I passed on reviewing the season 3 opener of Girl Meets World, mainly because I knew it would involve our little group of friends moving on to high school.  Sure enough, I was right.

In watching this episode of GMW, I finally figured out what really bugs me about the show, besides the fact that what happens in Cory’s classroom is often paralleled in the students’ own lives.  It’s this: I don’t like the character of Riley Matthews.  I find her both mopey and philosophical.  That’s great and all but I’d love to see her bust out and have some fun.

In this epsiode, our little gang of five (welcome to the GMW party Zay!) is creating online profiles for the school’s online social network (Interesting, almost no technology in site but they have a social network).  Naturally, Riley is nervous about people liking her, so Maya suggests that RIley put her own information down but use a fake name.  As such, Jexica is born.

Everyone thinks Jexica is cool and everyone wants to be Jexica.  Students even claim to be friends with her (Yogi, here, is a stitch).  But once that coolness and newness wears off, people have moved on from Jexica to something new.  And from Farkle to Lucas to Zay, everyone knew that Jexica and Riley were one and the same.

Parallel this with the lessons Cory teaches in “World History.” (I like how when they enter class, the textbooks are already out on their desks).  Cory’s words here about the short lifespan of likes and dogs and cats on the web is right on target.  It’s what we value as a society and how we want future societies to understand what we stood for is what is important.  Moreover, since the beginning of time, from caveman drawings to art, humankind has sought to represent its social fabric.  A telling and timely lesson indeed.

Unfortunately, this episode still comes across as another GMW “very special episode.” It’s impressive that the gang of five wants to stay friends forever and that they’d have a discussion about whether or not to invite Jexica into their group.  Last week, we had the three seniors as “mentors” for our group but they already have seemed to disappear.  That’s sad, because without our group interacting with others, and learning from people other than Cory, those relationships will begin to stale.

The subplot in this episode is some mumbo-jumbo about Auggie, Nigerian $ on the internet and Ava.  Meh.