbye….why are they delaying this? No…NO…ah fuck it all! They strong-armed their way into having “Uncle Johnathan” move Cory to the High School as a teacher. Damn it! No. He wasn’t good, at all, in the teacher role. So, why are we continuing with the charade? Ugh, it’s such a downer.

    The after tag scene was good. It basically told us that, while we’ve still have a lot more of this BS ahead of us, at least we’re moving forward with it. No more bottling up of feelings, no more stupid, forced awkwardness. We’re moving forward, and that brings me relief more than anything. It needs to end clearly, and preferably, soon. But, I know it won’t. So, bring on Season 3.

    Episode Grade: B. In general, I liked this episode. It was a good, well written episode for the most part. The final 4 minutes, pre tag, were bad. Simply because I can’t take more of Teacher Cory. Outside of that, I thought everything was good.

    Episode MVP: Rowan Blanchard. It was close this episode, but I liked pretty much every scene she was in, except for one. She is fun to watch in both comedic and dramatic scenes.

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    1. pwfan, even if you haven't been keeping up with the season 3 tapings, Jacobs had said that Cory would remain in school with them as long as the show is on the air. It really shouldn't have been that big a surprise to you that it happened. At least with it having been the kids' idea it seems more natural than some ridiculous excuse concocted at the 11th hour in the next season opener as it happened this year. Perhaps Cory's teaching methods will mature along with his charges.

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    2. I'd love it if the requirements in hightschool were higher and he had a bit of trouble adjusting to having more order in the class or sth like that. Maybe introduce a tough principal.

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    3. you and cryptid both took issue with what you called "baby talk" from Topanga, but, like... she wasn't mispronouncing words or using poor grammar or anything. I don't see how that's "baby talk," it was just an exaggerated voice.

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    4. She literally called Maya a "baby" in that scene. You factor in the fact she used the high pitched voice too, I don't see how that's not baby talk. If I saw an adult talk to a 15-16 year old girl like that in public in a non joking way, I'd be concerned for the mental state of both.

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    5. but it WAS in a joking way. it was supposed to be silly. they were both being silly. if christian wasn't such an absolute loser, i'd like to know what he thinks too.

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  10. Topanga talking about Cory - He’s the best teacher you’ll ever have…

    If this isn’t an indictment of the American educational system, I don’t know what is.

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  11. Great stuff, Sean. I can't wait to hear your season thoughts. Same with Christian.

    I'm honestly so fucking bored with this show. I don't care about these brats. I don't care about their stupid fucking triangle. You know what? At the end of Season 2 of Boy Meets World, Shawn's mother left and his father took off so he moves in with Turner. Holy shit, that's a story. That's interesting! I did enjoy this episode better than I thought I would. I liked the Maya/Art lady good-bye. I didn't buy Farkle saying goodbye to the science teacher we saw once. Harley's good-bye was sweet. Lucas being tired of Riley/Maya's crap was good. This stuff's still going to go on for a while but I am extremely pissed this is the way they're going to take the show. The writing is also so over the top that it makes it hard to care. That said, I'm sticking around for two reasons. 1-This blog. If it wasn't for this blog, I'd never have started watching. 2-To see Will Friedle eventually come back and entertain me. 3-I want to see how hilariously this show fails to properly solve their shit.

    See you for Season 3 folks. If Sean and Christian don't beat their brains out trying to review this garbage.

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  12. Okay, so I finally saw it. It was actually a pretty good season finale. One door closed, and another door opened. Unfortunately, the over-arcing story is moving along at a snail's pace, which is a shame.

    So we open at the Bay Window, and it's basically been confirmed that they've been avoiding talking about it since New Year. Five months of avoiding talking about this. And apart from Bay Window, it does not appear that any episodes are actually canonically after New Year. That's mathematically impossible due to the entire structure of this season, which is repeatedly said to be in just a single school year.

    But the scene itself is good. Serious conversations have never been a strong point where Lucas is concerned, so his resorting to index cards is fine.

    First classroom scene. Class pranks and retaliation via the goose. Amusing enough, and swiping a mascot is actually a Cory-and-Shawn worthy hijink. That could have been an episode all on its own--a prank war with Einstein Academy. Did Charlie transfer out of Cory's class? Can't say I blame him.

