Girl Meets World - Episode 1.13 - Review: "Why are you my friend?"

I both love and hate episodes like “Girl Meets Flaws.”

On the one hand, I lived for them as a child. I was never exactly the classic kid with no friends, but I always did feel distant from everyone else. Partly this was insecurity, an insidious voice in my head telling me that I was not wanted or welcome, but partly it was just how I was wired. I always felt ten years older than everyone else—not better, not wiser, just older. Episodes like “Girl Meets Flaws” with their cute and fuzzy arms welcoming us all into the embrace of weirdness made it feel less crushing. Sure, I was odd and fragile about it, but so was everyone else. I just didn’t know they were! Even the popular kids have issues! Even someone like Billy Ross, athlete looker, could be secretly jealous of a slip of kid like Farkle!

Which is true. They do. But on the other hand, it was a weird day when I realized that you never really grow past these feelings. They get more manageable, and you become better equipped, but it’s not a hill to climb over and be done with. 

On that end, I feel like “Girl Meets Flaws” was more successful than most. I was pleased to see Harley return, and with him the thread of his bullying days and the sensitivity Cory has to this day about his old moniker. It was a nice way of destigmatizing the idea of a weak spot—in my opinion, better than the marker trick Riley plans. I liked it fine, and it makes a nice visual to see it literally written all over your face, but much like “Girl Meets Smackle” the episode dragged it out to impossible lengths. Girl Meets World is a show that knows how to be touching; the image of Farkle writing “jealous” on Billy’s head is touching. It’s a shame the show hasn’t yet learned to trust that talent though and go with the simplest and purest moment.  

I do have to say something I never thought I would say though. The episode needed more Farkle. Maybe it’s because I would like to see his softer side developed more, but I feel like the bandage went on too quickly there. “Why are you my friend?” is a pretty valid question for a kid like Farkle to ask a kid like Lucas in a climate like middle school, and I’m not sure that “nothing” really covers the neurotic place from which it comes. It’s an easier and more censor friendly word than a lot of what probably should have been said, but it does mean a missed opportunity for Farkle to grapple with his actual eccentricities. Yes, he wears turtlenecks, but is that really his issue? I’d say it has much more to do with his lack of volume control and obsessive mania, his weird body and weirder affectations. They’re all things I can see Farkle, like Topanga, sharpening into a very interesting person one day. For now though, they’re the parts of him that he knows he can’t control but doesn’t quite understand yet, and it would have been nice to see that.

The episode was also a little light on laughs. Granted, that’s sort of Girl Meets World’s general issue as a sitcom. It leans far more on the sweet than the funny. This episode seemed more so than most. There’s an attempt to cram it in with Ava, and there is something darkly hilarious about her being sent down the hall while her parents have a scheduled fight. It’s hard not to have my view of her character changed with the knowledge her home life is that troubled though. Granted, I don’t think the show is trying to be all that funny. It’s blandly acceptable when it does, mostly, and I would prefer a few quick snappy lines over the physical comedy it can’t seem to land. But it would have helped to pull this episode back from the sappy edge, I think, to have a consistent comedy line going.

In the end, maybe that all just makes “Girl Meets Flaws” an oddly appropriate episode. It wears the show’s issues almost proudly, while also contextualizing them to make it clear just why it is the show works. It’s honest but devised, sincere but pushing it. It is what it is—and hopefully it’ll continue to learn how to make that work for itself.

No random thoughts today, but please do share some of yours with me, per usual! 

About the Author - Sarah Batista-Pereira

An aspiring screenwriter and current nitpicker, Sarah likes long walks not on the beach, character-driven storytelling, drama-comedy balancing acts, Oxford commas, and not doing biographies. She is the current reviewer for Girl Meets World.