#winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts

[winterlovesong1]

2x19…ingrained in my mind as a pivotal Shawn Hunter episode in the Boy Meets World canon…and yet in my rewatch, it’s not my favorite character who I think about after the episode draws to a close, it’s not one of the most memorable scenes in the show’s run that I still think about to this day that replays in my mind after this revisit to the show - it’s what happens after, it’s another character my attention is drawn to…

 Mr. Turner and his student, amid turmoil and decisions, amid a tipping point, a teacher being asked of a boy, his student, if he’s going to be alright. And in seconds Mr. Turner realizes, or maybe finally admits to himself after nearly a year of teaching, that he sees himself in this kid, that this student who sat in the back and avoided eye contact at the beginning of the year, was more than just another student – he reflected his younger self. And so, he finds himself wanting to protect, to shield this boy from getting hurt by a world that is consistently telling him he’s unworthy, that he’s somehow less than, that he isn’t up to par with societal standards - and thus, he assures him, as perhaps the only adult figure willing to, that he is going to be alright.

 And then this same teacher - this same adult is left alone as the scene draws to a close – and it’s those final seconds when he’s looking over at his bike that was spared, that perhaps if he didn’t intervene, he’d be looking over at a different scene, it’s those final seconds – it’s this moment that really speaks to my heart as an adult.

 Tony offers this beautiful subtle performance in the glance over at the bike, in the scan of an empty parking lot, that describes to the audience all the unsaid, all the uncertainty, all the unpredictability that he couldn’t say to a kid who needed his help - who needed his assurance and not his doubt.

 It’s a glance containing all the insecurities of a human being who doesn’t have all the answers - despite his job title - but is trying to do his best like everyone else. Because although he told his student that he would be alright - he really witnessed flashes of what could be, what could occur, in those seconds of realization.

 And so now he can fully present the doubt in his eyes - the fear of an adult, of a human and not the superhuman - not superhero as perhaps maybe this boy sees him as.

 He’s as in the dark as the next person. Because the truth is, no one can predict where we will end up. And what a human moment.

 What a way to connect these two characters and their shared uncertainty.

#winter rewatches BMW decades later and has THOUGHTS #character: shawn hunter #Character: Jonathan Turner #tv: boy meets world

[winterlovesong1]

Winter’s Top Five Season Two BMW Episodes

As I did when my favorite podcast reached the end of season one, I decided to list out my top five episodes for season two...

Career Day

My favorite Boy Meets World episodes tend to center around perspective shifts, the ones that oscillate between that of “the boy” – Cory – and the people, the friends and family, that surround him. In this case, in this particular episode, the shifted perspective for a majority of the episode centers on one of my favorite characters – Shawn Hunter. And while it would be unique in that aspect alone, what is special about it, is within the perspective change, is the episode focuses in on what we’ve been dancing around all season (with the exception of the episode titled “Wrong Side of the Tracks”) that this character’s life will no longer serve as a punchline, another means to bring comedy to the storyline or lighten the mood with some self-deprecating comment, but be used to enact the opposite,  to bring a weight to Cory’s life that may not otherwise exist if he wasn’t friends with someone like Shawn.

 This episode brings Shawn’s life out from the background – introducing his father for the first time – a character with arguably just as much complexity as his son – mention of his mother and perhaps the turmoil, the conflict that she has been struggling with for more than just this season – bringing forth a boy who would do almost anything to keep his family intact, but is forced to sit and watch it fall apart.

 Cory might not have the “cool parent” but he has a parent who cares, he has a parent who listens, he has a parent who stays…

 Home

The result of dedication, rewriting, scratching out ideas, having a light bulb spark of ideas, writing feverishly through the night, centering in on characters that are working, that the audience is embracing, this episode is grounding itself, settling into the grooves of the show, the track that will take this show through five more seasons and beyond in the memories of its viewers.

It includes the parents, the adults, discussing the realities of having to take care of an additional child in their home, unexpectedly, unplanned, remarking on the strain that bares, not just practically, but the emotional toll as well.

 Cory and Shawn might be best friends, but they weren’t meant to be brothers.

It also has that similar perspective shift from the previous episode (“Career Day”), letting the audience in on the mental toll it’s taking on Shawn, this kid left abandoned, unwanted.

