Sunday, January 8, 2017

Episode Review: "World Meets Girl" (#3.19)

I'm just gonna fire off the cuff as we go here, I don't think we need any overall analysis. 47 minutes seems like an eternity.

Okay we're out here and all these people are about to meet Rowan and Sabrina and I had to pause it immediately out of overwhelming pre-cringe. I don't want to see this, they're not even KIDS, everyone here is older than Rowan, this is gonna be so bad. Lemme get a couple shots real quick.

Speaking of shots, I've starting streaming on Twitch again. Sometimes it's art, sometimes it's games, just hit follow here and you'll get an email when the stream starts. That sounds fun RIGHT? Please clap.

It's an odd thing, you know, if any of these people were here alone, I imagine they wouldn't be acting so ridiculous, something like "hey it's really great to meet you, I'm a huge fan". But this mobbing of celebrities is something people get programmed to do. To be honest I'd rather discuss the psychology of celebrity culture than "review" this "episode" but I have to get it done eventually. Oh shit, this girl runs out of the crowd to hug Sabrina.
SECURITY! WHERE IS SECURITY!

But no, it's fine, they take it in stride. Try doing that shit to Rider, that's not gonna go well. 
No comment.

Michael Jacobs gets some screen time, which in pretty much any other circumstance I would make fun of, but after this fucking journey, after everything he's given us, I'm actually really happy about it. 

Okay, apparently the same guy, "Wesley," did the academic teaching for the actors on both Meets World shows. Thanks for your work Wesley. There's something poetic about having that role when the Meets World shows have so much to say about teachers. 

Peyton is apparently one of those guys who wears gym shorts outside the gym, which I think should be a crime, but otherwise the guys all seem pretty cool. A few people explain why Farkle is their favorite. Apparently he is both smart and funny. Hoo boy. They nailed it.

They had to work an Ava montage in somehow, so they just take the cue from someone talking about Riley loving her brother. That's about as close as you're gonna get I guess.
If nothing else, I'm glad we can all start calling her Cece Balagot instead of Cecilia. That's good to know, I'm going to feel better about that going forward. Some guy wearing an old Boy Meets World shirt managed to get on tv for a few seconds, so that's cool, I respect the hustle. 

How is there 30 more minutes of this, I'm ready to die. Someone's favorite moment is Triangle drama. It makes me wonder why I even bother writing this blog. How can I reach these people? There will always be people whose favorite thing about BMW was the Cory-Topanga relationship. I'm just a man. I'll never reach these people who need it the most.

Peyton finds a surprisingly eloquent audience member to talk to, so that's one bullet dodged. But there's like a hundred more bullets coming. 
Yeah it's that thing.

Riley's pick is less eloquent, this is gonna be that embarrassing moment that keeps her from falling asleep when she's 25. I've got those. Lemme tell you. Most of them involve improv, and if Christian doesn't agree he's lying.

This is how you know we're dealing with the casual fans. Corey asks this girl if a moment on the show impacted her life and she's pretty vague about it. I show up to that question like WHEN ERIC TRIES TO HELP JACK IN SEMI FORMAL. Oh true, the next girl fucking nails it talking about Jexica. Honestly that justifies this whole thing for me, that's really great. Jexica was a great episode, and if I were this girl's age I like to think it would have helped me too. Someone else was inspired by Girl Meets Rileytown. That's genuinely nice to hear.

They interview some best friends and do a montage of Riley and Maya. I'm starting to realize this is a waste of time. One of the kids talking about Lucas manages to point out that Lucas always protects everyone, that's good. See, this show isn't lost on people. That Triangle person was a fluke, I think most of these people see what's important about the show. Even if they're too nervous to explain it very well.

The bloopers are actually pretty fun. Obviously the best one is with Shawn.
They're pulling pairs of "best friends" to come sit in the bay window, and while that personally doesn't appeal to me, I think it's extremely sweet for age-appropriate fans. It's a huge gamble honestly, this is a big segment to just choose people at random. There's gotta be something we're not seeing about it. It's probably the most annoying montage though. The bay window holds nearly all of the least realistic moments. People don't act like this. And I know what you're gonna say, so let's start a new paragraph.

