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A while back I posted my less than flattering review of the “Girl Meets World” pilot when it premiered. At the end of that article I said I would be watching the show to see if it got any better. To some degree I lied because I still have only seen 5 of the now 16 (according to IMDb) aired episodes. Three of those episode viewing happened over the past two days and all of them because “Boy Meets World” characters made appearances on them.
Last night the show brought on the biggest of “Boy Meets World” guest stars as Shawn Hunter (played by Rider Strong) stopped by for the holiday episode of the show. Since this was too big to miss, I headed over to my friend Josh’s house to watch. There the two of us watched while grinning ear to ear for the majority of the show’s runtime.
The episodes I’ve watched since the pilot have definitely improved, but I still find problems with moments that I refer to as “awkward beats.” It seems that they sometimes end scenes on lines that are supposed to be big reveals but cut away before they make any impact. Furthermore they hammer you over the head with some information while leaving other plot points and foreshadowing extremely vague.
Of course none of that mattered because Shawn, Cory and Topanga were all on our (well, Josh’s) TV again! Not to mention the rest of the Matthews kin, save Eric (Will Friedle) who is allegedly making an appearance in season two. OH! And Morgan! Where the heck was Morgan?! Could they not decide which actress to bring back?
Anyway, the episode was full of the amazing chemistry “Boy Meets World” fans enjoyed for seven seasons. It also had those great, subtle fourth-wall moments as Riley and Maya learn just how similar they are to Cory and Shawn.
So the real question is was this episode really that much better than the pilot or is nostalgia enough to cloud my judgement? And at the same time, how much does nostalgia hurt our perception of new things? (Cut to: Carrie Bradshaw typing insert).
The same question could be asked of fanboys who watched The Force Awakens trailer dozens if not hundred of times over the past week. As much as they’re picking apart that teaser for possible plot lines, they’re also looking for “easter eggs” that show that JJ is one of them and wants to throw in little reference to the original trilogy. I’d offer that JJ is wise in doing so as these “easter eggs” will likely distract from any sins — or “sins” — his entry into the saga may contain. Talk about a Jedi mind trick.
But that’s what nostalgia is — a mind trick. A common phrase amongst people who revisit old favorites they saw as a child is that it “doesn’t hold up.” This implies that the film was good to begin with, which conservatively 97% of the time isn’t true. My wife can attest to this, being a fan of Condorman.
Full disclosure: I’ve never seen Condorman and so when I had to write about the character she filled me in. During that research I found rumors from around the time Tron: Legacy was released (more 80s nostalgia) that Disney was thinking of remaking Condorman with everyone’s favorite sparkly vampire, Robert Pattinson in the lead role. Rightfully, my wife was appalled.
This reaction would imply that a Condorman remake would be an insult to the original… but we’re still talking about Condorman! And no, I don’t need to actually see it to know that that assessment is laughable.
The nostalgia effect even factors in to other parts of my life that aren’t media related. For example, sometimes when my iPhone 5S makes me mad, I think about how much I loved by Sidekick 2 with its full keyboard and that flip thing it did everyone found so cool. Was my Sidekick really better than my iPhone? No chance! In fact, I forget that I actually went through two Sidekicks because the SIM card slot kept breaking. And why didn’t I ever get a Sidekick 3? I didn’t think it was as good as my 2. Shenanigans.
Maybe I was predisposed to never finding “Girl Meets World” as enjoyable as “Boy Meets World” no matter how hard I tried. And maybe as long as BMW alums keep making cameos, I’ll keep pretending to like the show more than I do. That’s just how nostalgia works and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
Be sure to follow Kyle on Twitter: @kyleburbank and come back next Saturday for another venture into The E-Ticket Life. Sorry Condorman fans… I didn’t mean it.