    I liked the dinner scene, actually really liked it. Topanga and Cory told Riley that she made this mess by not actually voicing her feelings and making sure her friends did the same. My only question is why the hell didn't they tell her this at any point during the five months since New Year?

    And now Topanga's baby-talking Maya. I do not like baby-talk at all. And I wish Maya would go to her mother for advice. I think Katy might actually have a very good lesson to teach on the need to communicate effectively, rather than talking over one another.

    Onward to the next classroom scene. Ah, it's the last day of classes. It's ridiculous but to complain about it now is a moot point, even in-universe. I liked how Maya was resting on Sarah's desk. Sarah didn't seem quite as static as the other extras in this scene. She actually seemed a little amused by the antics, which considering she's real-life siblings with Sabrina, sort of makes sense.

    And Lucas lampshading how often the kids turn around and look at each other during the end of Cory's lectures was pretty darn funny. He got more and more flustered and then completely desperate.

    Sean's right, I was too hard on Lucas. He's not Disney Prince anymore, which is nice, and most of my dislike is how his character actually limits other characters.

    I do not hate Lucas. I hate the triangle.

    Mentors and the students. These needed to be fleshed out. I can appreciate what they were trying to go for, but the only one I buy is Norton and Farkle. Sure Norton was only in one episode and showed himself to be the most ineffective authority figure in the history of forever but it was established that he had a unique rapport with Farkle, and given Farkle's repeated references to science for two seasons, I actually bought it.

    Maya's interactions with the art teacher...well, I do like that Maya's got a passion and an adult willing to help her with it, I don't think we've seen Maya and her artwork quite often enough. Maya's art has come up maybe a half dozen times at most. But for what it is, it's nice.

    I love Harley. And I am delighted that his last appearance won't be "Rules," which really doesn't hold up very well. But I don't know...Lucas's deep, dark past still feels really pasted on. Lucas was moralistic and Disney Prince for all of Season 1 and a good chunk of Season 2. That being said, I still liked the sequence. Harley putting his all into his work is very nice.

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    1. The final scene of Cory's classroom. An emphasis on the lessons learned throughout the years. People change people. No complaints there. Missy Bradford--oh, to think we could have had a recurring antagonist. Canada.

      But I still don't buy that Riley and Maya and Farkle have changed Lucas. At least not to the extent he tries to say that they have. Most of his change this season, it's been because he's had Zay to play with. And Lucas is usually the last person to get involved in the filler episodes.

      I agree with Sean; I am not a fan of the new bench. That was a perfectly nice bench but this new one is a little tacky if I am being honest. It looks like it will be more work to clean. Why not just paint a mural?

      Party of the year on the roof! Katy, yay! Stuart, yay! Zay, yay! Rhyme, yay!

      I actually like Katy being in college for three days. Nuclear biology, was it? That's exactly what happened to Cory! Remember Quantum Physics I? That got a good laugh out of me.

      Now then, Stuart said he was very convincing with the petition and talking to Turner? Hmmmm...why do I think that conversation was "Mr. Turner, I will buy your school a new library if you promote Cory."

      So now Lucas and the girls are in a triangle. And it's fully out in the open. And we'll still be here next season....oh, well.

      Grade: A-

      For as much as I ragged on it, 1960 is right. There is a lot to like here and it does feel like they're moving forward. And that's important, since it does appear that dynamics are shifting.

      Awesome Scene of Awesome: Harley shooing Norton and Farkle away and showing just how much pride he takes in his work. I love Harley. I'm going to miss him, if they don't bring him back.

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    2. I think that scene is kinda ironic. He shooed away people bonding on it to tell how much he values it for people bonding on it (or sth along those lines) :)

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    3. that is a valid criticism evi, i didn't think of that

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    4. Wow, Cryptid, with both you and 1960 giving it high marks, I will have to watch this again. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

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    5. Evi has a point, but Norton was only in one episode and the conversation with Farkle was almost over. And besides, it's Harley. Getting people to scoot out of his spots is definitely a Harley thing to do.

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    6. Milestones, my complaints about this individual episode are largely problems with the series entire. There was very little wrong with this episode that was unique to this episode. I must be fair here.

