Episode 5x01 "Brothers"

The new intro is... weird. It's really weird. It's a very significant departure from the first four seasons in that it actually has lyrics. I don't know who did the vocals, but they phoned that shit in, you can't understand a damn word. The characters are all "hanging out" in various locations, pulling pranks on each other, because look how real they are! They're so relatable! It's so in-your-face, I just don't like it. It's weird. And there really wasn't anything interesting for me to do with my logo.

How boring is that shit? If you've got a better idea, lay it on me.

Shawn and Cory are seniors now.

How exactly are they seniors, you ask? Well I have no idea. I had to give up on my timeline theory because the show contradicted itself so many times. Shawn even comments here that they've waited "three whole years" to go through that door behind them, the door to the "Senior Hall". And that just makes me weep for ever having TRIED to make a coherent timeline. THREE YEARS? YOU'RE TELLING ME THEY'VE BEEN AT JOHN ADAMS FOR THREE YEARS? BULL SHIT THEY HAVE.

I also doubt the existence of a Senior Hall, but I'm usually wrong about this stuff. And hey, Eric always walked around the same hall as Cory and Shawn when he was a senior. Ultimately, though, This introductory scene is really exciting to me, it just feels like Boy Meets World, you know? They both look and sound mature, and we're ready to go.

Inside the hall it looks like a Valentine's Day dance, with heart shaped balloons and silver streamers and shit, and the teachers are all swimsuit models. Topanga's being carried around by shirtless Roman gladiators, and Feeny is serving the boys milkshakes and prime rib. But then the fantasy breaks as the first bell rings.

So we're doing a front-to-back shot this season instead of the left-to-right hallway we've grown so fond of. Maybe "Senior Hall" was just an excuse to use a different set.

Surprisingly, that's all they wanted us to see at school. At home, Cory's telling Shawn how great it's going to be to finally have his own room.

So something's gone wrong at college. What a pity. All that work we did with Eric goes right down the drain, he's back to being an irresponsible goof. Apparently he didn't bother to fill out the paperwork for the school's dorms, so now he's here. And Alan doesn't seem to mind, while Amy's pretty pissed off about it. This is actually another character reversal. That speech from Security Guy that Alan made about taking off the kid-gloves in the delivery room when Eric was born? Well those gloves are back on and Alan's babying Eric again. Blargh.

Eric's being a general nuisance to everybody, so Cory decides to spend the next day looking for an apartment for Eric. This is Boy Meets World, so their problem is solved by a quick trip to Chubbie's. A charismatic young man enters the "restaurant" and announces that he is looking for roommates at Pennbrook, because that's what people do. Cory's like "hey, you should meet my brother." But ah hah! Cory's forgotten the first rule of Chubbie's! Everybody always shows up, and in this case it's Shawn.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jack Hunter, Shawn's half brother who apparently bailed on Shawn and Chet with his mother some number of years ago. I don't really understand how this works though. Chet had Jack with some other woman before Shawn was born, then married Virna and had Shawn. But Jack must have still been around at that point for Shawn to know who he is. But then how can Shawn claim that Jack and his mother bailed on them? How can Shawn even know who Jack's mother is? Unless Chet separated from Virna and lived with Jack, Jack's mother, and Shawn for some time, but that seems ridiculous. To paraphrase, Chet would have to go Jack's mother -> Virna -> Jack's mother -> Virna for Shawn to be saying the things he's saying.

Jack is played by Matthew Lawrence. Matt's career was basically done after Boy Meets World, but he was actually on a lot of shows before that, including 53 episodes as the lead role of "Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad", which is obviously a masterpiece of our times. I'm probably going to go watch it after I finish writing this. Holy shit, Tim Curry was on that show too. What the fuck is this thing? Now I really do have to watch it.

And there's nothing wrong with Matt, he's a fine actor, he's easy to watch, but he's a lot like Eli in that the producers want us to care a lot about Jack's relationship with Shawn right away, but we just don't.

Back at home, Amy is looking to Mr. Feeny for advice about Eric, and she gets a little heated.

It's BS too, you're not allowed to yell at Mister Feeny, who does she think she is. She doesn't need his help anyway as she works out on her own that Alan and Eric are best buds so Alan can't bring himself to kick Eric out of the nest. Yeah, duh. But again, we solved that back in season 4. I like that they're trying to include Amy though.

Meanwhile, Jack shows up at Chet's trailer to try to reconcile. I don't know why Shawn is so upset, it's not like Jack chose to walk out on them. Either way, damn I love Chet. He's real excited to see his son again, and it's honestly ADORABLE.

As you can see, Shawn is not 100% in love with this idea. Jack hits the road cuz Shawn is being stubborn, and Chet hands him a jacket from the rack saying it's "going to be a cold one tonight", which is, again, ADORABLE. Chet loves his sons.

Shawn is still being stubborn though and refuses to leave. 

Eric and Cory show up at Jack's place to check everything out and see if Eric would be a good fit as Jack's roomie. They're hitting it off pretty well, and they seem really comfortable with each other, even if Eric doesn't like the color of the refrigerator. 

So everyone on this show is being stubborn today. Eric may not be the responsible adult we saw at the end of season 4, but he is definitely still hilarious. 

At home, Amy reads her husband the Riot Act. He proceeds outside to tell Eric that he has to move out, because it's part of growing up, even though it's hard to let go of his son. Cory and Shawn are out there while it happens, and Shawn is now able to understand why his father was trying to "kick him out". So yeah, it's one of those neat little parallels where the two storylines intersect for a mutual life lesson. 

So we can see how far Chet has come since he ditched Shawn back at the end of season 2. Great stuff. There' s a little scene where Eric and Shawn are moving into Jack's apartment, and Chet gives them the toaster he's been trying to fix this whole episode. It really is the sweetest thing. 

Plot: 1.0 - There was a lot going on! We had the Amy -> Alan dynamic, the Alan -> Eric dynamic, and the Chet-Shawn-Jack triangle. Sometimes the events just flow so easily, and it's so easy to write the reviews for them. I don't know if my writing reflects that, but this is definitely one of those episodes.

Character Development: 1.0 - See that last gif above. Chet is a wonderful character. And we had some good stuff with Alan and Eric, even if we've mostly seen that development before.

Humor: 1.0 - Very funny from start to finish. The show is thoroughly in its "groove" at this point, the humor is so flawlessly intertwined in the plot. And that's how we like it.

Life Lesson: 0.5 - Ehhh, we sort of had the thing about fathers making the hard choice to let go of their sons. 

3.5 out of 4.0. Great episode, great start to the season, except for the atrocious theme song. Seriously what the fuck is that theme song? Also, thanks to an anonymous comment for reminding me about Shawn's other half brother in The Pink Flamingo Kid. I think my deduction on that one was that he's Virna's son with some other dude, probably some other guy in the trailer park, so in fact that guy and Jack wouldn't be related, but that's total speculation. And Shawn also had a sister for one episode, back in the first season. It's crazy how this show can be so good while also being so inconsistent.

Thanks for reading! See you Wednesday. 

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