(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Boy Meets World)
Doug (vo): It's the show that practically defined a generation, and I completely missed out on it. Now you might be asking "How is that possible? Wasn't I, like, the exact same age the main character was"? Yeah, but that plays into both the strengths and the weaknesses of the show. And before you go nuts, don't worry, I do like this show. Not only do I very clearly see why it connected with a lot of young people, but I also found myself as an adult really getting into it. This show can be really, really funny. At its best, I'd say it's kind of up there with peak Simpsons writing. The characters are very likable and funny and interesting, there's a wide range of both comedy and drama that's explored with all of 'em, and they're very easy to remember even years later, and part of that is the show goes all out. It doesn't hold back. When it's gonna be silly, it's gonna be crazy silly. When it's gonna be dramatic, it's gonna be crazy dramatic. Creating a series that, in my opinion, you could make the argument might be purposefully off at times, and I know you know what I'm talkin' about. But okay, the basics.
Story[]
Doug (vo): Cory, played by Ben Savage, is your average little boy going to middle school. He's got a good friend named Shawn, a teacher named Mr. Feeny-- who also happened to be his next-door neighbor, that's a great addition-- he's got a bully older brother named Eric, a quirky friend named Topanga, a geeky rival named Minkus, a teacher he likes named Mr. Turner, it's basically the setup you would think most kids' shows would have. As the audience watching grows up though, so do the main characters. We follow Cory through seven years, practically into his adulthood or at least into his college years. We see challenges arise, romances bloom, on-again off-again relationships happen, over and over, you know stuff like that's gonna happen in a show like this. Characters almost hilariously force their way back into the cast, like, I would say Mr. Feeny is a stalker. He tries to stay in this kid's life so much. And other characters completely disappear. Yeah, Minkus and Turner, they kinda vanish, like, they come back a few times, but they're not really in the show anymore. And we're introduced to new characters, like Jack and Angela and Rachel. In fact, this show so wants to grow up with its audience and so wants to be realistic at times, that they'll tackle a lot of serious issues on this show. Parents abandoning their kids or dying, abuse, addiction, toxic relationships. These aren't the issues you would think would pop up in a show that has imagery like this (clip from an unknown episode is shown with a character costumed as a tree) a lot of the time. And that's where we get to both the pros and the cons of the show, cuz they're actually the same thing.
Review[]
Doug (vo): My favorite thing about this show, outside of the personalities of the characters, is that it's not afraid to go entirely bonkers, and they space these moments out just enough so that when they happen, it is really surprising and incredibly funny. And because the personalities of the characters are so strong, they fuel the comedy as well as the visual jokes and they surprisingly don't feel out of place. To me, this show is the definition of "flexible reality", but that also ties into the dramatic moments.
(Footage focusing on the dramatic moments is shown)
Doug (vo): Okay, so, going into the show, I was aware that everybody was saying that there's a lot of really heavy issues discussed here, like I said before. And that's fine, I was actually looking forward to how the show deals with a lot of these issues. But here's the thing, I am really not kidding when I say just about every other episode is a dramatic episode, and the mood flip-flops big time. Now, I'm not just talkin' about the typical romance stuff you see in shows-- "will they, won't they"-- all that kind of stuff, though that is in there too. I'm talkin' every other week, somebody dies or is gettin' beaten up or vanishes, and it all just comes outta nowhere. Honestly, I shouldn't even say that because it happens so much, I just kinda started expecting them to happen. "Oh, did nothing serious happen in the last episode? Okay, well, it's probably gonna happen in this one." Now, some of my favorite sitcoms of all time tackle a lot of serious issues. Roseanne and All in the Family come to mind. But what those shows knew is that you had to space them out because drama is very tricky to constantly juggle in a comedic format. So while All in the Family and Roseanne would tackle very serious issues-- some of the same as this show-- they would do it maybe every six episodes, or even more. Because of this, they had a lot more time to rehearse and work on the script and really plan out how to make them as potent as possible. Really make them feel organic and not like they just came out of nowhere. Boy Meets World does not do that. And make no mistake, everyone is clearly trying their best: the writers, the actors, and a lot of times, they are succeeding. But they happen so consistently and with such little segue, they are crazy jolting. A lot of people told me it's like a soap opera, and sometimes I see that, like I said, especially between the relationship between Cory and Topanga, but it's so bizarre to have one episode where, yeah, just Cory and Topanga can live in Hawaii just selling coconuts and it's really goofy and wacky, but then, another character is at the grave of one of his parents. Honestly, as an adult, it got to a point where the segues into the dramatic moments where actually becoming funnier than the literal jokes written for the show.
