Thursday, September 8, 2016

Interim Analysis: The Seasons of Boy Meets World

Season 4 is the best season of Boy Meets World, we all know that. Except for someone who doesn't know that and put it second to last. This is where our story begins... Began... Last night...



Today I saw someone ranking the seasons

And Season 4 was second to LAST

Their complete reasoning seemed to be that it was too melodramatic

That is just insanity.

Which, I'm sorry, Seasons 5-7 have way more melodrama

Cult Fiction is melodramatic, and Long Walk to Pittsburgh is melodramatic

That's it

Was 5 number 1?

Ummmmm, I don't remember, hold on

6
6, 5, 2, 7, 1, 4, 3

Yowza

For comparison, mine is: 4, 5, 3, 6, 2, 1, 7

I think

Some of that middle portion is murky

It's definitely 4, 5 in the beginning and 1, 7 at the end

I just cant bring myself to put 5 ahead of 3. i hate the breakup arc too much.

It's sooooo much funnier though

And has... better episodes

I dunno, it's cut and dry for me

Even the break up arc isn't all bad and has gems within it

This should be our first podcast

Debating the order of the seasons

I need to rewatch season 3. looking at the list of episodes, about half of season 5 is episodes i dont want to watch, but it almost all of the season 3 episodes sound good

So, what you're telling me is when you rewatch episodes you're much more likely to go for a Season 5 episode than a Season 3 episode
That's what I'm hearing

Maybe i wrote it wrong, but reverse those

Season 5 has higher highs, but i'd say season 3 has a lot more enjoyable episodes

I just looked at Season 5 and there's only 3 episodes that don't immediately jump out at me as being something I'd be up for watching

Season 3 is good, I like it

But yeah, it has no high highs

There are like.... maybe two or so great episodes

Which of the first eight in season 5 do you like

I like Brothers for the Eric storyline, not the Jack one

I don't like Girl Meets Real World

*Boy Meets Real World, haha

I like "It's Not You..."

Shawn's a photographer!

And it has eric and the deannnn

Blehhhhh

I like the Shawn portions of "Fraternity Row" but I hate the fraternity portion too much, so I'd skip it

Shawn's a photographer?

Not in that one

Cory's a filmmaker

Oh youre right it's things change where shawn is a photographer

Which does *have* precedent

I should give It's Not You another chance. but it still has the dean.

It's Cory and Shawn acting like they're having a breakup

You love that stuff!

Everything with Lionel?

Come on

Sue me, I like The Witches of Pennbrook

Yeah it's still bad, but i like it too

Oh, right

Here's a big one

I like No Guts, No Cory

Always have

It's my favorite time travel one by far

Yikes

Oh, and as I've said before

It's only Chasing Angela that's meh

I Love You, Donna Karan is a great episode

Shawn falling in love with a noncorporeal girl based on her bag is a great premise, and I love Ghost Feeny

You're right

Donna Karan is definitely good

So, if you pretend it just ends with a girl with a boyfriend finding the bag and Shawn getting hurt....

No harm, no foul!

It comes into the hot streak after that though


What do you think about the the Thanksgiving subplot in Chasing Angela

Yeah, a lot of good episodes in a row after that

I dont even remember it

I vaguely remember a window


"You're a turkey. You're a big turkey! Gobble gobble, block of ice!"

And as for the Cory/Topanga breakup arc, let's break it down.

Heartbreak Cory? Fantastic.

Top quality episode.

First Girlfriends' Club.... mainly about Shawn, no problem there

Torn Between Two Lovers.... GREAT episode. Super great.

And Then There Was Shawn? 'Nuff said.

If You Can't Be With The One You Love..... okay, a troubled episode. But it's Shawn's alcoholism that's the problem. The parts about Cory getting drunk so he'd be cool at a party in reaction to the breakup and getting arrested, I like

Eric Hollywood is GREAT! But.... obviously, not really about the breakup so, I won't count it

And then we're at Starry Night. Which, yeah, not great, but that's one bad episode

And if you count Honesty Night as an epilogue, that one's good too

So.... there.