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    7. you and pwfan both took issue with what you called "baby talk" from Topanga, but, like... she wasn't mispronouncing words or using poor grammar or anything. I don't see how that's "baby talk," it was just an exaggerated voice.

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    8. I didn't really mean it as criticism, I just found it kinda funny. Shooing people away in that scene was just a quick and kinda fun way to go from one convo to the next, and show that people like to sit on it while talking.

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    9. Eh, growing up our father was pretty strict about that sort of thing. Grammar and syntax mean a lot to him.

      YMMV,I suppose.

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    10. Cryptid456-A prank war with Einstein Academy would have been fantastic, especially since Farkle would be torn between Smackle and his friends. The commentors on this site should totally be the ones writing this series.

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  13. From what I understand, they had to change a lot about this season because the actor who plays Joshua was in a car wreck, and that made a lot of the episodes they'd written unfilmable, leaving us with...this triangle nonsense. But he's fine now, so I guess that's all getting shunted to season three.

    I'm guessing that's also why Morgan was removed from the finale.

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  14. Wow Sean, easily one of my all time favorite reviews, I laughed at least 8 times more than I did during the show. Particularly the gif of Eric and the check hahahahahaha. Also the bit about part about beating Joshua Jacobs away with a stick had me rolling. Really great stuff. Try and at least push through till halfway through season 3, I'm banking on high school making it better. Although Cory coming with isn't the best indication.

    Also, not sure who else has heard this but I've heard rumors of them potentially doing an episode focused on Maya's sexuality next season called Girl meets true maya. Do people think this is true? Not sure how I feel about it, I guess it depends how it's handled, but admittedly the idea is intriguing.

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    1. I saw that the Rilaya fans are pushing that angle hard on Reddit.

      I don't buy it for a second. If they make a main character bisexual or gay on a Disney show, I would be shocked. Not that I don't think it's a good idea. It could be great to explore. I just don't think it'll happen.

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    2. If Maya's feelings are going to be explored further in depth, then it's probably going to be about Josh. Or maybe her issues with her father.

      I don't see Rilaya happening at all.

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    3. There is a ZERO percent chance, but, hey, Korrasami happened, so...

      And thanks a lot, best looking detective. Sometimes I feel like I'm pretty decent at this.

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    4. Rowan has been begging to have a gay/bisexual/etc character on the show. Will it be Maya, probably not. Unless, they were to go the "I think I like both" route. Which would explain a crush on Uncle Josh and something with a female character. Bottom line, I don't expect it, but I would like to be surprised.

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    5. I think the talk about the episode exploring Maya's sexuality is all ketchup and water. It feels like something the writers would be interested in doing, but chances are they would screw it up so I would prefer if they never touch that can of worms.

      I know there's some Riley/Maya lesbian fan fiction out there, I just know it.

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    6. I could see doing an episode on LGBT issues if it's a guest star/new character. I could not see Disney covering the issue with a regular cast member.

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  15. Wow, 1960poster, what an amazing, yet stinging point. "Bay Window" is completely nullified from Riley's perspective here. And not even to the point where you can be like, "Yeah, but, you know, it was a few episodes show-wise and probably a month or two ago story-wise." No, it was last week. Which leads me to a rather heartbreaking statement to make ...

    Maybe Michael Jacobs just isn't good at this anymore.

    Conventional wisdom for me all this season has been to say, "Yeah, but Boy Meets World is my favorite show ever and Dinosaurs was damn good too," I think that's a variation of what we all do. However, at a certain point, one just has to begin to wonder if after 15 years of hearing how great BMW was coupled with the fact that he is now a man in his 60s and thus, just by the very essence of that, not completely in touch with today's sensibilities ... maybe it's just, in the large-scale sense, gone.

    Now, this isn't to say that I hate this show. Not the case. I actually often think that I am one of the more optimistic peeps here. Season one is its own beast and I don't think anyone really expected it to be much more than what it was. There has been a ton of season two stuff that has popped me, but literally at the end, the show's problems are just too great to ignore and, more importantly, continue to try and convince myself that season three will be where the corner is turned simply because it's Jacobs and crew.