(Footage focusing on the characters is shown)
Doug (vo): So, you might think this means the show is bad, and here's where it gets tricky. Remember when I said I was the same age as Cory when I started watching the show and I didn't really get into it? Like, it was fine. It just didn't grab me that much. Well, I think this show is doing in a much better what a show like Saved By the Bell was doing. It's about kids in high school, but it's not really made for kids in high school. It's made for kids several years under, and and I actually think that's a very smart thing to do, because then, it prepares kids for problems like this. In fact, not every kid is gonna go through these exact problems, but they're probably gonna know somebody who goes through similar problems, and they'll be ready to know who to react and be supportive. With that in mind, I don't think I need to tell you kids' emotions really go back in forth as they grow up, don't they? They can experience the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in literally a second. Because of that, I do think going back and forth between the comedy and drama so jarringly will/does speak to a lot of younger people. To an adult, you might be looking at some of these characters saying "Oh my God, how much drama is in their lives? How much do they have to go back and forth? How much do they have to... (deep breath) ruin a moment or make it all about them or be so selfish just keep learning the exact same lessons over and over?" But, to someone about that age or younger, that is kind of what they go through. It's a fascinating kind of emotional storytelling that... isn't exactly getting the facts or details of that age right, but getting the emotions of that age right. I guess the best comparison you can draw is maybe Breakfast Club, like, no kid in high school talked like that. This is how people who grew up and look back at high school talk. But what they are discussing is very heavy and very real. It's just usually not talked in that way or at that time. And whether the show was aware it was doing it or not, I think it was setting the stage for the emotional journey a lot of young people were about to go through or even were going through. So, as an adult, I did find a lot of these dramatic transitions really cringy. A part of me gets it. You just can't have all these dramatic moments happen organically when there's just so damn many of them. But, you could make the very strong argument that's how kids that age and younger see the world.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): So yes, I think for any young person watching this show or growing up with this show, they're gonna get a lot out of it. I would just say, be about the same age as the main character or preferably a little younger. But even with that said, if you're older than the main character, are you not gonna like it? No, I think there is a lot to enjoy. The constant dramatic moments will probably get tiring after a while, but, not only are they talking about important subjects, but, when the show is funny, it is really funny, and again, I feel like the humor grows up with its audience. The first season is...fine. Again, it's kind of a family show and has a little bit more center on the kids and kid humor, but with every passing year, the humor grows up a bit. It gets a little bit more risky, they do say stuff they really wouldn't say in the first season, and, like I said, it's not afraid to go crazy. And at the center of it are these characters. Are very, very likeable. Are they perfect? No, sometimes the main four boys can have the exact same type of stupidity and that can be a little weird, like, in The Simpsons, Homer's gonna have a different stupidity than, say, Moe, or Bart, or Barney. Sometimes, it's like Huey, Dewey and Louie in the first season of DuckTales the reboot. Like, the comedy between them can be a little interchangeable and sometimes it might be a little too stupid. Some of the characters are a little inconsistent that way, but for the most part, they do have really strong identities that stick with you. When you get to the final episode-- which I won't go into spoilers with-- you do feel these characters have really grown, and yeah, it is a little weird that not everybody's there for the final episode, some characters just randomly drop out, but when you get to the final moment, you feel how everybody is really matured and it's... poignantly corny. They're soaking in a lot of the overly dramatic tropes that they've been glorifying the past seven years and this show loves its tropes, but you really feel the connection with all these characters, too. The last line of the show you can say is really generic and not really a surprise, but when you see who's saying it, who he's saying it to, and when he's saying it, you really do feel the weight to it. You do feel like-- for a lack of better way of puttin' it-- it is a boy growing up and slowly meeting the world, and I think a lot of younger people have and will continue to connect to that. So, while I can't say it's like, one of the great sitcoms, I do think it's a passionate yet purposefully clumsy for young people to enter a passionate-- and purposefully clumsy-- world.
(A scene in the series finale depicting an empty classroom is shown)