Shawn and Eric act unrealistically all the time. You're right. But when Shawn is hopelessly overdramatic or Eric does something unreasonably insane, it's for the sake of the character, right, it's showing us something unique to that character. The bay window moments are just needlessly saccharine for the sake of the power of friendship. And look, I appreciate the role friendship plays in the Meets World shows, but only as far as it relates to people's real lives. 

The guests are about to start talking but then they hug, come on, I want to see something real here. Aw okay, that was nice. Honestly I think I've rehearsed all of these kinds of speeches to my best friends. I'd be ready for this shit. 

But yeah, some of these are really nice. I'm glad that happened.

I've never been more acutely aware of the fact that we are two men in our 20's watching this show, but whatever.

So okay, the big takeaways: People really do appreciate the show outside of god damn shipping, and she goes by Cece.
 Literally zero uses of the word "Eric." 

All in all I wouldn't even call it a waste of time. I enjoyed seeing how this show impacts people outside of RUCAYA. RUCAS. RIMAYERKLE. MANY episodes of this show made me miserable and bored from start to finish, and made me wish the show didn't exist. This episode, despite being way too long, at the very least made me happy the show exists. That's worth something.

I'm going to add some more thoughts. World did not meet girl. I was really expecting a Q&A and getting some real thoughts from the actors about the show and the stories. That is to say, we learned nothing from this experience. So it is a disappointment and it sucks, but I stand by the fact that it didn't make me hate the show the way that, say, Meets Fish did.






37 comments:

  1. Truthfully this was the worst thing they have produced for either series. Instead of an episode with some behind the scenes stuff, this was nothing more than extras on a DVD box set, except they don't produce them.

    I would rather rewatch the World of Terror episodes or Meets Fish. I'm sure the 14 year old girls enjoyed it, but I can't imagine any adult viewer would have thought this was worth the money they spent to produce it. We would have been better off with 2 real episodes.

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    1. I don't think I'd even put this in the bottom five. You didn't even smile when these kids explained how the show impacted them? 45 minutes is a lot for one sitting, but it at least made me laugh and smile and feel good about the show. MANY episodes of GMW have been misery from start to finish, making me wish the show didn't exist. This one, at the very least, made me glad the show exists.

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    2. My own blogging partner (who's actually right immediately below) seems convinced that I outright hate GMW...which is not true! Though I'm certainly immensely frustrated with it...but I'll defend World Meets Girl to the last. I'll take it for what it is, and even if Sabs is going to directly accuse Jacobs of being lazy over the course of the episode itself, if she and Row are really going to make the whole "we really are a family" thing work and sell itself and convince me this really is "off-book" then it's worth it.

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    3. I never thought you outright hated it, per se. But I have seen a lot of negative thoughts from you about it in the past couple of months. I don't have a problem with it at all because I've clowned this show on several occasions but I try to stay a little optimistic each time. I just thought GMW broke you earlier than it did broke me.

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    4. Huh, they might've been a bit too negative than what I thought I intended in that case. Well...Season 2 had been frustrating and yes (especially as a fellow reviewer) I do feel the need to let that frustration show. Season 3...has been even more frustrating, thank you very much Micheal Jacobs. They learned all the right lessons from Season 2 (Meets She Don't Like Me which is my favorite episode of the series so far) and...double-downed on the same mistakes (Meets True Maya which felt like a 90s sitcom for all the wrong reasons, Reginald Veljohnson aside; Meets High School which as far as I'm concerned is a D- at best). And, oh yeah GMW broke me early, that's for sure. It broke me earlier than anyone else.

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  2. I didn't have a big problem with doing a behind the scenes special for the fans, but they advertised this as an episode and they wrote an actual script for it. I........don't know what that would look like at all. The show's first one hour special is a behind the scenes clip show. That's not a good thing.

    I will say it made me feel good as a fan of the show but this really didn't need to be 44 minutes.

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    1. A hour clip show can be a good thing if done well, which this was not. "Cheers" did it well. They had the cast and creative team sitting down and answering questions from a room full of fans. "Girl Meets World" could have done that.

      Instead of having fans send in videos of which character was their favorite, they could have sent in videos of questions they wanted the cast to answer. The show still could have some of the cast asking the fans in the audience about favorite characters and favorite moments.

