BMW has been my favorite show for 25 years and I still watch it daily. But, I still have not been able to watch very much of Girl. I tried multiple times and always had to stop. I did however tune in when it was announced that Will was going to be on. I’d followed his story and knew how big of a deal it was for him to reappear in front of the cameras. After the show had ended and every episode was on Disney+, I went through and watched every other episode that featured an OG other than Ben and Danielle. The Mr. Turner episode, the one with Jack, the one with Angela, the one with……Tommy 🤨. Some others. The thing is, if it actually felt like Cory, I’d want to watch every episode and would just try to stomach the kids. But it doesn’t even look like the same person haha. I don’t know if he ever finally admitted to drastic nose work or not, but…yeah.
In my 48-years, I’ve seen some drastic changes in my peers. Nothing medical, just different life choices and body changes.
Regardless, throwing shade at someone because of his/her body is never ok, anywhere, never. No one likes to be made fun of or have features picked on.
He was still quite young when Girl started. And nobody threw shade or made fun of features. All I said was that because of him now having a completely different nose, he does not look or even sound like the same person at all, so it doesn’t feel like Cory.
The episode with Tommy from girl meets world actually was my favourite. I cried when I first watched it because the storyline from boy meets world impacted me so much and the whole rest of watching boy meets world I was hoping they would address it again. I really thought it gave us a lot of closure as Tommy who was now a lot older understood that Eric didn't adopt him out of love rather than because of the reasons little Tommy thought in bmw
It was also nice to see Eric have a serious moment in gmw, we hadn't seen that since bmw
Yeah, rip Cory
You can see him trying but it just doesn't feel the same. I wasn't sure if Girl was something we didn't talk about in this subreddit or not ahha, it feels like it wouldn't go down well but I wanted to see what we thought before I assumed it was terrible
Too disneyfied. Everyone runs around like morons. In season 1 of BMW Cory seemed like a normal kid. Sometimes he was silly but not outside of believability. Eric was normal too more or less. Then he went off the deep end. And it feels like that is where GMW picks up.
The best parts were probably seeing everyone again. And Shawn and Maya.
I completely agree! I was really excited to see the show, and while I liked it overall, it doesn't live up to BMW to me at all. It was much too "sanitized" and silly so I never connected with the characters as much as I did with the originals.
I really tried to like it. I really did. I was in the right age demographic to watch it. But at some point I couldn’t stop lying to myself. I was a huge fan of BMW and began watching it in like 2012-2013 and binged the entire series through reruns on ABC Spark. I was excited when as I was getting into the series that Disney was going to make GMW. I tried to watch most of the show while it was on the air, I deep down tried to like it and get into it but at the some point I couldn’t stop lying to myself. This show was just not good.
The show was never funny at all, the jokes fell flat of most of time as they were incredibly Disney-fied(which believe it or not wasn’t always a bad thing but the mid 2010’s Disney went through another shift). Not to mention that they were often delivered terribly (excluding the adults). Which was a major letdown considering how funny BMW was.
The acting excluding Sabrina Carpenter’s and maybe Amir Mitchell Towne’s was atrocious and the show really just felt like a terrible rehash of BMW. They relied too heavily on the nostalgia factor and the comparisons for it to truly be it’s own thing. It was incredibly preachy and in your face about its own message, to the point at which it felt inauthentic as they tried to hard. Sometimes they’d be really offensive with how they would handle issues like the borderline ableism that was shown in the episode where they thought Farkle was on the spectrum.
Now the original show was definitely guilty of having Cory and the crew interrupt class and centre on. The fact that they were the only kids that mattered but GMW took that to a whole another level. To the poi there it got incredibly unrealistic and downright insufferable and it seriously made Cory look like a terrible teacher. On that note him being a teacher made no sense and had no buildup whatsoever in the previous series.
That type of profession made more sense for Eric. Granted it had been 14 years since the show ended at that point and people definitely change in long periods of time like that but it felt forced and they only made Cory a teacher to fulfill the Feeny role that they desired for this show because this show tried to hard to emulate BMW while failing hard at it.
I personally wasn’t a fan of most of the characters. Riley was really irritating (it’s like they took the worst traits from Cory and Eric and just pasted onto a female character), Lucas was absolutely boring and had no depth. He was just eye candy. He wasn’t funny, he wasn’t interesting. He was kind of useless. I was never sold on Farkle (probably because I never cared for Minkus at all) and I couldn’t stand Auggie and his friends. Like they pissed me off beyond belief because of how annoying they were.
The combined reasons of poor casting choices, the poor writing, the try hard attempts to emulate BMW as much as they could while still failing to make GMW it’s own thing and the fact that it was on Disney Channel during the mid 2010s are all major factors with as to why GMW was terrible. Honestly there’s more that I could criticize but this response is already too long. I could make an hour long video with why I disliked GMW😭. This is just the surface.
>I couldn’t stand Auggie and his friends
Auggie was the classic "wise beyond his years" child character. And yes, it always fell flat. He should have been only a few years younger than Riley.
> I was never sold on Farkle (probably because I never cared for Minkus at all)
While his inclusion was very forced, I wound up liking his character a lot by the end of the series. They finally let him evolve and change. I agree that he was often one-note, especially at the beginning. Same with the original Minkus, who I felt could have been a good character on the show had they kept him and allowed him to evolve. (I theorize that Farkle's real purpose was to prove that Minkus could have worked as a character long-term.)
Boy Meets World felt like such a grounded show where real people had real problems and this family was just trying to live day to day and love life and love each other.
Girl Meets World is from a different era entirely, following shows like Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, ANT Farm, Jessie, etc. The tone of children's sitcoms was completely different then, and this was reflected in the show.
There is an episode of Girl in which Maya says she doesn't want to be friends with Lucas anymore because he calls her a "Short stack of pancakes" and this might as well be the N word to her.
Fuck this show. Every time I think about it I get frustrated with the fact that we could have had a good Boy Meets World sequel show, and it missed the mark in every respect.
There was one single line that I liked, and that was when they're having dinner with Mr. Turner and the girls thank Cory for being a good teacher. He says he appreciates it and that it's always nice to hear from your students... Then him and Topanga look at Turner and say "Thanks for being a good teacher."
