What happens when Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel get it on? According to Michael Jacobs and April Kelly, you get Rowan Blanchard and August Maturo. While many have incorrectly labeled "Boy Meets World" as a Disney Channel series, simply because it was shown in reruns on DC late at night years ago, the production actually pre-dates Disney's acquisition of ABC and its former parent company Capital Cities Communications Industries. And though I was well past the age of the main character and his supporting cast when that series aired, it was impossible to ignore all the kids who either grew up in the 1990's and saw this, or just saw the reruns who have been clamoring for something reminiscent of that series. Obviously, it came in the form of "Girl Meets World."
As mentioned in the first paragraph Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel reprise their roles as Cory Matthews and the former Topanga Lawrence. Cory is a teacher at John Quincy Adams Middle School, and Topanga, who has been married to Cory since the waning years of Boy Meets World is a corporate lawyer with two kids, Riley and Auggie Matthews played by the previously mentioned Rowan Blanchard and August Maturo. Sabrina Carpenter plays Riley's sidekick Maya Hart. I still remember her from her breakout guest appearance on the Austin & Ally episode "Moon Week & Mentors," but she's nothing like the nervous geeky Lucy Gluckman here. She's artistic, level-headed and cynical, and we find out part of the reason why she's the latter later in the season. The show focuses primarily on Riley and Maya, the former of which has a crush on Lucas Friar (Peyton Meyer), the show's heartthrob who's a Texas transplant and also a military brat, and seems a little too good-natured for the streets and schools of the Five Boroughs. Watching Maya make fun of him for being a "cowboy," and hearing him blow it off is hilarious.
Corey Foglemanis plays "Farkle," who is a next-generation carbon copy of Stuart Minkus from the original series. Thankfully, there's a genuine reason for that -- he's the son of Stuart Minkus, and not just a cheap attempt to recreate the previous supporting character. From his brief appearance in the pilot episode, I've been a little worried that William Daniels was going to wind up like Alec Guiness in the Star Wars sequels. This is a man who's acting career pre-dates the Golden Age of Television. Since it has been confirmed he's supposed to appear during Season 2, we can only hope at this point that George Feeny will still be among the land of the living.
The series started to pick up a little roughly in mid-season, with episodes like "Girl Meets Maya's Mother," "Girl Meets Smackle," and "Girl Meets 1961." In "Girl Meets Maya's Mother," we find out Maya's single mother is a waitress and struggling actress. Jessie Prescott has better luck with her acting career. Ann Marie had better luck in 1965, and she had it better than both fictional characters. In "Girl Meets Smackle," we're reunited with the academic rival and pre-teen lust-filled admirer of Farkle. Isadora Smackle (Cecelia Balagot), who originally was seen in "Girl Meets Popular," is as capable at smacking him down in the debate competitions as she is damn near ready to jump his bones. She requests a makeover from the two girls, and though baffled over the nature of beauty as well as herself around boys, she still goes through another debate unscathed. I have to admit the last line from that episode is quite heartwarming, if a bit dishonest. In "Girl Meets 1961," we find that the kids had ancestors who hung out at a local beatnik café modeled after Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village, and almost changed the world... the key word in that sentence being "almost."
Besides the heartwarming moments and "important lessons" the show tries to foist upon the audience, usually in bumpers near the epilogues where the two girls throw paper airplanes in front of some fake CGI backdrop of New York City, the show relies heavily on it's connections to the characters of the original series. The most blatant example of this being in the episode "Girl Meets Home for the Holidays," where Cory's parents and Sean come to visit. Other BMW-connected episodes include "Girl Meets the Forgotten," and "Girl Meets Flaws," where we find the bully who used to attack Cory when he was in school is now a janitor, and in the case of the latter episode helps to defend Farkle from a bully. As comforting as it is to think that all the bullies we knew when we were in school grew up to be total losers in real life, that's not always the case. Nevertheless, the show also distinguishes itself from more far-fetched shows on Disney Channel such as "Wizards of Waverly Place," "That's So Raven," and to a lesser extent "Hannah Montana." After all, before there even was a Disney Channel in the first place, Walt himself use to pride himself on using magic to impress his young fans. In this case, the magic is in the heart. Let's hope the next two, three, or even four seasons prove to be worthwhile.
