When “Girl Meets World” premiered on Disney Channel in 2014, TVLine readers gave the “Boy Meets World” spin-off pilot an average grade of “B-.” The hosts of “Pod Meets World” would probably consider that pretty generous.
Now that the “Boy Meets World” rewatch podcast has worked its way through all 158 episodes of the original series, hosts Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle — all of whom starred on “Boy Meets World” and went on to appear on “Girl Meets World” in various capacities — have moved on to recapping the sequel. And if you thought the trio was overly critical of “Boy Meets World,” you haven’t heard anything yet.
This week’s recap episode tackles the “Girl Meets World” pilot, which introduces viewers to leading ladies Riley (Rowan Blanchard) and Maya (Sabrina Carpenter), and reunites fans with grown-up Cory (Ben Savage) and Topanga (Fishel). Right away, the hosts note that the show did a disservice to Blanchard by casting Carpenter, who was several years older, as her on-screen counterpart.
“Unfortunately, I think it’s a little bit of an unbalancing,” Strong points out, adding that “it’s not Rowan’s fault” as the writers are “not giving Rowan much help here in terms of character.” Friedle agrees, saying, “Rowan is adorable, but when Sabrina walks on screen, you’re like, ‘That’s the star.'”
From there, the hosts lament Cory’s “low-energy” introduction, crawling in through the bay window in Riley’s bedroom. “This is the way you introduce Cory, crawling through a window?” Strong asks. “Cory Matthews is back, he should get a big entrance! Instead, it was like, ‘Who’s that crawling in all awkward and weird? … Oh, it’s Cory.'” The whole set-up makes him “so mad.”
Speaking of that bay window, when Fishel explains that series creator Michael Jacobs opened the pilot with a scene at the window in Riley’s bedroom because he “loved this idea of important conversations taking place in the bay window,” Strong calls it “the worst decision you could make.”
“It’s energy-sucking,” Strong says of the bay window set-up. “You’re just stuck with two people not facing each other, not talking the way human beings actually talk to each other. It’s a really bad choice. I thought it developed naturally. I didn’t realize it was a conscious decision from the opening moments of the show — and man does it just put us on flatline.” Friedle agrees, calling it “not a visually dynamic choice.”
