Monday, January 12, 2015

Episode 7x07 "It's About Time"

The new Girl Meets World was enjoyable. I liked the part with John Adams.
"Does that make sense to you?"
"None of this does."
"I'm also gonna be your teacher next year."
Hehehehe.

And I'm pretty okay with Joshua, even though I didn't think I would be. He's a lot more entertaining than Lucas.


Shawn arrives at the Tnemtrapa in a huff, as is his way. Where are Jack and Eric living this whole time, by the way? Are they still in that dorm room or did Mankind steal it from them?

Apparently Cory is working Shawn like a dog with best-man duties, but Angela can tell right away that that's not what's really bothering him. Topanga doesn't have time for Shawn's angst today, her wedding day, so she starts to strangle Shawn. It's actually hilarious. Topanga's psychosis gets a pass on her wedding day, and Shawn looks up to the ceiling as she's strangling him and says "Dad... I'm comin' dad...", a refreshing bit of dark humor that I really enjoyed.


There you can see my lovely girlfriend Rhiannon. Picked her up on the reboundddddddd.

But also WOAH, Topanga just dropped a BOMB. I'm sure that's either been contradicted in the past, or will be in the future, but for now, cool. Doesn't really say which one Cory loves more though, and that's always been the more interesting point.

Shawn keep saying the same sort of thing, but in a refreshing testament to their relationship, Angela knows he's lying and that there's a deeper, bigger problem.

At home, preparations for the wedding aren't going so well. Shawn is nowhere to be found, and Eric sits his brother down for the "pre-wedding sex talk", and you're not gonna believe this but the punchline is that Eric is dumb. Really breaking the mold for this episode. Shawn finally shows up and reveals what's got him so angsty.



Well there it is folks, The Big One. The Big Question. Can this marriage hinder the broest bromance of all time? I like that they gave that to us early in the episode, now we've got time to think about it. Especially since Cory deflects and refuses to talk about it, causing Shawn to forfeit his participation in the wedding, as well as his attendance.  Eric takes over as best man, and we jump a couple hours into the future to see how that's going.

The men are all standing around the living room in their underclothes, and Feeny's rockin a v-neck like a goddamn boss, but the women in the audience are much more interested in Bronze Adonis Jack Hunter. Eric walks in the front door and informs everyone that the tuxedos are in "the limo", which will be taking everyone to the new location Eric has arranged for the wedding. Alan summarizes my thoughts very well.


And apparently the new location is the goddamn Tipton Hotel. 


Inside, the receptionist from Prom-ises Prom-ises greets Eric as "Mister Peterman". Is this the same guy at the same hotel? Did he get promoted? Probably not, but it sure is fun to pretend. Although, I doubt he could forget the man who offered him a mystery bag, even with the haircut.

In some unspecified room, Topanga is making the final preparations with Angela, her best friend, and Rachel, who we are supposed to pretend is also her friend. Topangela have a snack-sized version of the conflict between Shawn and Cory. It lasts for about five seconds. Works for me. It deserved acknowledgement, but the writers knew it wasn't worth very much screen time. Nobody mentions anything about this, but Topanga's not wearing the dress Amy gave her in the previous episode, and Angela and Rachel are also wearing different dresses. That whole big problem from the last episode just doesn't exist anymore.

Leonard Spinelli, Alan's old assistant manager from the grocery store, or whatever character Willie Garson is playing today, is apparently the minister for the wedding. There's a gigantic audience for some reason, and everyone starts filing in to the ceremony. The 11 year old flower girl motions Jack over so she can tell him he's "very hot", which is.... sure, okay... I guess...


Who are all these people! What are they doing here! Who's the flower girl?! Why aren't any of these strangers asking questions or trying to stop this?

Eric asks the ring-bearer why he doesn't have the rings, and the small boy informs the braindead zombie that actually bringing the rings is his job. So yeah, Eric forgot the rings. What a surprise. The ceremony begins with that "here comes the bride" music and Jed begins to walk Topanga down the aisle. There's a lot of implied content if those two are magically back on good terms again, considering how they parted ways in episode 4. Rhiannon's here too.


AY GIRL. Jedediah is out of his mind. 

But seriously, who the hell are all those other people and why are they sitting through Cory's wedding.

