Review: "Girl Meets World" pilot
The Five Stages of Grief you'll go through when Watching the Girl Meets World Pilot
The article linked above pretty much sums up my feelings about Girl Meets World (and I think it's required reading for any nostalgic 90s kids going into the show in the hopes of reliving their Boy Meets World nostalgia).
REVIEW TIME:
I WANTED to like Girl Meets World so bad. But it was just so damn difficult to sit through.The dialogue was painfully forced and unnatural (it made a million references to Cory and Topanga’s spawn “meeting the world” just like her daddy did). And the characters didn’t act like real kids (or real human beings for that matter) at all. Cory-Jr Riley was just a naive follower of her annoying, “bad girl” friend Not-Shawn Maya. And they had a “nerdy” male classmate who was basically a WAY WAY WAY more annoying clone of Minkus. And, because it’s a Disney Channel show, there was also a pretty boy love interest who had the personality of wet cardboard.
The episode made a big deal out of Riley and Maya being super BFFs. But….I didn’t feel it. I saw no reason why Riley would want to be anywhere near that girl, let alone be friends with her and let her get them both in trouble. The show was trying really hard to draw a parallel between the girls and the Cory/Shawn friendship in the original show. But Cory and Shawn actually had chemistry and common interests (so the viewer understood WHY Cory stood by Shawn even when Shawn was being a punk). And unlike Maya, Shawn was a sympathetic character who had reasons for acting the way he did. Girl Meets World lightly implied that Maya has “problems at home”. But she didn’t come across as a troubled girl in the show. She just came across as an entitled, trouble-making brat who constantly roped her idiot friend into her pet causes. I never felt sorry for Maya. I just kept hoping that Cory would expel her for her shenanigans and Riley would punch her in the face.
I was all set to give up on this show entirely. But then that damn Feeny cameo had to give me the warm fuzzies and pull me back in. But if the next episode is this terrible, I’ll just wash my hands of this thing and go relive the original show on DVD.
The article linked above pretty much sums up my feelings about Girl Meets World (and I think it's required reading for any nostalgic 90s kids going into the show in the hopes of reliving their Boy Meets World nostalgia).
REVIEW TIME:
I WANTED to like Girl Meets World so bad. But it was just so damn difficult to sit through.The dialogue was painfully forced and unnatural (it made a million references to Cory and Topanga’s spawn “meeting the world” just like her daddy did). And the characters didn’t act like real kids (or real human beings for that matter) at all. Cory-Jr Riley was just a naive follower of her annoying, “bad girl” friend Not-Shawn Maya. And they had a “nerdy” male classmate who was basically a WAY WAY WAY more annoying clone of Minkus. And, because it’s a Disney Channel show, there was also a pretty boy love interest who had the personality of wet cardboard.
The episode made a big deal out of Riley and Maya being super BFFs. But….I didn’t feel it. I saw no reason why Riley would want to be anywhere near that girl, let alone be friends with her and let her get them both in trouble. The show was trying really hard to draw a parallel between the girls and the Cory/Shawn friendship in the original show. But Cory and Shawn actually had chemistry and common interests (so the viewer understood WHY Cory stood by Shawn even when Shawn was being a punk). And unlike Maya, Shawn was a sympathetic character who had reasons for acting the way he did. Girl Meets World lightly implied that Maya has “problems at home”. But she didn’t come across as a troubled girl in the show. She just came across as an entitled, trouble-making brat who constantly roped her idiot friend into her pet causes. I never felt sorry for Maya. I just kept hoping that Cory would expel her for her shenanigans and Riley would punch her in the face.
I was all set to give up on this show entirely. But then that damn Feeny cameo had to give me the warm fuzzies and pull me back in. But if the next episode is this terrible, I’ll just wash my hands of this thing and go relive the original show on DVD.