S02.E27: Girl Meets Money

[RedFire2000]

When Farkle's dad makes a bad investment, Farkle becomes worried about what that might mean for his family.

Guest-starring Shark Tank's Mark Cuban as himself

[augmentedfourth]

I think I might have liked this one more had it not immediately followed the STEM episode - we're treading a little close to "special issue of the week" territory. I did laugh a couple times, and I liked the part toward the end with Cory, Topanga, and Auggie, but a lot of it was just too heavy-handed and awkward (much like the STEM episode).

[blugirlami21]

I had the same issue. Everything is so earnest and after school special that it's hard to relate to or take seriously for that matter.

[madfortv]

 I continue to really like Farkle and Riley together.

[FrumiusManxome]

This episode wasn't too bad. I agree it was very after school special at times, but it was the typical GMW nonsense so I wasn't especially bothered. There were moments that I was particularly incensed, I will admit. 

 

My big thing was how Farkle kept asking Maya what it was like to be poor. It bothered me because Maya is fairly well off?? Like, I know she doesn't have the glitz and glamour of Riley's house or room,but her room looked perfectly fine. And it was undermined by the fact that they didn't see fit to show the leaky roof or hole in the wall or the rest of the house. Also the retcon of Maya's mom from negligent wannabe to well-meaning hardworking single parent totally tanked any credibility they had on this front. Especially now that her mom works at Topanga's which presumably has much better pay. Honestly, I'm just tired of the whole Maya is such a sad, misbegotten child when she basically has gotten everything she's wanted for most of this season/show. I hope we're not returning to those types of stories. 

[mommalib]

This episode wasn't too bad. I agree it was very after school special at times, but it was the typical GMW nonsense so I wasn't especially bothered. There were moments that I was particularly incensed, I will admit. 

 

My big thing was how Farkle kept asking Maya what it was like to be poor. It bothered me because Maya is fairly well off?? Like, I know she doesn't have the glitz and glamour of Riley's house or room,but her room looked perfectly fine. And it was undermined by the fact that they didn't see fit to show the leaky roof or hole in the wall or the rest of the house. Also the retcon of Maya's mom from negligent wannabe to well-meaning hardworking single parent totally tanked any credibility they had on this front. Especially now that her mom works at Topanga's which presumably has much better pay. Honestly, I'm just tired of the whole Maya is such a sad, misbegotten child when she basically has gotten everything she's wanted for most of this season/show. I hope we're not returning to those types of stories. 

Yeah i'm tired of the manipulation to make Maya seem like an underdog. She's still not the most rootable character on the show Farkle is.

[Primetimer]

Because, when Minkus and Mark Cuban guest star, that's the only thing to talk about.

Read the story

[mommalib]

Because, when Minkus and Mark Cuban guest star, that's the only thing to talk about.

http://previously.tv/girl-meets-world/girl-learns-its-all-money-honey/"> Read the story

I agree about Farkle's maturity. Great character growth.

Edited January 23, 2016 by mommalib

[Kromm]

The Dos: Riley's Eiffel Tower tee and medium blue nail polish, Farkle's leather jacket, and Maya's brown-and-black sweater

Stephanie, you forgot about Maya's LBD/Rich Girl outfit.

And actually I thought those jeans Riley wore with the T-shirt were pretty nice too.

The Don'ts: Farkle's layered, hooded sweater vest

And here I thought Lucas' uninspired outfit belonged as well. That horrible swearer he wore.

[spanana]

I like the idea of the episode, but the show also needs to learn that not every single episode needs to be a very special episode.  Even kids will start to get annoyed if they feel the show is preaching to them every single episode.

 

I also have the same issue re: the way they write Maya's background.  I get that this is Disney so they don't want to show a kid living in a rat infested dump.  It's probably a little too heavy and real for most kids that are watching this channel.  But there at some point needs to be an acknowledgment that Maya is fairly well off in the big picture.  No, her mom may not have a lot of money.  But she has nice clothes and a perfectly nice room that many kids would kill to have.  She has a Shawn and the Matthews who seem to buy her all the things that her mom can't afford to buy her.  Many kids don't have a bedroom at all, let alone one to themselves painted in fancy colors with nice bedding and etc.  So I really wish they would get over this poor Maya who has nothing deal.   Yes, they referenced a leak in the ceiling and a hole in the wall but of course we don't see it and only see pretty, colorful bedroom.  Also for NYC, Maya's bedroom is fairly large.  