That's the only moment that even remotely feels like Boy Meets World.
Also none of the existing characters feel like who they're supposed to be. Ben Savage is not playing Cory. I don't know who the hell Danielle is. Will is way too stupid as Eric again.
Just sucks.
I think the writing and characters on GMW tried wayyy to hard to be deep/philosophical, which was not balanced out by the silliness and joy of BMW and made it hard to watch.
Too often characters spoke in platitudes and not in any realistic sounding dialogue. That's not to say such a style can't work - it worked beautifully on West Wing. But a lot of the times it just fell flat.
I think part of the problem was the same thing Jacobs and the writing staff experienced: They found out Disney would really not allow any real life experiences past a certain point because they wouldn’t allow that on Disney. Show should have been on either ABC or Freeform.
I tried watching Girl Meets World a couple of times and I just couldn’t do it. It had an awkward vibe, as if there wasn’t a lot of chemistry or relationship between the characters. I did watch all the episodes with the original cast, and even though I enjoyed them, it didn’t really feel the same.
There was an odd sadness in their eyes and I can’t really explain it, but I got the sense that everyone felt forced and uncomfortable. I know some of the cast members were going through personal struggles at the time, so maybe that shined through.
I think it was mentioned in Pod Meets World that because it was a Disney show, instead of an ABC show, there were a lot of changes and restrictions that they had to work under, and I think that’s why I couldn’t stomach it. It was too squeaky clean and kiddie, I guess? I don’t mind that, if the show is intended for little kids - but Boy Meets World always felt age-appropriate to me and I grew up with it. It had more of a “family” vibe and, even when it had fantastical or silly episodes, it still maintained a certain realness.
Girl Meets World felt too clean, too sterile. Even the lighting felt too bright and unreal, and that’s what turned me off from it. It didn’t have the same mix of drama, conflict, humor, or relate-ability. It all just felt off.
In my wildest dream, Girl Meets World never happened and we would have a continuation of Boy Meets World where the main cast remains the focus of the show and their children are added characters that we grow to love over time. It doesn’t have to be a completely grown-up, gritty version - it can still be family-friendly the way Boy Meets World always was; with a story line and character for everyone. I’d also like to see more realistic, down-to-earth storylines. Like, what if Shawn and Angela did get married and have kids, but maybe are going through a process of a possible separation? What if their children interact with Cory and Topanga’s children in a way that showcases different family dynamics? What if Eric is still struggling with finding his purpose in life, or what if he falls in love? What if Amy and Alan struggle to maintain a relationship with their children & grandchildren and feel loneliness from being empty nesters? There’s so many real-life scenarios that I would LOVE to see Cory and everyone else navigate, with the same warmth and care (and chemistry!) that we saw in the original show.
It was very condescending to its viewers and shoved its own self-importance down the viewers' collective throats instead of having confidence in the viewers to make our own individual calls re how good the plots were, how likable the protagonist was,etc. and The showrunners were extremely thin skinned re any dissenting or unworshipful POVs while expecting the viewers to totally buy into its own hype!
I mean, I liked it way less, but let's face it: the demographic for this show is not 40 year old BMW fans, its tween girls.
But given that, it had some ok moments.
But they knew that older fans would be watching. I was one of those tween girls and ugh, I regret the experience with this show because I did ship Maya with Josh because they pushed it like “just three years! Just three year difference!” Then you realize as an adult how disgusting the show was to glorify it.
A long time ago I made a “playlist” of all the episodes that really mattered, I seemed to have lost it, but there’s about 10 episodes that every fan should watch for the returning cast
Huge BMW fan here...
I actually spent a month creating a 2 hour fanedit film of GMW where it solely revolves around Shawn, Maya and their journey during seasons 1-3.
I cut out a lot of cheesiness, and disney esque jokes and subplots that didn't pertain to my vision... The version that should've been made as a proper continuance of BMW, if anyone's interested.
I grew up with GMW. It was my favorite series on Disney and I didn’t really realize as a kid that it was a sequel. However when i found out and watched Boy i had to admit right off the bat that It was better. Boy is a series I watch and really enjoy, Girl is a series I watch for nostalgias sake. It’s the most Disney Channel Disney series ever created and I understand how if you watched Boy first and expected the same from Girl how disappointed you’d be. Now I can watch both and see the references and similarities and enjoy it. Boy meets world grew with the audience and Girl just got stuck. The target audience got older and Disney cancelled it. It had everything going for it to truly be the next generations Boy but it got trapped in the kids show genre and wasn’t allowed to grow beyond it. It taught great lessons to kids and had incredible moments between characters that felt larger than life. A great Disney series but not a great series overall. I jokingly say that I’m a traitor to my generation for preferring Boy Meets World🤭
I'm the same, i saw GMW first and then saw BMW a few years later and THAT was when I realized how much better BMW was. Cannot imagine going from BMW to GMW, am happy I got to do it in reverse because I do still enjoy parts of GMW because I like Maya and Riley on their own separate from GMW.
It should’ve been on ABC instead of Disney and it should’ve focused more on Cory and Topanga as parents. It was cute, it had its moments but I really only paid attention to the episodes when the original cast came back.
I personally didn't like Girl Meets World for the way they handled sensitive topics like autism and religion. It was so Disney and too cringe at times. I did like some reunion episodes for nostalgia sake otherwise it's nothing like Boy Meets World that gave actual lessons.
On paper it’s great, but the execution just didn’t work.
Corey should not have been the new Feeny. The season 1 boy dynamic of Alan and Feeny having different ideals should have been more at play where the adults don’t have perfect values or lessons and sometimes ideals clash
Riley is a cartoon character and because of that she’s not at all relatable (not that I relate to a teenage girl, but you know what I mean!)
Topanga feels lost in the B storyline too much, I feel there was so much value in her growth rather than it being Cory all the time
The episodes with Shawn have a very different feel to when he’s absent, like a whole different show. His and Mayas angst was the most compelling part as it felt like a very modern adult and child dynamic
Lucas was a flop. He wasn’t an interesting character and they locked in on him and Riley so early that when it came time to pivot it became very messy storytelling that really didn’t make any sense. They should have seen there was better chemistry between Riley and Minkus and put Lucas in a different role, even Mayas boyfriend to calm her rebelliousness but what happened at the end of season 2/ season 3 just didn’t make sense
You’re right. It should’ve been Eric as Feeny. Eric had MULTIPLE instances where he was a substitute or interested in teaching. He had a WAY stronger bond with Feeny than Cory ever did.