Is honesty night good?

Yeah

That's just them lying to Shawn so he can get them back together

"What's that I hear?" Feeny asks. "Is that the stupid train comin' round the bend?"


Yeah, i dunno

Season 5 is like, The Cory Season. Is that reasonable? While 4 was really big on Eric and Shawn (even though eskimo is in 5)

And maybe 3 has more eric and shawn too. is there much eric to look forward to in season 5 besides hollywood? and even then it's not really about eric

Oh god, It's Not You has the zoo with kid Shawn as a ginger, come on man



Yeah, but that's 30 seconds

Season 5 isn't as good for Eric as Season 4 was, but there's stuff

Raging Cory

That's a good one for him

The citizenship class

There's a lot of good Eric/Feeny stuff

"If I'm really quiet, will you stay?"

But yeah, I'd say Season 5 is a Cory and Shawn season

Season 4 is an Eric season, and also a little bit a Cory/Topanga season, it's VERY much not a Shawn season

It's probably the least Shawn season besides 1

He's got some episodes, but he's mainly just Cory's fun-loving sidekick

Turner's gone, so that's all gone

I mean, he's not gone, but he might as well be



Uhhhhh I'll have to pull the list back up when I get home because I got a very different impression


Episodes I'd consider "Shawn" episodes in Season 4: Fishing for Virna, Janitor Dad, Easy Street, B&B's B&B, Chick Like Me I guess it's more an ensemble, Cult Fiction

That's only 6

Now granted, Eric only has 6 I count too. But they're way more significantly Eric episodes, and he's doing more in the ones I'd consider ensemble episodes



I'm certain I disagree with you

Regardless, 2 and 3 have plenty of renegade Shawn so maybe that's why I value those seasons more than you



Yeah, I'm not that into it

I mean, it's ifne

*fine

But it's not what I'm here for

But yeah, Seasons 2 and 3, Eric is not as well used. And they're still figuring out what his deal is

Shawn is the one they define the quickest


That's true for 2 but eric wants to go to college in 3, there's a lot of good stuff there



Yeah, I mean, and thus I have Season 3 ahead of 2

But ultimately he's still a little background in 3



Yeah but when i think about that im still comfortable putting 3 ahead of 5. it's definitely close though


Stormy weather was in 3 too, I don't know if I agree that he was background in 3

I mean, there's Eric episodes in Season 1 too, I'm just sayin'

Starting in Season 4 it felt like he graduated to being an equal of Cory and Shawn's

I just think the writing and humor is of a much more sophisticated quality in 5

The show just wasn't as cleverly written in Season 3 to be capable of a And Then There Was Shawn or Eric Hollywood

Their funny episodes is shit like.... I Was a Teenage Spy



Teenage Spy > No Guts, real talk


THAT'S INSANE

I said that like Erix

Eric

No Guts does not awkwardly work in the Happy Days cast



We can put that to a poll if you want, I stand by it

It does not have that bizarre Anson Williams bit I don't get

It does have Eric protecting the liberty bell

It has Shawn's great annulment line

(I can't get the embedded poll to work properly so just follow the link and tell us which time travel episode sucks the least.)


So there you have it. I figure at least one person out there is interested in our extended conversations about Boy Meets World so I decided to share. What do you think? How do seasons 3 and 5 rank against each other? Would you call season 5 "The Cory Season?" Did you even make it through the whole thing with the terrible formatting? 

77 comments:

  1. Podcast? Yes, do it.

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    1. I will officially say that we want to. Just have to hammer out the mechanism of it.

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    2. I recommend Podbean. It's inexpensive ($9.99 a month) to host and then you just sync it to iTunes. I bought a $25 mic, quickly edited in Garageband and uploaded. It's a cheap and easy way to start.

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  2. I agree immensely with Sean's original ranking on BMWR's Epilogue post

    4 > 3 > 5 > 2 >>> 7 > 1 > 6

    2 through 5 is absolutely the peak of the show and even the lesser episodes in those seasons are still watchable, while the first season and college seasons hit some missteps.