    It's pretty ridiculous that I now judge this show's merit virtually excluding Cory's speeches. I actually thought the character was perfectly good in "Legacy," but by-and-large I now just accept that they write teacher Cory poorly and too-preachy. What is doubly crazy about that is that BMW Cory Matthews is my favorite television character ever. Catch me on the right day and maybe Veronica Mars could give him a run for his money, but no, it's Cory. So when I really think about the that Maya is my favorite character on this show, and that it's really not even close, it's a bit of a bummer. I sometimes think that Cory shouldn't have been a teacher, that that's the root of the problem. Nah, I don't think so.

    Cory absolutely could have been a teacher. When they have gotten it right, Ben Savage has shown he can pull it off great during these two years. They just so rarely give him the chance to get there.

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    1. After reading some of his responses in the pre- and post-Legacy interviews, I'm inclined to agree with you. Jacobs seems like he's relying on his own legacy (the irony is not lost on me) to try and convince us that GMW is just as good a show.

      However, the literal last-minute fumbles, the flagrant disregard of "show, not tell," and overall try-hard attempts at sentiment (even at the cost of self-contradicting their own plots) make me wonder if he just needs to come back down to earth a little.

      I'm also wondering whether or not a lot of the show's problems are actual Disney executive meddling, now that he's finally admitted that they need to tailor the stories so they play nicely in the Mouse House.

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    2. Pretty much all of Jacobs' interviews and the writers' tweets indicate that they put the show on a really high pedestal. They really want to be taken seriously so they over-compensate way too much as a way to get brownie points.

      My question is, why? They're not making a reboot of The Wire or The X-Files or Cheers, it's a sequel to freaking Boy Meets World. Let things develop at their own pace.

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  16. Past that, I wouldn't allow ANY other show of consequence that I enjoy to get away with setting up two major plot-points for a season (the triangle and Shawn/Katy/Maya) and not giving any type of resolution on either. To make matters worse, it's not like this show is super-serialized -- there were two overarching stories developed in the early portion of the season and neither finished the season out at a satisfactory spot. Hell, one damn near just ceased to exist.

    BMW was not a perfect show and the Alex Mack-caliber of Shawn's girlfriends often did just vanish until they all kidnapped him, but you can best believe that if Chet Hunter and Mrs. Matthews went on a date (we'll figure the context out on this later) that we would have gotten some follow up on it after the fact. That we live in a world where after "Hurricane" we only heard Shawn's name twice and neither had anything to do with where he was, both geographically and in relation to Katy is pretty crazy. It also puts the show in an almost impossible jam to get out of going forward, as I really can't see the scenario in which next time Rider is on they can explain it in a manner that makes any sense at all.

    And then, the triangle. You all know. Nothing I need to go on about. The fact that they were planting seeds for this in week one and that we end season two with the same exact scene that they have done (at least) two times before is truly horrible show-running. There is just no way around it. And this is coming from someone who thought "Texas" as a whole was the highlight of the series and that "New Year" was pretty darn good too. It's also coming from someone who has no interest in this plot-line. Put Maya and Lucas together because the chemistry says so. It's very simple.

    There are other issues, many of them honestly. I worry that we did this. That we told Jacobs and co. so many times over how damn great BMW was, that now they think they are on this ridiculously higher level than everyone else and that "we can't see" what they're doing. That we need to re-watch the pilot.

    No, Mike, we see. It's inconsistent writing and poorly structured stories. That's what it is right now. You have a talented cast and ambitious ideas that often do smack me right in the feels. Just fix the rest, please?

    I'm going to head into the two-part premiere with as much confidence as I can that the shift in tone, quality and cohesiveness will be noticeable. If I'm wrong, I'll keep watching (will never stop), but from that point on it'd take a lot to get me to believe again ... which, when you really break it down, is quite sad.

    I never thought I'd stop believing in Michael Jacobs.

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  17. Great review. I really like the BMW gifs too.

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  18. Jacobs really needs to tell his kids to quit writing episodes. Everything they write is terrible.

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  20. You know your reviews always totally hit the mark, and help explain the feelings I have on this show that I can't quite put into words.