Feeling alone.

But the greatest gift in this episode, is the opportunity to see through Jonathan’s eyes and how much growth he’s gone through as a character, from wanting to be taken in amongst the environment of the classroom as the “cool” teacher, wanting to impress his students and not be some outdated figure, but a teacher of modern times. And now, after twenty-three episodes, he’s settling into a role that is so much greater than his aspirations – a figure who is offering what Shawn’s parents can’t at the moment: somewhere safe, somewhere stable, somewhere where he can choose to lie his head on a pillow or hang his legs out a window.

 He's offering him a home.

(the greatest gift of all)

 The Uninvited

As was discussed on the pod, this episode builds on the insecurities of both characters, and it does it so beautifully. It draws out what was established in the first season and illustrates the “cool” from the “uncool” – dividing a friendship based on outside aesthetics and assumptions, until the end when all that is put to rest – when the divided line is erased in one of the best final scenes in the series run.

Because it’s never been about either or, this or that, one or the other. It’s never been about the division and what makes Cory and Shawn different, contrasting in their perhaps unlikely friendship. It’s always been about each of them being uniquely themselves – whatever that is – whoever that is – and coming together because of it. Despite the labels. Despite what other people see.

 All that matters is who they see in themselves.

 Breaking Up is Really Really Hard to Do

I went into this episode thinking “it’s really all about that one scene…” and then the end came, the end that I didn’t remember, the end that wasn’t brutal or spiteful or cruel, but honest and vulnerable and real, and suddenly it wasn’t just about that one scene…it was about a lot more.

 Because while we’re kids, we can hardly see the future. We can hardly see tomorrow. We just care about where now can take us. And yet, in this episode, in a long-winded way, Cory learns there are things to look forward to, that you can obtain value in the long term, in the hope of tomorrow, on counting on the future.

 The melancholy missing on his face at the end of the episode when that revelation sets in is such a sweet tender moment that I probably didn’t register as a kid, but now as an adult, gosh do I feel that…

   Sister Theresa

 When I arrived at this episode in the rewatch, I immediately remembered it. I remembered the arrival of Harley’s (Harvey’s) little sister with affectionate nostalgia and when watching it years later, I realized why. Danielle Harris, the main guest star of the episode, steals the story, taking what would be “another female guest role on a popular sitcom” and making it all her own, plowing through to the front of stage and snatching the spotlight.

 I’m with the pod that I really would have liked to have seen so much more of her character, to see how her being a part of the group dynamic would have affected friendships, relationships, school life, family life…

 But as they say on the podcast, “first step, time machine…”

 Special Mention…

  Wrong Side of the Tracks

This really is one of my favorite episodes of the series – and rewatching it as an adult – I can see why with the blooming dynamic between Shawn and his teacher, Mr. Turner – a kid who feels lost at every turn he takes, his home life, unbeknownst to the viewer until the final two episodes of the season, crumbling more so than usual, more so than ever before, and a teacher who might see some of himself in the disarray, who wants to make sure this kid doesn’t go down this “other path” just because he thinks he has too – just because his life circumstance somehow dictates he has to. He still has a choice. He still has a say.

It's a great episode, but with all that has come to light through the podcast, I’ll leave it here under special mentions.

#tv: boy meets world #pod meets world #winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts

[winterlovesong1]

I know this isn't about BMW s2 in particular, but...what prompted you to take another look at the show? I watched it on its first run, and now I'm considering going back.

There is a short answer and long answer to this…and yet they both culminate in a sort of eerie happenstance in my life, so I’ll try not to read into the universe drawing me back in, prodding me along the way with various signs to take another look…and yet, I’m about to answer this question so there’s that…

Short answer is the announcement of the podcast – which, I’ll say, as an avid podcast listener, is by far one of the best podcasts, not just rewatch podcasts, out there (bold, underline, and possibly print in a larger font for emphasis). I saw this announcement and reacted as one thirty something who grew up with this show might react, “oh my gosh I loved that show…”

(the past tense is important here because I really hadn’t rewatched an episode of it in, truthfully, a decade or so)

The longer answer is me wanting to answer the question for myself, “would I still love this show?”

Not everything from the past shines bright in the present, some memories are meant to be kept in the past, encapsulated in that sepia film and not restored to a technicolor glory.