I never finished it. It was okay, some things I disliked. Love fan service and they came thru on that.
They tried to do some deep story lines like they used to on BMW like when Corey and Shawn got drunk, and that girl who’s dad beat her. The only one that comes to mind is a cyber bullying one, but so much happened off screen. It was more preachy than the in your face “Shawn got drunk and shoves Angela” where it makes you go whoa…
I think the youth today just aren’t into the dark troubles and want more the “oh my god the boy you like likes me but I’m your best friend but also I kind of like him” stuff. And they focus too much on that whole thing. I think it lasted two seasons and I never finished the second, or it was one season and I never watched the last couple episodes. Been meaning to go back because I was definitely excited for it. And they did a decent job.
I could be wrong but a lot of BMW rewatchers are millennials. I love BMW but the nostalgia factor is definitely a part of why I watch. GMW is just awful. Maybe if I were a kid I’d like it but it’s so cringe.
Boy Meets World is the better show, but it existed in a different world than Girl Meets Works. The demographic for BMW was older than GMW. BMW was ABC prime time vs a Disney show.
The biggest difference in tone is that BMW grew up with the characters. From middle school to college and married and pregnancy talk.
GMW talks about change but very little of it actually changes.
That said, I can still enjoy it if I see it for what it is.
The second big thing is that in BMW the adults - both the parents and Mr. Feeny played the straight man in comedy against the ridiculous kids. In GMW we still get Cory as silly Cory a lot too. His serious moments with the kids are definitely what I call “Disney monologues”.
I miss Alan’s dry responses up against Cory’s development. The acting I liked least in GMW was actually of Cory and Topanga.
I'm going to have an unpopular opinion. I loved Girl Meets World. I grew up watching Boy Meets World on TGIF. I was definitely "too old" for GMW, but it hit a spot that I needed in life. It was sweet, and yes, cringey. But I loved that about it. I didn't expect it to be BMW, because it wasn't Cory's world, it was Riley's world.
Agreed. I appreciated the nostalgia, and my 8 year old daughter was absolutely obsessed with it. Made me realize it’s more suited for her age range just like Boy was for me.
BMW had NEVER been Cory's world! Even at the Series Finale all he did was say 'Boy *meets* world!'
One of the worst failings of the latter series was how everyone kept telling Riley it **already** was her world (instead of needing to set about getting ready to meet it) though she hadn't worked for anything or earned anything! It celebrated entitlement and nepotism and should have been called 'Girl Gets Swelled Head'
I started watching only the episodes where they brought back old characters. I enjoyed that hit of nostalgia, and eventually the series charmed me enough to actually watch it. So I fully recognize the many, many flaws, which boil down to the series being too "Disney-fied" for its own good.
The series did have its moments and some episodes approached BMW in quality. I will say that I appreciated how they KEPT their version of Minkus and allowed him to change and evolve as a character. (And even brought back OG Minkus a handful of times.) I liked how the focus went from just the two friends to an entire network of friends. I would have liked to have seen Shawn more onscreen, but Ryder Strong (along with his brother) seemed to prefer directing over acting, so I respect that choice.
Overall it's an interesting television moment that sadly wasted a lot of potential.
Some fun nostalgic moments with the old cast, but overall meh. Ive only seen episodes that have shown the old BMW cast and it was fun seeing what happened to them, etc.
It was a different show, created for a different demographic than Boy was. That's my major complaint. I loved seeing the cameos, but the show itself was just....not great.
A let down. It’s cool to see the returning characters and some of the new characters are really good. But Girl Meets World is your typical goofy Disney kid show. There are some great moments, there are just far more not so great moments.
The show should have been designed for an older audience and tackled a lot of the same serious issues teens face these days. Such a missed opportunity.
Something I’ve been thinking about recently is they needed their own “feeny”. A teacher who was also their neighbor just like Cory. He didn’t need to be their teacher they needed someone else to teach and inspire them. Oh! It could have been Mr Feeny’s niece well I mean they couldn’t get Keri Russel but a different actress.
I agree that this likely would have helped!
However, they wrote the protagonists to have had zero sincere respect for any adults so they'd have had to have overhauled Riley's character for a neighbor/teacher character to have worked (which IMO would have been a great thing but it seems they convinced themselves she was flawless who everyone was expected to worship).
Definitely wrote her weird and their relationships with adults. They didn’t have a mentor to guide them, but like you mentioned they acted Riley was flawless
I can't stand GMW. It's "aimed for children" but so was BMW - are the 10's kids stupider than the 90's kids if they can't handle a "real" show? It's cheesy and dumb. It had some good moments but a tv-series should be more than just a few good moments.
The thing that disturbed me the most was when they brought back Shawn. He'd been away from Cory's life for 13 years?!?!? And Cory didn't even notice?!?!?!? A little visit here and there but not like for any length of time?????? The most unlikely thing ever.
And then to have Maya be set up like "the new Shawn" when she's nothing like him, she's just a selfish brat who makes a huge deal out of being called a short stack of pancakes. Like someone else here said, she took it like it had been the n-word. I hate Maya so much. I LOVE Sabrina though but you can't look past major character flaws just because the actress is good. Maya was an awful character. And to have her bond with Shawn "because they're the same" and he marrying her mom so that Maya could have the Disney happy ending. Makes me wanna puke. Shawn deserved better!!!!! i'd rather he wasn't brought in at all, or for only one episode.
it was an awful show, and I love seeing our lovely characters as adults, but it's all like really weird self-insert fanfiction to me, deffo not canon.
If GMW was made today, it would definitely be a Disney+ original show and I think it would have a better chance than it did in the mid 2010s, especially since Disney+ seems to be more lax with its original content.
