When the girls are assigned to do a report on the 1970s disco era, they decide to travel back and experience the 70s firsthand and land in the midst of turf battle between the disco and punk kids. (Source: imdb)

BFW was getting dangerously close to the going down “something bad happened, we will go back and time and repair the issue” road but fortunately, in this episode, we get just enough groundwork to move the show forward.

The relationships between Cyd and Shelby and Barry and Naldo are firmly cemented by now and are mirror images of each other.  Naldo and Cyd are the “wacky sidekicks” (who are smarter than they appear) while Barry and Shelby are the smarter ones (who are often more naive than they appear).

In this episode, disco dancing teacher Mr. Canavan (who has one of the best lines: “Your essays were so bad that I gave your children Fs) assigns the class an essay on the disco era (not exactly pedagogically sound).  Apparently, Barry and Naldo must be in a different English class as they are at Barry’s house in the spa.

Shelby and Cyd decide to go back to the 70s to do research on disco.  There’s some good tie-ins here: Naldo’s dad was in a band called The Stench and Cyd becomes enamored by punk music. But its a big no no to go back in time before you are born.

Cyd and Shelby return to the 70s, leaving behind their tachyon fields (which is, I guess, representative of their beings before they were born).  Barry seems to think these fields are the key to understanding time travel but we can do without the “smell of sulfur” jokes.

Naturally, in the 70s, Cyd becomes a punk rocker, Shelby a disco queen and we work our way through a story about the disco people and the punks not getting along.  Over time, because they haven’t been born yet, Cyd and Shelby slowly forget each other’s names but the big finale in detention reminds them of who they are and what their relationship is.

And no good v evil story would be complete without the dance where everyone gets along and disco dances.  By this point, the story seemed like almost every other episode of BFW.  But then we get a little clue about the future lab – Cyd and Shelby see a person in the lab and a very recognizable logo.  It will be interesting to see where this story now goes.

The acting in BFW is fine and the writing is just snappy enough to keep viewers interested.  Fortunately, this episode does not include the twins, who, over time, have been slowly moved to the B story.  Now just move them off the show.

Riley is asked to the semi-formal dance by a classmate named Charlie and is torn whether to go with him or Lucas. Meanwhile, Cory’s brother Eric is paid a visit from an old friend, Jack Hunter.

GMW was recently for an Emmy for Best Children’s Show.  Its well deserved.  And it gets better and better.

When GMW was first announced, it was also announced that many of the characters from BMW would be appearing.  This approach could have gone horribly awry.  I was fearful that these would fall into the “special visit”/”special appearance” category with, for example, Angela in town for a visit.  But the writers use these visits as a metaphor for the universal themes that Maya and Riley and their friends must face.  It works well – and its believable.

In this episode, our little gang is faced with semi-formal (which apparently is the defining moment of middle school).  Riley is waiting for the “big ask” (at least they didnt call it a prom-posal or propose-formal) from Lucas, who mistakenly assumes that he and Riley will be attending together (you fool!).  The 50’s dating film shown in class was … classic (how could you not love the line: “When you ask someone out for the semi-formal, you must do so ten months in advance.”)  This sets the stage for Riley’s expectations.  Maya serves nicely as the “Greek chorus,” similar to the one in the film.

When the “big ask” starts to play out, Riley is surprised that it is classmate Charlie that is doing the asking, not Lucas. After saying yes, inadvertantly to Charlie. Riley lies her way out of the evening but is finally convinced to attend.  When there, she is faced with decision: Lucas or Charlie.  Interestingly, Lucas and Charlie become best buds – and leave the decision to RIley.

After last weeks Farkle transformation, I continue to find Fogelmanis’ portrayal so endearing.

This is played against the backdrop of Jack Hunter returning to town as the evil guy at the evil corporation that has a meeting with Senator Eric (this storyline I dont get).  While Eric plays as dumb, he is wise beyond his years as Jack suggests.  They relive the BMW battle of Eric and Jack over Rachel.  Eric mentions that he hasn’t kept in contact with Rachel in one of those “you’ll always have your friends” moments.

And that’s the issue facing Riley – is Lucas a friend (or a brother) or more?  Inquiring minds and viewers want to know.

Hand the Emmy to Girl Meets World now.

When Lindy’s plans for a girls day at the spa conflicts with Delia and Jasmine’s double date with their boyfriends, the single bestie convinces her brother Logan and Garrett into spending a BFF day at the spa.

Friday night’s theme on The Disney Channel must have been identity.  This theme is played out in I Didn’t Do It as well.

