‘Girl Meets World’ Ripped After Problematic Episodes Resurface

Well, hindsight is always 20/20, as the saying goes. People on social media are ripping into Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World for its episodes dealing with autism and religion. Through resurfaced clips, many are finding the show’s scenes to be quite “cringe” in retrospect — some people went as far as to ask how the episodes even made it on the air.

The series, which was a spinoff of the popular ’90s sitcom Boy Meets World, ran for three seasons on the network between 2014 and 2017. Rowan Blanchard, Sabrina Carpenter, Peyton Meyer, Corey Fogelmanis starred in the cast. They were joined by a few members from the original series including Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel (who played a married Cory and Topanga Matthews), and occasionally Rider Strong (Shawn). Michael Jacobs, creator of both shows, is also credited as a writer.

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A clip featuring the group of kids attempting to convert Farkle (Fogelmanis) to Christianity resurfaced on Twitter, making this person “irrationally angry.” “Let Farkle be agnostic if he wants to be tf,” this user said. 

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In the episode focusing on Farkle’s autism, the group of kids seem to have a misunderstanding about how the autism spectrum works. Now looking back, people are voicing their complaints on how the show handled the sensitive topic. 

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Boy Meets World tackled a myriad of social issues like racism, abuse, sex, drinking, which is partially what sparked much of today’s social media confusion. “How was Boy Meets World so woke for its time and then Girl Meets World such a mess?” this person asked. 

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But it wasn’t all bad, there were a few bright moments that fans talked about including the various Boy Meets World reunions with stars Will Friedle (Eric Matthews) and William Daniels (Mr. Feeny) on the show. 

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There was also the issue of a flawed protagonist, as some pointed out. Some might say, like this user, that doing a presentation explaining why you’re not the center of the universe isn’t appropriate during a funeral. 

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Along with a superiority complex, users mentioned that her character wasn’t always a good friend to her group of pals. “Everything Maya did was for Riley and what did Riley do? Tell her she should change and find herself cause Maya got [an] A and stopped getting detention.”