So, I started slow. I started with the podcast.

Listening to the first couple episodes, I got emotional right away. Hearing the cast speak so openly, honestly, eloquently, and poignantly, about their experience, about their journey, was like discovering an old photo, one you thought you lost, but found in the back of the photo album, tucked underneath a newer photo, a more recent image, never thinking to check under the present for the past, never thinking you might find something forgotten back there, something worth seeing again.

(something worth listening to again)

And with that mind set, I went ahead and viewed a few highlights of the show, and from just a few episodes, from just the few scenes, I realized pretty quickly, “Oh, yeah, I can go on this journey…I can do this rewatch…”

So, I stopped on my highlight reel and I went back and started rewatching from the beginning, choosing to be surprised going forward as I watch alongside the same pace as the podcast. And while some things I have found I remember very vividly, some things I don’t recall at all, especially in these early seasons when I don’t think I was really aware of the show. Or at least aware of it enough to be paying close attention.

So yeah, I went back and started rewatching this show because of a podcast. But really I started rewatching it because I wanted to know if it moved me as much as it did when I was kid. And the answer (so far) is that it does – but in a totally different way. Because that old photograph, I didn’t know it at the time, but it was taken under the lens of the time. And as I’ve grown older, as I’ve gathered more and more life experiences, that picture brings out different emotions in me than it did before, different moments are now my favorite because I understand them differently. And it’s really beautiful. In every sense of that word. Both the heartbreaking and the wonderful.

#this is a very long answer but I hope it persuades some to give it a rewatch #or maybe for the younger generation give the show a watch #not everything about it is perfect but it holds up surprisingly well for the most part #tv: boy meets world #pod meets world #boy meets world #winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts #thank you for the answer <3

[winterlovesong1]

I didn’t remember this detail from my original childhood watch, nor do I think I was keen enough at the time to take it in as a kid as it was so quickly described and given as part of character background. But in my rewatch as an adult, there’s a moment in 2x10 that I caught, and now I just can’t help but find it poetic and inspiring that Shawn Hunter lives on the other side of the fence from a drive-in movie theater.

 He’s certainly no star, his insecurities leading him to want to fade into the background because the unnoticeable, the hidden, they can be illusive, they can drift through life an illusion and not have to step into the spotlight, not have to be focused on, not vie for attention.

 There’s no surprises in the background. There’s indifference. There’s deliberation. There’s design.

 (what he intended and no one else)

 And all the attention from girls, all the notoriety, all the gossip in the hallways and the musings about his looks and his reputation – he’s built that up carefully – he’s designed that – deliberately - so the talk may proceed him, so the reviews may carry more weight than his own self, than his own shadow.

 Because he certainly doesn’t see himself in the spotlight.

(he doesn’t see himself as the star)

 And yet, these images play on in his backyard, and they are such a juxtaposition to how he lives, how he operates, what he’s constantly being told in his home life – that there’s only so far he can go, he can only shine so bright, that this life has limits, it has caveats – for people like him, for those that come from where he grew up, for those that stand where he resides.

 From across the fence.

 But those stars – those figures flickering from across the fence, they go beyond their hometowns; they go beyond their cities and out into the world and cross boundaries and – shine.

 They succeed.

 And he wants so badly to succeed. To shine.

  But this life has limits. It has caveats.

 (for people like him)

  And so, he peers over the fence, putting these flickering stars on an unattainable pedestal, on an unreachable ledge.  Because dreams can’t be reached. Not for people like him. Not for those who grew up where he did or had the life he was living.

 Life has limits, caveats. One can only go so far.

 (he can only go so far)

 So he peers over the fence and dreams of the dreams he can’t reach, that he can only see flickering on a screen.

  (and the great thing about this story is that he does succeed in the end, not just because a teacher believed in him, because he finally believed in himself – he broke the boundaries and believed he could shine, he could succeed – and he did.)

 He was more than those flickering images on the screen.

 Because he wasn’t just the star to shine. He was the person that lived it.

#just me taking a trip down memory lane and getting lost #winter rewatches BMW decades later and has THOUGHTS #character: shawn hunter #tv: boy meets world #shawn hunter #boy meets world

[winterlovesong1]

I was so concentrated on the other outlandish outfits Shawn had on during the Band on the Run episode, that I nearly missed the first time he wears the leather jacket.