    Arguably your best review yet, fantastic in every sense. Wish I could say the same about the show, because I was REALLY enjoying the first half of this season, but with the exception of the first two Texas episodes, it may have well just stopped after Semi-Formal, so much of this is just not very good.

    I gotta ask though Sean, what do you find so great about the "people change people" lesson? I've always kinda felt that one is kinda what symbolizes so much what is wrong with this show. It's repeated many times throughout the show as some kind of "pretty" sentence that if you just hear it in passing it'll make you think, "wow that's pretty true" but when you think about its like "...and?"

    It's such an empty sentence. Lots of things change people. How do people change people? Why is this a lesson? It's common sense that you are always changing, by all sorts of things. I just don't get it, that quote seems like the most prime example of Michael Jacobs having his head stuck up his own ass.

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    1. I would argue that Feeny's "Dream. Do good. Try." is also pretty obvious, isn't it? That and "people change people" are concise, compact ways of representing something. It's true that lots of things change people, but I think people can change people the most. We saw that all the time in Boy Meets World. It's something we've all always known but maybe haven't put into words.

      I completely agree that it's overused, they shouldn't have said it more than once in the season.

      At the same time, I wouldn't say it's GREAT, but it is solid.

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  21. I was a little worried because I thought this episode broke you. I'm glad you're still here!

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  22. While this episode wasn't BAD, it did not make me want the next season to hurry up. Gods, i really hope they start showing these episodes in order.
    In my opinion, Liv & Maddie is the best show on the channel, right now (even the new one- Stuck... is seemingly above GMW)

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  23. New tweet from the writers:

    "And that's our season of growth. Next: A season of feelings, how they affect us, how we learn to control them, or not. Thanks for watching."

    That's actually not so bad, all things considered, given the limitations of Twitter's character-count.

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  24. Ratings are in - 1.7 million views. The numbers are dropping faster than Maya's test scores! Before the last 3 episodes there were only 2 episodes with less than 2 million views. Now this makes 3 in a row that low.

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    1. Dammit. Commonism was one thing, good riddance to bad rubbish, but this was the finale.

      Any word on the other shows? Was it just another duldrum weekend?

      How big an effect do you think the leaked episodes have?

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    2. Nothing got above a 2.0 in the ratings. Numbers are down, period. This genre is living in a new age where cord cutting and apps are a thing. And they have not adjusted for it.

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    3. pwfan, all views on the Watch Disney app are counted for the numbers, Disney has made that clear. I would guess a combination of the triangle causing shippers to avoid the show and the episodes airing out of order are hurting. Following the other shows on Disney I can say that GMW is the only show that airs episodes out of story order.

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    4. Also add in the amount of time between episodes and the lack of any real promotion for the show, the fact that it did that well in amazing.

      Tired story - check
      No promotion - check
      Month long hiatus - check
      Spoilers for Season 3 - check
      Bunk'd as lead in - check

      It's almost like they want it to fail

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    5. Oops...forgot one

      Air episodes out of order so there is NO continuity - check

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    6. Well...

      KC Undercover - 2.1 million viewers

      Liv & Maddie - 1.9 million viewers

      Sunday's new episodes did better than Girl Meets World.

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    7. hahahah, we lost to KC undercover? oh wow. I would hope that Jacobs learns from his mistakes, but I honestly don't think that's possible

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    8. Following the other shows on Disney I can say that GMW is the only show that airs episodes out of story order.

      That's outrageous. I mean, Girl Meets World may not have been technically serial until this triangle, but the set-up with the school year was still there. Why?! Why on earth are they doing this?! This actually makes me really angry.

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  25. Bay Window. I managed to like Bay Window. That’s the frame of reference for this missive. By any objective measure, Legacy was a far better episode. Why didn’t I like it far more, or even as much?

    There was stuff to like in this episode. I don’t have much to add beyond what 1960, Cryptid and others more sympathetic to Legacy have noted. Maya’s change-of-60s-pace Jimi Hendrix Experience shirt. Zay’s “don’t be there” bit. How Auggie was contained to one pointed line of dialogue.

    On the other hand.

    Not coming into GMW with expectations of anything, certainly not of seeing Room 222, I’ve been less bothered by bad teaching than most anyone here. And if they wanted to assert every now and then that Cory is actually a great teacher, oh well. But the episode seemed to spend half its time as a paean to Cory the educator, and that was hard to take.