Willie Garson begins by welcoming everyone to the wedding of Myra and Harold, which is what I assume all these other people are here for, SO WHY ARE THEY STILL HERE. It's so bizarre. Apparently Amy is now going to sing us a song, which I could absolutely live without, but here we go. We don't have to endure much before Shawn arrives with the forgotten rings, and it's not long after that before Shawn and Cory get into a fight and hash things out once and for all.


I love this scene. Rider Strong totally nails the emotional factor. Ben's going for more comedy than emotion, but it works. We've got 6 seasons of friendship in our minds right now, so we genuinely feel for these guys when they think that things might have to change. Some people might be thinking "wow what a jerk, interrupting Cory's wedding," and to those people I say "hey, shut up." This is the most important relationship on the show, and it takes precedence over anything else, weddings included.

Cory explains that he doesn't know what's going to happen once he's married, and Shawn finally gives him and Topanga his blessing. That's a slightly unsatisfying resolution to one of the most emotional scenes in the entire series, so there must be more to this conversation later.



We skip ahead to the exchanging of vows and Topanga begins with "I wasn't sure this day would ever come." YEAH MAYBE BECAUSE YOU DUMPED CORY TWICE AND CALLED OFF THE WEDDING.

Cory's vows begin with "Ever since I was young, I never really understood anything about the world." See? There's that theme again. The rest of his vows are based on the "loved since 2" retcon, but they're fine. So now they're married and the strangers in the audience applaud.

Everyone's dancing now, including, for some reason, Jed and Rhiannon, and he needs to get his grubby mitts off my woman. Shawn begins a toast, resurrecting the subject of his and Cory's friendship. "We've had to deal with life... and death... and Feeny... but no matter what we faced, we always faced it together." And then Shawn finally relinquishes the title of Best Friend to Topanga. It's really just... heartbreaking. I respect the idea, your spouse ought to be your best friend, but it's overwhelmingly obvious that Topanga is not Cory's. Perhaps Shawn is merely granting them the space for her to become his best friend in the future, which is pretty damn noble of him. And it seems that she does indeed take on that role by the time Girl Meets World rolls around. Then again, Cory completely forgets about his wife when Shawn comes by for an episode, so who the hell knows.


The fuck is that old guy doing in the middle of this hugely important scene? I can't believe the director let that happen.

Eric decides it's time to give the newlyweds his gift, a key to the honeymoon suite at this very hotel. Cory takes the key and they immediately run off to get off. Side note, it appears that everyone is enjoying a glass of champagne. No one comments on it though, so that must be why it sneaked past Disney's censor. Anyway, Eric explains how he lied his way into getting this wedding set up, with the aid of a moron hotel employee who is just Will Friedle with a mustache and accent. So I guess anyone who even looks like Eric is a dumbo. I'm not particularly impressed with this part, but there it is.


The jig is up though, and it's time to get out of Dodge. All the strangers run away too, so apparently they weren't here for the original wedding, and are in fact guests of Cory and Topanga. SO WHO THE FUCK ARE THEY? There's no way they would have fit in The Living Room, and the couple even said at the end of the last episode that they wanted just family and close friends. Are they supposed to represent the invitations to the viewer? That's my best guess.

Plot: 1.0 - They get married, with some twists and turns, a big emotional event with Shawn, and no egregious marriage-related hijinx. It's as good as you can ask for when it comes to wedding episodes.

Character Development: 1.0 - Shawn and Cory have to address The Big Question, and Shawn steps aside for Cory's wife. If we accept the idea that Cory wants to marry Topanga, then we also have to accept that she should become his best friend for the sake of their marriage, even though we like Shawn better. And that ties in with having Topanga admit that Shawn loves Cory more. It takes that serious love to be able to step down and do what's best for Cory's marriage, even if it's not what's best for the entertainment value of the show. We all know that Cory and Shawn screwing around in high school is what's best for the entertainment value of the show, but we gotta let it go.

Humor: 0.25 - Almost all of it was based on "Eric's dumb", and it really wasn't that great. This one was much more about emotion than humor.

Life Lesson: 1.0 - You should probably try to make your spouse your best friend. Which is not to say you can't have other really close friends, just that... if you plan to live with someone every day until you die, they should probably be the most important person.