 

But I guess we are just always supposed to feel bad for poor Maya.

[Texasmom1970]

I like the idea of the episode, but the show also needs to learn that not every single episode needs to be a very special episode.  Even kids will start to get annoyed if they feel the show is preaching to them every single episode.

 

I also have the same issue re: the way they write Maya's background.  I get that this is Disney so they don't want to show a kid living in a rat infested dump.  It's probably a little too heavy and real for most kids that are watching this channel.  But there at some point needs to be an acknowledgment that Maya is fairly well off in the big picture.  No, her mom may not have a lot of money.  But she has nice clothes and a perfectly nice room that many kids would kill to have.  She has a Shawn and the Matthews who seem to buy her all the things that her mom can't afford to buy her.  Many kids don't have a bedroom at all, let alone one to themselves painted in fancy colors with nice bedding and etc.  So I really wish they would get over this poor Maya who has nothing deal.   Yes, they referenced a leak in the ceiling and a hole in the wall but of course we don't see it and only see pretty, colorful bedroom.  Also for NYC, Maya's bedroom is fairly large.  

 

But I guess we are just always supposed to feel bad for poor Maya.

I agree with this and the others who have posted about Maya's situation.

I know I will catch hell, for saying this but I am getting pretty tired of them trying to show us how talented and special Maya is in every episode and all she has overcome. We don't need to beat over the head writers!

[mommalib]

I agree with this and the others who have posted about Maya's situation.

I know I will catch hell, for saying this but I am getting pretty tired of them trying to show us how talented and special Maya is in every episode and all she has overcome. We don't need to beat over the head writers!

You won't catch hell form me. I hate blatant character favoritism. Maya's not the lead(Riley) or even the character that's show the most growth(Farkle) which makes the favoritism more noticeable.

[Texasmom1970]

You won't catch hell form me. I hate blatant character favoritism. Maya's not the lead(Riley) or even the character that's show the most growth(Farkle) which makes the favoritism more noticeable.

I am glad to see I was not imagining it. This past episode when they were pitching their donation ideas I said before it happened of course Maya is going to come in and they are going think she's brilliant. Its just becoming too obvious with how they are handling her character.

I was joking with my husband that pretty soon they would change the name of the show to "Maya Meets World."

[blugirlami21]

I don't know. I sometimes think Maya is just an easy target when it's the writing that is the real issue. I actually feel like Maya is being flanderized with every ensuing episode. She's a lot more overly materialistic, lazy, and stupid this season and it bothers me.

Same thing with Riley and her narcissistic manner usually with people who don't deserve it. I actually feel like Riley gets her way more than anyone.

I feel like Maya is middle class. Which is similar to me when I was younger. You're not living in poverty but you're not rich either. We had a house but we couldn't afford to fill the house with expensive things. Of the four of them Maya is probably the poorest and I don't necessarily feel like the show is beating me over the head with it. But ymmv.

Farkle has become my favorite of the four. He's the most well rounded character. I'm not happy with what they've done to the girls.

Edited January 24, 2016 by blugirlami21

[benteen]

Oh yeah, this show is ridiculous with the preaching and Corey can be nauseating with it.  It doesn't help that the kids get everything they want when they preach like this, no matter how unrealistic it is.  Not to mention Corey seems to hang out with a lot of billionaires.  As talented as Sabrina Carpenter is, they do seem to be overkilling on Maya this year and portraying her with Riley's dumbness.  Her being poor is a bit of a joke.

 

I will give them props for bringing up Riley's love for the Knicks again and her reaction to Mark Cuban's jab at them was really an absolutely terrific bit of acting.

[madhacker]

my take on the episode: This was the producers giving Corey Fogelmanis a chance to shine and he made the most of it. I'm really hoping Disney sees what we're all seeing about him and gives him something to really sink his acting talents into. If nothing else, find a role for him in the Marvel franchise (he'd make a pretty good teenage Tony Stark with a temporary hair coloring for a cameo in one of the movies or even a recurring role on a future season of Agent Carter (ok, honestly I just would love to see how Corey's chemistry with Haley Atwell would be. ))

[AmandaPanda]

It was very after school special-y, but I liked it a lot better than the STEM episode. The writers had a better grasp on what exactly the issue was and how they wanted to handle it. My biggest problem was the way they handled all the stuff that was wrong with Maya's apartment. They're definitely renters, so all of those repairs should be handled by the landlord.