    In Cory’s reviewing their lessons learned, they would have needed to have harkened back to Fish to have found an episode I recall less fondly than Farkle’s Choice or Money (that was from whence that us/them bit came, wasn’t it?).

    There was no question Cory was going to turn up next season as their high school teacher. I would have respected them more if they just did it with no other comment than, “fuck you, it’s a TV show.” What they did do probably only lasted for a minute. It felt longer. I preferred Maya’s mass-murder prank suggestion.

    This was as interesting as Lucas has been. But it was basically at the expense of Riley and Maya. If it’s one or the other, I’ll take more interesting Riley and Maya and put up with less interesting Lucas 100 percent of the time. Maybe I just needed this episode to have more Riley/Maya crap.

    I’m not quite as allergic as most to the dreaded Triangle, and have generally liked the episodes in the storyline. If they keep punting, so be it. But this was like when your team lines up for a fourth-down gamble, and there is hope the coach for once isn’t going to punt from midfield, then reality kicks as the clock winds down and it becomes apparent they are just trying to draw the other time offside. In comes the punt team. Even very much buying Lucas’ rationale and Peyton Meyer’s delivery both times, it was an irritating waste of time.

    The Farkle kidnapping bit was okay, and the girls’ indifference to it was amusing. But, they bring up Einstein Academy then don’t give us Smackle. The show could always use more of Smackle, and it didn’t help that they reminded me of that. If I’m ranking by my interest level, after Riley and Maya, I’m going through a number of recurring characters before I’m back with the main cast.

    The scene with Mr. Norton was okay too. But the “feelings are stronger than science” sentiment, depending upon what they meant them to be stronger at, was like Belief had been compacted to one line and embedded in Legacy.

    I’m with Sean about the baby-talk scene. A little of that side of Topanga would go a long way, but they have given us next to nothing, and this did more to underscore than address that. I liked the bit where Maya started to blame Cory for her discontent, but then didn’t when she said why.

    The bench didn’t do anything for me. It seems like only yesterday a TV show needed 5 seasons before it could legitimately ascribe special, sentimental status to a fictional location. Suddenly, after a word from Harley, a piece of little-used set decoration is Tim Riley’s Bar? Didn’t work. The kids’ refurbishment and dedication didn’t work even more. But, I’m probably alone in at least liking the return of Riley’s terrible cat painting.

    I didn’t hate Legacy. Put in Katy, and I can’t hate the episode. And this had more going for it than just her. I liked it a little more on subsequent viewing. Knowing that Grade 8 graduation is actually a thing that can happen was useful.

    Great review. Looking forward to Sean’s elegant solution, and Christian’s contribution to the review, and to whatever else you guys do here.

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    1. Well you used the word "paean" so your credibility went up about 600%.

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    2. Milestones, I at least liked that you believe Legacy was a better episode than Bay Window. That you didn't like it as much or more is also acceptable. I think Rileytown might have been a better episode than Texas 3, but I like Texas more. We are all entitled to our opinion.

      The bench situation is much like the shrine that is the Bay Window. As Sean pointed out in the last review, it does seem like it really wasn't a long enough time that they spent in JQA to give the bench that status. However, having said that, it really was Harley that said that the bench was very important, and Lucas ran with that as part of their legacy, so I can accept that without much of a problem.

      And Maya did say she blamed Cory because he didn't teach them enough. Of course Feeny could have been Maya's teacher and she probably wouldn't have learned any more. You only have to look to Shawn and Cory in grammar school to see that even the best teacher can't always reach kids that don't want to learn.

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    3. I'm with 1960 on the bench. It's odd to me that your (milestones) logic on disliking the bench doesn't also make you dislike Bay Window. Either way, I feel like with the bay window they want US to care, while with the bench they were just showcasing why HARLEY cares. Rather than being emotionally manipulative (like the bay window), here we just had a bit of character building. But then, unveiling the students' donated bench WAS manipulative, and I think everyone agrees that that sucked.