Here, Lindy breaks Garrett by inviting him and Logan to a spa for the afternoon, after attending a monster truck rally in the morning.  Garrett’s super tense – and his first massage turns him into Mr. Zen.  Peyton Clark does an admirable job playing the anti-Garrett – and Austin North’s Logan plays just the right amount of befuddlement and confusion over having a new best friend.  He begs Lindy to “fix Garrett.”  Its interesting how many times Lindy is actually the one who “breaks ” things.

In the B story, Jasmine and her boyfriend Owen (I liked her better with Max the movie theatre guy) and Delia and Brandon are apparently spending too much time double dating.  So Delia and Brandon lie about attending the “Cat of the Year Awards” (wouldnt anyone believe this – no, but their ongoing lie was hysterical).  Naturally, Delia and Brandon get caught in their lie – but the deeper message is that Jasmine has been lying to Owen about what she is interested in “just to get him to like her.”  Surprisingly, in the end, they both love burping (yep, you can never go wrong with bodily sounds on a Disney Channel show) and their relationship is solidified.

I Didnt Do It is cleverly written and I appreciate the fact that many of the scenarios our fearless fivesome get into are believable for high school students (or at least for TV sitcom high school students).

I typically don’t review reality shows but, being that I am also a meteorologist, I can’t resist.  We’ve had every occupation in the book as a reality show: model, singer, actor, body artist, cake designer.  Finally, the meteorologist gets his or her turn.

The show is produced by Mark Burnett and Funny or Die so apparently it is half-comedy/half-reality.  To keep with the weather theme, there are storm clouds gathering but lightning is not about to strike.  No one will “hail” this show as exceptional or even mediocre, just an accumulation of awfulness.

In interviews, the producers state the following: “We had to be very conscientious because the weather for many people isn’t something that they find inherently funny because it can be deadly. What we’re focusing on here is the reporting aspect of it and how important that role really is.” If thats the case, then why not have people audition to be reporters.  Reporting on weather is serious business.  One, its hard work.  Two, you can’t just do it.  Three, your forecast often involves life and death.  I can laugh at myself with the best of them (that’s why I review sitcoms and write my own) but I can’t laugh at this.

And if the focus is one how important that role really is – why not make it a serious competition.  Skill drills like “How long can you hold a weighted mike” have nothing to do with meteorology.  Granted, geography is important so having contestants being able to identify places on a map is important.

The contestants are your usual cornucopia of standard issue reality show folks.  I’m not I’d watch any of them on TV.  Yep, we have had our share of crazy TV weatherfolks: Lloyd Lindsay Young and Al Kaprielian come to mind.  But there are hundreds and hundreds of TV meteorologists who take their job and their responsibility seriously.  Why not focus on that?

Here’s my other pet peeve.  If you are going to have a competition that requires contestants to put weather conditions on a map – at least have the weather conditions make sense.  55 degrees and sleet in Fiji?  50 and a tornado in Chile?  Ugh.

I also teach atmospheric science  – to high school girls.  This is not the kind of role modeling I’d seek out for my students – or for human beings in any way, shape or form.

I really think the producers blew it.

When I reviewed the pilot episode of Bunk’d, I didn’t think it was too bad.  For tweens and teens, it would be acceptable viewing – on the same level of plotting and characterizations as other Disney Channel comedies.

In episode 2, “Ravi becomes suspicious when he overhears Xander’s plans for his first date with Emma. Meanwhile, Zuri and Jorge set up a secret business selling candy and video games to the campers.”

First, Hazel seems to have disappeared.  That’s not a bad thing.  Second, you have Mary Scheer – Mrs. Benson, Groundling – and you saddle her with playing an oversexed camp owner? I realize you need tension in a comedy – but really?  Would anyone send their kids to Camp Kikiwaka after meeting her?  And jokes about varicose veins?

The B story focuses on a ban on candy at the camp – since Gladys was stood up by Serge the candyman.  Jorge and Zuri go into the underground business of selling candy.  They apparently make a fortune and apparently the kids at camp have a lot of money to spend on candy.

Asian stereotype Tiffany gets hooked on candy too (her demon voice at the end was classic).  Zuri needs kids her own age to play with at camp, but I cant imagine any two kids Id rather not play with.  Jorge is just weird.  Could we ask for a visit from Riley and Maya from GMW?

The A story focuses on the old soap-opera trope: the overhear.  Ravi overhears Xander and Lou talking about his first date with Emma – and he thinks they are plotting to kill her.  Really?  Would anyone believe that Xander killed his first girlfriend?  This is a tired plot.  Naturally, on their first date, everything Xander does fits into the “you are going to get killed” story Ravi told her.  Why doesn’t anyone every ask the source?

