Well. We’re back.
Pity we can’t say it’s better than ever. Girl Meets World has made its mark more with sentiment than comedy, so maybe it was only a matter of time until we got “Girl Meets Friendship,” a pretty ludicrous half-hour of television.
Sure, the emotional storyline is there. Lucas misses Texas, inspiring a conflict between his old friends and the gang that’s only complicated when they find themselves competing for leader of the class, but even the show seems to know its heart isn’t in this storyline. The beats are standard: Lucas goes home, Lucas has a very private argument literally two feet away from Riley and Maya (who’s already declared her intent to get dirt after Farkle outs Riley), Lucas is sad, Riley and Maya don’t do it. Everything ends happily ever after, with Farkle just sort of apologizing because the episode’s ending. It’s an ode to friendship the show’s done and done better, and while it serves as a good reminder of the show’s major focus after the long hiatus, it’s rather unnecessary. After all, if there’s one thing the show’s done well, it’s somehow making this odd little group believable.
The comedy, though, is something very new—or at least, it felt new to me. Obviously the show’s had humor and obviously the show’s been silly, but I’m not sure there’s been an episode this off the wall. From starting right off the bat with an election video for princess complete with unicorn costumed horse to Dictator Farkle’s Dictatorettes (an oddly inspired choice they really could have taken farther), the show struck hard and fast and ludicrous, and while I found the results mixed, it might just be an important experiment for the show. The writers definitely know how to pull the heartstrings, but they haven’t yet found the show’s style in the humor department—nor have they had much luck balancing between kid friendly broad and character friendly subtle. “Girl Meets Friendship” is no different really. In particular, Topanga explaining her exhaustion from Auggie's sleepless nights (a cute but predictable B story) kills whatever humor could have been had in her blasé response, and tramples over the actually pretty great joke of Topanga giving Riley the princess hat she’d meant to burn for feminism when she was a girl. But hey—at least we had the moment. Hopefully from here, it’s just a matter of learning the right combination and timing.
One thing that might help though is having more elements to combine. I know it’s not necessarily a new problem, but has the show ever so inexplicably introduced a character the way it did the “rebel”? Did he have a purpose? Or a name? Fleshing out the world is exactly the right instinct, but the show seems wary of actually trusting that world for anything beyond line filler. Characters don’t just materialize from the ether. If they’re going to try for humor this wacky, having a world willing to match the cast antic for antic would do a lot to sell it, and just might make the different in the future.
All in all, “Girl Meets Friendship” is about what you would expect from Girl Meets World. Has the show been better? Without a doubt. Does its problems all stem naturally from issues the show has even when better? Probably, sadly, yes. But hey—better trying than comfortable.
No random thoughts today, but a reminder that we're on next week, because children? Who knows. Welcome back!