    You guys should do a worst episodes of BMW ranking like you did for the best episodes about a year ago

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    1. Also I Was a Teenage Spy is a great episode and definitely the best of the time travel episodes. I may be biased because it's one of the first episodes of the show I watched but it just feels really good ya know?

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    2. I actually do like Teenage Spy. At least partially because you can rationalise it as going on in Cory's head; a bit better than the other two.

      Be back later to give a more thorough accounting for this post in general.

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  3. I gotta go with 4 - 3 - 5 - 2 - 6 - 1 - 7

    I'm sure everyone here that watched the show would agree that 7 was the worst. The only reason 1 is behind 6 is because it took a while for the show to find it's legs. By the time season 6 came around we were invested in the characters, so those episodes just seem to carry more weight for me even though season 1 probably had a higher floor but a lower ceiling.

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    1. 7 really ain't that bad. It has some real bad episodes but stuff like They're Killing Us, It's About Time, Pickett Fences, Family Trees, The Provider, both parts of The War, Baby Back Ribs, Brotherly Shove, Angela's Ashes and of course the finale epsiodes? Good shit, and even most of the lesser episodes have some fun moments

      Season 1 is maybe more consistent but it sure as hell rarely reaches the highs of 7 and much of 6 is a serious drag.

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    2. I much prefer S7 to S6, it has goofy charm at least. S6 is endless drama (Shawn/Angela, Chet dying, Jack/Eric/Rachel love triangle).

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    3. The Jack/Eric/Rachel love triangle was more comedy than it was drama for much of it--but what's bad about it is that it's literally Rachel's entire purpose for existing, and it takes far too much time away from actually interesting dynamics, the most obvious being Jack and Shawn's relationship as brothers.

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    4. I think 6 is the worst as well. 7 DOES have that goofy charm.

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    5. 6 has plenty of goofy charm too. 6 also has actual compelling story arcs like Chet's death and Shawn's departure or Eric and Tommy, or Feeny's retirement and then unretirement, even some of the Shawn/Angela stuff wasn't terrible. Season 7 has one compelling story arc I can think of - Cory and Topanga's crappy apartment and the Cory/Alan fight that came out of it. Most of the time it's just nonsense leading to more nonsense.

      Plus, Season 7 has no episodes as good as Bee True.

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    6. I agree that Season 6 is more dramatic than Season 7 (And I don't think that's inherently a bad thing, Season 7 could have stood to take itself a little more seriously.) But, yes, I agree with Cryptid that the Eric/Jack/Rachel triangle was mainly comedic with only an episode or two that got serious (and even still, not that serious)
      As for this..

      "The Jack/Eric/Rachel love triangle was more comedy than it was drama for much of it--but what's bad about it is that it's literally Rachel's entire purpose for existing,"

      This is very true, but also is another detriment to Season 7. It is Rachel's entire purpose for existing, which left her completely without purpose the entirety of Season 7. At least in Season 6 there was a *reason* she was there.

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    7. "7 really ain't that bad. It has some real bad episodes but stuff like They're Killing Us, It's About Time, Pickett Fences, Family Trees, The Provider, both parts of The War, Baby Back Ribs, Brotherly Shove, Angela's Ashes and of course the finale epsiodes? Good shit, and even most of the lesser episodes have some fun moments"

      I don't like Family Trees much at all. I've said it before, but it seems like someone's fanfiction of a good Shawn episode rather than an actually good Shawn episode. And it includes Eric being willing to kill his sister, and the infamous Coast Guard retcon that has only just been after a decade and a half.

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    8. Rachel had one other purpose in Season 7--absurdly being able to boot people from the Apartment, despite not being on the lease.

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    9. I prefer season six to seven. I've been watching a lot of S7 episodes and for the most part, they just suck. The characters are nowhere near as enjoyable as they used to be, Eric especially. I think the show was already on thin ice but once they turned Eric into a bumbling retard, I couldn't handle it anymore. At some point, I just start cringing whenever he's around because they stripped every endearing trait from him, just turning him into an unfunny joke machine.