That said, List and Quinn have some nice chemistry together – and List has grown as a young actress since starting on Jessie.  I’m still curious how they can maintain story at a summer camp …

My suggestions:

• Ditch Jorge and Tiffany and give Zuri some normal friends with a eye on always getting into trouble.
• Send Hazel to another camp.
• Reimagine Gladys (apparently camp owners can never like kids).
• Keep the theme song.

There are many things I like about GMW.

• Each episode doesn’t particularly match the typical sitcom pacing.
• Each episode is a little morality play.
• Each episode is thoughtfully written.  The writers don’t just go for the lame joke.
• As a viewer, I leave each episode satisfied and feeling a little better about the world.

In this episode, the John Quincy Adams Middle School Yearbooks are distributed and, as stated on imdb, “The kids aren’t satisfied with what they’ve been voted “Most Likely” for in the school yearbook, and take matters into their own hands to change it.”  Farkle is voted “Most Likely to Be Farkle,” while Riley is voted as “Most Likely to Smile.” Lucas is voted “Most Likely to Go Along with Anything.”  Surprisingly, Maya and Lucas are voted as best couple.

Trying to break free of her reputation as miss sunshine and light, Riley morphs into “Morotia M. Black.”  As Maya adeptly notes, we all try to project a public persona of who we want people to see as, often not as who we really are.  Her “impersonation” of Riley is spot-on as is her moms.

The underlaying lesson of the episode is the story of Greenland and Iceland, which were so named to either attract people to the country or to deter them from visiting.  Its all about how you want the world to see you.

Let’s talking about the acting.  Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel – even though its been 20 years since they first appeared as Cory and Topanga – are so good.  A viewer of BMW would be convinced that the two of them had married in real life and have been living off screen together the whole time.  You believe them as parents, you trust them as people.

Peyton Meyer has grown nicely into his role as Lucas. We got a little darkness to his character when one of his buddies from Texas visited a few episodes ago.  He continues to be the calm in the craziness of his friends.

Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter are wise beyond their years.  Its hard to believe they are 13 and 16 respectively.  Sabrina’s Maya is sophisticated in a way not usually seen in tween-coms.  Rowan’s Riley can be a little too much to take sometimes but I like her dynamic with her parents and her friends.

But special props go to Corey Fogelmanis.  This kid has acting chops to spare.  I actually found his “Donnie Barnes: Regular Guy” persona much more intriguing than Farkle.  His scene at the end was all kinds of crazy good.  His line about people changing as they get older – and as his best friends, they’d have to get used to it – summed up the whole episode to me.  In his scene with Lucas in the outdoor courtyard, I kept expecting him to say something after “being open about who we are meant to be.” I’m glad he didn’t.

Here’s my one pet peeve of the episode: what school gives out yearbooks in the middle of the year?

I’ll keep checking in on what happens on when Girl Meets World.

The final week of TILK is now over and its been another fun week on Espanola Way.

Things moved pretty quickly this week as we ramped up to the Golden Ladle competition (in about 2 episodes) and got more culinary intrigue and espionage between Frenchie and Will.  Things have been set up nicely for season two.

The positives:

1. I still like the family dynamics here.  Dolores, Talia and Julia (Lehr, Quezada, and LaSalvia) form a fine family unit – there’s a lot of love there.  Even Frenchie, Debbie and Tyson (Luciano, Soltys and Obergfoll) make a solid family.  Regardless of how snarky Frenchie gets, there’s a lot of love between the three of them as well.
2. The Golden Ladle Competition looked like a real cooking competition.  Props to getting celebrity chef Lorena Garcia as the (only) judge.  Just like an episode of Chopped or Masterchef, we had a mystery box, 30 minute time limit, hands up, and weeding down the competition.  The ladle off would be a challenge for sure – except for the fact they got a day to prepare – recreating one of Garcia’s signature dishes, Asado Negro and the need to have the dish represent each chef’s personality.
3. The easy route would have been for Talia to win the Golden Ladle.  Granted Frenchie cheated, but it was nice to see Debbie earn her redemption as well as compliment Talia on her cooking.  If any character turns double agent in Season 2, it will be here.
4. The intrigue was upped with Will.  For most the series, he was a background character/sous chef, but he clearly has another agenda.  His scenes with Frenchie were interesting (especially when Frenchie brought back the wrong spices) and it will be interesting to see what Will meant by the phrase “There can only be one master.”
5. The Rudy/Tyson dynamic amped up too.  While its clear that Talia and Tyson are heading toward couples-ville (most soap viewers could have predicted that in the first week), Rudy keeps fighting for Talia’s attention and affections.  Watch for the dirty looks, elbows and sneers he gives Tyson.  Joshua Samuels really seems to enjoy what he’s doing and does a great job as the pining best bud.  His best line: “We’re best buds.  Amigos.”  And “I should tell her, I knew her first.”
6. The Talia/Tyson romance is sweet.
7. Frenchie.  There are no words.  His culinary puns are hysterical.  My favorite: “breaking and cay-entering.”
8. The characters and stories are believable.  Yes there are still some raw acting moments but character actions are consistent with who they are.  I’ve said this before, its a good company of young actors here.
9. Watch the background.  A lot of amusing action goes on – pay attention!
10. Tyson’s scenes with the GL coordinator and Lorena Garcia were a hoot.  Obergfoll is a riot.  Watch him in the background as well as his facial expressions.  They are priceless.

