If you’re a reader of a certain age, chances are you grew up watching “Boy Meets World.” The coming-of-age comedy ran for seven seasons, and viewers watched Cory and Eric Matthews, Shawn Hunter, Topanga Lawrence and Angela Moore transition from childhood to adulthood, all under the watchful eyes of their parents and their collective mentor, Mr. Feeny. Years after the show ended, “Boy Meets World” returned for a new generation as “Girl Meets World,” focusing on Cory and Topanga’s daughter, Riley, and her mischievous friend Maya Hart, played by pop sensation Sabrina Carpenter. The rekindled love for the series inspired the iHeartPodcasts network to launch “Pod Meets World,” a retrospective series where the show’s stars Danielle Fishel (Topanga Lawrence/Matthews), Will Friedle (Eric Matthews) and Rider Strong (Shawn Hunter) revisit each episode.
The trio are also often on the convention circuit together, giving fans a chance to hear about the personal lives of the actors responsible for bringing some of their most important TV favorites to life. It’s also a great way to hear behind-the-scenes stories, gossip, and personal feelings about the show after so many years. For example, 2023 episode of the podcastRider Strong passionately confessed that the Season 3 episode “Train of Fools” is his least favorite episode of the entire series. With 158 episodes to choose from, adding this episode is a huge insult.
“I think it’s the worst episode of ‘Boy Meets World,’ sorry to anybody who likes it,” Strong said. “There are some episodes I don’t like, you know, I disagree with the behavior of the characters, but this is just like that … I think it’s a bad episode performance-wise, story-wise,” he added. “It even strikes me as odd. It’s not like, there’s nothing in this episode that worked for me…”
But is this the case In fact So bad? I watched it again to find out for myself.
Boy Meets World celebrates New Year in the Metro
“Train of Fools” is a New Year’s Eve episode in which Cory and Eric are allowed to celebrate the holiday away from their parents for the first time. Eric has a date with supermodel Rebecca-Alexa, Cory is desperate to kiss Topanga at midnight, and Shawn is excited to go to a great party with all of them. Unfortunately, Cory sends away the last taxi in town, fearing that the driver is a scammer who will take them to a secluded area and cut out their livers (always staying real, that Cory Matthews), the group decides to take the subway, which breaks down en route.
This is definitely a silly episode of a silly show, but it’s also a little weird in its sense of humor. This is the episode where Eric becomes quite obnoxious and returns to his Season 1 shallowness, as Rebecca-Alexa is perfectly content hanging out at the Matthews’ house, but Eric insists on “being seen” together at the party that got them fucked up in the first place. Shawn has nothing much to do other than report strange happenings with other people on the train carriages, while Topanga and Cory somehow prepare props and food for a NYE party based on supplies other passengers have on other carriages. It’s best to think about how they made the appetizers and party hats. There’s also a subplot with Turner and Ally – two teachers (one of whom is Shawn’s guardian) – and a bunch of Turner’s ex-lovers come over to talk and ruin their “boys only” NYE plans… which don’t need to be there.
But the worst part of this episode is the situational humor of the white kids of “Boy Meets World” being pushed into the dirty underbelly of public transportation! That’s what really drags the episode down. It’s not fair to judge the social norms of an action through a contemporary lens, but seeing that they all don’t understand a black teen saying “parrr-tayy” as “party” is no less embarrassing. So is this the worst episode of “Boy Meets World” ever? That’s debatable, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