      Plus, everything became absolutely ridiculous. Shawn's mother not being his real mother, the first couple of episodes that nearly destroyed Topanga's character for good, Rachel being a good-for-nothing idiot, Jack inexplicably becoming an asshole in some episodes, the wit and charm of the earlier seasons being replaced by jokes with no snap and stories that weren't even interesting. Literally the only episode this season that I would consider a classic is "Brotherly Shove."

      To me, even though season six is where the decline officially starts, it's like a less annoying, more tolerable version of season seven. I don't know, to me, seasons 2-5 are vintage BMW. The last two seasons feel like the show got cancelled after season five, and then revived by ABC at the last second even though most of the writers left so now you had to replace them with guys who had barely seen a couple episodes and didn't really understand how things worked. I mean, Michael Jacobs would still be there, but it's not the same.

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    10. Thank you. Sean, what Season 7 did to Eric alone really ought to be justification alone for Season 6 being better than 7. I'm really flabbergasted by this. Season 6 is a markedly better season for Shawn and Eric in my opinion, I'm not sure why you'd prefer 7. I feel like Season 6 is the transition season between quality Season 4 and 5 and the trainwreck of 7. It has elements of both.

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    11. ill have to rewatch some season 6 episodes because they almost all sound bad to me

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    12. Yeah, Christian's right. Eric was pretty stupid in Season 6--but a good chunk of that was the Rachel Triangle. And he was never truly malicious--the worst thing he did was probably The Truman Show Apartment Edition--which is pretty bad, but he was rightly called out on it.

      But more importantly, Season 6 had a few wonderful Feeny/Eric storylines. It was like the roles were reversed for once--with Eric trying to help George court the Dean. I mean, Eric was Feeny's best man at his wedding, and Feeny said that he loved Eric. That alone...that was something special.

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    13. Average Episode Rating by Sean for Season 6: 2.81
      Average Episode Rating by Sean for Season 7: 2.16

      *drops mic*

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    14. There are 10 episodes you gave above a 3 in Season 6. There are 5 you gave above a 3 in Season 7.

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    15. couldn't hear that second comment, your mic is on the ground

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    16. I'm almost disruptively loud in person, you'd hear me. But your dodging the stated sentiment in shame has been noted.

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    17. I've seen the entire show about 3 or 4 times, and S6 and 7 feel significantly weaker than the rest of it. The characters get flatter and more broad, the drama AND comedy get super exaggerated, great characters like Alan, Amy and Turner take a backseat to weak newcomers Jack, Rachel and Angela (more or less throughout the back half of the series), and the change in most of the sets to the college stuff just kinda solidifies a new, less interesting era.

      My season rankings:

      3 > 4 > 2 > 1 > 5 >>> 6 > 7

      I guess I don't love 5 as much as most people either. I thought Jack and Angela weren't great additions and the breakup arc--despite being decent enough on an episode-by-episode basis--is pretty exhausting and takes up a huge chunk of the season. Cory and Topanga's super-idealistic romance got a bit tiresome in the latter years.

      S3 and 4 were brilliant; that's when the show hit its stride with its humor and character development, and I find these years to be endlessly rewatchable. S2 is pretty underrated in its own right, although it still has some of that kinda quaint, sitcommy humor that's a bit cheesy in retrospect. But eh, what're you gonna do?

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  4. Replies
    1. Ha ha, ha ha, I love you too 1960. I'll have you know I was busy doing the dishes when this post was published. And I can't stay up till midnight anymore, because I work full-time.

      Interesting post though, I'll have to think about this one.

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    2. Also, I am happy to see that you made it through those storms from the last few weeks. Florida and Louisiana may have gotten the worst of it, but from what I recall, the tracking of the storms looked like South Carolina didn't have much of a picnic.

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    3. Yeah my neck of the woods went relatively unscathed.

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    4. Thank goodness, Sean. This has been quite scary.

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  5. "Great Lady of New York" is out on Disney On Demand. It was pretty good. Not as good as I had hoped (Jexica/Permenant Record), but right under that level.

    If I can find some clips or a link I'll be sure to post it for you all.

