Boy Meets World or at least Boy Meets 6th-grade classroom. Cory Matthews is your typical 11-year-old boy who does all your typical 11 year old things who’s still in that all things romantic / girls are totally icky phase of life. The lesson on Romeo and Juliet is completely lost to him because who cares about all this stuff anyway?!
Cory’s world includes one of the best sitcom couples ever in Allan and Amy who try their best to keep their 3 kids in line. Cory is stuck between his girl-crazy older brother Eric and his adorable scene-stealing little sister Morgan and often feels lost in the middle.
The show takes a bit to find its groove in season 1. Like trying to find a second friend for Cory rather on focusing on developing his relationship with Shawn Hunter from the start. And despite all the hype around Cory and Topanga, its always surprising going back to the beginning of the series and seeing how small a role she plays in season 1. They do start playing with the idea of a relationship between the two with them being each other’s first kiss and date. But understandably, the writers don’t rush anything. because A; The show is just beginning and B: The kids are all really young at the start. There’s plenty of time for serious relationships later.
Mr. Feeny is the best teacher I’ve ever seen on television. Usualy adult characters on TV are played for laughs, are potrayed as complete idiots, and can’t be respected. Not so with Mr. Feeny who demands respect from his students and is a wonderful mentor to Cory in general. The best thing this show did was make Mr. Feeny the next-door neighbor as well which means Cory and the Matthews in general have Feeny’s wisdom on tap whenever it’s needed.
Once they settle on Shawn for Cory’s partner in crime, they give him some amazing episodes like in Santa’s Little Helper where it’s really established that he comes from a poor background, or in The Fugitave where his bad boy reputation is cemented for the rest of the series. They also be sure to let you know how girl crazy he is by the end of season 1.
Another character introduced this season is super nerd Minkus who always gets on Shawn and Cory’s nerves and rightfullly so since he can be annoying at times. He’s often teased for being a nerd even out and out bullied for it. But Minkus proves that he can give as good as he gets and is a jerk in his right. Especially in Santa’s Little Helper when he makes a big deal out of Shawn not having the money to put toward Mr. Feeny’s Christmas gift. Unfortunately, Minkus disappears quite literally in the season finale. I loved his character and wished he’d continued on with the rest, but oh well! Network’s gonna network I guess.
Boy Meets World was never good at continuity right from the start. Topanga’s older sister Nebula is seen once, but is never seen again after that. And Shawn has an older sister Stacy that he talks to on the phone once but is never mentioned after that.
Season one also introduces Jason Marsden as Eric’s best friend Jason Marsden. One of my all time favorite reoccurring characters EVER! It’s too bad they didn’t keep him around longer. Another thing worth noting is that Eric starts the series with a brain! I’m gonna miss that in later seasons. I also loved his relationship with Morgan. It was so cute and another thing I’ll miss over the series.
Season one is an excellent start to the show and very Full House -like in tone. I loved it! There’s not a bad episode in the bunch. The show also tackles important topics like racism right off the bat. The show completely changes in season 2 which I’ll get into in my season 2 review in a couple months. Stay tuned!
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