The second time is so much more noticeable in the episode Breaking Up is Really, Really Hard to Do in the sense that the look feels more complete, the silhouette closer to the standard of the character I've held in my mind and yet, it's just a glimpse, just a preview of the portrait of the individual adorned with so much more than just a leather jacket, donning the angst shared by teenagers watching, connecting to a performance and nodding, sometimes tearfully, in agreement with what he was going through.

It might have been a distinct costume choice at the time, a deliberate intention to set the character's aesthetic apart from his scene partner, his best friend on the show, but years later (decades later), it's that full portrait of the character, jacket included, that carries with it the tension of growing up, the fear of being vulnerable, and the relief and confidence that comes when you settle into the best version of yourself.

#winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts #tv: boy meets world #character: shawn hunter #boy meets world #shawn hunter

[winterlovesong1]

Top 5 dumb Shawn moments

Send in a boy meets world top five for season two

Putting these answers under the cut.

And I answered this in a previous ask, but I'm including it as a caveat to this ask: Shawn was always smart - he was always intelligent – even when the show would display him otherwise, I choose to believe it was all a ruse, a cover to those emotions we got to see come to the surface in later seasons.

ok onto the ask answers...

“Why can’t you be this sharp in my class?”

“Math’s not my best subject.”

“I’m your English teacher.”

“Then why are you teaching math?”

-Home

The way the show displays Shawn’s seemingly “lack of intelligence” is interesting because I don’t think it’s to show he’s dumb, by any means – I think it’s there to show that he just doesn’t pay attention, he doesn’t apply himself because he knows from his life experience, from his life circumstance, he doesn’t need to. How will paying attention in class help him at home? He can’t see the future importance of education; he can only see the immediacy of it and the lack of aid it’s resulting in the now. I like this exchange between hm and Mr. Turner because it shows that lack of attention and I think it also shows Mr. Turner, “ok, maybe I just need to explain things a little clearer for him to see the future importance of education…”

-/-

“You mean you want us to know what to study?”

“Well, I’m lost.”

-Pop Quiz

Sometimes “dumb Shawn” is just silly, and this is just silly, but the way Rider plays it is so endearing that it works.

-/-

“Have you ever fallen in love?”

“Five times a day."

-Wake Up Little Cory

This is where we get a sort of elevated version of “dumb Shawn” – where the writer’s  play it a bit more clever and it works – and partly because it’s so genuine – Shawn has such an open heart and where at this age he might not understand the full concept or weight of “love,” to him he does fall in love five times a day and so you as the audience find it funny, but also charming.

-/-

“Don’t move. Maybe he doesn’t see us."

-On the Air

An iconic line. A great play on words. I love it.

-/-

“I stand in front of the class and talk, you learn, it’s called education.”

“So that’s why this building exists.”

- Pop Quiz

When Shawn has a revelation, it’s often played for laughs, but I think at this age, you genuinely are learning so much – and even though this is a silly heightened example of that concept, it’s nice the show explores that genuine intrigue and revelation.

#character: shawn hunter #tv: boy meets world #winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts

[winterlovesong1]

Top 5 emotional moments

Answered under the cut

Send in a boy meets world top five for season two

“You think I’m alright?”

“I think you need to think you’re alright.”

“You think I’m alright?”

-Wrong Side of the Tracks

One of Shawn’s shining angst moments of the season, this one is the quiet moment that followed a thankfully diminished heightened situation. This moment is the quiet moment of a student asking a teacher a question, a kid asking an adult, who is one of the few paying attention to him, asking if he’ll be alright. And though he’s not in the state of mind to accept any belief in himself, he is at least, in this moment, ready to hear it from someone he admires, from someone he trusts. And so, Jonathan gives this kid what he wants to hear – not quite offering him definitively that he will be alright in the end, but the hope that if he chooses right, if he sticks to his convictions, he’ll be alright.

-/-

“You’re a good teacher, Mr. Feeny.”

“Yes, and you’re smarter than you look.”