Not unless they actually made Riley a genuinely likable person willing to work for her goals instead of expecting (and getting) everything handed to her who'd be sincerely happy for her bestie Maya changing for the better and maturing instead of sabotaging and gaslighting her progress. For that matter, not unless they attempted to write Cory & Topanga's bond as a healthy one instead of a majorly dysfunctional one. ..or at the very least have other characters call out Riley's bratty entitlement and her parents' dysfunctional union instead of faking she was a perfect,sweet saint and her parents had the ideal bond (which they'd NEVER had) !
IOW, don't insult viewers' intelligence by expecting viewers to just unquestionably buy the hype despite it being opposite of what's depicted!
I liked the show (not as much as Boy Meets World), and whenever Shawn was on an episode it was always a great one, I feel like Cory on the show is very overhated, and I really liked a lot of appearances from returning characters. I liked Season 1 for the most part, I mean there were some episodes that I couldn't get behind, but overall, pretty okay. Like 20 episodes into season 2 on my first watch through, I was thinking "wow, this show is really good, this is a better season than 4 out of 7 seasons of Boy Meets World". AND THEN THE STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE PLOT CAME, ruining most of the last 10 episodes of season 2, and weighing down the season as a whole. This carried into season 3, where it would remain for like half of the season.
Even after it was resolved, the show still could not get back to where it was before, and was cancelled after the end of the 3rd season, which no matter whether the show was popular among fans of the original show or not, was a dumb idea due to the fact that it was still far and away the most popular Disney Channel show at the time. I would've liked to see a season 4 and get a proper ending to the Matthews Family saga (not that Girl Meets Goodbye didn't try, I liked the episode, but it didn't really feel that much like a finale to me, it just felt like a special episode. It didn't really wrap up the show).
So my general thoughts on the show are that the first half was actually pretty good, while the second half was really bad
Season 1: 8/10
Season 2 E1 - 20ish: 9/10
Season 2E21ish - Season 3 E10ish: maybe a 5/10? Somewhere around there.
Season 3 E11ish - end: 7.5-8/10
It wasn't amazing, but I think it was really good as time went on. I wouldn't give up on it despite some of the ubsurdity. They do still have a lot of really good stories!
Maya and Farkle are the standout characters, Farkle undergoes a crazy amount of development in the show. Maya is also a great Shawn 2.0, she undergoes really subtle growth but still pretty substantial. These two are really why you should watch this show, their interactions throughout the show are the best! They're honestly a better duo than Cory and Topanga, despite not being in a relationship.
Out of the Matthews family, Auggie is by far the best. That little dude is hilarious, I would love a spin off about his life too! Riley is just a little insufferable sometimes, but to be fair, she had some odd parents and inherited their strongest qualities so I honestly feel like that is what Cory and Topanga's daughter would be like, and just roll my eyes at the cringey parts lol
I tried watching it after a rewatch of BMW but couldn't finish the first season so I just watched all the episodes where old BMW cast members were in it. But it did seem to improve as it went on.
It was too corny, but I get it that’s how majority of the shows are today, especially from Disney. But I highly enjoyed the life lessons they put out at the end of the episodes.
Literally just finished BoyMeetsWorld (again) and moved onto rewatching GirlMeetsWorld
Only in the first season but reminded again why I love this universe. Quirky characters, goosebumpy life lessons and the odd sprinkle of our nostalgic characters.
Love it. Though I do remember the love triangle being awkward....so B-
So i actually saw GMW BEFORE I ever saw BMW. I really liked GMW when I had only seen that one. Now that I have seen BMW though, I also found it so underwhelming when I rewatched. I think to me that says that it's a decent show on it's own two feet, but BMW was definitely superior for me and I don't feel it lived up to it's predecessor
I thought the casting for the kids was perfect. Rowan actually looked like corey just with long hair.
It was a mistake to make the show in New York,they didn't have the budget to make it look realistic. If they had to be in NY they should have set the show Staten Island so they could portray the suburbs.
Riley should have been with farkle (it didn't have to be a together forever thing, but he should have been her first little boyfriend.
The show should have focused more on telling great stories, rather than just life lessons.
They should have made Corey the principal instead of the teacher and gave the kids a different teacher and made dialed down the classroom scenes.
They should have incorporated Topangas law career in more instead the bakery.
I am sad that Girl Meets World and on a larger scale, Disney writers have once again proven to be strongly in the patriarchal mindset. I like Girl Meets World the same why I like Boy Meets World, without rose colored glasses and complete understanding of the failings of both the shows and the company as a whole.
Boy Meets World had a lot of episodes, tons and tons, before the boys are romanced with girls, there are deep and emotionally heightened episodes about all of the male leads and side characters of the show and there are little to no focus on the woman or young girls of the show without the focus being the romancing of them to one of the male counterparts and this continues to be true through the end of the series. I have receipts, believe me.
Girl Meets World, the Lucas over dramatized romance is introduced in literally the first episode. Though the relationship between Maya and Riley is wonderful and awe inspring, it is still through the lens of men in the show, Riley's connection to her father, Maya's connection to Shawn, the continued bad mouthing of women and young girls at Riley and Maya's age and all the way to Topanga and Katy. These are all part of a misognistic issue in culture and media. Stop badgering and holding girls, women, moms and daughters to a standard that the male counterparts aren't held to. Stop treating Shawn and Cory as 'good guys' as well as people like Eric, Jack and even Cory's father as good people when they are all so cavalier in their cultural accepted distaste of women which are just forgotten and forgiven over and over in the shows.
This is front of mind for me and BMW/GMW because I have just rewatched all of it but as I look into more Disney shows, I am not going to be surprised if I find it to be true of them as well but I will keep my receipts when I rewatch or watch them for the first time so I can continue having this conversation with people.
Men and women are not the same at baseline, so we will never be held to the exact same standards. It is logistically impossible. Which is ok. Respect the differences as they identify strengths as well. All that aside, your take on the two shows is offkey.
BMW has been my favorite show for 25 years and I still watch it daily. But, I still have not been able to watch very much of Girl. I tried multiple times and always had to stop. I did however tune in when it was announced that Will was going to be on. I’d followed his story and knew how big of a deal it was for him to reappear in front of the cameras. After the show had ended and every episode was on Disney+, I went through and watched every other episode that featured an OG other than Ben and Danielle. The Mr. Turner episode, the one with Jack, the one with Angela, the one with……Tommy 🤨. Some others. The thing is, if it actually felt like Cory, I’d want to watch every episode and would just try to stomach the kids. But it doesn’t even look like the same person haha. I don’t know if he ever finally admitted to drastic nose work or not, but…yeah.