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    1. I'm still a week away from being able to watch Bear.

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  6. Okay guys, it's later in the day, so I'm not at work any more.

    I think Sean has it right that Seasons 2-5 are the high point of awesome, though I think I would put Season 1 above 6 and 7. Sure the show was trying to find it's legs, but there was also a sense of...wonder, I guess.

    Season 4 is the best season. It has it all. Cory and Shawn shenanigans. Cory and Topanga are established as "Cory and Topanga" and there's no break-up drama. Good bits for Eric, meeting the real world. Good bits for Feeny. Also, it has Chet. Lots and lots of Chet. That's a very good reason.

    Season 3 is definitely next, largely due to the dynamics that are explored. It has a lot of Shawn and Turner, which is one of my very favorites. It also gives Topanga a heck of a lot of fleshing out, and for the first time Cory, Shawn and Topanga are a Power Trio. I like Power Trios a lot in fiction--there's always a difference in point-of-view, but it never feels like there's too many people. We also get the foundation of Eric's college journey.

    Seasons 2 and 5 are tied. Season 5 is solid, with lots of Cory Meeting the World. But there's no Turner--we get Jack instead. I like Jack Hunter, make no mistake there, but he had his potential wasted with Rachel. That said, the stakes do seem higher--the characters have goals to work for. Season 2 has a lot of stand-alone hijinks, but we also have Feeny and Turner.

    Season 1 is the intro, and it's a credit to Bill Daniels and William Russ that they wasted no time in establishing they wanted a good coming-of-age show. It's remarkable how the Cory-Feeny dynamic evolves in this single season. And we get "Santa's Little Helper." Sean, I still remember reading your review of that for the first time, and your comment on how Cory and Shawn's nearly wordless reconciliation and basketball game puts BMW above its contemporaries. How there's no maudlin "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, too. Cory, you're my best friend." I love that episode.

    There's a quite a bit to like about Season 6--Bee True alone is wonderful, and Everybody Loves Stuart is an underrated gem.
    Season 7 has the arc where Cory and Topanga become adults, with their own apartment. There's the humorous charm, but there's also one heck of a long stretch of "meh" episodes, dealing with Topanga swearing off love forever after her parents' divorce.

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    1. Santa's Little Helper really is fantastic, I'm glad that talk about the ending stuck with you. That's one of the ones that made me want to start the blog.

      It's true, season one does have the sense of wonder. It's the hardest season for me to place, it's... different from the others. I don't know.

      Putting 2 and 5 in a tie is going to get Christian ALL riled up. ALLLLLLLL riled up.

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    4. Well, if I had to choose, I guess I would put Season 2 over 5, but not by much.

      On the one hand, Topanga still had her a little bit pseudo-hippie vibe in Season 2. It wasn't as annoying as it was in Season 1--it felt more natural. And we got the magnificent "Wake Up, Little Cory" in Season 2.

      We also had Turner in Season 2. Introducing Turner, from a character standpoint, was one of the smartest decisions Michael Jacobs ever made with Boy Meets World. He was a foil to Feeny, had a connection with Shawn, and stood on his own as a teacher.

      On the other hand, Season 5 is much funnier. And the dynamics in Season 5 were more established. There was some more solid development in the interactions of the characters. They knew who they were, they knew where they stood, and they acted accordingly.

      Most importantly, Season 5 is the Cory Season, with only Season 1 coming close in comparison. Season 5 feels most like Cory Meets World.

      And about "Santa's Little Helper."

      That one episode is the easiest example of why BMW works and why GMW often doesn't work quite as well--we all know exactly what would happen if such a scenario occurred with Riley and Maya. That said, as I've mentioned before, as maudlin and melodramatic and "You're my best friend ever" as Girl Meets World is, it actually is how a lot of younger teenagers speak nowadays, at least on social media.

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  7. I have to say that I prefer 3 to 5 but it is very close. 5 has more memorable moments and higher highs like you guys said, but 3 has more classic, simple episodes that just feel like boy meets world. There aren't really any bad episodes in season 3 but 5 has some pretty terrible moments.

