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Girl Meets World Season 3 | TV Show Review

Summary

More than a decade after Boy Meets World (1993), Cory and Topanga Matthews are married and have two children. Their daughter, Riley, faces life lessons through her family, friends, and school--where her father is her history teacher--as her parents did when they were younger.

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543796/

The series centers around the life of a young teen girl, Riley Matthews, and her friends and family, particularly their school life, in which her father Cory is their history teacher. Riley shares a strong relationship with her best friend Maya Hart, who assists her in learning to cope with the social and personal issues of adolescence. Several Boy Meets World cast members reprise their roles in the series.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Meets_World

Thoughts

I am not saying I agree with Disney’s decision to cancel Girl Meets World, but I can see why the final decision was to cancel it. I can see why the viewers’ ratings dropped to the point of cancellation too. Girl Meets World Season 3 just wasn’t the same as the previous two seasons. And mind you, it’s “not the same” in a bad way.

Plot

The one thing I genuinely enjoyed with Girl Meets World was the life lessons taught in each episode. Unfortunately, I could not vibe with any of the life lessons in this season. There was a redundant amount of focus on the romance bit. I get it, romance is a trope that guarantees people coming back to the show but not when they are done the way Girl Meets World Season 3 did it. And if the show was not focusing on the romance bit, it was focusing on friendships or Riley’s inability to accept change. For a show that was supposed to be teaching life lessons, those life lessons were repetitive in this season. It was as if the writers could not think of any other life lesson and hence the lack of “originality”.

Cast (characters, character development and cast’s acting, etc.)

If you thought the writers screwed up the plot for this season (which yes, they did), you did not pay attention to how the characters were written in this season.

Lucas and Farkle’s character dynamics were extremely mundane but upon reviewing their characters, I realised how real that actually was. Maybe the writers meant it that way, maybe not but it is true that we lose more interesting parts of ourselves the older we grow. So, I’ve decided to exclude the criticism I had for them. Not to be mistaken for Peyton and Corey’s acting. The acting was just fine.

The biggest problem I had was with Maya’s identity crisis. What bullshit was that? And the explanation was even more absurd than her pre-mid-life crisis. If Girl Meets World is a show about growing up, learning about the world out there and living through life lessons day after day. Why couldn’t Maya Hart – bad girl when she was younger – change to become a better person? Why was she not allowed to become less rebellious or stop breaking the rules? Why couldn’t she have feelings for Lucas without the explanation that she was “becoming Riley”? Maya’s identity crisis; isn’t that just a step to growing up as well? Therefore, like I said, complete bullshit.

Conclusion

There were parts in this season where I enjoyed. Like Zay’s scenes, especially when he was being an extremely good friend to Maya so she would not feel like a third wheel with Riley and Lucas around. Smackle was ten times more interesting to watch than Farkle. And Ava, that little girl grew on me while Auggie was just lost on me. Sadly, these parts I enjoyed could not even compete with the ones I did not enjoy...

Girl Meets World Season 3 was bad, period.

Rating: D (my failing grade)

Girl Meets World Season 2 | TV Show Review

Summary

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543796/

Thoughts

Yes, everybody looked good in this second season. Yes, there were significantly better acting in this second season. Yes, some of the lessons being taught were impressive in this second season. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it as much as I did for Girl Meets World Season 1. Something was very off with the flow of Girl Meets World Season 2.

Plot

The biggest problem I had with the entire season plot was the completely irrelevant love triangle consisting of Maya Hart, Riley Matthews and Lucas Friar. Sometimes I wondered, did the writers forget they were writing a show about a group of middle schoolers? Of course I understand kids love too but that love triangle was so redundant to the world of middle schoolers.

Firstly, I never once believed Lucas loved Riley. Sure, there was attraction between the two but even if there were feelings in the play here, I strongly believed those were just surface level feelings. It did not go deep.

Which brings me to the second point to this issue. Did I believe Lucas loved Maya? I didn’t either. He cared deeply for her but did people seriously not see that was a deep two-sex friendship forming? A best friend.

As for Maya, she had been a broken child since her father left, any sort of affection could mislead her into thinking it was romantic love. And that’s why I knew for a fact Maya was not in love with Lucas (even though I really would have enjoyed them being a couple).

Come on, they are middle schoolers, they usually don’t have such a complex love problems.

Cast (characters, character development and cast’s acting, etc.)

I am only going to focus on three character arcs and two cast members’ acting here. The characters’ development that I will be discussing here plays heavily into the problem I have with Girl Meets World Season 2, whereas the discussion on the acting is purely based on how impressed I was by it.

Anyhow, why did I enjoy Girl Meets World Season 2 less? Was it only me because I hoped not, but I really thought Riley was utterly selfish and even more stubborn in this second season. There were several times when I stopped watching the show because she infuriated me so much. Here’s some examples. When she refused to stand up for Maya against Lucas calling Maya short. Thankfully she learnt – in the end – sometimes all a good friend has to do is be there and support their friend. Another instance was that bay window scene where Riley insisted on the change despite how upset Maya became. If my best friend does not empathise me, why be my best friend? Hence, the frustration.

Apart from Riley, Farkle Minkus was another one. I’d always liked Farkle, I do still like this character but he was completely exasperating nearing the New Year’s Eve episode. Okay, he cared about Riley and her suffering because of her hidden true feelings for Lucas. Yet, throughout that whole ordeal, it looked like he had completely forgotten Maya and Lucas were his close friend too. He protected Riley but ended up hurting Maya and further confusing Lucas. That is not how one solves a love problem, it just isn’t.

I am sure one of the bigger reasons I had enjoyed this second season lesser was because of how neglected Maya was. Throughout the entire season, I only saw the adults (Cory Matthews, Topanga Matthews, Shawn Hunter and Katy Hart) showing Maya any sort of actual care. This young girl had been through so much but sadly, she’s still suffering and her suffering is the worse kind because she does not announce it like Riley usually does. So, when Maya does not let people know about it, nobody knows and everybody ends up thinking she is fine. There is nothing anybody can do about this now but I wish people who watched/is watching the show will understand that about Maya.

There you go, my frustration with some of the characters in Girl Meets World Season 2. On the bright side, I loved Rowan Blanchard in the bullying episode. For the first time ever, I thought she could really act, especially in scenes that involved pulling on those heartstrings. And Sabrina Carpenter’s acting had improved ever since season 1. The only thing she really should work on now are her crying scenes because apart from the episode where Maya had to forgive herself, Maya’s crying scenes were hard to get into.

Conclusion

Overall, I agree that Girl Meets World Season 2 did not do that badly but I still think there were things that could have been omitted even before the script was approved. Now that I am left with the last season (that I can do nothing about), I can only pray for better writing.

Rating: B-