Put “Girl Meets Bear” next to the Ski Lodge episodes and it’s not hard to see it’s the same show. The spots of philosophy are still on a “Stop—SPEECHTIME” schedule, making the plotting still conversation driven. In fact, for all that “Meets Bear” revolves entirely around Riley losing her beloved stuffed animal, it is, like most of the Ski Lodge arc, really only about conversations. The search for the bear is merely a device to get everyone in the same room, thinking about the same thing: growing up.
And yet, there’s a tone here too—a cartoonish but heartfelt specificity that might occasionally be too loud but which does also give the show its own voice. If “Girl Meets the Real World” demonstrated the limits of Girl Meets World’s attempt to balance its two audiences, “Meets Bear” perhaps demonstrates what the show really would look like, if it could find that balance. It blends modern broad Disney sitcom habits with old school Boy Meets World heart with obvious attention to detail, if not always ease—perhaps unsurprisingly, given this one came from series highlight “Girl Meets Jexica” writer Mackenzie Yeager. It’s a messy episode for it, to be sure: Bombastic, and just a tad slapsticky (I get Maya and Cory's excitement about tacos, but I don’t get as much the actual flailing.)
But also, it does what I felt last week’s didn’t. It feels like it works, even when it doesn’t. This version of the show has some character beyond the lesson. It has a long overdue conversation between Topanga and Farkle about the transition from offbeat clever child to intellectual unique adult, a touching and revealing moment between Zay and Maya as he thanks her for making him feel like a part of the group, a passing on of the golden gloves from Cory to Auggie even knowing that means he’s become his dad and Auggie’s going to become the next child to no doubt lose them. This version of the show might be broad, but also, its broad in its own zany, character-focused way. It has Maya inviting the boys over so they too can know the pain of expecting there to be tacos, and not receiving them; it has Josh and his unseen nightmare bro of a roommate.
All of this helps to smooth out the bumps in a busy, manic story. For all that the plot is simple, “Meets Bear” feels like it was given a checklist of beats to hit that no one episode alone should have to accomplish. Zay’s moment with Maya, for example, really is sweet—but it’s oddly ambiguous. At first, it seems like Maya was in for a lesson about friendship, given how caught up in her taco desires she was. Then, thankfully, the show swerves to say that Riley was the one in the wrong for co-opting it, but that still leaves this thread undefined when he offers to Maya to be her partner when Riley and Lucas date. We haven’t really seen Maya care about that yet, and there’s something a little disconcerting about the idea that Maya playing the long game with Josh really does mean she won’t be dating at all until then. I wouldn’t mind seeing Maya decide dating is not for her. We’ve seen her not respond well to traditional methods of dating, and she’s an emotionally anxious person. But it feels like a decision for them to mutually make, not a foregone conclusion.
“Meets Bear” is also the first episode to really clue us in to what the new normal between Lucas and Riley is—and unfortunately, it looks a lot like the old normal. The writing gives them plenty of opportunities and it’s clear from Zay’s speech (and honestly only Zay’s speech) that they’re dating. But the energy between Blanchard and Miller remains a platonic one, even as they swap stories about childhood possessions alone in her bedroom. At best they achieve an “eight year olds who have got he-said-she-saided into thinking they have to date” vibe (particularly when Zay points it out) and while there’s something to be said for the goofily innocent and clueless vibe, it remains a little frustrating. Wasn’t that why they broke up? Because they were comfortable when they were friends, and awkward when they had to be romantic? Judging by the casual way Lucas asks her out at the end, it’s not intended, but the show needs to then define them at least as well as they have defined Maya and Josh. Ideally more so, given they’re meant to be a more significant couple.
But for all of this—for all of the strange, never quite successful attempts at magical realism with Young Maya and Young Riley popping in, and for all the endless Paco's Tacos mascot CGI—it’s hard not to like “Meets Bear.” It’s a mess, but it’s an ambitious and heartfelt one, and at least the questions I have after watching it put me in a specific place in the timeline. It’s a post Ski Lodge world, a post BMW world, if show continues to meet it. Hopefully the run of episodes after the break are up to the challenge.