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    4. Well, more succinctly, and succinctness would have been advisable, Legacy seemed to take aspects of GMW that have annoyed almost everyone else and magnified them to the point where they annoyed even me, a guy who usually shrugs that stuff off and (sorta) liked Bay Window. I may have lost the handle on that whilst descending into Grandpa Simpson mode.

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    5. Harley - I'm very proud of this bench. I make sure to take care of it

      Group - Let's give them a new bench

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    6. yyyyyyup. it's basically the theme of this show that the core four are the only students in the whole school who matter.

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    7. Well, I like reading your opinions, Milestones, even if we don't always see eye-to-eye.

      That bit about feelings being stronger than science seemed to be more in line with "I Am Farkle," and the whole business of Farkle and Smackle pondering the scientific laws of like and unlike forces repelling and attracting and applying that to their social lives.

      But you're right, why bring up Einstein if we don't get Isadora? For a recurring character, she's had a strikingly noticeable arc.

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    8. Sean-Its that reason alone that I found the idea that the other parents were so wholeheartedly behind the idea of Cory moving to the high school, like Katy suggested, downright laughable. The other kids were so neglected in their studies that none of them should have probably been allowed to graduate.

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  26. Did Christian quit this blog where is he

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    1. He's busy. I keep meaning to watch, and I keep having no time. I'll probably get a chance today.

      Honestly, I've completely lost interest in the show. Just completely.

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    2. ^I'm with this guy. This show is bad and it should feel bad.

      I'm here for the laughs.

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    3. It's hard for me to pinpoint when I officially lost hope in this show, but I think it was when they went to the fucking future in Bay Window. What the hell man

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    4. Really sad to hear that, Christian. Hopefully, you pull through because your opinion is valued a ton on this blog.

      Season three is going to go a long way as to whether or not I continue watching the series.

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  27. In an interview last year micheal Jacobs said we would see morgan this season. It would of been goid to see minkus whife and shawn with katy at the middle school graduation

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  28. The love triangle should work, and I can't figure it out why it isn't working. Love triangles work best when someone has to choose between two different people, who often represent two different things (sides of a personality, parts of their life) and we have that. I just can't figure out where the writers went wrong on this. "Gilmore Girls" had love triangles that worked well.

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    1. This is pwfan, btw.

      The three critical mistakes the writers made during this triangle, in my opinion, are as follows.

      1. The object of affection wasn't fleshed out. Throughout the 1st season, and parts of the 2nd, Lucas was nothing more than a façade. A 2 dimensional character with no character flaws. He was the living embodiment of an old school Disney prince. He was so paint-by-numbers, that it hurt Peyton's development. He's only now getting to act like a real person. On top of that, his only real life tangible quality was the fact he's not a bad looking guy, who girls would obviously swoon over. He was a Ken doll. You can't generate attachment or emotion over a Ken doll.

      2. Commitment too early. Riley was head over heals from the word go. There was no real time to show affection or sentiment between the two. To establish a base between them as characters and us in the audience. Cory and Topanga was built slowly over time. We knew they were meant for each other, but we enjoyed the ride to that conclusion due to the journey they took to get there. So far, the journey for Riley/Lucas has been an unpaved, bumpy mess. They even paid off on it at the end of Season 1 when they kissed. On kids TV, that's typically the climax of a romantic angle. And we got it way earlier than normal. That's just bad writing.

      3. Are they different? Are Riley and Maya demonstrably different as characters. As many have said, Maya is nowhere near the kid Sean was. Shawn wasn't a hellion, per say, but he also did have genuine problems and issues staying out of trouble. While Maya clearly has experienced a rough life, she really is just a rougher version of Riley. There aren't enough differences to establish that Lucas has hard choice on his hands.

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    2. All of this stems from one common theme: the writers are not good at the whole "showing, not telling" thing.

      They *tell* us that Lucas is a great guy. They *tell* us that Riley and Lucas have a great relationship and were "always good at talking with each other". They *tell* us that Maya and Riley are very different from each other.

      We've seen quite a few times that none of this was shown to us. None of this stuff has a chance to organically develop because the writers seem so dead-set at some mysterious "end game" that they force the existence of these dynamics by insisting they are.

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    3. Cryptid456 here, my computer needs to go to the shop. Sorry I haven't been around.

