Girl Meets World is a continuation of Boy Meets World, a well-known sit-com that originally aired on ABC in the 1990's and continues to air repeats on ABC Family.
The show is mostly about Riley Matthews (played by Rowan Blanchard), daughter of Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and Topanga Lawrence (Danielle Fishel) (now Matthews) from the original show as well as Maya Hart (Sabrina Carpenter), who had an established friendship with Riley before the first episode. Lucas Friar (Peyton Meyer), Riley's love interest was added in the first episode as well, adding yet another new branch for Girl Meets World. Farkle Minkus (Corey Fogelmanis) continued the pathway of his father Stuart in the previous series.
Cory, the main character from Boy Meets World, became the teacher of his daughters seventh (and in season two, eighth) grade history class, and now provides the more modern lessons continuing the George Feeny line of the show, a fan favorite and what makes the show appealing. The life lessons that Feeny provided in Boy Meets World and Cory now provides in Girl Meets World are a great legacy for the show, and especially for the younger children who don't remember Boy Meets World. They deal with real world problems, and often go much farther than any other series dares to touch, with more reality to them than reality television. It also provides a good educational experience in history as well, as Cory connects history to modern day lessons, making the well known slogan "If you don't know you're history you're doomed to repeat it," essentially jump right off the page. The lessons can be used by all people across the world on a daily basis and likely have helped and continue to help people who watch the show, including the author.
The casting is very well done as every actor and actress seems to have found their niche in their roles early on in the series. Rowan Blanchard appears to be the perfect fit for Riley Matthews, and Sabrina Carpenter, Peyton Meyer, and Corey Fogelmanis are fantastic fits for her group of friends. The four of them as well as the rest of the cast also appear to be good friends outside of the show, and the chemistry shows behind the camera. The show so far has been, and hopefully will continue to be a success for the cast and crew, and should be for as long as the show continues.
What seemed to disappoint some early on was the lack of the pathways being carried over from the Shawn Hunter (Rider Strong) and Eric and Josh Matthews paths among others. Topanga's character seems to have a more supportive role in the show now as Riley and her brother Auggie Matthews' (August Maturo) mother as well. After "Girl Meets Mr. Squirrels Goes To Washington" however, it is undoubtedly a strong continuation even more so than it was before. Up until the newest episode in season two, it would feel sometimes like Cory and Topanga were carried over into a new show that had some occasional returns from Shawn and other former characters from the show. Girl Meets World was more based around the plot of Riley, Lucas, Maya, and Farkle.
The writers for the show came through, however and appeased the Boy Meets World fans with a special guest on the newest episode. Tommy, a young child on the show Boy Meets World has grown up along with the rest of the characters and is now a political activist working against an Incumbent Senator from New York. At the end of the episode, a question is posed from the Incumbent to Eric Matthews, his opposition, about how well he cares for kids. TJ as he goes by at the beginning of the episode, then speaks up about his days with Eric during the original show, and how Eric was a good person who helped him grow up to be a good person who benefits society.
It was an extraordinary moment, especially for the Boy Meets World fans, as it shows what happened to Tommy after he left for his new family, and the return of Tommy became another emotional moment that added more depth to the show. One lesson in the episode was to care about the little guy, because everyone has a voice, and the return of Tommy taught that lesson well.