3.25 out of 4.0. It's one of those emotionally good episodes. We're sad to see Shawn give up his title, you know, it's like main character dying at the end of a good movie. It hurts, but it has to happen, because anything else would have been disingenuous. The whole thing with the hotel employee looking like Eric is really damn stupid though. Also, was this the second or third time that Cory and Shawn got into a physical fight? I remember the one in Pink Flamingo Kid, and I've got this nagging feeling that there was another one, but I can't think of it.


Thanks for reading, see you Wednesday.

All images used under Fair Use.

16 comments :

  1. I see where you're coming from, and I agree that Shawn and Cory's relationship is central to the show, and that the effect of marriage on their relationship needed to be addressed. I myself am not a huge Corpanga fan. That said, the show spent so much time on them and building up to the wedding, and the wedding itself feels like part of a Shawn-Cory story. When I was 10 and watching the first airing, I was disappointed (my love life was entirely vicarious). Even now though, I think that since the writers decided that Corpanga was the most special, most in love couple in the history of the universe, the wedding should have been more of a big deal. I think this really ought to have been a 2 parter, that way we could have the Shawn-Cory stuff and dedicate more time to Corpanga.

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    1. Interesting. I definitely appreciate that they didn't give too much time to the wedding thing and instead focused on the relationship I'm way more interested in. I can't stand most wedding episodes, making us sit through the entire ceremony like we're supposed to care that much.

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    2. But as a viewer, you are supposed to care that much. I mean, they invited viewers to the wedding for crying out loud. There was even a Jell-O-sponsored website!

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  2. [I agree with what you have written but have nothing specific to say that would warrant it's own comment. This contentless comment is the equivalent of a Facebook "like"]

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  3. Every time you post a review, I watch the episode on Youtube because I've been too lazy to find my DVDs, but today I decided to dig them out and, damn, I forgot Boy Meets World could be presented in a quality higher than 240p.

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    1. Is there a lot of commentary and stuff on the DVDs? Is there interesting stuff that I could be talking about if I had the commentary and behind-the-scenes and whatnot?

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    2. Season one and two has about two or three commentary tracks each, but they were recorded back in 2003 or so. There's also a commentary track on Hair Today, Goon Tomorrow on one of those, which is neat. Season three has some silly trivia game. Season four and on has nothing. I bought them all separately a while back though, not sure if that boxset that came out recently has anything new.

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    3. The boxset has a bonus disc, but u believe there's less than an hour of content on it. Having bought each individual season, I can't justify buying it for that.

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  4. This episode does feel kind of "eh" for a wedding episode. It's episode 7! I think in todays tv standards, it would probably be at least the episode before winter hiatus or a season finale. But maybe the writers just wanted to marry Corpanga off already since they'd already revved it up and failed more than twice.

    The Shawn-Cory- Topanga thing is not over by any means. I know a lot of people hate the last couple of seasons but I like them for this type of the Shawn-Cory-Topanga stuff. It's kind of a good dynamic to watch that honestly I don't see in many shows. Because getting married does change your friendships and instead of the actual issue that those 3 face, on tv shows its more or less, "yes we're married, but I still have my best friends" and to me I don't think thats always real.

    I also like this episode for the little moments (when Jed hands Topanga's hand over to Cory and he says, "be good to each other", and when Topanga dances with Alan)

    As for Jack and Eric's living arrangements, that will be answered in two episodes.

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    1. For the timing of the episode, this episode aired in the first week of November and network TV, especially at that time, was very focused on "sweeps", certain months in the year where advertisers gauge how much money they want to invest in certain shows based on their performances during that month, and so networks tend to demand their shows be must-see. November and May are the big sweeps months. I don't hear much about 'sweeps' anymore, maybe as a result of commercials being a lesser part of TV these days, but back then every big thing happened in November and May it seems.

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    2. Wasn't February also a sweeps month?

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  5. It's like everyone forgets that Eric made a bunch of jokes that made him look brain dead in earlier seasons as well. Sure he is definitely dumber overall, but many of his joke made him look stupid in the past too.

    "Nice legs Feeny" "Eric's giving lessons in human boing" hahaha

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    1. Yeah but it wasn't ALL he was. Now it's his entire character, and I think that's what most people have a problem with.

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  6. Didn’t they technically not get married? I mean, they got married under different names.

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