[PamelaMaeSnap]

I'm going to throw in just one quick comment which could certainly be argued but what the heck ... I'm not sure specifically what neighborhood it's implied the kids live in, but there are definitely some school zones which could encompass both ends of the scale within their zones. Admittedly, not as many as there used to be when I was a young whippersnapper going to school in Manhattan -- there are so many more schools now that the zones have shrunk and, I'm sure, been gerrymandered a bit in the process -- but just on the Upper East Side alone, say, a school like PS 198 would fit the bill, I think. Plus, there are many public schools that are unzoned and either specialized based on areas of interest or lottery.

Edited January 24, 2016 by PamelaMaeSnap

[RedFire2000]

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks this show is getting super preachy lately. It's just starting to get a little much. I understand every episode is gonna have a message, and that's one thing, but some of the latest episodes are more like sitting in a school assembly with a motivational speaker. Like, I watch TV to be entertained, not for public service announcements.

[Pallida]

I don't mind the service announcements necessarily, but their execution of them is terrible. Maya starts the show essentially bragging about how much she doesn't want to be in school (which I realize might just be a mechanism deflecting her feelings about her performance in school) and then ends by saying she's going to get an education to make her life better. Retcon!

I wish they had made a statement on how people can make a huge difference with good ideas even without much money. Sure money and good ideas can do the most good, but these kids could take their passion and implement something great without Minkus money.

[madfortv]

My family didn't have much money when I was young though we had enough to eat. My Mom had ways of stretching the food. In comparison, Maya seems to be much, much better off. because her clothes are really nice (not just because Shawn bought some for her), and her room is large and very nice looking. If her complaints matched her real situation as implied by the writers, she wouldn't have that many clothes, her room would be more plain, and they would show her Mother and her trying to figure out how to make ends meet. The only way the "poor me" story line fits would be if they showed Katy struggling more, skipping meals in order to feed Maya, and wearing the same clothes in order to make sure Maya doesn't go without.

 

Maya has a cell phone and seems to have money to go to the movies or do other activities with her friends. How did she go on the Texas trip if she is poor? . Given her life style, her complaints seem hollow.

[Kromm]

My family didn't have much money when I was young though we had enough to eat. My Mom had ways of stretching the food. In comparison, Maya seems to be much, much better off. because her clothes are really nice (not just because Shawn bought some for her), and her room is large and very nice looking. If her complaints matched her real situation as implied by the writers, she wouldn't have that many clothes, her room would be more plain, and they would show her Mother and her trying to figure out how to make ends meet. The only way the "poor me" story line fits would be if they showed Katy struggling more, skipping meals in order to feed Maya, and wearing the same clothes in order to make sure Maya doesn't go without.

 

Maya has a cell phone and seems to have money to go to the movies or do other activities with her friends. How did she go on the Texas trip if she is poor? . Given her life style, her complaints seem hollow.

I think this is where we fall prey to shifting responsibility from the writers and showrunners to the character.

 

From the POV of the character, I think she IS poor but the set dressing, costume design and writing isn't supporting her.  Since they don't they make it appear like the character is lying or exaggerating. when I think what's closer to the truth is that the character was developed with the intent of her being poor, but without the show having the backbone (on Disney) to realistically show what that's like.

[SnarkyMcSnarkerson]

I thought a big part of the episode was when Maya realized that she's part of the "us" and not the "them" in Corey's pie-chart lecture. That even though she's considered poor by the standards of the people she associates with, she's rich in relation to the rest of the world. This led to her comment about never complaining about the leaky roof again, or something to that effect, in Corey's class. So when her pitch to Mark Cuban was about helping others with less (rather than herself), I took this to mean she understands that while she doesn't have everything, she has more than most in the world, even though there are plenty of people with more than she has. The execution was choppy, but that was my interpretation. YMMV of course!

[allonsyalice]

From the POV of the character, I think she IS poor but the set dressing, costume design and writing isn't supporting her.

This, especially with the costuming. It's changed a lot since, well, Shawn, but that plaid coat she was wearing this ep, seen before in Home for the Holidays, actually retails for about $300. So.

I thought this was an interesting episode, I always like seeing Minkus. I think he and Farkle have this great chemistry. I also like how Farkle made the point to tell Riley that pluto would always be a planet in his system.

