There used to be a lot of them- Full House, Saved by the Bell, and Family Ties all had famously melodramatic episodes-but the closest analogue I can think of today is Degrassi: The Next Generation. The funny thing is that I don’t think there are a lot of kids’ shows with that kind of earnestness, these days. That can be off-putting to an adult viewers, but Girl Meets World doesn’t much care about those. It’s entirely focused on its young audience, and in speaking to them, it is earnest to a fault. Girl Meets World (oddly, for a sequel to a series whose fans are now in their late 20s) is not particularly interested in a periphery demographic. And yet, I can remember, at around 11 or 12, being utterly engrossed by a Boy Meets World episode that was way more melodramatic than anything that happened in “Flaws.” (It was called “Dangerous Secret,” for God’s sake.) I don’t know any 10-year-olds who watch this show, but I imagine that for many of them, the dramatic sequences of tonight’s Girl Meets World episode would work. I mean, it’s all so overdramatic, so oversimplified-way too heightened to take seriously. “Flaws” sees Girl Meets World at its most after school special-y: Riley tearfully hugs Farkle after he reveals he’s being picked on Lucas rather unartfully confronts the friend who, he discovers, is the one bullying Farkle Riley leads the class in a kind of protest/show of solidarity where everyone writes their own biggest flaw on their forehead and the bully sadly admits that he was jealous of Farkle’s deep friendships, and writes down his own flaw. Never before has the gulf between me and the 10-year-old target audience of GIRL MEETS WORLD been more evident than in “Girl Meets Flaws.” As an adult reviewer, none of this episode’s dramatic sequences-and there were many dramatic sequences-worked for me on an emotional level. Tweetable Takeaway: This week’s Girl Meets World is painfully earnest, but there are worse things for a kids’ show to be.Īirtime: Friday at 8 pm on The Disney Channel
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