Girl Meets World 1.08-1.10
1.08 "Girl Meets Smackle"
Riley: "This is one of your life lessons wrapped up in a class lesson wrapped up in a box of nothing."
Thanks for the meta-commentary, show.
"How you doin', honey?" / "I'm all worked up!" / "I know."
Shipping them so hard! Maya takes care of Riley so much! (And vice versa.)
Topanga: "I wonder how many people the idea of Corey and Topanga has ruined?"
"I'm broken. I'm pretty. I'm confused."
"We can put you back."
"I'm not going back. I'm not THAT confused."
I was really not loving the simplistic makeover (the actress who played Smackle was obv always pretty -- I mean, she's on a Disney Channel show). I did like the idea that how people react to you has an impact on you -- 'cause that's true, even if it was done a little oversimplified. I really appreciated that Farkle only wanted to beat Smackle when she was actually herself/at her best. And then, oh, Smackle had been kind of playing them / was way more thoughtful than we gave her credit for. I had not expected the show to redeem this plotline so significantly.
"I continue to not understand anything,"
"That's what's so beautiful about you."
NOW KISS. (In any other context I would think that was gross -- "you're so clueless, that's what's beautiful about you" -- but this felt more like, "I love everything about you; I love all of you.")
1.09 "Girl Meets 1961"
SO INTO Rowan Blanchard's Beat look when she first walks in to the cafe.
"Topanga: What a beautiful name for something you want to love." ♥
I forget when I started crying in this episode but yeah, literally crying at the end.
Hasn't Topanga been in the bay window before?
Reciting MLK's color of their skin/content of their character speech to a group of entirely* white people (and as a white person yourself)? Did NO ONE in the process flag that this was problematic?
* Okay, the actress playing Riley is mixed-race -- IMDb says, "Rowan comes from a diverse ethnic background. Her paternal grandfather was an immigrant from the Middle East, and has Lebanese, Moroccan, Armenian and Syrian ancestry. Rowan's paternal grandmother is of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and English descent, and Rowan's mother has 1/4 Portuguese, as well as German and English, ancestry." But still, the entire Core Four and their families basically read as white in this show.
1.10 "Girl Meets Crazy Hat"
Show, could we not use language like this? Thanks.
Farkle: "My education sbould not be based on your daughter's moods."
And yet you are trapped in this show, Farkle.
"What?" / "Belgium, let's go."
I admire your desire to actually get an education, Farkle.
corporate greed... addiction... I appreciated that the show included that Farkle's sugar cubes brought people up, knowing they would just bring them down later, because otherwise it felt like a really simplistic "having your only goal be profit is Bad" which, okay, this is a kids' show, but still.
When Evelyn was talking about having her name on a building, I called that she was not in fact a bum on the street (didn't we just have an episode about assumptions?). (Sidebar: I thought the actress looked like the same woman from the subway when the girls first meet Lucas, and IMDb confirms that the actress -- Jackée Harry [whom some of us may remember from Sister Sister] -- was in fact in that opening episode.)
Hey, POC in the subway!
Riley: "This is one of your life lessons wrapped up in a class lesson wrapped up in a box of nothing."
Thanks for the meta-commentary, show.
"How you doin', honey?" / "I'm all worked up!" / "I know."
Shipping them so hard! Maya takes care of Riley so much! (And vice versa.)
Topanga: "I wonder how many people the idea of Corey and Topanga has ruined?"
"I'm broken. I'm pretty. I'm confused."
"We can put you back."
"I'm not going back. I'm not THAT confused."
I was really not loving the simplistic makeover (the actress who played Smackle was obv always pretty -- I mean, she's on a Disney Channel show). I did like the idea that how people react to you has an impact on you -- 'cause that's true, even if it was done a little oversimplified. I really appreciated that Farkle only wanted to beat Smackle when she was actually herself/at her best. And then, oh, Smackle had been kind of playing them / was way more thoughtful than we gave her credit for. I had not expected the show to redeem this plotline so significantly.
"I continue to not understand anything,"
"That's what's so beautiful about you."
NOW KISS. (In any other context I would think that was gross -- "you're so clueless, that's what's beautiful about you" -- but this felt more like, "I love everything about you; I love all of you.")
1.09 "Girl Meets 1961"
SO INTO Rowan Blanchard's Beat look when she first walks in to the cafe.
"Topanga: What a beautiful name for something you want to love." ♥
I forget when I started crying in this episode but yeah, literally crying at the end.
Hasn't Topanga been in the bay window before?
Reciting MLK's color of their skin/content of their character speech to a group of entirely* white people (and as a white person yourself)? Did NO ONE in the process flag that this was problematic?
* Okay, the actress playing Riley is mixed-race -- IMDb says, "Rowan comes from a diverse ethnic background. Her paternal grandfather was an immigrant from the Middle East, and has Lebanese, Moroccan, Armenian and Syrian ancestry. Rowan's paternal grandmother is of Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and English descent, and Rowan's mother has 1/4 Portuguese, as well as German and English, ancestry." But still, the entire Core Four and their families basically read as white in this show.
1.10 "Girl Meets Crazy Hat"
Show, could we not use language like this? Thanks.
Farkle: "My education sbould not be based on your daughter's moods."
And yet you are trapped in this show, Farkle.
"What?" / "Belgium, let's go."
I admire your desire to actually get an education, Farkle.
corporate greed... addiction... I appreciated that the show included that Farkle's sugar cubes brought people up, knowing they would just bring them down later, because otherwise it felt like a really simplistic "having your only goal be profit is Bad" which, okay, this is a kids' show, but still.
When Evelyn was talking about having her name on a building, I called that she was not in fact a bum on the street (didn't we just have an episode about assumptions?). (Sidebar: I thought the actress looked like the same woman from the subway when the girls first meet Lucas, and IMDb confirms that the actress -- Jackée Harry [whom some of us may remember from Sister Sister] -- was in fact in that opening episode.)
Hey, POC in the subway!