Girl Meets World (Season 1): A Look Back

You guys, I can not begin to tell you what "Boy Meets World" has meant to me over the years. I watched it religiously as a kid until the final season which, I guess, coincided with the advent of a Friday night social life and, as a latchkey kid, kept at it through syndication on weekday afternoons even more so. In those early days, the '90s and early '00s, I certainly really enjoyed the show. Was about as conversant on it as I am now, but I don't think the magic of it had clicked with me yet. My true adoration was reserved for primetime hits like "Seinfeld" and "Friends". I was aware, even then, that "Boy Meets World" represented the best of TGiF, but that was faint praise. And then in high school I lost track of it entirely.

Episode Review: "Girl Meets Demolition" (#1.21)

Hey all, sorry to you all (and co-writer, Sean) for the delay in getting this recap going. I had a pretty busy and unpleasant weekend. Before we start, I've seen a lot of back and forth among boards and other places about the specific classification of this episode. Is it in Season 1? Is it in Season 2? Does it exist in some seasonal vacuum altogether? And what's it called? "Girl Meets Demolition"? "Girl Meets What the What?"

Episode Mini-Review: "Girl Meets Flaws"

Still a few episodes I haven't done yet for Season 1. So, here's a little mini-review. No Sean for this one, but he'll be back for Girl Meets Demolition tomorrow. It's been a while, so if you don't remember this one, it's the one where Farkle's picked on by Lucas' fellow jock friend Billy.

So, I respect what they were trying to do with this episode, bullying is an important issue in the lives of kids today. But I found their take on it a little simplistic and ultimately of very little benefit. Yes, many bullies do it because they themselves are insecure, but merely pointing this out to them is probably not enough to, like, solve it. Farkle's bullying should not have been so easily stopped, and Billy's redemption shouldn't have been so easy and quick and neat. It's not realistic, and so kids who are actually dealing with bullying don't really have anything to take from such a portrayal. I think it would have been better for Billy to just... stay as he was, and for the lesson to be for Farkle to not let someone like that bother him. It's not like we ever saw Billy again, why redeem him?

More realistic, from my point of view, was how it was handled on Boy Meets World. Cory was bullied by Harley and his cronies, and it never really got any better, no matter how much detention the bullies got. Eventually he just sort of learned to live with it, and Harley left, and it was over. He and Harley never made up and became friends during the course of their high school careers - yes, Harley eventually seems to have realized he was wrong and he and Cory became friendly, but this happened in his adulthood after, it seems, Harley took some real licks. 

Speaking of Harley, this was a much more effective episode for him and would have been better served as his introductory episode (It was intended to be, but many episodes were aired out of order, including his two. And it's the execution that matters, not the intention) as it's clear who he is, and we learn how he came to be the janitor here. I'm glad that it's not just some big coincidence that he and Harley ended up at the same school, but in fact Cory and Harley must have run into each other, Cory saw Harley had fallen on hard times, and he did a decent thing and got him a job (I wish we'd actually seen that.)

Still, Danny McNulty is rusty as hell, having clearly not done much performing in the interim between stints as Harley. Really rusty. I'm not sure if he'll be back in Season 2 or not (honestly... I don't need him to be) but if so, he's going to have step up his game. Ben and Danielle started off a little rusty too, but they weren't anywhere near this level. 

It wasn't a great episode. A lot of Disney-ish humor, a grating amount of Ava Morgenstern, a lesson that rang false. Still, I'll give them some credit from making an attempt at a relevant tween issue. 

P.S. I don't believe for a second that a young, intelligent African-American athlete like Billy would have no idea who Jackie Robinson is. Bullshit. 

Episode MVP: I dunno, Ben Savage? No stand out performances.
Episode Rating: C

Anthony Tyler Quinn returning to Girl Meets World!

Joining the cavalcade of returning Boy Meets World stars in Season 2 is Anthony Tyler Quinn as Jonathan Turner! 

He'll be in an episode called "Girl Meets The New Teacher" which has the synopsis "John Quincy Adams gets a new English teacher" so...  who knows, we may end up getting a lot of Mr. Turner.  Of course, Harley works at JQA too and we still barely saw him.

There's been no indication that Rider Strong's in this episode too, interestingly. While Turner and Cory spent enough time together that it'd be interesting to see them interact again too, I can't imagine they wouldn't take proper advantage of Turner's return by having Shawn there. But perhaps that will be saved for a second Turner episode.

Anyway, sound off! Excited for Turner's return, and some long awaited answers to our questions about his fate? Do you like all these returns in general, or would you rather GMW stand on its own accord? Honestly, at this point, who's even left to return but Matt Lawrence and Maitland Ward? 

Personally, I'm on board. I actually think a few of the returns GMW has done (Minkus, Harley, the upcoming Chet and Angela) aren't super necessary, but Turner's actually someone I would like to see pop up in an episode, just because we need some closure there and I'd like some confirmation he and Shawn kept in touch. But I don't need to, like, see him on the reg either.