As you know by now, Disney Channel is premiering their new series Girl Meets World this Friday! So on this TV Reviews post, I thought I would share my thoughts about the pilot, which I got to see already. Being a media person has its advantages folks!
So, Girl Meets World is the sequel to Boy Meets World that aired on ABC and the TGIF block from 1993 to 2000, and became a cult following. In this new series, Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel are back, but this time they are a married couple, introducing Cory and Topanga Matthews. The couple has two kids, 12-year-old Riley and 5-year-old Auggie. Riley is a teenage girl starting 7th grade and has a BFF named Maya, sometimes Maya can get into some bad things, as you see in the pilot. In the opening, Riley and Maya are together and they decide to leave the house through a window, only to see Cory meet them on the fire escape outside. Cory has not lost his touch from Boy Meets World.
Basically, Cory says to Riley that it’s still his world. And Riley is wanting to experience her own world. The pilot is basically a passing of the baton from Cory to Riley. At the subway, Maya gets Riley interested in boys, and Riley runs into Lucas, and a love interest starts, and it’s only the pilot, that is too fast! And did we see Jackée Harry? After the intro, Riley is surprised that her father is her history teacher in middle school, and you can see why the school setting will work well for Girl Meets World. Maya forges Cory’s signature, Cory presents a lesson about The Civil War, Farkle is one of the most interesting characters I have ever seen, Riley sees that boy from the subway while her father steers her away from him, and Maya stands up for no homework and gets most of the class to join her.
After the break, Riley and Cory both have a talk with Topanga, the topic. Riley is wanting to be more like Maya, the bad girl. And you still see the great bond of Cory and Topanga from Boy Meets World. At school lunch, Farkle is still interesting, and I can see Farkle being the funny character on Girl Meets World. He reminds me of Urkel from Family Matters. Lucas joins the two girls, and Cory joins in to be the protective father, and drag Lucas far away from the lunchroom. Back in the classroom, Cory is still that protective father, and Maya stands up to no homework again, and it causes the sprinklers to go off. Then the laughter takes a dark turn.
Cory lectures Riley about not being herself, and Cory has a very hard talk with Maya about not helping her friend out of trouble and going too far. On the subway, Riley and Maya almost break up their friendship, and Jackée Harry tells them to not push your best friend off the train, thanks Jackée for the great advice! And Riley starts her own world, and Maya is the first one in it. And Riley tells her family that Maya is worth fighting for, and her world is set to begin. And the first item in Riley’s world, a New York City subway pass. The final words from Cory, it’s not easy handing over the world to Riley without making sure everything is okay, and we see an appearance from George Feeny, and he says “well done Mr. Mathews.” And Girl Meets World is born!
So, the pilot has some funny moments and some tough moments. But I have one concern about Girl Meets World, will the show live up to Boy Meets World? As you know, Boy Meets World dealt with some tough moments, and will the Disney Channel version deal with tough moments as well? Another concern, will Girl Meets World turn into another kid-com, or be a great family friendly sitcom? If Girl Meets World can live up to Good Luck Charlie, another show on Disney Channel that was a great family sitcom, then Girl Meets World will be fine!
Girl Meets World is created by the same team (Michael Jacobs and April Kelly) that created Boy Meets World, the new series will be mostly aimed at 6- to 14-year-olds. I hope Girl Meets World will continue to grow and become a great Friday night program, I guess we will see! Watch the premiere of Girl Meets World on Friday June 27th at 8:45 pm Central!
Related articles
