GMW 3.19 World Meets Girl

• Okay guys, let’s discuss the elephant in the room. Last week, Disney officially dropped the cancellation ax on GMW. What does this have to do with the episode, you may be asking yourself? Don’t worry, I will get to that as I think it has everything to do with the episode.
  
• The Cancellation: As a fan of the show I am sad. Overall, I enjoy GMW, even though sometimes it is unrealistic and silly, I love things like that, and as a now 30 something, I knew the lesson before they even begin beating us over the head with the lesson. I’m also sad because this show has so much potential to not only be like it’s predecessor, but become a true coming of age show for kids of this generation. It could have been a show that we hold dear to our hearts as we do BMW and though some might, there is the other hand . . .
• GMW is a very stereotypical Disney show, not unlike many of the shows that currently air. I know I’m 30, but I have enjoyed a few Disney shows in my life, as an adult, mainly Good Luck Charlie (Love it, highly recommend it). GMW has always been too Disney. What is too Disney? Too Disney is when you have characters that rarely grow and when they should grow, it is squashed by a mountain of rainbow, butterflies and everything working out perfectly. Too Disney is when a talking potato tot that comes from left field and is given a whole episode that would have been better if it more realistic. Too Disney is when you turn bullies into lesson givers that are never seen again. Too Disney is when you tease us with continuity but then the only continuity that we get is that time Riley ate Zay’s cookie. Too Disney is when a show is too immature.
• This episode: World Meets Girl (get it?) seemed like an ode to all of that stuff and the writing on the wall. It is my understanding that this was taped much earlier than it aired, so the show was not officially cancelled yet. I found myself thinking as I watched, how or why would they use an entire episode for this? A behind the scenes/what GMW means to you . . . send off is the only phrase I can think of. It struck me as someone was forewarned, “hey, this might be your last season” so they wanted to provide an hour of fan service to prepare us for goodbye.
  
• The episode was fun and I love to see bloopers from my fave shows. It was fun watching the cast interact with the fans and to see the entire cast get to do so. I thought it was awkward that they seemed to purposely ignore their older fans and only talked to the kids, which was nice, but come on, we’re fans too!
  
• I have to talk about the heartbreaking moment that they gave us and then in true GMW fashion, never, ever went back to!: Cecilia Balagot (aka Smackle) saying she believes she wasn’t in the show enough! I agree! That was so sad, yet so random and oddly so GMW . . . I wish they had elaborated on this!
  
• From the get go, I never believed the actual Disney Channel was the right home for this. Maybe the first season and possibly the second season, but during season two, you could, or at least I did, see that show could grow and be not only mature, but continue tackling problems faced by today’s youth if they weren’t on Disney. Some of the issues they covered were great, but they stayed PG the whole time. Despite living in NYC, starting high school, and with the exception of one girl, no one ever encountered a bad person or a person that disliked them. Riley and company’s class went from history to current events and always evolved around them. They constantly poked fun at themselves without ever trying to improve on what they were making fun of.
• Disney is an odd beast (no pun intended as it is a beast in the world. Just ask anyone who produces a theatrical version of one of their shows. Disney will know if you changed one world and yank back the rights if you do not do it as they intended). A lot of past shows, That’s So Raven, Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Good Luck Charlie last 4 season with total episodes counting to mid 90’s. A few other shows like Suite Life on Deck, Dog with a Blog, and soon to be joined by GMW lasted on 3 seasons with episodes counting to the high 60’s. And it’s even worth mentioning that Recess, our beloved cartoon while boasting 127 episodes (they’re really segments) paired down to half hour shows average 36.5 . . . I had long heard the magic number for Disney to be done with a show was 65. Is there evidence of this? Yes? Is it always the case? No. One thing we do know is that if we ever want to see more GMW, we better hope Disney allows, (yes it must allow another network) to save it and hopefully help the show grow a little more.
  
• Two more weeks until the end and if you have seen the previews, we actually get a real dilemma that should have lasting effects on the BMW/GMW universe as we know it! Until next time!