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  8. Hey Christian and Sean, not sure if it matters but it looks like that poll offers multiple votes.

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    1. Hmmmm I have it set to one per IP. Weird.

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    2. I can confirm the poll is only one IP, you definitely can't send in multiple votes

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  9. Schedule for October from Disney: Disney Channel Promo ‏@disney_promo · 4 hours ago

    Girl Meets World: October 2016
    10/14 - Girl Meets World of Terror 3


    I understand it's a "what if?" episode.

    What if Auggie was never born?
    What if Maya never climbed through Riley's window and they never became friends?
    What if Farkle and Smackle were still each others nemesis?
    What if Riley was never pushed on Lucas' lap?

    Makes sense we get only 1 episode in October as we have only 7 episodes left after September. I would assume 2 in November, the holiday episode in December and 2 each in January and February.

    Man, this show could be over for good in less than 6 months unless its picked up for season 4.

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  10. I'm currently rewatching the series and have yet to decide whether I like 6 or 7 better but I have to say that 3 is superior to 5 for me at least. I would actually put 2 ahead of 5 as well probably because 2 just has so much Boy Meets World charm. If you think about it a lot of things that are considered classic about BMW are in season 2; Harley, Turner, Joey and Frankie, Cory and Topanga starting to realize they have feelings for each other, and plenty of life lessons. Yeah, Eric isn't his best but we do have Jason which is always great. And honestly I love the dating around aspect. It feels real unlike when they wanted us to take the Corpanga have been together forever recton seriously (unlike when they would say "we're freaks").

    For me 3 is honestly great. It features what I love about 2 and has a little bit of the amazingness we would see in season 4. Feeny and Eric begin their relationship, we see more of the always great Turner/Shawn dynamic and Topanga is fleshed out well. Also it has City Slackers which gives it brownie points too. Plus as an added bonus, Cory and Topanga are a very likable couple and you actually get a great breakup arc with episodes like A Kiss is More than a Kiss.

    Season 5 to me introduces a "feel" of what 6&7 would be like which always kind of bugged me. For every Eskimo we have a Starry Night. For every Heartbreak Cory we have a No Guts, No Cory (BTW I Was A Teenage Spy is definitely the best time travel episode, and the only one I enjoy watching). I do agree that it is a part of the golden age though, just in my opinion the lesser season of those four (2-5).

    But yeah, we can all agree that 4 is THE best season hands down.

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    1. good thoughts, good thoughts. You're absolutely right that season 3 is a mix of 2 and 4. It's got that "we're just teenagers in high school" feel of 2 that I like, and it also starts to work on the more sophisticated storytelling that we all love in 4.

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  11. You guys hear about this cat Dr. Ekpen Temple? He sounds pretty cool, guys.

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  12. I have always like Teenage Spy. The Happy Days stuff is lame but I have always enjoyed the rest of it for how completely ridiculous it is, Cory is at his best when he is frazzled and he's super frazzled by being in the 50s. I like Shawnzie and love button-down 50s Mr. Turner. And the visual of Cory running around with the chicken mask on always makes me laugh.

    I honestly never saw No Guts, No Cory until I got the complete DVDs in like 2013. No idea how I missed it until then. Because of this it feels even stranger to me than it is.

    The Topanga one is boring as fuck.

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  13. A Boy Meets World Reviewed Podcast would honestly give me reason to get up in the morning

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  14. I'm tired of being Shipping Wars. From now on, I'm Mike.

    Hmmmm...I would say

    4>>3>2=5>>1>>6>>>7 (That fucking arc at the start of Season 7 is one of the worst things I've seen on television including ALL of How I Met Your Mother Season 9)

    Season 4 is the best. There is no argument.

    I'd say 3 comes ahead slightly of Season 5 and Season 2. Season 5 has Lauren but the awful Corpanga break up. While Eric Hollywood is fantastic and the drinking one is decent, Starry Night is so bad, it drags it down. I wasn't thrilled with the one after Starry Night either. Season 3 had Turner/Shawn arc and City Slackers.