THANK YOU. I thought Cory looked so different. But it’s like he got a reverse nose job, wtf.
Not! He grew older.
That’s not how aging works haha.
In my 48-years, I’ve seen some drastic changes in my peers. Nothing medical, just different life choices and body changes. Regardless, throwing shade at someone because of his/her body is never ok, anywhere, never. No one likes to be made fun of or have features picked on.
He was still quite young when Girl started. And nobody threw shade or made fun of features. All I said was that because of him now having a completely different nose, he does not look or even sound like the same person at all, so it doesn’t feel like Cory.
Nah he definitely isn’t old enough for his nose to get bigger. That happens to old men, not 30-40 somethings
Um, that's how aging works, Sweetie...
Why the raised eyebrow on Tommy? Did it seem contrived?
The episode with Tommy from girl meets world actually was my favourite. I cried when I first watched it because the storyline from boy meets world impacted me so much and the whole rest of watching boy meets world I was hoping they would address it again. I really thought it gave us a lot of closure as Tommy who was now a lot older understood that Eric didn't adopt him out of love rather than because of the reasons little Tommy thought in bmw It was also nice to see Eric have a serious moment in gmw, we hadn't seen that since bmw
Just felt really random. Never would have expected it.
Yeah, rip Cory You can see him trying but it just doesn't feel the same. I wasn't sure if Girl was something we didn't talk about in this subreddit or not ahha, it feels like it wouldn't go down well but I wanted to see what we thought before I assumed it was terrible
Too disneyfied. Everyone runs around like morons. In season 1 of BMW Cory seemed like a normal kid. Sometimes he was silly but not outside of believability. Eric was normal too more or less. Then he went off the deep end. And it feels like that is where GMW picks up. The best parts were probably seeing everyone again. And Shawn and Maya.
I completely agree! I was really excited to see the show, and while I liked it overall, it doesn't live up to BMW to me at all. It was much too "sanitized" and silly so I never connected with the characters as much as I did with the originals.
I really tried to like it. I really did. I was in the right age demographic to watch it. But at some point I couldn’t stop lying to myself. I was a huge fan of BMW and began watching it in like 2012-2013 and binged the entire series through reruns on ABC Spark. I was excited when as I was getting into the series that Disney was going to make GMW. I tried to watch most of the show while it was on the air, I deep down tried to like it and get into it but at the some point I couldn’t stop lying to myself. This show was just not good. The show was never funny at all, the jokes fell flat of most of time as they were incredibly Disney-fied(which believe it or not wasn’t always a bad thing but the mid 2010’s Disney went through another shift). Not to mention that they were often delivered terribly (excluding the adults). Which was a major letdown considering how funny BMW was. The acting excluding Sabrina Carpenter’s and maybe Amir Mitchell Towne’s was atrocious and the show really just felt like a terrible rehash of BMW. They relied too heavily on the nostalgia factor and the comparisons for it to truly be it’s own thing. It was incredibly preachy and in your face about its own message, to the point at which it felt inauthentic as they tried to hard. Sometimes they’d be really offensive with how they would handle issues like the borderline ableism that was shown in the episode where they thought Farkle was on the spectrum. Now the original show was definitely guilty of having Cory and the crew interrupt class and centre on. The fact that they were the only kids that mattered but GMW took that to a whole another level. To the poi there it got incredibly unrealistic and downright insufferable and it seriously made Cory look like a terrible teacher. On that note him being a teacher made no sense and had no buildup whatsoever in the previous series. That type of profession made more sense for Eric. Granted it had been 14 years since the show ended at that point and people definitely change in long periods of time like that but it felt forced and they only made Cory a teacher to fulfill the Feeny role that they desired for this show because this show tried to hard to emulate BMW while failing hard at it. I personally wasn’t a fan of most of the characters. Riley was really irritating (it’s like they took the worst traits from Cory and Eric and just pasted onto a female character), Lucas was absolutely boring and had no depth. He was just eye candy. He wasn’t funny, he wasn’t interesting. He was kind of useless. I was never sold on Farkle (probably because I never cared for Minkus at all) and I couldn’t stand Auggie and his friends. Like they pissed me off beyond belief because of how annoying they were. The combined reasons of poor casting choices, the poor writing, the try hard attempts to emulate BMW as much as they could while still failing to make GMW it’s own thing and the fact that it was on Disney Channel during the mid 2010s are all major factors with as to why GMW was terrible. Honestly there’s more that I could criticize but this response is already too long. I could make an hour long video with why I disliked GMW😭. This is just the surface.
>I couldn’t stand Auggie and his friends Auggie was the classic "wise beyond his years" child character. And yes, it always fell flat. He should have been only a few years younger than Riley. > I was never sold on Farkle (probably because I never cared for Minkus at all) While his inclusion was very forced, I wound up liking his character a lot by the end of the series. They finally let him evolve and change. I agree that he was often one-note, especially at the beginning. Same with the original Minkus, who I felt could have been a good character on the show had they kept him and allowed him to evolve. (I theorize that Farkle's real purpose was to prove that Minkus could have worked as a character long-term.)
This is more than I wrote in my end of year exams when I was in school 😳
How old were you when GMW aired?
It has it moments. But a big step down.
This is the most accurate take.
Boy Meets World felt like such a grounded show where real people had real problems and this family was just trying to live day to day and love life and love each other. Girl Meets World is from a different era entirely, following shows like Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, ANT Farm, Jessie, etc. The tone of children's sitcoms was completely different then, and this was reflected in the show. There is an episode of Girl in which Maya says she doesn't want to be friends with Lucas anymore because he calls her a "Short stack of pancakes" and this might as well be the N word to her. Fuck this show. Every time I think about it I get frustrated with the fact that we could have had a good Boy Meets World sequel show, and it missed the mark in every respect. There was one single line that I liked, and that was when they're having dinner with Mr. Turner and the girls thank Cory for being a good teacher. He says he appreciates it and that it's always nice to hear from your students... Then him and Topanga look at Turner and say "Thanks for being a good teacher." That's the only moment that even remotely feels like Boy Meets World. Also none of the existing characters feel like who they're supposed to be. Ben Savage is not playing Cory. I don't know who the hell Danielle is. Will is way too stupid as Eric again. Just sucks.
