Boy Meets World is easily one of the greatest TGIF comedies. One of the reasons for that is that it sees Cory Matthews, Topanga Lawrence, Shawn Hunter and co. facing the ups and downs of life in an authentic-feeling way. And, as the BMW cast got older, their characters became wrapped up in more adult-like situations, leading to some dramatic moments in the sitcom. On that note, Danielle Fishel is getting honest about the “painful” episode featuring Fred Savage, and her thoughts on it align with mine in many ways.
In “Everybody Loves Stuart” (which can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription), The Wonder Years’ Fred Savage guest stars alongside younger brother Ben on the funny, family-friendly series. Fred's character is a bit unsavory, though, as he plays younger college philosophy teacher Stuart, who Cory and his friends view as cool. Their thoughts on Stuart shift, however, after he makes a blatant pass at Topanga. Cory later retaliates (physically) and faces suspension or expulsion from college.
Danielle Fishel and co-stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong reached that particular episode during an episode of their rewatch podcast episode, Pod Meets World. While Strong found the episode "painful to watch," Fishel likened it to an after school special and explained that it didn't effectively serve Topanga as a character:
I felt like this thing that happened to Topanga became about, ‘How is the man in her life going to feel about it, and what's he going to do about it?’ [Topanga’s] agency was completely just taken away. I did not appreciate that at all.
I completely agree that Topanga’s agency really was “taken away.” During the episode, Stuart visits her dorm, holds her hand and is told she’s “attractive” by a teacher who’s too overly confident with his inappropriate actions. What's represented there is essentially grooming on Stuart's part. Despite that, the rest of the episode is all about Cory and his risk of getting kicked out of school for hitting Stuart.
It reminds me of the controversy over Sansa Stark’s sexual assault scene in Game of Thrones. Fans were offended seeing the camera focus on Theon Greyjoy’s painful-looking face amid the assault rather than Sansa. If a woman’s traumatic experience is glossed over to focus on a man’s perspective, then in the context of a TV show, a woman's pain is simply being used to forward a male character's development.
Danielle Fishel continued to talk about how “Topanga becomes unimportant.” She wished that there had been a scene where Cory and Topanga spoke about what she could do about the situation and how she'd like her fiancé to help her. Those are my thoughts exactly, especially considering that during the council hearing scene, Topanga wasn’t even allowed to talk, as Stuart and Dean Bolander were constantly interrupting her.
Will Friedle agreed with Danielle Fishel about Cory taking over the story and that Topanga’s storyline would have been “much more interesting.” What Fishel did praise was the "goal" of the episode, which to was to show that characters that viewers first met as kids could find themselves in such uncomfortable situations. Fishel mostly has trouble with the execution, and Rider Strong presented an argument that could explain the intentions of the sitcom’s writers:
The concern is not how Topanga feels. It's about how the violation of Topanga is reflected through how it violates Cory's rights.
Fishel reasonably agreed to Rider Strong's argument. The show is called BMW, which means the series would be told from the boy’s perspective. If the show was centered on Topanga, I’d like to believe the ABC show would have taken a different approach.
As a fan, I really appreciate the nuanced discussions Danielle Fishel and co. are having as they rewatch Boy Meets World. It's a fun show, but it's certainly not perfect when you view it from a contemporary lens. Fishel also says that she can "empathize" with the writers and the goal they were trying to achieve. However, they just didn't pull it off in a way that fostered growth in Topanga. I personally hope that writers on current shows learn from this and seek to maintain agency for characters who are placed in such situations.
