After a three season run on the Disney channel, Girl Meets World has been cancelled. The news came as a surprise to many fans, including myself. I'm no stranger to watching my favorite programs get the axe way before they should, but this feels wrong. It's fairly well known that Disney keeps their shows around for a quick four seasons, but to end before that fourth season typically means it wasn't doing all that well or that they simply felt they would be fine without it. Granted, the show was doomed to fail in the sense that it would never live up to its predecessor, Boy Meets World.
Nostalgia plays a large role in the entertainment we consume these days, but creators never seem to take into account how difficult it is to make something better when there's already a set standard. As much as I enjoy seeing things like Fuller House come alive, it's not hard to see how far it falls in comparison to the original series. Needless to say, Girl Meets World was never given a fighting chance by being placed in the hands of Disney. The channel is curated for children, mainly relying on stupid humor and outrageous plot lines to bring in viewers from their target audience. This left no room for more serious topics to be covered like that of the original series from the 90's. Boy Meets World ended 17 years ago, which means that anyone that truly grew up with it is older and probably doesn't spend too much of their time watching Disney shows. Of course, I am a 22 year old woman who does enjoy a ridiculous Disney show from time to time, but nevertheless, it takes a bit to impress me, even when the bar is already set pretty low. It was apparent that Girl Meets World offered up a lot more than cheesy one-liners and pretty faces to get by. It tackled something all shows do but in a way better light: friendship.
There's probably not a show in history that hasn't shown some sort of camaraderie between two characters. We have more than enough teen dramas to get us through all insane, proposed life situations. The thing is, the majority of these television programs focus on bad situations to drag out intense scenarios for nothing more than viewership and increased ratings. Girl Meets World included love triangles, keeping things from your friends, and various other circumstances, but it never let it get in the way of the big picture. Above all things the main characters Riley and Maya encountered, they placed each other as the top priority. Nothing could get in the way of the bond the two of them had. How many shows play out females liking the same guy and have everything go to hell afterward? Typically, the girls will go head to head and be petty and fight for the guy's love. Here, on an unsuspecting Disney channel show, we have two very young girls who still recognize that what matters most is that their friend is happy and that at the end of the day, they still have each other. That is the real love story. Two best friends taking on the world, through thick and thin.
It's unfortunate that we won't get to watch these characters grow up the same way Cory, Shawn, and Topanga did. We won't get to see them face real high school drama, or suffer the agony of getting in, choosing, and eventually leaving for college. We don't know what their future holds, and one hand, that's fine. We don't get a glimpse into very many of our favorite fictional characters futures. We have to imagine it on our own. It would have been nice to have had that extra season, or for a different network to have taken it on and allowed it to go on for years to come like BMW. At least these three glorious seasons gave us the knowledge that no matter what does happen, Riley and Maya will still be going through it all side by side. I can only hope that the young fans that watched this show will carry that lesson with them as they grow up and go through life. At my age, I've seen too many friendships torn apart by silly things, and I can safely say your best friends are what will get you through practically everything. What's a Riley Matthews without her Maya Hart, and vice versa? Thanks to Girl Meets World, we can go on having hope that life will be okay because if we have true friendship, then we already have it all.
