Le Monde de Riley

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.

I'm not too familiar with BMW therefore I can't compare them. The show looked like it could be promising. The lead actress is too nervous right off the bat. She needs to relax, her acting makes the series awkward. Maya on the other hand is a reaally good actress! She's got the right tone and gestures. I only think her character is written too mature for her age. It makes it weird to see this tiny teen acting like she has so much experience and giving life lessons. Kids shouldn't be seen that way. But I'm amazed by how smooth she is, my cousins and I only watch it cus of her (plus we think she's pretty). The Lucas guy looks way too old (like 17-18) to hang out with them (they look 12-13). Farkle does well for his role, he's supposed to be goofy but he does it with confidence, perhaps needs a little more face gestures. Cory and Topenga are kinda overkill for the show but I understand it's cool cus they were in the original. Cory gets too personal with his young students, it doesn't seem professional. And he doesn't have the coffee-pep most teachers have in the mornings. In fact, he acts the same in class as he does at home as a father. Topenga hardly does much in the series, sorta just mom stuff. The Little brother is funny, we hardly see him though. BMW had older actors so the deep lessons made sense. It doesn't work with young actresses and Disney. Since Disney can't go there, the deep lessons miss many significant elements. First episodes are about finding yourself. Like nahhh! Work your way up to that. I'm in college and STILL finding myself. This is why teens go through phases cus of all the pressure of finding their place whether it's a clique etc, that should just come. These girls should deal with mean bullies, trying out clubs, trying to get money, puberty, social networking issues, things girls their age experience. The episodes I've seen are about Riley and May as friendship like their friendships seem fake cus there's too much attention there. Put the attention somewhere else, and the friendship will naturally build up.

This spin-off is seriously overrated! It's TERRIBLE! I knew this show would suck the moment they said it was gonna be on Disney Channel. I can't believe the same people who wrote and created Boy Meets World are doing this show. The writing is awful and can't stand on it's own. You could make a video of the side by side rehashes of dialogue and scenes from the original show. Give the show it's own identity creators.

Riley is very obnoxious and annoying. Very unlikable and has no distinct personality. Her character is inconsistent. One minute she's a smart straight A student, then others shes a complete idiot. She's weird too. Gives herself awards in the school hallway?? WTF??? Rowan Blanchard is a horrible actress with her cartoon facial expressions, nasally voice, and tending to smile during her serious moments of dialogue. She's also a princess Mary Sue who never gets in trouble, always gets her way, has 3 guys fawning over, everyone loves her, straight A student, nice house, loving family. Little miss perfect! She has no hobbies or interest except obsessing over a boy who has no personality.

Maya is the breakout star and the only good actor on this show. You know something's wrong with the show when the best friend is overshadowing the main character in acting, personality, and likability. She can be annoying at times though. I wished they stopped this poor Maya, woe is me shtick, it's getting old since she's got a great life. Maya also being the new Shawn is laughable. Maya is supposedly poor with her designer clothes/shoes, nice mother, cool bedroom, perfect hair. Give me a break..... Her and Riley's relationship is unhealthy and cloying. They might as well be conjoined twins at birth always together by the hip.

Farkle went from an creepy Urkel ripoff who stalks the girls to a normal boring guy who stopped being funny with zero personality. Corey Fogelmanis is a terrible actor who has gotten worse since he changed his look. All his line readings are monotone with no inflection. Is is happy, sad, or angry. I can't tell because his acting is so emotionless. Girlfriend Smackle is lame and her name is stupid.

Lucas is the boring love interest with no personality. He's also a Gary Stu who all the girls love and tell him how handsome he is. This guy has zero flaws and doesn't act like a real junior high school boy. Way too mature and wordily for his age. Going into Season 3 and he has zero character development. Peyton Meyer has no acting talent whatsoever. He's emotionless, wooden, and very stiff. His career will be over when the show ends. Riley and Lucas have zero chemistry and feel forced.

Cory being a teacher was a terrible idea and feels forced. Has no backbone and lets his class walk all over him. He's no Feeny and he's following his students to High School. Wow...how original.

Topanga is useless and might as well not be here. She's just the generic bland nice mom. Fishel must be doing this for a paycheck because her acting is terrible.

Auggie sucks! The kid is a terrible actor and adds nothing to the show. Morgan was funnier and better. Judy Winslow his character please! Should have never scrapped the older brother big mistake. His girlfriend friend Ava is annoying too. Their scenes/plots are a waste of time.

Zay was thrown in Season 2 as the token black. His character is is the only one in the group that's act like a real kid/teenager.

This show is not realistic or relate-able at all. The girls dress like fashion runway models with their high heels and hair salon perfect curled hair. Kids walking out of class, kids ruling the school, talking in class whenever the feel like. Unrealistic dialogue (why do these kids talk like they're 30 years old)Stupid love triangle?? These kids are 12 years old!!! Give me a break! They live in New York City and no Blacks or Hispanics. Friends 2.0

And is this a sitcom or a drama? Always preaching and beating the audience over the head with their morals and life lessons. Way too melodramatic. Where's the funny comedy? All these miserable kids do is sit around and mope about dumb stuff. Do these kids ever have fun? Go to the movies, shop at the mall, go to parties. Come on, act like real teenagers.

Sabrina Carpenter deserves better! I can't wait until she gets off this piece of trash excuse of a show that does not deserved that 7.1 rating.

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

Where to begin? There seems to be an unwritten rule that Disney Channel sitcoms must be mindless and badly-written. Yes, I know they are not intended for adults, but children are actually intelligent beings. As a kid I loved Wonder Years, which was an excellent show, very well-written. I also liked Boy Meets World, although even back then I could see that it was clearly worse than Wonder Years. Still, it was meant to be sillier and it had enough heart and integrity to make you care about the characters and be willing to accompany them as they grew up and learned life's lessons.

Now there comes this spin-off and I tried watching for nostalgia's sake, but I had to give up after forcing myself to watch a few chapters. Girl Meets World is bad even when compared to other Disney shows. It just has no redeeming features. Sure, it's nice to see Cory and Topanga again, but I still spent the time cringing instead of remembering fondly. They decided to make a spin-off of a beloved old show, and they took the trouble to hire the original actors... couldn't they have taken the trouble to hire decent writers too?

The writing is bad, and I would feel sorry for the actors for getting so little to work with if they did not do a bad job too, either overacting or being expressionless. Cory's classes are a mess, Farkle is a creep with no nuances, Lucas is inexpressive and vacant, Riley is all about making overacted faces, with no personality...

If you are interested in this because of Boy Meets World, sure, give it a try and form your own opinion, but be warned that you'll probably decide this is a painful waste of time.