    Season 5 and 2 are about equal. Both great seasons, both had their weak spots. If you had a gun to my head, I'd pick 2 because Season 2's final episodes are damn good.

    Season 1 is charming. A little slow. A bit harmless but it gave us the silver gloves and our first instance of seeing Cory as a teacher. And he was a better teacher when he was a damn 12-year-old than he is as a grown ass man. (Crossing my fingers for Great Lady of New York)

    Season 7 on a whole is probably better than 6 but Season 7 had What a Drag (Where an actually decent Corpanga plot is wasted by Jack and Eric), the time travel one, messy Corpanga arc. There's some decent stuff like "Brotherly Shove" and the wedding but there's just too much shit. And turning Eric into an absolute dumbass didn't help.

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    1. FWIW, I hated HIMYM season 9 when I was watching it on TV, but it's a tiny bit better if you stream it because it watches like one continuous story (read: tiny), I feel like once HIMYM got popular and they weren't on the seat of their pants, they got sloppy. Though Season 7 was good.... sory back to BMW... Season 7 is dumb but I weirdly like the monkey one.

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  15. Well for the second year in a row, GMW lost the Emmy for best children's program. This year it was to a Charlie Brown special I believe.

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    1. Well, he's a formidable foe. Riley and Maya ain't got nothing on Chuck and Linus.

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    2. Is it that new Charlie Brown show on Boomerang?

      Yeah, Riley and Maya really can't stand up to Charlie Brown and Linus...or Snoopy and Woodstock, for that matter.

      There's no shame in losing to Charlie Brown. And I wouldn't want GMW to win anyway--it really isn't Best Children's Program material.

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    3. No it was the 50th Anniversary Christmas Special.

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  16. All I know is I didn't like the first season. Felt very childish and moralizing. Cory was already funny though.

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  17. Today's tweet about Friday's episode:

    Girl Meets Writers ‏@GMWWriters · 6 hours ago

    The best way to care about somebody? Find out their story. Friday: New York Stories. Everybody changes.


    I can say, having already seen "Great Lady" that it is indeed a very good episode.

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  18. i liked 5 that would have to be my favorite season but did like season 7 i loved goofy eric they wrote the characters based on the actors personalty rider love counting crows, poety and went on a road trip so they wrote it into the show http://www.kx935.com/podcasts/1-boy-meets-world-guest-rider-strong/ rider says it in the podcast interview. Will was great with comedy loves to make people laugh and is a goofy guy so they gave his character more of the comedy relief. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10154487935316252&id=75540426251 will talks a bit about boy meets world in this interview. also hints at an Eric Matthews show in the future lol

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  19. "She Don't Like Me" starts out slow but was another solid episode. We've had a good run since the "Ski Lodge" 2-parter.

    Smackle was great and we meet another new teacher. Something to look forward to next week.

    As always, if I find clips or a link to the entire thing I'll post, but most of the folks that used to do that seem to have stopped.

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    1. Is it the math teacher?

      How have we gone through like 20 years of the Boy Meets World universe without ever meeting a math teacher?

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    2. Sean, the math major, may have some other thoughts on this but for me the answer is simple - math doesn't lend itself to creating parallels to people's lives quite as well things like history or English too. History and English class are full of stories and people, with lessons to learn about what happened in those stories and to those people. Math offers none of that. And at least with science (which we've seen far less than History and English, but which we have seen, and in both shows) you can have stories about experiments and things like that. Math is numbers on a piece of paper.

      It's most people's least favorite subject for a reason. :)

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    3. Al washes a car in 6 minutes. Fred washes the same car in 8 minutes. How long does it take Al and Fred to wash the car together?

      Having said that Christian, you are correct, but I couldn't help but be that guy, who points out the absolute 1 time (in each series) they actually used math. While Cory did it in History, I believe Feeny was actually teaching Math. They didn't switch teachers for different subjects in 6th grade, Feeny taught them everything it seems.

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    4. That's true, 6th grade was still elementary school for them, so Feeny taught everything. They were a weird K-6, 7-12 school system that I've never heard of, before retroactively becoming a normal 9-12 school system.

