Boy Meets World 5.19, "Eric Hollywood" Review

Boy meets World Following the tumultuous break up of everyone's favorite teen couple, Cory and Topanga, Boy Meets World writers have given us another fantastic themed episode! A few months ago we got a Real World-style episode and then just a couple weeks ago we had a Scream/I Know What You Did Last Summer parody. But this time, they've given us something completely different. We start the episode with Eric, who's working on building sets for a local play. Due to Eric's carpentry skills (or rather, lack there of) the actor to play Romeo is seriously injured and Eric must step up and play the part. His performance, surprisingly, is phenomenal- he receives high praise from the director, the local papers, and of course, representatives from Shakespeare groups and a big-wig from ABC! The ABC rep immediately offers him a spot on a TV show, and Eric is whisked away to Hollywood (joined by Mr. Feeny of course.) Meanwhile, the newly single Topanga shows up at Jack and Shawn's apartment and quickly realizes the two of them are coming down with chicken pox. Against their will, she keeps them in and tends to their illness until Jack points out why Shawn is unhappy with Topanga hanging around- now that Cory and Topanga have broken up, should Shawn and Topanga really even still be friends? But back to Eric! On the set, Eric meets the cast of his new show, "Kid Gets Acquainted With The Universe" and things start to get really good. The show within the show uses all the BMW sets, and the cast of KGAWTU (what a terrible acronym) are all played by the corresponding cast members of Boy Meets World, and even have similar names to the actors. Ben Savage (Cory) plays Ben Sandwich in Hollywood who plays Rory on Kid Gets Acquainted With The Universe and embodies the image of a spoiled, successful, young actor as he yells at the writers, who are portrayed as children, and verbally abuses the meek Schneider, played by BMW's Rider Strong. When it's Eric's turn to act, he can't seem to get out of his Shakespearean ways, and is quickly fired from the show. After a pep talk from Mr. Feeny, he leaves Hollywood and accepts his fate. Once Shawn and Jack begin to recover from their chicken pox, Topanga arrives at their apartment again to tell Shawn how she feels about their friendship. They agree that although their time spent together revolved around Topanga and Cory's relationship, they had since developed a bond that will keep them close regardless of Cory's stance. They make up and Topanga continues to nurse Shawn back to health. Overall, this episode is one of the greatest I have ever seen. The story line with Eric is funny and witty and a show that can poke that much fun at itself deserves our respect! Although it was a little weird to have a virtually Cory-free episode (he appeared for literally a second in the first act, and Ben Savage was there for a while portraying Ben Sandwich, and Ben Savage as Ben Savage showed up for the tag) the story lines that we got were awesome. And during the final scene, with Topanga and Shawn making up, I was genuinely convinced they were going to kiss and start even more drama with Cory! But who knows, maybe next week we'll see them get together... after all, Shawn did say in this episode that Cory won't stop talking about how amazing Topanga is. Perhaps Shawn himself is starting to notice how beautiful his temporary nurse really is? I guess we'll find out soon!
Contributor
Contributor

Colleen is an aspiring scriptwriter with a knack for puns and trouble avoiding speeding tickets. She enjoys NBC and BBC, along with the rest of the alphabet. She spends her days working on The Morning After for Hulu.com.