I do agree with some of the comments here. Maybe Maya's landlord is the worst landlord.

I liked it more than STEM. I also liked the Mark Cuban, and how angry he made Riley with the Knicks.

I like the chemistry between the four kids, and i wish they wouldn't ruin it with relationship drama.

Also I wish I coukd have Farkle's galaxy pull over.

[SmithW6079]

Feminist claptrap the last episode; socialist propaganda this episode. What's the next social justice warrior episode of "Girl Meets World"? Meat=murder? They really need to stop pandering to Rowan Blanchard's "-ism" du jour. My politics are center-left, but even I was bothered by the implication that Minkus was somehow wrong for making a lot of money.

 

The idea of creating a charitable foundation is a great one, but it should have been explained and explored better, and certainly not as a pretext for giving Maya money. I thought the kids were actually going to come up with potential causes the charity could support and effect realistic change. I was glad to see Mark Cuban immediately smack down Riley's and Lucas's ideas as stupid and unrealistic. 

 

I see that "The Stupidification of Miss Riley Matthews" continues unabated. The whole business with the shirts was embarrassing. 

 

I will give them props for bringing up Riley's love for the Knicks again and her reaction to Mark Cuban's jab at them was really an absolutely terrific bit of acting.

 

Yes, that was the only good thing in the episode, and I did like Cory and Auggie's interaction about the allowance.

[Anisky]

I thought a big part of the episode was when Maya realized that she's part of the "us" and not the "them" in Corey's pie-chart lecture. That even though she's considered poor by the standards of the people she associates with, she's rich in relation to the rest of the world. This led to her comment about never complaining about the leaky roof again, or something to that effect, in Corey's class. So when her pitch to Mark Cuban was about helping others with less (rather than herself), I took this to mean she understands that while she doesn't have everything, she has more than most in the world, even though there are plenty of people with more than she has. The execution was choppy, but that was my interpretation. YMMV of course!

 

See... I agree, except that I think that makes the resolution an even *bigger* problem. It's like...

 

1) Corey teaches Maya that she's actually part of "the us", and is very privileged compared to the rest of the world. Maya is amazed by this, but accepts it.

2) The solution to helping people is to give Maya money to fix her roof and hole in her wall. 

 

Like... what?? They established earlier that Maya is NOT "the them", but the solution to how to help "the them" is to fix Maya's roof and wall? Even though they established earlier in the episode that, even taking into account her roof and wall, she's actually much more privileged than the vast majority of the world?

 

I'm sure the show didn't mean to say, "Let's help the pretty, white Americans who aren't that different from us", but... well... they did.

[SnarkyMcSnarkerson]

See... I agree, except that I think that makes the resolution an even *bigger* problem. It's like...

 

1) Corey teaches Maya that she's actually part of "the us", and is very privileged compared to the rest of the world. Maya is amazed by this, but accepts it.

2) The solution to helping people is to give Maya money to fix her roof and hole in her wall. 

 

Like... what?? They established earlier that Maya is NOT "the them", but the solution to how to help "the them" is to fix Maya's roof and wall? Even though they established earlier in the episode that, even taking into account her roof and wall, she's actually much more privileged than the vast majority of the world?

 

I'm sure the show didn't mean to say, "Let's help the pretty, white Americans who aren't that different from us", but... well... they did.

 

I think I need to do less multi-tasking while watching this show :) I thought Maya didn't take the money to fix her roof and wall, that she was going to use the money to fix other peoples' walls and roofs?? Of course I deleted it from my DVR so I can't re-watch it, not that I'd necessarily want to sit through another half hour of preaching!

[Aliconehead]

she was going to fix other peoples roofs, but then Riley stepped out and asked if they could keep some to fix Maya's roof and Cuban made a comment about there being a reason for everything or something.  Maya realized she had it better than a lot but her friends realized that they should help her too

[Anisky]

Either way, like, if the solution isn't to give Maya money to fix her roof, then why is the solution to give money to Maya for her to give to other people to fix their roofs? 

 

Given what Maya said about how she was going to get an education and do something with herself so that she'd be able to take care of her own roof, I thought the obvious conclusion was to invest the money to help kids who are REALLY disadvantaged to get the education they otherwise wouldn't have access to. But then again, I was a teacher for Peace Corps in Africa, so maybe that's just where my brain goes. :P

Edited February 7, 2016 by Anisky