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    2. Oh God No, I'd rather take a million World Meets Girls (which I did like too, BTW) over any, ANY clip show.

      I've seen a clip show done well ONCE. And it was Dog With a Blog. Really.

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    3. I definitely agree, Kit. A clip show can be done well if you're aware of what you're trying to do. The Simpsons had a really good one in season four because of how much the writers didn't want to do it. But this seems like one of those things where the GMW team did something conventional and tried to pass it off as unique. It's just a behind the scenes clip show, but apparently, it's an interactive episode that the fans are a part of.

      I don't know. I just thought with the description, we would learn more about the series that was hidden before. Like how it was originally conceived, how the casting process went, the process behind making episodes, how the cast responded to criticism of the show. That would have been really interesting to see and you could still market it as being for the fans because they get to see the true ins and outs of Girl Meets World. But I don't know. This isn't The Simpsons and this isn't Cheers.

      Unknown, there's no way Dog with a Blog had a better clip show than "So It's Come to This: A Simpsons Clip Show." No way.

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    4. Give it a try, trust me.

      I haven't seen "So It's Come to This" but I have to imagine it's better than "Simpsons on Ice" which basically amounts to "well if you think our writing has gotten stale...uh...no YOU'RE stale!"

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    5. I was about to tell you that "Lisa on Ice" is a classic episode but then I realized that you were talking about the show actually being on ice. I never understood how those events worked anyway. Do they act out existing episodes or come up with something completely new?

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  5. Okay, on the good side, I liked how the show has influenced those kids. The bay window part was really sweet (except the two friends who don't talk at all, that was so cringey). And watching the actors are almost as close as the characters was nice.

    On the negative side, the girl who did the Feeny Call was... wow. 😬😬 Worse than the girls on Pluto. And when Michael Jacobs introduced Peyton Meyer as the cast comedian. Because Lucas is the least funny character, so I don't know. And the guys who don't talk. That was bad.

    What did you guys like/dislike about this episode?

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  6. Ratings for the episode were 1.45 million views which is up from the last few episodes.

    Ratings for the other Friday night Disney shows were up as well, though GMW squeaked by L&M to maintain first place.

    Disney's change of schedule 2 weeks ago included showing the Friday night shows every night of the week in their appropriate time slot. So now people are used to seeing GMW every weeknight at 6. That should help the ratings, but I'm sure it will help all the shows. It's amazing Disney didn't try this a year ago.

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    1. Where do you find these ratings?

      Just asking, 'cause I've been looking for a while, and I can't find any ratings website.

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  7. The constant "Take On the World!" was annoying. The videos were all really really young girls--girls that DISNEY CHANNEL means to appeal to? No wonder the show was cancelled.

    Positives: The schoolroom bit. When they showed the wall of pictures including BOY MEETS WORLD! That made me emotional.

    I just really liked this episode overall--a show like this (OK, it wasn't even the best, I know) deserves a special like this, considering the amount of fans that are still trying to save the show from cancellation...

    I can't forget about the end with Rowan and Sabrina. It makes me happy that they seem to genuinely like each other. Not all shows have leads like that. Somehow this crying bit made me more emotional than any of the crying scenes in the show. Boy remember when that was a complaint?? To stop crying in EVERY episode?

    lol @ Ceci "I wasn't in the show enough." I really wish she was used more as an Eric to Riley/Maya's Cory/Shawn and not just a joke for Farkle/Lucas.

    Corey was awkward.

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    1. Yeah I liked the schoolrooms too. Wesley is the MVP, I wish we could have met him at some point.

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    2. Could you elaborate on Smackle being the Eric to Riley/Maya's Cory and Shawn? I'm curious.

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    3. All I really meant was it would've been nice to see another girl friend besides the inseparable Riley and Maya. And since Smackle's character is mostly used for humor, that makes her the Eric to Riley/Maya's Cory/Shawn as best friends.

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    4. Ah, I get it now. Yeah, that makes sense. I always liked when Smackle would just be blunt with everything and make Riley/Maya uncomfortable.

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    5. This is Cryptid.

