‘Girl Meets World’ season 2, episode 16 reaction: An episode for the ‘Boy Meets World’ fans

To a certain extent, we know that “Girl Meets World” had plenty of story going on in the present this week. After all, we had Farkle, Auggie, and many of your other familiar faces still around, and they had some funny moments. As a whole, we would say that this is one of the funnier episodes of the show that we’ve had a chance to see over the past year or so. Playing around with the form seemed to give the cast and the writers a newfound spring in their step.

It is that form, though, that makes “Girl Meets Cory and Topanga” one of the riskiest and most interesting things that the show has ever done. Through a look back at the past, meaning some old scenes from the original “Boy Meets World,” Riley started to understand more that she is really not too different from either one of her parents. They were at one point just like her: Young, confused about who they wanted to be, and a little bit insecure to go along with it.

Visually, the flashback scenes were a challenge given that you are throwing HD characters onto a standard-definition show, but the memories and the emotions of watching this old footage made it worth it. We know that Riley did not invent a time machine, and we also know that we can go back and watch the original show anytime; yet, there was just something about seeing this world through Riley’s eyes that was so imaginative and gloriously nostalgic.

As a whole, we feel like there have been times when “Girl Meets World” has struggled to find its own identity, and it has tried to push perhaps too far from the original show to do that. This is an example of them finding a way to embrace what happened before, and then use that to tell a new story with the characters it has today. It wouldn’t work if they did it every week, but we feel like this was a nice perspective on life, growing up, and also the way you remember the past. High-fives all around.

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