      In response to somer, I think the whole "we were always good at talking with each other" thing, may not actually be "show, don't tell." I think it may have been Riley trying to convince herself a platonic friendship with Lucas would still be good.

      We are talking about a kid who was part of a supposedly close group of friends and apparently is so hopelessly oblivious to the world around him that he didn't know that Riley was a die-hard Knicks fan.

      Now in response to pwfan,

      It doesn't help matters that Lucas was part of the main cast. Topanga wasn't, really. If Riley fawned over Lucas from afar, it'd be far more palatable because as far as the first season is concerned, a distant crush has an element of mystery to it.

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    4. Agreed. They could have held off on the romantic angle for at least a few episodes into S1.

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    5. I know many people probably have already said this but the kids should have "dated around" like in BMW. It took numerous episodes for him (and the writers) to finally settle with Topanga, they should've done it with GMW

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    6. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

      one hundred billion percent. dating is such a big part of growing up. it's a great way to delve into the characters and it showed us so much of who cory and shawn are/were. but no, they went for soulmate lucas instead. what a disappointment. we were so close with charlie gardner, i hope we see more of that.

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    7. They really messed up when they had the soulmate already set up. That made the kiss between Riley and Lucas kind of awkward for me because there was no build up to it like Cory and Topanga's. Now the GMW Fandom is so set on who Lucas chooses they don't want to see anybody with the two girls

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    8. Cryptid456 here, my computer still needs to be taken to the shop.

      Personally, I don't mind them starting with a soulmate set-up. Riley being Cory and Topanga's daughter, it makes sense for her to think that's the way it should go.

      I mind them STAYING with the soulmate concept, instead of doing the right thing and destroying it.

      What I wish they had done was deconstruct this more quickly than they have--knock Lucas Friar off his pedestal of Bucky McBoring/Disney Prince in Season 1. Hindsight's twenty-twenty, but an easy way to do this was to have him be Farkle's bully in "Flaws."

      Alternatively, I would have given Riley multiple love interests, two or three a season, and then have her learn something important about relationships from each: Don't put someone on a pedestal; Don't commit too quickly; Take an interest in their interests; Recognize the importance of privacy.

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  29. Something came to me earlier today.

    Love triangles are not always bad things. But this one is so boring. In Boy Meets World, during the Corpanaga/Lauren/Breakup arc, we had stuff going on that still moved around. Lauren also is 1000x more interesting than Lucas. It wasn't always good like when Shawn became an alcoholic, but there was also Eric Hollywood. They knew we were getting bored, so they sent Eric over to LA and he met Ben Sandwich and Shroder. We also met one of Michael Jacobs' bratty kids but man, that episode was funny.

    On this show, the kids sit around and mope about their first world problems.

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    1. I too watched Boy Meets World today and I noticed in the episode "Sister Theresa" I kinda got the feeling that Harley's sister TK was suppose to be part of Maya's character on this show. Apparently in the first season of GMW Maya's character was supposed to be the bad influence on the main character and lived a rough life as their fathers leaving them like Shawn's and TK's did. But that has seem to change during the course of seasons 1&2 as Maya is becoming more of the lead role than Riley. Maybe instead of Riley having the older brother they should've gave it to Maya. Maybe next season her brother from her dad's new family will have a role in her life in high school.

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    3. i liked the triangle between Rachel/Eric/jack http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view6/2255643/you-re-in-a-triangle-feeny-o.gif

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  30. Good review Christian. I have some thoughts I'll share when/if Sean and you do a Season lookback.

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  31. Long time reader first time commenter. Love this blog. At least someone gets that this show isn't even close to being good yet.

    Anyway, I launched a parody account on Twitter called "Boy Meets Writers" if anyone on here wants to go follow, haha. I'm going to tweet about BMW episodes the way the writers tweet about GMW.

    www.twitter.com/BMWWriters

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  32. I also liked the comforting bit with Maya and Topanga. =]

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  33. I re-watched "Girl Meets Demolition" the other week and geez it was actually... refreshing. It's actually funny and not overly deep/melodramatic.

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  34. So in what episode did we see Riley and Maya on the lunch lady conveyor belt in Pink sequend outfits? Any have an answer?

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