Le Monde de Riley

Don't get me wrong... Boy Meets World was good, but this spin off is not done well. The lead, Rowan Blanchard, is visibly very nervous, and tries to hard to make her character different from Ben Savages' character, Cory. Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel are back and still the same, but with a hint of absolute CHEESINESS!! The show is very cheesy and seems like it only will MAYBE entertain an 8 year old. The show does not target the Disney pre-teen, teen audience, even though the characters are supposed to be around that age. The only standout of this show is Sabrina Carpenter, who overshadows Blanchard by basically saying everything for her like a ventriloquist. Carpenter delivers a very real, and raw performance as her troubled character Maya. The only thing Boy Meets World fans will be happy about is the endless cameos and appearances of the original cast. This show needs a better script, and a better storyline for Riley.

When I first saw that Boy Meets World was having a sequel, I was so excited! My childhood was coming back I thought. Then when I saw that it was going to be on the Disney Channel I got a little worried cause Boy Meets World talked about real life issues that can't be discussed on the Disney Channel. But I watched all 3 seasons of it and I love it. Sure some of the comedy is awkward and it doesn't make sense and it is slow and boring at times but overall this show has heart, has great characters, great messages, and I hope it gets picked up by a different network.

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.

This show is fun in small doses, having watched it after being a huge Boy Meets World fan it is hard to live up to those expectations. The first 2 seasons show the kids in middle school and are a bit easier to understand the state of the show, however once they reach midway through season 2 it goes downhill rather fast.

The first seasons are a kid's/family show that show two girls and their friends going through middle school. These are enjoyable until the show kind of tries to hard basically. At the halfway point of season 2, the show tries to replicate BMW, but without any sense of realism. Playing up love triangles as a common and/or ok thing, while trying to portray the characters as growing and helping develop them. The show simply struggles to evolve with the obvious physical growth of the characters.. This boring, borderline innapropriate/unneccesary story arch continues into season 3, which sees them go to high school...

Immediately you can tell this is going to be the worst season yet.. The kids seem like middle schoolers in high school. They try to up the drama, and it honestly is basically the same thing as season 1, the only true character evolution is Farkle, and that is mainly superficial and on the surface and maybe a bit less ADHD. Lucas is boring as ever and simply doesn't have much acting range at all... Maya is trying WAY too hard to be Shawn without any of the appeal the original character had.. Zay and Smackle are just kind of there.. While Riley is still the same uber-optimistic girl she always has been, but without maturing despite being portrayed in stories that clearly want to be portrayed as such..

The show simply never matured.. The stories were super light, and almost nothing strikes home as the original show did. They force relationships without any semblance of chemistry or reasoning. This show is enjoyable as long as you don't expect anything beyond a typical disney kids show from this era, it just really falls flat in terms of life lessons and doesn't seem the slightest bit realistic and is constantly over or underacted..

The positives however are there, which makes it somewhat watchable.. Though the stories are cringey, Riley is very lovable and is a good leader with her constant and almost exhausting optimism. her relationship with Maya may dwindle as the seasons go on and they almost become the same kind of person, but it is still similar to the Shawn/Cory relationship. The cameos are good, but sadly not great and never take any emphasis over anything. Unlike the original show it is ALWAYS about Riley or Maya, without much flowing plot or subplots.

The original characters Topanga and Cory are okay, but pretty unbelievable as parents. Cory is probably the best written character and has basically become a mixture of Mr Turner and Mr Feeny, but sometimes comes of very corny.. Topanga is just too inconsistent and sometimes is stern and other times goofy. She is referred to as smart, but never shows it as in the original show. Shawn is just barely there, which is a shame as when he shows up the episodes are better, same with Eric.

I know this dragged a bit, but I really wanted to enjoy this show fully, and though it is OKAY, it is not even what i would call good or great, especially if you are expecting something like the original show, it simply is too vanilla and lacks the hard hitting stories and characters that made the original a show you could connect with.

Show it to your kids, at least the first few seasons, and talk with them about the lessons within, but don't expect too much family enjoyment, as it simply isn't a well rounded show with stuff for everyone, it is sadly more limited.

As a BMW fan I'd give it a 2/10 As a non-BMW fan knowing nothing of it, i'd give it a 6/10 compared to other Disney shows these days.

Worth a watch, give it a try

While Boy Meets World targeted pre-teens to adults, Girl Meets World is strictly for the pre-teens to teen age bracket. With silly story lines, Girl Meets World is much more like a Hannah Montana, ICarly, or Wizards of Waverly, than it is to the original Boy Meets World. While the format of learning a life lesson is still there, it is found in a much sillier way.

One thing that I really don't like, is that Cory and Topanga don't act like parents. For example, in the episode that Riley wanted to go to a dance instead of going to Cony Island to ride the Cyclone with her father. Cory pouts to Topanga, tries to guilt Riley into going, and is just over dramatic. There was a similar episode on Boy Meets World, where Eric and Cory don't want to play in the father-son softball game. There is no silly drama, in fact they don't even know that they hurt there father's feelings until after the game is over and he went by himself. In the original Boy Meets World, Amy and Allan came off as believable parents. Corey and Topanga come off as being silly and over dramatic.

FYI like Morgan in the early seasons, the little brother Auggie, is awesome!!!