      Speaking for myself, I agree with Jet that having Isadora as the third girl in the group would have been beneficial. While recognizing that Zay is essentially a main cast member now, if I had to choose between the two of them--at least, having to choose between them at the end of Season 2, then I would have chosen Isadora.

      And we actually got to see growth with Isadora. In the first two seasons, she goes from the somewhat cold student from a rival school, to warmly hugging Riley (that Isadora actually initiated) in "New Year." That's rather significant, and I wish there had been more elaboration.

      I still chuckle at "Let me know when the pressure is sufficient."

      One of the strengths of Boy Meets World was that it was three very different boys learning and growing into young men. It would have been nice for that to Girl Meets World.

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    6. how old were you whe you watched BMW? I think i was the age of those girls TGIF was marketed for kids too

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  8. 28 minutes in...this is rough, not gonna lie.

    This is abundantly clear this is not for fans like me...but I would say that Ceci is a gem and I'm still madly in love with Danielle Fischel.

    It is what it is. It'd work better as a Behind-the-Scenes but if the younger fans love this episode, who am I to judge?

    I would have died for a HIMYM version of this episode.

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    1. EDIT: Oh my Gawd, they just showed the rings. That's obnoxiously sweet. Also, Rowan was seriously...raw...in early Season 1. She's come a loooong way.

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  9. I liked it for what it was. Cece is really funny, and I can see why they wanted her for her own show, but that sadly fell through. That's why they really didn't use her much.

    The majority of the clips were rough, but there were some thoughtful ones. The part where Rowan and Sabrina gave the two friends the friendship rings was gold.

    The ending was really hard to watch. Say what you will about the show, sometimes the best thing about it was Rowan and Sabrina on screen together. And it was nice to see how much they grew as talents, and how they became best friends out of the deal. I'm shocked they were as composed as they were for that ending, considering some of the gratuitous tears they've spilled leading up to this.

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  10. "I've never been more acutely aware of the fact that we are two men in our 20's watching this show, but whatever."

    Try going to a Sabrina Carpenter concert. And then realizing you're not even far from the only man in his 20s there.

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  11. I didn't exactly mind it; but it was advertised as an episode. I thought it was a little bit cute that the actors when going into the audience did play up a little bit the image the fans would have of them as it's similar to the characters they played.

    And I'm in my late 30s watching it; though I can at least say I'm watching it for my son.

    The ending with the on the couch suggested they at the very least, heavily suspected it was being canned. I wouldn't be surprised if Ben and Danielle at least were given a bit more advance warning as it's their livelihood.

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    1. It's a massive relief knowing I'm far from the oldest person in here.

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  12. literally will friedleJanuary 12, 2017 at 10:36 AM

    Best part of the episode: the little genius in the crowd who explained the message from Jexica. Seriously, that little girl was ELOQUENT and SMART.

    2nd best part: the girl who was in love with Ben Savage and screamed it out, but who was also a few rows away from her best friend for some reason.

    Worst part: they never let BMW-shirt kid ask/answer a question.

    also if you hadn't already posted dozens of pictures and videos of yourself i would have assumed that bmw-shirt kid was you, sean

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    1. Yeah, that Jexica girl is a boss. I liked how they cut to Rowan saying like "she knows what's up!" They didn't do that for anybody else I don't think.

      The shirt guy may have gotten a question, they probably cut 90% of what they filmed.

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  13. That worked better than I thought it was going to.

    Sweet Sixteen and Goodbye back-to-back are being touted up here as 1-hour series finale.

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    1. Interesting. And not inappropriate.

      That occurs to me... I need to... watch this? Don't I?

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    2. Well if it does go the way it probably will; the cliffhanger really isn't one so not inappropriate at all.

      And yes, I'm afraid you really do have to watch this - given you've apparently said you get to be the first reviewer for the finale.

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    3. I guess I will find out next week.

      Yeah, I'm with Will. As the founder of a blog about GMW, I think you'd have to.

      It in no way justifies its length, and Sean raises many valid objections. But some of the stuff is surprisingly touching, and what I liked least is out of the way early.

      I took it as a given that the link in Sean's review wouldn't work a couple of weeks down the road. If not, someone would still need to tell me what Twitch is before I click on it.

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