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    5. Here in Australia, 7-12 is the norm. And though Feeny did teach them maths, I do not really believe that him teaching a maths class.

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  20. I just saw that August Maturo is going to have a guest spot on the Halloween episode of "The Odd Couple".

    After seeing how "good" the GMW Halloween episodes were another network really thought his participation would be a good thing?

    I like Auggie the character, but if GMW gets a season 4 they really need to leave Auggie out of the "World of Terror" episode. It might not be better, but it can't get worse, right?

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  21. Late to the party, as this has been a really weird month for me. I had my birthday in early September, and things have been getting more and more depressing with the job hunt.

    Season 4 is the best. Easily. Not only do Shawn/Cory work well, so do Cory/Topanga (for the most part); and Shawn and Topanga aren't really in this weird competition about who Cory cares for more.

    For me, Season 3 is next. Cory/Topanga actually act like a real, teenage couple. And though I am not particularly enamored of the Disneyland episode; the arc that got them back together was fine; and would have worked if it hadn't been set where it was.

    I will slightly nudge season 5 over season 2. Season 2 has this really annoying aspect, for me, in that they only ever introduce Topanga in an episode, it feels, to set things up for their romance in season 3. On the other hand, in Season 5 Cory is at his worst in regards to the way he treats other people.

    Season 1 clearly comes next. It is a good set-up year; and how quickly the characters come into their own is somewhat amazing, especially for a 'teen' show.

    Erk. I have a lot of problems choosing between seasons 6 and 7. Season 6 has better good episodes, and the average episode is probably better; but it is a season I grow to really despise Cory. The way he treats both Shawn -and- Topanga gets quite disgusting at times. Season 7 he starts to grow up and actually treat others well; with a couple of exceptions. The mini break-up was what it was; but I don't hate it. Cory's reaction to it was as much to blame for how it went as Topanga's initial gut reaction. It is certainly not worst season of TV I have ever seen.

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  22. Latest tweet: Girl Meets Writers ‏@GMWWriters · 22 hours ago
    Next Week: Somebody doesn't like Riley and Smackle teaches us about page 73.


    I can tell you the Smackle thing is really funny. Its actually funny that they have a different health book than they had in "New World", but they use the same page number in both episodes to upset Farkle.

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  23. Ratings are in for "Great Lady of New York". It is a series all time low 1.4 million views.

    It will be interesting to see how much of a lift we see this week with the season 4 premiere of Liv & Maddie as a lead in.

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    Replies
    1. As something I have noticed - every time this show tries to cover a serious topic (however badly they do it - like STEM), the ratings are in the tank. The Disney Channel fanbase just seems to have zero desire to watch anything that might teach them something. If it isn't entertainment for entertainment's sake (or ships) they don't tune in.

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    2. There is no real reason to suspect ratings ever have anything to do with the subject matter of an episode, unless it's something like a highly advertised special guest or something like that. The vast, vast majority of people who watch TV are not obsessives like us, but just people who tune in having no idea (or little idea) what tonight's episode is going to be about.

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    3. In short, the ratings are down because it seems like DC's ratings may kind of be down in general and the hype on GMW is basically gone.

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    4. Probably the reason the generation that watches Disney channel now don't like the episodes that tries to teach something is because they aren't use to it. GMW is the first show in a long time for Disney Channel that isn't about singing and dancing. Before this show came along they didn't have those sitcoms that taught the audience a lesson.

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    5. Well, I think that might be a case of which came first there. Kids, even of my generation, didn't -usually- like people preaching at them. BMW got away with it, not because of the generation, but because of the cleverness.

      But also, I think Christian is right. Not just Disney Channel either, but ratings all over are down compared to what they were.

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  24. I perhaps the only person out there that enjoys As Time Goes By

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    1. I like it too. I really don't get the hate for any of the time travel episodes. They're obviously silly side episodes and never try to be anything more. They're fun.

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  25. I don't really rate seasons. I just think of the BMW quality as like a pyramid with season 4 at the peak.

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