I’ve mentioned before that this show would succeed on its own without the spices.  Congrats to writers and the entire production team.

And some other thoughts.

1. Aunt Tilly was a tad one note – and I’d hate to see her credit card bill for flight change fees.
2. The insta-hurricane was an insta-plot turn.  Valerie did say it was a freak storm but its Miami, people.   It seemed like a bad set up to get Talia with Will and the spices and separate her from everyone else.  Frenchie’s take down of Tyson was classic.
3. When Talia told Tyson about the spices, wouldn’t he have asked “where’d you get them?” or “did you try them out on me?”  Maybe have said “Oh, that’s why the cupcake or the tres leches made people act funny?”  Tyson’s a straight A student supposedly …

Scene of the Week: Tyson and Talia on the balcony (And the bucket of water).

Line of the Week: Julie must really like those tools!

It will be interesting to see where Season #2 takes us.  I’m ready for another visit with Talia in the Kitchen.

Just like Scott Fellows knows middle school, Pamela Eells O’Connell knows the fish out of water/high school environment.  She’s exec produced or co-exec produced The Suite Life on Deck, The Suite Life of Z&C, Jessie and now Bunk’d.

With Jessie getting close to its final episode, DC had a couple of options: End Jessie or move some of its characters to a new situation.  It worked well with Suite Life so Ravi, Zuri and Emma have been sent off to Camp Kikiwaka up in Maine for the summer.  I’m not sure how long a summer in camp series can last, but we will put that aside for a moment or two.

In Bunk’d, Ravi and Emma are Counselors in Training at the camp.  There’s Camp Counselor Lou (she seems like a counselor on steroids), Camp Counselor/Hottie Xander (former American Idol contestant Kevin G Quinn) and Camp Annoyance Hazel (Tessa Nettig). Hazel needs to dial it down a notch or two … or three.  The show quickly sets up the competitive dynamic between Emma and Hazel and the possible triangle between them and Xander.

In Ravi’s cabin is Head Counselor Xander and camper Jorge, who’s a junior version of the Suite Life on Deck’s Woody.  Jorge apparently can fart for a long time and was taken to brunch by aliens.  This just seems like a weird set up.  Why not make Jorge a city kid enjoying his first summer at camp.

In Emma’s cabin is Lou, Zuri and smartpants Tiffany (her best line, when Lou says something about college being seven years away: “I’m doing really early admission.”)  Tiffany, who is Asian-American, plays the violin and is studying for the National Spelling Bee.  Zuri makes it her mission to make sure Tiffany has some fun during the summer.  If summer means breaking out of this stereotype, I’m all for it.

Interestingly, Emma’s mom, Christina Ross, was a legendary counselor at the Camp.  So Emma has big shoe to fill.  Peyton List continues to grow and mature as Emma, and by the end of the episode realizes, “I’m tougher than I thought.”

Luke does get a mention in the beginning – he’s off at summer school.  I’d expect Debbie Ryan (Jessie) to make a visit during parent’s day.  Perhaps we’ll get to see Mr. Moseby here as well!

There’s enough of a variety of dynamics here to make this watchable for teens and tweens.  Plus DC usually doesnt run with a show unless they know they can get three or four seasons out of it.

Now the real treat – Mary Scheer is back on TV as camp owner Gladys.  She was a stitch as Freddy’s mom on iCarly – and I only expect good things from her here as well.  I’d go for the inside joke and have Nathan Kress visit the camp as her son.

So DC hasn’t punk’d us with bunk’d …