Eric Matthews has always been a difficult character.
Tonight’s episode of Girl Meets World, strangely enough, gives new viewers a glimpse of all the reasons why. Ranging from vain to wonderfully insightful and caring, to a level of stupidity that suggests he isn’t long for this world, Eric has seen more permutations than anyone throughout Boy Meets World history, to uneven effect, and he goes through all of them tonight. Will Friedle is, of course, a hilarious actor. It’s easy to see why the writers dare him to go broader, louder, more physical with each and every line. Just as he did throughout BMW, he rises to the challenge each and every time. It’s the lines that fail him, going too far or stretching believability. Worst example: Refusing to say Topanga’s name right? Cute, possibly an in-joke that’s gone too far, plays well with tonight’s main story. Refusing to say Maya’s? Beating the daylights out of a joke already on life support.
Perhaps it’s fitting though, because “Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels” is a difficult episode. Maya and Riley argue when Lucas calls Maya short, and while one would think a war between them would carry weight, it’s rendered inert by episode’s end, as the writers fail to couple it to anything concrete. Yes, the show says it’s about insecurities, but this conclusion feels tacked on, a thesis ill argued and unfounded by the actual details of the script. If Maya is truly insecure about her height, why isn’t she angry at Lucas? If Lucas is truly insecure about how Maya criticizes him, why does he let her, as Eric so cathartically and justly points out? Why is Maya so willing to say that it’s true, and seems really only angry about the idea that Riley won’t defend her?
More importantly though: Why doesn’t Riley defend her? The conflict becomes alien from the moment we get the reveal of what it is Lucas said, or at least, it did for me. Imagine if the word “short” were replaced with anything else. “Rude.” “Poor.” “Egotistical.” All of those are true too—would Riley not defend Maya from those? How about “Fat.” “Ugly.” “Stupid.” None of those are true of Maya, but could be true of someone else—would Riley not defend them from those? At the end of the day, Maya doesn’t know how to articulate her point, but the spirit of it is there and completely valid. It doesn’t matter whether Maya is short. What matters is that it hurt Maya’s feelings, it was meant to hurt Maya's feelings, and Maya’s feelings deserve to be honored as such.
I’ll admit that to some extent, it’s possible my being a BMW fan has failed me here, because I was expecting a reveal about how Maya feels regarding Riley and Lucas’ slow descent into a relationship (always a classic Shawn Hunter problem). But at the same time, doesn’t that make more sense? A reveal in that vein is still insecurity, but it’s an insecurity about something real. Not something that as far as we know has never really bothered Maya, doesn’t really seem to bother her that much now, and doesn’t seem likely to ever bother her again. GMW often defeats itself by putting on kid gloves, but there’s nothing complicated or adult about a kid being worried about her best friend leaving her behind—particularly when that kid is Maya. It’s one simple change that would have turned the whole episode around, as well as suggest interesting ground to cover in the future.
That said, “Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels” remains an improvement over the last season. Not the best of our marathon week—that trophy belongs to “Girl Meets Pluto,” which only shines brighter now—but also certainly not the worst. Great energy, some great lines, and—since I haven’t shone a light on them this week yet—some very solid moments from the markedly improved Corey Fogelmanis and Peyton Meyer. I take issue with tonight’s episode, but mainly because I feel allowed to take issue. This is a point l I feel confident the show shouldn't have lost, and that in itself is, I think, something to be proud of as the show develops into something much more interesting to watch.
Random Thoughts
- It’s settled. I really hate Isaiah. Please transfer back to Texas. Or, since again, happy to see humans come in different shades, have a new personality transferred to him STAT.
- I know this means I’ve praised everyone but Rowan Blanchard this week but … well. She’ll always have that uncanny knack to be a mini-version of her dad.
- I know it’s dumb, but I actually really liked St. Upidville. Or I like Will Friedle. Who, got to say—still looks perfectly fetching sans Moses garb, even if he’s not quite the dreamboat he was in his early seasons.
- I hope we never learn about Belgium. Series finale, someone points out they lost a point on the SAT because of it. GIVE ME THIS SHOW.
We survived! And ... are we even on again next week, I have no idea, I swear to God, DISNEY. What was your favorite episode though? Sound off in the comments!
It was always an open question as to when Eric was actually being stupid and when he playing dumb either to achieve some purpose or simply because it amused him. Tonight's episode only deepened that question, though the idea that there's some North Country border town that dresses like Plays With Squirrels was a little too broad even for me.
ReplyDeleteI did like the throwback to Eric's confusion between "niece" and "niche".
On a commercial it said the next new episode will be June 5th? So I guess we're skipping a couple weeks.
ReplyDeleteI don't give a rat's hat about Angela but yeah like with Jack and Rachel, are they back together or
ReplyDeleteI've always taken it as Eric willingly taking up the joker role, making himself look dumb, when he is fact more smart and intuitive than he lets on and he doesn't mind if people don't give him the credit. On some level I think Cory is all too aware that his big brother is not full of hot air, which is why he called him.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you hate her so much? I'm over Angela but I did like her - until she left. I was just comparing the friend fight future to this real life version.
ReplyDeleteI just didn't feel anything towards her, i never liked her being compared to the three:Cory, Topanga and Shawn, i actually liked Dana MUCH more honestly.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about the conclusion as well and think they're trying to say that what one thinks of him or herself far outweighs the importance of whether or not a friend has your back.
ReplyDeleteIf you are comfortable about your own insecurities and flaws, it takes away from the pain from others' words which takes away from the need for someone to always have your back.
What's the toolbar that sometimes comes up? you know the "www.spoilertv.com wants to use your computer's location"?
ReplyDeleteThat I agree with. I would have preferred they keep Dana around. It just felt more like a real relationship than what he had with Angela.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember who Dana was.
ReplyDeleteShe was basically Shawn's first REAL relationship back when he lived with Turner, the picnic girl
ReplyDeleteOkay I think I kind of remember now. I watched all the BMW episodes last year but my memory is a mess of a thing. (Before then I'd only seen a handful of episodes growing up - my fav being the halloween one).
ReplyDeleteI think EVERYONE'S favorite episode is the Halloween one LOL
ReplyDeleteI remember as a kid it creeped me out a little. lol
ReplyDelete