Season finale premiered. Posting finale thoughts here and will likely be spending next week rewatching the season to see how it holds up during reruns/binge watching where I'll be back with a season review.
Want to start by saying this is Rider Strong's second episode as a Director for the show.
Kinda like my first review post, I think it'll be easiest to just write commentary on each character inside the spoiler tag. But as for general notes, I'll say is that romance is still the weakest part of the show by far. I can't tell if I'm just getting stockholm syndrome for the show but despite some of the poor jokes IMO (short/young guy and really tall girl going out, Farkle offering Cory cows/oxen for Riley), I find myself laughing a lot and I feel like there's as much sharp banter/jokes in the episode as there were weak banter/jokes. Overall story writing is still kinda flat, which is the biggest thing really preventing me from saying "go watch this show" to people, but I do think the show is capable of hitting the funniness and emotional beats of BMW at times, which is a really big compliment given how much GMW has to follow in its footsteps.
! Riley: "He's aight." Think this episode clinched it. I think Riley's actress has grown quite a lot during the season and this episode I found her delivery pretty darn good, and she has a lot of good lines this episode too. Shame she and Lucas still have next to no chemistry together. Their conversations in the episode were cliches/lines instead of actual conversations. But on the bright side, I'm looking forward to seeing the future adventures of Riley Matthews, and given the show's called Girl Meets World, me finding Riley to be one of my favorite characters on the show is a very good thing. Though it's not like I hated/disliked her before, but I've really grown to like her.
! Maya: Like I said, romance is the worst part of the show. And her crush on Josh to me seems so unlike Maya that it just throws me off seeing it, and that's the B plot here. Josh kinda goes through the same thing Maya goes through this episode in that he likes a person three years older than him too, but the way he reacts to his situation feels more like how Maya should be reacting to her crush on Josh. But when Maya goes crush mode she's not Maya, she acts more like Farkle. And I guess it makes sense given that despite acting as the guide for Riley's date, she's pretty inexperienced herself. That said, spunky Maya is still the best. Her quips to Riley about women having to cook/iron babies or teasing Cory about "the talk", both wanting to hear Cory give it and giving it herself, were great. Same with her sadness room, a little brooding humor that I surprisingly was on board with. Basically, her friendship with Riley is great, and I'm glad that the show is really having them be BFFs forever.
! Topanga: Not utilized very much, but I'm okay with that. But she's fulfilling her role well despite not being a scene stealer if you catch my drift. She's Topanga, being a mom. Topanga trying to remember her first date with Cory was a cute way to have a bunch of various BMW callbacks.
! Auggie/Ava: Not all the romance fails. This couple is working in my book. Ava's diss on Topanga got me laughing . And the two of them "being married" was actually rather cute. Wonder where the stories go for them from here though.
! Cory: His over the top reactions this episode I think are justified, and even then, I think the reactions in this episode are more mellow than some of his previous reactions earlier in the season. I just wished he acted like this only during big crisis events like this episode when his daughter is finally going to start dating instead of the immaturish person he normally was throughout the season (and IIRC, the show has been balancing the act better as the season went on so there's that).
! Josh: He was given the plot excuse to stick around more for season two this episode, and I'm kinda hopeful. Also, it's classic BMW to not really care too much about continuity/ages, but even so, I couldn't help but wonder what the ages of Maya/Josh/tour guide girl was. I guess it'd be 14/17/20…but a 14 year old 7th grader seems oddish (maybe Maya started school a year late?). Realized that 13/16/19 works better. For some reason my mind also kept wondering about the whole "legally underage" thing too as maybe part of the reason Josh got rejected. I will say the way he ran from Maya's advances did kinda signify a slight immaturity in his behavior, which really did help sell it when he faced the same situation with his tour guide. Also thought his conversation with Maya at the end was handled well. I know the original plot set up Girl Meets World with Riley/Auggie having an older brother, so hopefully the creative team is able to utilize Josh for some of the ideas they had for that character through Josh next season. Basically, more Josh but not if they're just going to keep rehashing Maya/Josh will-they/won't they storylines.
! Farkle: 60/40 in favor of Farkle's dialogue. There's still a fair amount of clunkers in his jokes/delivery, but I'm laughing more often than groaning. I thought his conversation with Lucas about thinking he was a threat was a rather nice summation of their friendship throughout the season. Also liked how in sync he is with Riley/Maya, and it's in a "they've known each other since childhood" kinda way and not "Farkle is destined to be with one of them kinda way". Knowing Maya gave it 84% on their date was a nice touch. And I know I'm contradicting myself, but Riley wanting to run in slow motion to Lucas after Farkle bringing it up was enough to have me more onboard the Farkle/Riley train than the Lucas/Riley train. In short, the show still needs to work on Farkle's character, but he has warmed up to me considerably.
! Lucas: Summarized it with Riley. Very little chemistry, so their conversations and date meant nothing to me, even with the callback to the first episode. But also like I said with Farkle, I do like the oddball friendship Farkle/Lucas have, even if Lucas doesn't really do anything to showcase a personality when around him other than being a nice guy/listener, but given Farkle's a bit eccentric just being there for Farkle and listening to him is plenty. I also liked when Lucas was "antagonistic" to Cory, opening the door when Cory tries to lock him out, or doing a callback to Cory's line about lying. Him being "the nice guy" I guess is fine (the show really needs to stop commenting on his looks though, it's weird), but him being nice and snarky allows him to better emote and have more fun with the role, and that shows in the acting during those scenes.
And relevant. AV Club had a William Daniels interview about his various roles in his career (he's Mr. Feeny).
http://www.avclub.com/article/william-daniels-1776-knight-rider-graduate-and-boy-216890