And yet, there’s a tone here too—a cartoonish but heartfelt specificity that might occasionally be too loud but which does also give the show its own voice. If “Girl Meets the Real World” demonstrated the limits of Girl Meets World’s attempt to balance its two audiences, “Meets Bear” perhaps demonstrates what the show really would look like, if it could find that balance. It blends modern broad Disney sitcom habits with old school Boy Meets World heart with obvious attention to detail, if not always ease—perhaps unsurprisingly, given this one came from series highlight “Girl Meets Jexica” writer Mackenzie Yeager. It’s a messy episode for it, to be sure: Bombastic, and just a tad slapsticky (I get Maya and Cory's excitement about tacos, but I don’t get as much the actual flailing.)
But also, it does what I felt last week’s didn’t. It feels like it works, even when it doesn’t. This version of the show has some character beyond the lesson. It has a long overdue conversation between Topanga and Farkle about the transition from offbeat clever child to intellectual unique adult, a touching and revealing moment between Zay and Maya as he thanks her for making him feel like a part of the group, a passing on of the golden gloves from Cory to Auggie even knowing that means he’s become his dad and Auggie’s going to become the next child to no doubt lose them. This version of the show might be broad, but also, its broad in its own zany, character-focused way. It has Maya inviting the boys over so they too can know the pain of expecting there to be tacos, and not receiving them; it has Josh and his unseen nightmare bro of a roommate.
All of this helps to smooth out the bumps in a busy, manic story. For all that the plot is simple, “Meets Bear” feels like it was given a checklist of beats to hit that no one episode alone should have to accomplish. Zay’s moment with Maya, for example, really is sweet—but it’s oddly ambiguous. At first, it seems like Maya was in for a lesson about friendship, given how caught up in her taco desires she was. Then, thankfully, the show swerves to say that Riley was the one in the wrong for co-opting it, but that still leaves this thread undefined when he offers to Maya to be her partner when Riley and Lucas date. We haven’t really seen Maya care about that yet, and there’s something a little disconcerting about the idea that Maya playing the long game with Josh really does mean she won’t be dating at all until then. I wouldn’t mind seeing Maya decide dating is not for her. We’ve seen her not respond well to traditional methods of dating, and she’s an emotionally anxious person. But it feels like a decision for them to mutually make, not a foregone conclusion.
“Meets Bear” is also the first episode to really clue us in to what the new normal between Lucas and Riley is—and unfortunately, it looks a lot like the old normal. The writing gives them plenty of opportunities and it’s clear from Zay’s speech (and honestly only Zay’s speech) that they’re dating. But the energy between Blanchard and Miller remains a platonic one, even as they swap stories about childhood possessions alone in her bedroom. At best they achieve an “eight year olds who have got he-said-she-saided into thinking they have to date” vibe (particularly when Zay points it out) and while there’s something to be said for the goofily innocent and clueless vibe, it remains a little frustrating. Wasn’t that why they broke up? Because they were comfortable when they were friends, and awkward when they had to be romantic? Judging by the casual way Lucas asks her out at the end, it’s not intended, but the show needs to then define them at least as well as they have defined Maya and Josh. Ideally more so, given they’re meant to be a more significant couple.
But for all of this—for all of the strange, never quite successful attempts at magical realism with Young Maya and Young Riley popping in, and for all the endless Paco's Tacos mascot CGI—it’s hard not to like “Meets Bear.” It’s a mess, but it’s an ambitious and heartfelt one, and at least the questions I have after watching it put me in a specific place in the timeline. It’s a post Ski Lodge world, a post BMW world, if show continues to meet it. Hopefully the run of episodes after the break are up to the challenge.