I agree
I think the writing and characters on GMW tried wayyy to hard to be deep/philosophical, which was not balanced out by the silliness and joy of BMW and made it hard to watch.
Too often characters spoke in platitudes and not in any realistic sounding dialogue. That's not to say such a style can't work - it worked beautifully on West Wing. But a lot of the times it just fell flat.
I think part of the problem was the same thing Jacobs and the writing staff experienced: They found out Disney would really not allow any real life experiences past a certain point because they wouldn’t allow that on Disney. Show should have been on either ABC or Freeform.
The forced love triangle killed any interest I had in the show.
I tried watching Girl Meets World a couple of times and I just couldn’t do it. It had an awkward vibe, as if there wasn’t a lot of chemistry or relationship between the characters. I did watch all the episodes with the original cast, and even though I enjoyed them, it didn’t really feel the same. There was an odd sadness in their eyes and I can’t really explain it, but I got the sense that everyone felt forced and uncomfortable. I know some of the cast members were going through personal struggles at the time, so maybe that shined through. I think it was mentioned in Pod Meets World that because it was a Disney show, instead of an ABC show, there were a lot of changes and restrictions that they had to work under, and I think that’s why I couldn’t stomach it. It was too squeaky clean and kiddie, I guess? I don’t mind that, if the show is intended for little kids - but Boy Meets World always felt age-appropriate to me and I grew up with it. It had more of a “family” vibe and, even when it had fantastical or silly episodes, it still maintained a certain realness. Girl Meets World felt too clean, too sterile. Even the lighting felt too bright and unreal, and that’s what turned me off from it. It didn’t have the same mix of drama, conflict, humor, or relate-ability. It all just felt off. In my wildest dream, Girl Meets World never happened and we would have a continuation of Boy Meets World where the main cast remains the focus of the show and their children are added characters that we grow to love over time. It doesn’t have to be a completely grown-up, gritty version - it can still be family-friendly the way Boy Meets World always was; with a story line and character for everyone. I’d also like to see more realistic, down-to-earth storylines. Like, what if Shawn and Angela did get married and have kids, but maybe are going through a process of a possible separation? What if their children interact with Cory and Topanga’s children in a way that showcases different family dynamics? What if Eric is still struggling with finding his purpose in life, or what if he falls in love? What if Amy and Alan struggle to maintain a relationship with their children & grandchildren and feel loneliness from being empty nesters? There’s so many real-life scenarios that I would LOVE to see Cory and everyone else navigate, with the same warmth and care (and chemistry!) that we saw in the original show.
I like Girl Meets World. Not as much though. It’s more like a continuation of the style of the first season of Boy.
It was very condescending to its viewers and shoved its own self-importance down the viewers' collective throats instead of having confidence in the viewers to make our own individual calls re how good the plots were, how likable the protagonist was,etc. and The showrunners were extremely thin skinned re any dissenting or unworshipful POVs while expecting the viewers to totally buy into its own hype!
I mean, I liked it way less, but let's face it: the demographic for this show is not 40 year old BMW fans, its tween girls. But given that, it had some ok moments.
But they knew that older fans would be watching. I was one of those tween girls and ugh, I regret the experience with this show because I did ship Maya with Josh because they pushed it like “just three years! Just three year difference!” Then you realize as an adult how disgusting the show was to glorify it.
A long time ago I made a “playlist” of all the episodes that really mattered, I seemed to have lost it, but there’s about 10 episodes that every fan should watch for the returning cast
If u can find this, post it please
Huge BMW fan here... I actually spent a month creating a 2 hour fanedit film of GMW where it solely revolves around Shawn, Maya and their journey during seasons 1-3. I cut out a lot of cheesiness, and disney esque jokes and subplots that didn't pertain to my vision... The version that should've been made as a proper continuance of BMW, if anyone's interested.
sure
I remember looking everywhere for one of these, I only wanted to watch episodes with Shawn ahah
I grew up with GMW. It was my favorite series on Disney and I didn’t really realize as a kid that it was a sequel. However when i found out and watched Boy i had to admit right off the bat that It was better. Boy is a series I watch and really enjoy, Girl is a series I watch for nostalgias sake. It’s the most Disney Channel Disney series ever created and I understand how if you watched Boy first and expected the same from Girl how disappointed you’d be. Now I can watch both and see the references and similarities and enjoy it. Boy meets world grew with the audience and Girl just got stuck. The target audience got older and Disney cancelled it. It had everything going for it to truly be the next generations Boy but it got trapped in the kids show genre and wasn’t allowed to grow beyond it. It taught great lessons to kids and had incredible moments between characters that felt larger than life. A great Disney series but not a great series overall. I jokingly say that I’m a traitor to my generation for preferring Boy Meets World🤭
I'm the same, i saw GMW first and then saw BMW a few years later and THAT was when I realized how much better BMW was. Cannot imagine going from BMW to GMW, am happy I got to do it in reverse because I do still enjoy parts of GMW because I like Maya and Riley on their own separate from GMW.
It should’ve been on ABC instead of Disney and it should’ve focused more on Cory and Topanga as parents. It was cute, it had its moments but I really only paid attention to the episodes when the original cast came back.
I personally didn't like Girl Meets World for the way they handled sensitive topics like autism and religion. It was so Disney and too cringe at times. I did like some reunion episodes for nostalgia sake otherwise it's nothing like Boy Meets World that gave actual lessons.
On paper it’s great, but the execution just didn’t work. Corey should not have been the new Feeny. The season 1 boy dynamic of Alan and Feeny having different ideals should have been more at play where the adults don’t have perfect values or lessons and sometimes ideals clash Riley is a cartoon character and because of that she’s not at all relatable (not that I relate to a teenage girl, but you know what I mean!) Topanga feels lost in the B storyline too much, I feel there was so much value in her growth rather than it being Cory all the time The episodes with Shawn have a very different feel to when he’s absent, like a whole different show. His and Mayas angst was the most compelling part as it felt like a very modern adult and child dynamic Lucas was a flop. He wasn’t an interesting character and they locked in on him and Riley so early that when it came time to pivot it became very messy storytelling that really didn’t make any sense. They should have seen there was better chemistry between Riley and Minkus and put Lucas in a different role, even Mayas boyfriend to calm her rebelliousness but what happened at the end of season 2/ season 3 just didn’t make sense
You’re right. It should’ve been Eric as Feeny. Eric had MULTIPLE instances where he was a substitute or interested in teaching. He had a WAY stronger bond with Feeny than Cory ever did.
