The television series Boy Meets World depicts the life of Cory Matthews (Ben Savage). In the third season, twenty-two episodes are provided to tell various life stories from the point of view of a seventh grader. Joining Cory are his parents Alan (William Russ) and Amy (Betsy Randle), the older brother Eric (Will Friedle), the best friend Shawn (Rider Strong), the love interest Topanga (Danielle Fishel), the former teacher turned high school principal Mr. Feeny (William Daniels), and the young and hip English teacher Jonathan Turner (Anthony Tyler Quinn). Each provides an interesting perspective and occasional guidance on Cory's life by helping him in the two biggest settings of a growing boy, the home and school. In this season, there is a big focus on girls, young love, and dating. There are also plenty of moral lessons, with some that touch upon the same issues found in the past season. In addition, there are also some fun episodes. Overall, I felt that the third season was entertaining, but in comparison to the first or second season, it was not nearly as good. For more details about this series, please refer to my reviews of season one and season two.

In previous reviews of Boy Meets World I have made comments about despite how corny the dialogue, the situations, and such get, the characters are so young, it works. It is basically their young and inexperienced view of life that allows them to get away with saying and doing corny things. In fact, it comes off as downright entertaining. In season three we start to see a slight change in the cast, puberty. While they can still get away with a lot of what they do and say, there are more noticeable moments that get hard to stomach. Additionally, the personality of older brother Eric starts to get really bad. His character moves into the oblivious to the obvious role, which is used for laughs. Shawn is also pushed a lot in this manner too. In my opinion, it does not come off as funny and tends to be annoying. Still this season can be fun.

The big story in this season is about dating, relationships, and young love. Cory and Topanga finally get together as a real couple. In the season's earlier episodes we watch them toy with life as a couple. There are some funny endeavors, especially when other girls start to notice Cory. In "The Last Temptation of Cory", Cory finds himself in the crosshairs of one Missy Robinson. She'll stop at nothing to win his affections. There is also "What I Meant To Say" when Cory and Topanga find out just what love is. Midway into the season the happy couple realizes they may have grown out of each other and they separate. Cory must deal with losing your first love. The stories about Cory and Topanga prove to be interesting and usually have plenty of laughs.

This season also sees a new character added to the cast, Eli Williams (Alex Desert, Swingers). He is another hip and cool teacher like Jonathan Turner, who joined the cast in season three. Eli shows up in a several episodes as a reprised role. He takes a job as the media arts teacher at John Adams High. Like Jonathan, he appears in various episodes to teach the Cory and Shawn invaluable life lessons and also has a comical relationship with Feeny.

In season two, Shawn's parents abandoned him and he was left without a home. He tried to live with the Matthews, but it proved to be too much for him. He ended up living with Jonathan. This season continues to focus on this relationship and develops it further as the two still get used to each other. There are some dramatic stories about Shawn getting over his resentment of abandonment and coming to terms with living with Jonathan.

Overall I enjoyed this season. The characters are starting to get close to an age where the show's corniness is getting harder to handle. While in most cases you can deal with it, there are a lot more eye-rolling moments than earlier seasons. It's really season five and later that the show hits rock bottom. Still, with plenty of funny episodes about Cory and the gang, this season is still worth purchasing.

Episode Guide
1. My Best Friend's Girl
2. The Double Lie
3. What I Meant To Say
4. He Said, She Said
5. Hometown Hero
6. This Little Piggy
7. Truth And Consequences
8. Rave On!
9. The Last Temptation Of Cory
10. Train Of Fools
11. City Slackers
12. The Grass Is Always Greener
13. New Friends And Old
14. A Kiss Is More Than A Kiss
15. The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
16. Stormy Weather
17. The Pink Flamingo Kid
18. Life Lessons
19. I Was A Teenage Spy
20. I Never Sang For My Legal Guardian
21. The Happiest Show On Earth
22. Brother-Brother

The DVD

Video:
The video in this DVD release is presented in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1 full frame color. The picture looks pretty average for a TV on DVD release. There are noticeable traces of edge enhancement, grain, and compression artifacts. Color tones generally look pretty good.

Audio:
The audio track for this release is given in English Dolby digital surround sound. The sound quality is fairly standard for television on DVD release. The audio consists mostly of dialogue, which remains flat throughout the entire season. There is little use of the stereo setup. It comes off fairly clear and easy to understand. Subtitles are include in English

Extras:
There isn't much in the area of extras. Previous seasons had several audio commentaries (and season two even had a video commentary), but this season comes with an interactive quiz game called The World According To Boy. It's pretty dull and it goes something like this... a question is posed and all the questions relate to dialogue from the third season. Upon selecting the correct answer, the corresponding clip from season three is played.

Final Thoughts:
One of many shows I watched growing up was Boy Meets World and it is one I can still enjoy. In this season there are clear indications that the series' corniness and unrealism borderline entertaining/annoying. In season four the situations and characters really start to get close to over the top and by season five, this show hits rock bottom. Still this third season, while nearing the hard to handle level, is still entertaining. The stories and the characters are still worth laughs and fans of the show shouldn't be disappointed.