After watching "Girl Meets The Great Lady Of New York," I concluded that Disney Channel would be absolutely stupid to not renew for a fourth season. The episode showed again why Girl Meets World is the most mature show on Disney Channel. Disney has shown it can air a successful, American-made, great show that expands the audience from the usual tween/early teen demographic. Something other than the usual lightweight fare with the obligatory teen pop-singer princess. Disney Channel in the earliest days was more like PBS in that its programming catered to children and adults. The sitcoms and DCOMs are nice and all, and I enjoy them (great G-rated escapes from the R-rated real world), but Disney Channel seems to focus solely on the 6- to 14-year-olds. And I am not reassured by their decision to bring on another apparent song-and-dance show of lightweight pop tuneage next month, "The Lodge." "The Lodge" looks like a foreign import given the 5 p.m. airtime (England? Australia? New Zealand?). I wasn't able to find information on the Disney Channel website or on IMDb as of two weeks ago.
Girl Meets World is a sitcom, yes, but it goes against the grain of all the rest of Disney channel's shows. It's like the difference between a strong humorist who takes you through a range of emotions to tell the story, and a stand-up comic who simply strings a bunch of jokes together.
About midway into season one I wrote here that Girl Meets World is "deeper and more complex" than the other Disney Channel shows. To which someone, who must have thought I was nuts, replied (more or less): No! You want complex? Gravity Falls! To which I replied that maybe I accidentally left out "Channel" in my observation because Gravity Falls had surreptitiously moved to Disney XD nine months earlier. (For me Gravity Falls is an animated Twin Peaks, a weird show I loved back in the day, but am not so sure about now.)
There's a strong metaphysical/spiritual/philosophical aspect to Girl Meets World that I resonate with deeply and I believe is the main reason the show is my favorite. (I've thought about writing a post titled "Metaphysical Michael Jacobs" to explain in detail.) The teen-angst-romance is entertaining and they do show the kids having madcap adventures. Ava Kolker is an absolute hoot as Ava Melanie Ruth Esther Morgenstern. (And I loved her Marisol in the above episode.) But a lot of times I feel strongly moved by episodes that many posters here can't stand. "Bear" and "Bay Window," for example, looked like goofy throwaway episodes in the promos. But I was surprised at how deeply they moved me. I strongly identified with the themes of growing up and moving on, while cherishing memories in our "scrapbook." No matter how old we are were still growing up and moving on to new adventures.
Most of the complaints on these boards have been, in my view, about bad writing, stories being too preachy, and the life lessons tied to Cory's daily history lesson being too forced. Fair and reasonable criticisms. I think these folks want Girl Meets World to emulate Boy Mets World: a series of madcap adventures every week and addressing serious topics at times. I liked what Boy Meets World did, but that's not how Michael Jacobs and company are rolling with Girl Meets World. (What I have seen of BMW so far I like. I started playing catch-up in syndication and a couple of DVDs in May 2015 because what I was able to see in first run, before I got a night-shift job after season three, I forgot.)
Having said all that, I am at peace knowing season three might be the last. I won't like it, but I will accept it. It's my favorite of the current crop of DC shows, but my overall favorite of the last 10 years remains, by far, "Wizards of Waverly Place."
Yeah, I know filankey is not a word, but it's gonna catch on.
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Brooklyn329
8 years ago
If you're still so inclined, jimmiebeeee, I'd like to read that analysis you were talking about, especially in light of recent developments.
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