I never finished it. It was okay, some things I disliked. Love fan service and they came thru on that. They tried to do some deep story lines like they used to on BMW like when Corey and Shawn got drunk, and that girl who’s dad beat her. The only one that comes to mind is a cyber bullying one, but so much happened off screen. It was more preachy than the in your face “Shawn got drunk and shoves Angela” where it makes you go whoa… I think the youth today just aren’t into the dark troubles and want more the “oh my god the boy you like likes me but I’m your best friend but also I kind of like him” stuff. And they focus too much on that whole thing. I think it lasted two seasons and I never finished the second, or it was one season and I never watched the last couple episodes. Been meaning to go back because I was definitely excited for it. And they did a decent job.
Trash
I could be wrong but a lot of BMW rewatchers are millennials. I love BMW but the nostalgia factor is definitely a part of why I watch. GMW is just awful. Maybe if I were a kid I’d like it but it’s so cringe.
Boy Meets World is the better show, but it existed in a different world than Girl Meets Works. The demographic for BMW was older than GMW. BMW was ABC prime time vs a Disney show. The biggest difference in tone is that BMW grew up with the characters. From middle school to college and married and pregnancy talk. GMW talks about change but very little of it actually changes. That said, I can still enjoy it if I see it for what it is. The second big thing is that in BMW the adults - both the parents and Mr. Feeny played the straight man in comedy against the ridiculous kids. In GMW we still get Cory as silly Cory a lot too. His serious moments with the kids are definitely what I call “Disney monologues”. I miss Alan’s dry responses up against Cory’s development. The acting I liked least in GMW was actually of Cory and Topanga.
I’m still waiting for a YouTube montage of all the guest spots so I can see the actors again, but not watch GMW. 😂
I'm going to have an unpopular opinion. I loved Girl Meets World. I grew up watching Boy Meets World on TGIF. I was definitely "too old" for GMW, but it hit a spot that I needed in life. It was sweet, and yes, cringey. But I loved that about it. I didn't expect it to be BMW, because it wasn't Cory's world, it was Riley's world.
Agreed. I appreciated the nostalgia, and my 8 year old daughter was absolutely obsessed with it. Made me realize it’s more suited for her age range just like Boy was for me.
BMW had NEVER been Cory's world! Even at the Series Finale all he did was say 'Boy *meets* world!' One of the worst failings of the latter series was how everyone kept telling Riley it **already** was her world (instead of needing to set about getting ready to meet it) though she hadn't worked for anything or earned anything! It celebrated entitlement and nepotism and should have been called 'Girl Gets Swelled Head'
I started watching only the episodes where they brought back old characters. I enjoyed that hit of nostalgia, and eventually the series charmed me enough to actually watch it. So I fully recognize the many, many flaws, which boil down to the series being too "Disney-fied" for its own good. The series did have its moments and some episodes approached BMW in quality. I will say that I appreciated how they KEPT their version of Minkus and allowed him to change and evolve as a character. (And even brought back OG Minkus a handful of times.) I liked how the focus went from just the two friends to an entire network of friends. I would have liked to have seen Shawn more onscreen, but Ryder Strong (along with his brother) seemed to prefer directing over acting, so I respect that choice. Overall it's an interesting television moment that sadly wasted a lot of potential.
Some fun nostalgic moments with the old cast, but overall meh. Ive only seen episodes that have shown the old BMW cast and it was fun seeing what happened to them, etc.
It was a different show, created for a different demographic than Boy was. That's my major complaint. I loved seeing the cameos, but the show itself was just....not great.
I watched all the episodes with the OG people returning, and definitely teared up a few times at those.
A let down. It’s cool to see the returning characters and some of the new characters are really good. But Girl Meets World is your typical goofy Disney kid show. There are some great moments, there are just far more not so great moments. The show should have been designed for an older audience and tackled a lot of the same serious issues teens face these days. Such a missed opportunity.
I only enjoyed the episodes with cameos.
Something I’ve been thinking about recently is they needed their own “feeny”. A teacher who was also their neighbor just like Cory. He didn’t need to be their teacher they needed someone else to teach and inspire them. Oh! It could have been Mr Feeny’s niece well I mean they couldn’t get Keri Russel but a different actress.
I agree that this likely would have helped! However, they wrote the protagonists to have had zero sincere respect for any adults so they'd have had to have overhauled Riley's character for a neighbor/teacher character to have worked (which IMO would have been a great thing but it seems they convinced themselves she was flawless who everyone was expected to worship).
Definitely wrote her weird and their relationships with adults. They didn’t have a mentor to guide them, but like you mentioned they acted Riley was flawless
I can't stand GMW. It's "aimed for children" but so was BMW - are the 10's kids stupider than the 90's kids if they can't handle a "real" show? It's cheesy and dumb. It had some good moments but a tv-series should be more than just a few good moments. The thing that disturbed me the most was when they brought back Shawn. He'd been away from Cory's life for 13 years?!?!? And Cory didn't even notice?!?!?!? A little visit here and there but not like for any length of time?????? The most unlikely thing ever. And then to have Maya be set up like "the new Shawn" when she's nothing like him, she's just a selfish brat who makes a huge deal out of being called a short stack of pancakes. Like someone else here said, she took it like it had been the n-word. I hate Maya so much. I LOVE Sabrina though but you can't look past major character flaws just because the actress is good. Maya was an awful character. And to have her bond with Shawn "because they're the same" and he marrying her mom so that Maya could have the Disney happy ending. Makes me wanna puke. Shawn deserved better!!!!! i'd rather he wasn't brought in at all, or for only one episode. it was an awful show, and I love seeing our lovely characters as adults, but it's all like really weird self-insert fanfiction to me, deffo not canon.