-By Hook or by Crook

Mr. Feeny and Eric – one of the epic pairings of the show. And this is the start of the mentorship, a teacher reassuring a student of his potential, of how smart he is if he applies himself, if he studies, maybe harder, maybe longer than the others because answers don’t come easy to students like Eric, but that’s ok – that doesn’t make him any less smart, that doesn’t make his potential any less valuable.

-/-

“I don’t know anything…I don’t even know who I am.”

-Wrong Side of the Tracks

This moment is so heartbreaking. Shawn searching for his purpose, for his group, but his life comes with assumptions, pre-preprinted labels that he’s constantly fighting against.

The only bright spot of this moment is knowing where he ends up in the end - and that’s what also makes this moment’s weight rest even heavier on the heart.

-/-

“I miss Wendy…”

-Breaking Up is Really, Really Hard to Do

Such a poignant moment for a pre-teen to feel - to understand the importance of long term, to understand the value in getting to know someone and having respect for their interests and dislikes. To really enjoy the company of another.

I love this moment for Cory. I love this moment for the show.

-/-

“Because I’m thinking I should do something for somebody else.”

-Home

Jonathan’s growth this season is one of the arcs I love the most about season two. His opening up of his heart and his home to a kid he feels a kinship with is so special and important - not just to the show but to the audience watching.

#tv: boy meets world #winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts #character: shawn hunter #character: jonathan turner #Character: George Feeny

[winterlovesong1]

Top 5 Mr. Turner moments

Placing these moments under the cut...

Send in an ask about top five boy meets world season two related things..

"What do you care?"

"I was about to think I didn't care about anything."

-“Home”

 

Many of my favorite Jonathan Turner moments involve Shawn. And in the second season we are introduced to that dynamic in the first episode, and settle in to watch it grow, until the finale, until this moment, when a lost kid and a young adult find they need other, can learn from each other, and offer each other the same thing – home – in different ways.

 

Mr. Turner offering Shawn a physical home – a roof, a bed, a window…And Shawn gifting Mr. Turner with an emotional home – someone to open his heart to, to take care of, to teach the morals of life and not just the lessons in the classroom.

-/-

"...I'm staying at the motel down the street."

"The one down on 7th? Are you sure you’re gonna be alright there?"

-"Career Day"

 

Maybe one of my top favorites of the season – because it’s the first time Mr. Turner really gets the gravity of Shawn’s situation – realizing that those deflecting jokes in class, the humor about his relatives, about his family, was a coping mechanism for the reality.

The delivery of “are you sure you’re gonna be alright there…” is so pure and genuine. It’s one of the few times this season that the walls Mr. Turner perhaps holds up in front of himself are drawn down and he’s seen as an adult truly concerned for this kid.

-/-

"Hey, if you don't know that deep down inside, you're alright, then I haven't taught you anything at all."

-"Wrong Side of the Tracks"

 

I love a line that distills a message of the show that you’re watching. And this feels like one of those lines for Boy Meets World. It’s spoken by Mr. Turner in an attempt to get through to Shawn in a moment of crisis, but taken out of context, it could be seen as a character reaching out to its audience, it’s younger demographic, and saying, “you’re gonna be ok…and believe in that.”

It's also the first time, shortly after this line is delivered, that we see doubt, but not shown to his students, not shown to Shawn, only after everyone leaves does Mr. Turner display uncertainty in the words that carried such conviction only moments before.

It’s an underappreciated moment and so well played.

-/-

"You don't listen in class, you're gonna listen in life?"

-"The Uninvited"

 

I love the playful banter Mr. Turner and this line is a great illustration of that. It is humorous while being grounded in the realities of Cory’s distraction in school. It also shows how Mr. Turner has been trying to impart wisdom, a different kind of wisdom than Mr. Feeny, onto his students and at the beginning of the season, it’s a struggle…especially to students like Cory.

-/-

"C'mon George, what would you have done?"

"I truly don't know."

-"Career Day"

 

What I love about this scene is the growth from the first episode of the season to now. How Mr. Feeny was seen as the authority figure to Mr. Turner in a kind of imposing way. But what’s great about the arc for those two characters throughout season two is that by this point, Mr. Feeny is the mentor, and in looking up to him, Mr. Turner goes to him for advice on the most important thing to enter his life so far – taking care of Shawn Hunter.

#winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts #tv: boy meets world #character: jonathan turner #character: shawn hunter

[winterlovesong1]

Top 5 bullies moments!

Send in a boy meets world top five for season two

Just a note before I answer these below the cut...

Personally, this is one aspect of the show that I don't think has aged well and while I can compartmentalize these characters for the times in which they originated, I just wanted to make that caveat...

“What are you saying sometimes at night I like to write poetry?”

“No, I’m just saying that…actually, I think that’s kinda cool. What are they sonnets?”

-The Uninvited

I love the supportive friendship that is Joey and Frankie. I love that the show portrays them as actual friends caring about each other’s interests and not just paired up for sake of the trope their characters fall into.

-/-

“This is for all my friends who choose to remain anonymous.”

-Fear Strikes Out

Frankie and his poetry is iconic in the scope of the show knowing that it’s such a passionate interest of his character. Rewatching his first poetry reading felt really special.

-/-

“Gentlemen, don’t you have lives of your own?”

“No, sir.”

-The Thrilla in Phila

Ethan’s delivery of “no, sir” being so serious and respectful in response to the super concerned question is just a great juxtaposition for a comedic beat.

-/-

“What? Then I’d have to get my own life.”

“I’d consider it.”

“But all the good lives are taken.”

-The Thrilla in Phila

The audience laughs, but also, it’s pretty apt for kids Joey and Frankie’s age to be searching for their identity. It’s humorous, but it’s also grounded in reality, and that’s what makes it work.

-/-

“Well, that’s not what poetry’s about you know. Poetry’s about complex human emotion.”

-Fear Strikes Out

Again, Joey and Frankie being the best of friends and Joey taking an interest in Frankie’s passion for poetry is just one example of how supportive a friend he is.

#tv: boy meets world #winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts

[winterlovesong1]

Since there’s no new podcast episode tomorrow, I wouldn’t be opposed to answering some asks on BMW season two so far…

#like a mid season check in if you will… #winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts

[winterlovesong1]

Seeing Chubbie’s full of kids, a crowd, with life brimming, sometimes overflowing, in laughter and joy and smiles - seeing the space with the eclectic jukebox sounding decades old tunes and flickering amber florescent lighting from the ceiling - observing the outskirts of the space scattered with tiny wooden standing tables that hold a myriad of greasy food, lined by matching rickety wooden chairs that have never truly held their balance - viewing the vinyl booths that fill the gaps, the ones that I imagine are as sticky as the milkshakes placed within their realm and the gossip being exchanged in the atmosphere - noticing the chipped paint on the walls and the scuffs on the floor and the faded signage bearing the namesake we’ve all come to know as synonymous with this show - watching this place lived in and loved for, for the first time on my rewatch, makes me emotional for those places I had as a kid, those sanctuaries away from home, the ones I gathered in with my friends, tucked away, hidden, deeming them quietly, but without question, as our own secret world, our own hideaway - our own place.

#winter rewatches BMW decades later and has THOUGHTS #tv: boy meets world

[winterlovesong1]

Rewatching BMW 2x04, and hearing the phrase “my trailer park” for the first time (first time from what I can gather and remember from my rewatch) within the dialogue for Shawn Hunter is something I find so strikingly profound as I dive back into watching this show as an adult.

Aside from what the phrase entails in its meaning, it carries a significant weight than it ever did on my initial watch as a kid. Details like this stand out, they glow amid the other words, the one liners, the sarcasm, the witty humor. It’s character development, it’s fleshing out of this human background and adding more in the “about section” of his story as the show moves forward. Because while BMW is mostly from Cory’s POV, there is more than one “world” out there, there are other points of view that are worthy of note. And this is the show’s slow and steady attempt at creating those other spaces. Those other “worlds.”

Rewatching this show has been, and I predict will continue to be, a joy. But coming across details like these, it’s like getting to know an old friend from the start, getting the chance to see and experience the beginning when you only really recalled the end.

#winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts #winter rambles

[winterlovesong1]

It’s that time again - I did this for season one and I’m doing it again for season two now that the season two episode recaps of my favorite podcast are through -

Send me an ask for my top five or favorite…BMW season two related

#winter rewatches bmw decades later and has thoughts #ask game #note: I already did my top five episodes so anything but that