Okay, here’s the deal. There is, impossibly, a whole week of show before us, so, you all are going to have to forgive me for being short and snappy on the day to day. I’m hoping to flesh something nice out Friday touching on this first segment of season two, but while each installment of Girl Meets World this week is meant to stand alone as an episode, for review purposes, it’s hard now not to think of it as one entity. What should feel like a new season, a new year, feels more like just another pearl on the string—an impression only emphasized by the rather loose scheduling we’ve mostly had all throughout season one, and the relatively short break between seasons.
Which, got to say, Disney—you’re doing the show no favors in this. I understand that this is pretty typical with their programming, and in a way, it might be wrong for me to judge. Boy Meets World as a show didn’t exist time either, for me. It was a magical realm of syndication, where Halloween could follow Christmas in July. You really get the sense though, in "Girl Meets Gravity," that the writers aren’t being clued in enough to try and write for that amorphous dream world. "Meets Gravity" is an episode of new beginnings, and the clichéd but true fact that nothing can begin without something else having ended. The new school year is starting, the new awkward Riley/Lucas tension is sparking from the aftermath of their kiss (though I would have liked a bit more explanation for how managed to avoid each other), the new ownership of Svorski’s Bakery is taking into effect (mostly at Svorski’s urging although I honestly thought it already had). Girl Meets World feels so ready to Change Something in season two, but the effect is sadly dulled by the timing. We only just had a promise, in the finale, that they were going to Change Something. Not enough time has passed that we need reminder; not enough time has passed that it feels meaningful. Not enough time will pass over the next week to, I think, really take advantage of it.
Which is a shame, because the energy makes for a pretty great episode, as Girl Meets World goes. The jokes are rapid-fire in the first half, the writers barely stopping to notice when one fails before launching out a new one that doesn’t. The tone is even-handed and balanced. The structure, while imperfect, is clever—and really, the show mainly fails for not trusting it enough. Riley delivers her speech about planets and people, and the way both can so easily trick themselves into thinking themselves the center of the universe rather than individual pieces in a shared network of wonders, with aplomb, but we’re reminded too often of the theme for it to really land—a sin only made graver when Riley herself begins to complain that even with a new school year, she can’t escape her father as teacher and her mother as owner of her favorite hangout. “They circle like planets,” she tell us—you know, just in case—but with the speech constantly cutting in, there’s never time to forget. Better for it to have bookended, leading into the episode’s twist, than to have overstayed its welcome.
The twist, however, is a good example of where “Meets Gravity” soars. It’d be hard not to see Mrs. Svorski’s death coming, as she spends the episode so desperate to finish up old business and so quick to point out her age but you almost get the sense that you’re meant to. She’s the perfect foil for Riley and Maya, so adamant that their world needs to change but so clearly reluctant to relinquish all the comforts of their old world. They want a new teacher, but they want him to follow the old rules; they want a new classroom, but they want to be the stars (and on that note, props to the show for completely pulling out of a predictable meta joke into something rather inspired, with their callous numbering and dictatorship of all students not part of the alternate classroom’s clone versions of our main cast); they want to be independent, but still live in their old rooms. It’s directly Riley and Maya’s selfishness that keeps them stuck in the old world, with the wrong mentality about that old world they clearly crave, but Mrs. Svorski, aware of her impending death, has got the right idea. Times change—and time cares little for you. You can embrace it, and find new meaning and company, or you can stick to the past and face the consequences that come with it. Either way—change comes. We have such little time, just as things are, “Girl Meets Gravity” reminds us with the loveliest of touches.
Maybe even less time than we think, if the show’s promises of change to come hold true.
Random Thoughts
- Confession time: I found the tag deeply affecting. If I had a soul, I'd cry. I’m not sure how to explain to new viewers just how much grace and sophistication William Daniels as Mr. Feeny brings to the show with his mere presence, and it’s possible the scene didn’t mean nearly as much without that emotional connection, but I found it a beautiful if manipulative note well played.
- On the flipside, I really want this joke about the poor downtrodden silent students to continue. Preferably in our own classroom. How great would that be? Mutiny against the leads! TAKE BACK YOUR HUMANITY, STUDENTS SIX AND EIGHT.
- Is Maya’s mother taking over just an excuse for to hook up with Shawn? Actually, I take that thought back, I’m fine with it. They deserve to flirt cutely.
- And okay, no, but seriously, as happy as I am about the show being back: why.
- No really, why.
- NO. REALLY. WHY.
Thoughts of your own? What are you excited about this year/season/batch? Sound off below!