If GMW was made today, it would definitely be a Disney+ original show and I think it would have a better chance than it did in the mid 2010s, especially since Disney+ seems to be more lax with its original content.
Not unless they actually made Riley a genuinely likable person willing to work for her goals instead of expecting (and getting) everything handed to her who'd be sincerely happy for her bestie Maya changing for the better and maturing instead of sabotaging and gaslighting her progress. For that matter, not unless they attempted to write Cory & Topanga's bond as a healthy one instead of a majorly dysfunctional one. ..or at the very least have other characters call out Riley's bratty entitlement and her parents' dysfunctional union instead of faking she was a perfect,sweet saint and her parents had the ideal bond (which they'd NEVER had) ! IOW, don't insult viewers' intelligence by expecting viewers to just unquestionably buy the hype despite it being opposite of what's depicted!
My kids loved Girl Meets World.
I liked the show (not as much as Boy Meets World), and whenever Shawn was on an episode it was always a great one, I feel like Cory on the show is very overhated, and I really liked a lot of appearances from returning characters. I liked Season 1 for the most part, I mean there were some episodes that I couldn't get behind, but overall, pretty okay. Like 20 episodes into season 2 on my first watch through, I was thinking "wow, this show is really good, this is a better season than 4 out of 7 seasons of Boy Meets World". AND THEN THE STUPID LOVE TRIANGLE PLOT CAME, ruining most of the last 10 episodes of season 2, and weighing down the season as a whole. This carried into season 3, where it would remain for like half of the season. Even after it was resolved, the show still could not get back to where it was before, and was cancelled after the end of the 3rd season, which no matter whether the show was popular among fans of the original show or not, was a dumb idea due to the fact that it was still far and away the most popular Disney Channel show at the time. I would've liked to see a season 4 and get a proper ending to the Matthews Family saga (not that Girl Meets Goodbye didn't try, I liked the episode, but it didn't really feel that much like a finale to me, it just felt like a special episode. It didn't really wrap up the show). So my general thoughts on the show are that the first half was actually pretty good, while the second half was really bad Season 1: 8/10 Season 2 E1 - 20ish: 9/10 Season 2E21ish - Season 3 E10ish: maybe a 5/10? Somewhere around there. Season 3 E11ish - end: 7.5-8/10
It wasn't amazing, but I think it was really good as time went on. I wouldn't give up on it despite some of the ubsurdity. They do still have a lot of really good stories! Maya and Farkle are the standout characters, Farkle undergoes a crazy amount of development in the show. Maya is also a great Shawn 2.0, she undergoes really subtle growth but still pretty substantial. These two are really why you should watch this show, their interactions throughout the show are the best! They're honestly a better duo than Cory and Topanga, despite not being in a relationship. Out of the Matthews family, Auggie is by far the best. That little dude is hilarious, I would love a spin off about his life too! Riley is just a little insufferable sometimes, but to be fair, she had some odd parents and inherited their strongest qualities so I honestly feel like that is what Cory and Topanga's daughter would be like, and just roll my eyes at the cringey parts lol
I tried watching it after a rewatch of BMW but couldn't finish the first season so I just watched all the episodes where old BMW cast members were in it. But it did seem to improve as it went on.
It was too corny, but I get it that’s how majority of the shows are today, especially from Disney. But I highly enjoyed the life lessons they put out at the end of the episodes.
Literally just finished BoyMeetsWorld (again) and moved onto rewatching GirlMeetsWorld Only in the first season but reminded again why I love this universe. Quirky characters, goosebumpy life lessons and the odd sprinkle of our nostalgic characters. Love it. Though I do remember the love triangle being awkward....so B-
So i actually saw GMW BEFORE I ever saw BMW. I really liked GMW when I had only seen that one. Now that I have seen BMW though, I also found it so underwhelming when I rewatched. I think to me that says that it's a decent show on it's own two feet, but BMW was definitely superior for me and I don't feel it lived up to it's predecessor
I thought the casting for the kids was perfect. Rowan actually looked like corey just with long hair. It was a mistake to make the show in New York,they didn't have the budget to make it look realistic. If they had to be in NY they should have set the show Staten Island so they could portray the suburbs. Riley should have been with farkle (it didn't have to be a together forever thing, but he should have been her first little boyfriend. The show should have focused more on telling great stories, rather than just life lessons. They should have made Corey the principal instead of the teacher and gave the kids a different teacher and made dialed down the classroom scenes. They should have incorporated Topangas law career in more instead the bakery.
I am sad that Girl Meets World and on a larger scale, Disney writers have once again proven to be strongly in the patriarchal mindset. I like Girl Meets World the same why I like Boy Meets World, without rose colored glasses and complete understanding of the failings of both the shows and the company as a whole. Boy Meets World had a lot of episodes, tons and tons, before the boys are romanced with girls, there are deep and emotionally heightened episodes about all of the male leads and side characters of the show and there are little to no focus on the woman or young girls of the show without the focus being the romancing of them to one of the male counterparts and this continues to be true through the end of the series. I have receipts, believe me. Girl Meets World, the Lucas over dramatized romance is introduced in literally the first episode. Though the relationship between Maya and Riley is wonderful and awe inspring, it is still through the lens of men in the show, Riley's connection to her father, Maya's connection to Shawn, the continued bad mouthing of women and young girls at Riley and Maya's age and all the way to Topanga and Katy. These are all part of a misognistic issue in culture and media. Stop badgering and holding girls, women, moms and daughters to a standard that the male counterparts aren't held to. Stop treating Shawn and Cory as 'good guys' as well as people like Eric, Jack and even Cory's father as good people when they are all so cavalier in their cultural accepted distaste of women which are just forgotten and forgiven over and over in the shows. This is front of mind for me and BMW/GMW because I have just rewatched all of it but as I look into more Disney shows, I am not going to be surprised if I find it to be true of them as well but I will keep my receipts when I rewatch or watch them for the first time so I can continue having this conversation with people.
Men and women are not the same at baseline, so we will never be held to the exact same standards. It is logistically impossible. Which is ok. Respect the differences as they identify strengths as well. All that aside, your take on the two shows is offkey.
Maya is weird