Girl Meets World Ranked and Reviewed: No New Friends

Girl Meets World All 71 Episodes Ranked and Reviewed. The countdown continues with two new entries. If you are behind, you can always catch up on the Girl Meets world section of the blog.

53.Girl Meets She Doesn’t Like Me

Summary

In this episode, Riley deals with a girl who doesn’t Like her.

References

When Cory says out of all The houses she walks into ours, it references Alan saying the same thing about Amy in season 6. When Cory talks about getting confused at 12, he talks about when he had to watch the hormone video, and his world turned upside down.

Review

This episode shows some key problems of season 3. The mission statement of Girl Meets World is people change people. However, Riley's group is remaining stagnant because they are remaining insulated in their own little bubble.

Boy Meets World had a cast of one-off and two-off characters that made lasting impacts on the character's lives because people change people. In Girl Meets World season 3, the list is very short of important one-off characters. In this episode, Riley learns a valuable lesson that you can’t control everything.

However, the way they explore the lesson isn’t as compelling as it could be. They have a girl whose name we don’t know. The girl says she doesn’t like Riley for reasons we also don’t know. But this episode would’ve been better if they actually would have built a character that Riley would want to be friends with. Maybe she wanted to go to a high school party or something, but the girl is throwing the party and doesn’t like her. Even if the girl's reason for disliking Riley were mean or unfair, it would have been more compelling to understand why Riley would care and why the girl doesn’t like her. Then when Riley stands up to her at the end, it would have been more meaningful.

Not to mention developing the girl who didn't like Riley would have made it seem like Girl Meets World had a social scene in high school. One of the big reasons the high school season was supposed to be better than middle school season was it was supposed to be a vastly different social scene, just like Boy Meets World. However, in Girl Meets World, high school is exactly like middle school same friends, the same teacher, and the same social activities. Riley and Lucas are dating finally, and we can’t even tell. There is no difference in their relationship between now and when they were friends. Except now, it's even less romantic. Smackle and Farkle really seem like the only couple on the show.

However, there were some good parts of this episode as well. I think the comedy was pretty good in this episode. The running gag about Topanga being a control freak was funny. Cory having to teach the kids about their bodies was funny. Also, I enjoyed the gym/health teacher as well. I laughed out loud when Farkle passed out, and the gym teacher said Farkle is the only one here who knows what he is doing.

I also thought The gym teacher's lesson about having control over how you act and treat your body was insightful. You can’t control everything, but you can control how you treat your body and what you do. I also thought they did a good job with the bait and switch. Because when we first met the gym teacher, he seemed like someone who didn’t know anything and didn’t care. However, by the end, we realize not to judge a book by its cover because he did a good job teaching.

Just like when Riley had to adjust to the Spanish teacher and Cory had to accept, she knew what she was doing. Also, having Cory teach Riley's health class was a good lesson for both of them. Cory learned that the teacher knew what he was doing, and Riley learned that trying to control everything worsens things. Riley's lesson tied nicely into the story about the girl not liking her. Riley had to control what she could and realize everyone isn't going to like you, and that's not something you can control.

Grade C+

Streaming Homework

Homework Boy Meets Girl Season 1

Extra credit season 6 State of Our Unions

54. Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels

Summary

In this episode, Cory brings back Eric to solve a dispute between Riley and Maya.

References

There were exactly three references. First, there was the episode theme which is a reference to the war saga in BMW season 7. Then when Eric ripped off his beard, that was a reference to Eric cutting his hair in season 7. Lastly, when Farkle shot the balls at Maya, that was a reference to season one, where Shawn and Cory had the same gun.

Review

I think this episode was well-intentioned, but it missed the mark. I like Eric coming back. I thought he was funny. But I was disappointed that they played into

Season 7 Eric which was the worst version of Eric. Yes, he is a goof with a big heart who is actually pretty smart, but in season 7, Eric was Eric at his dumbest. Also, I don’t like the issues they picked. I know they wanted the fight to start small, but this was nothing compared to the war episode from Boy Meets World.

In the original, the fight got nasty when Cory and Shawn’s prank went wrong. They put pictures of Rachel in lingerie all over campus, and they didn’t realize they crossed a line. Here Maya was just called short, and you could tell the actors were trying their best to sell this fight, but it just wasn’t worthwhile.

The lesson was worthwhile defending your friends when they are made fun of, even if it’s true. Also, I liked that the episode highlighted that we get so upset at things that strike our insecurities. We should always monitor what we are reacting to and why it hurts

However, the insecurity they experienced was very half-baked, like Maya being short has never bothered her before, and I seriously don’t believe she suddenly worried about being short. Farkle overcompensating feels realistic for his stature and who he is, and we have seen him battle insults before. Lucas didn’t express insecurity. They basically said his insecurity was being hot, and it’s the second time they did this. In the bully episode, Lucas' insecurity was Mr perfect.

Also, it’s not like he doesn’t have real issues like the fact that he is older than everyone else or the fact that he has to keep his anger in check but do they dig that deep no, and I can’t fathom why not because it would have been more compelling. Once again, Zay is just a joke. He gets real insecurity, but he is just laughed at. Riley had a real insecurity in being a clutz. I feel like they way overplayed it, but that was at least real and compelling.

However, Topanga is in the same boat as Lucas and Maya. She says, look, I’m short, and come on, Maya knows you are short. This shouldn’t be news to her. If you know Boy Meets World, you know Topanga was made fun of for her hair and being actually weird in comparison to the rest of her class. She has never been shown as someone who was made fun of for her size. But she had a whole episode about her hair and how once she cut it, she understood insecurity. I would have liked to see that Topanga and the Topanga from the first season teach the Maya to be confident and have inner strength.

Also, I know they wanted to make it a girl's moment, but Cory should have been in on this. He was so insecure for so long. It would have been nice for him to give Maya and Riley the knowledge he learned from all of it. However, to be fair, he gave an in-depth lesson in the hallway. I think this episode did some good things in bringing back Eric and picking up the war arc. I think using Eric to mend conflict and introducing him to this world was good.

I think having tension between Maya and Riley was also good. Part of what makes a friendship worthwhile is the bad times. The lessons were good and worthwhile as well. However, the conflict they chose to drive all of this was super weak and caused this episode to fall short of its potential. I would have much rathered they dug deeper and made this episode more dramatic it could have been a classic like the war.

Grade C+

Streaming Homework

Homework the war season 7 peace (aka seven the hard way )

Extra credit: show me the love season 7

Santa’s helper season 1