2 decades later, ‘Felicity’ holds up
It’s a timeless exploration of college’s freedoms.
The college-based drama “Felicity” is now old enough that the babies born around the time of the pilot’s premiere are college students themselves. Feel ancient yet?
Created by a young J.J. Abrams, the series followed Felicity Porter (Keri Russell), who uproots her original college plans after an encounter with a high school crush at graduation and instead follows Ben (Scott Speedman) to the fictional University of New York. Things don’t totally go as planned, and the next four years track Felicity as she’s forced to follow through on a half-baked decision.
Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the “Felicity” premiere and rewatching the show in 2018 confirms that it’s just as accurate a portrayal of the freedom, loneliness, excitement and stress of sudden independence as it was in 1998.
It was full of characters and tropes that are simultaneously relatable to college students 20 years ago and college students 20 years from now: The weird roommate (Meghan Rotundi). The cute RA (Scott Foley). The guy who miserably fails at his first laundry attempt (Devon Gummersall). And the girl you’ve known for two months who feels like she’s been your best friend forever (Amy Jo Johnson).
“Felicity” was almost a precursor to “Degrassi” in its approach to exploring a wide swath of issues real-life students face – some more trivial than others, but all issues nonetheless. More impressively, though, it also captured the essence and mind-set of a college student: the uncertainty, the stupid choices, the slow but eventual understanding that nobody actually has everything figured out – and that’s OK.
An arc early in Season 1 tackled a nuanced discussion of sexual assault on campus: Julie (Johnson) is raped by Zach (Gummersall), a boy she’s been dating, in her dorm room after repeatedly asking him to take things slow. Julie eventually reports the incident, but not before backtracking out of fear when Zach yells at her for the allegation.
The storyline feels startlingly relevant in today’s landscape – particularly in the aftermath of the accusation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh involving an alleged incident at Yale University.
Even the show’s lighter, offscreen drama reflects the era of young twentysomething debacles: Russell chopped off her hair right before Season 2 began filming, and it became a legitimate controversy that nearly ruined the show.
TV Guide Network included the cuts in its “25 Biggest TV Blunders,” and it became a running joke across pop cul- ture: On “Gilmore Girls,” Paris (Liza Weil) debated following her high school boyfriend to college before joking, “Suddenly, I’m Felicity without the hair issues,” while Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) of “One Tree Hill” was briefly nicknamed Felicity after a major haircut.
The fact this was even a controversy is such an inherently college idea: Who among us hasn’t gone a little overboard with a haircut under the guise of “trying something new?”
Some references and plot points haven’t exactly stood the test of time, such as the fact that Felicity narrates most of her thoughts as she corresponds with a friend via cassette tape recordings – which later gets her into trouble when one filled with her feelings about Ben is accidentally played out loud at a party.
There are few computers and no one is walking around with iPhone in hand – a modern-day reboot would have to transfer at least some of Felicity’s conversations with her friends to a group chat. Ben and Noel (Foley) also rock the quintessential center-parted curtain hairdo we seem to (thankfully) have ditched by the early 2000s.
But outdated trends aside, “Felicity” at its core was about the timeless exploration of college’s unique freedoms, for better or for worse.
“To me, the beauty of the show was always this really simple idea,” Russell said at a recent reunion panel at ATX Television Festival.
“Everyone at some point can look back at this moment and think, ‘I just wish I would’ve chosen him’ or ‘I wish I would’ve taken that chance and done that.’
“I think that’s what they grabbed so well. That was the sweetness and the beauty and the truth of the show.”
In addition to launching careers (Russell went on to star in “Waitress” and “The Americans,” Foley in “Scandal”) and being buzzworthy (7.1 million viewers tuned in for the pilot, about 4 million watched the series finale), “Felicity” secured a spot in Time magazine’s “100 Best TV Shows” list and became a cult hit in entertainment history.
Whether re-watching as a distant college alumnus or viewing from the first time from a dorm room, “Felicity” is a welcome reminder that making mistakes – and learning from them – is a major part of the human experience.