The Smallest Decisions... (Felicity)

Member Name: 2Quizzy

Product:	Felicity
Date:	07/03/04 (293 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: it's entertaining and it even makes you think

Disadvantages: It was stretched on too long as a series

"Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can pretty much change your life forever."
~ Felicity

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The TV series "Felicity" ran through four seasons from 1998 to 2003 and has left a wake of fan clubs all over the net. In my family three generations watched and enjoyed this show so I can honestly say it had a certain "something". Perhaps because it dealt with the simple yet incredibly complex issues of growing up. Things we all are going through or have gone through.

The story line and setting are pretty simple. A girl graduates and goes away to study. We follow her through her four years away from home. She talks to us as she muses about life and she talks to her closest confidant, Sally - her favourite ex-teacher, in taped letters she posts weekly like an ongoing two-way journal. We meet her friends and family, watch her make decisions that will alter her life forever, watch her fail, watch her succeed, and most of all - watch her grow.

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The very first episode of Felicity started with the graduation ceremony. Felicity is the "good girl". Pretty, but serious and even a bit nerdy. She's quiet, thoughtful and a little shy. She does the right thing always. She eats her vegetables, looks before she crosses the road. Studies hard and gets honours. Makes her family proud by deciding to study medicine and become a doctor like her dad. She knows exactly where her life is going and has every step planned..

..until she asks Ben to sign her yearbook.

Ben is the charming athletic "jock". The guy who all the girls adore and whom Felicity has secretly been in love with for years. She's never even spoken to him in all their years at school together, but on this last day she asks him to sign her yearbook and after he's gone she reads what he'
s written:

"Dear Felicity,
Here it goes. I've watched you for four years. Always wondered what you were like...
what was going on in your mind all the time that you were so quiet, just thinking,
drawing in your notebook. I should have just asked you, but I never asked you.
So now, four years later, I don't even know you, but I admire you."


Felicity decides to take a leap of faith. For once she's going to follow her heart rather than her head. In a whirlwind that leaves her parents stunned she changes colleges and manages to squeeze herself into a place in the same college Ben has a sport's scholarship at. A college all the way over on the other side of the continent in New York.

As she explains it to Sally on tape: "So, basically I've given up everything my parents ever planned for me, everything I ever expected...all for a boy I don't even know. I guess what I'm saying is this might all be a colossal mistake, as my dad would say, but on the other hand it may...maybe it'll save my life or something."


I'm not going to spoil the story for anyone who might have not seen the series. From here I'm just going to give a basic description of the theme and feel of the show and a run down of the other characters. I'll leave the story's twists and surprises unknown for those who want to find out for themselves. The entire series is available on Amazon.com.

When Felicity first arrives in New York she's as innocent and naive as you can get. She's lived a sheltered life, spending most of her time studying rather than socialising, and New York leaves her gasping. Elfin Keri Russell manages to blend wide-eyed innocence with intellectual idealism very well. Felicity is smart yet naive, highly accomplished yet vulnerable. An analytical mind combined with a romantic soul.

"Do you know what I definitely believe in? Fat
e - that things happen for a reason." ~ Felicity


New York throws her into the deep end of life. Her new room mate, Meghan, is a witch, her new boss at her part-time job in a fancy coffee house is gay and her new friends come from ethnic and economic backgrounds she's never encountered in her sheltered life before. An older student named Noel becomes her new confidant, friend and advisor. Noel is the ultimate "good guy", the type your mum wants you to grow up and marry. He falls head over heels in love with Felicity within the first few episodes. He and Ben form the basic love triangle interest for Felicity.

"Love is complicated - full of sacrifice and compromise. But maybe that?s the best part."
~ Sally


Her closest friends are Julie and Elena. Julie is a wistful sweet little-lost-girl sort who expresses her complex emotions through her music. Elena is a tough no-nonsense pre-med. student who has no problems expressing any of her emotions, including her anger at the injustices of her life. Then there's Sean, Ben's landlord, flatmate and friend. Sean is always trying to think up the great new idea/product that will make him a million. He's one of the oldest members of the cast, but still a kid at heart.

The story lines range from simple through silly/amusing to intense. Over the seasons they've dealt with divorce, adoption, date rape, addiction, gay marriage, surrogate mothers, broken hearts, broken friendships and everything related to life, love and being a young adult. There's bound to be at least one story you recognise and relate to. Everyone's been new in a new job/school/town. Everyone's fallen in love and had their heart broken. Everyone's learnt a lesson the hard way somewhere along the line!

"Sometimes bad things just happen - no reason, no purpose. They just occur and we're left to pick up the pieces the best we can." ~
Sally

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Best and Worst:

For me the best characters are Meghan and Javier. Javier, Felicity's boss and friend, is Spanish. He came to the USA for love, following his darling Samuel. He's a bit "over-the-top" gay at times, but he's and so sweet you can't help wishing you had a boss like him. He's soft-hearted in the extreme, over emotional and he treats his staff like they're his family.

Javier ~ "Felicity is the most generous, most wonderfulest person, I?ve ever met. And do you know why else I adore her? Because she is a romantic."


Meghan is equally "over-the-top" (Elena describes her to Felicity as: "That Halloween costume you live with."). She wears Gothic clothing, stores her spell ingredients in Felicity's fridge (without permission) and keeps a padlocked black box under her bed that she regularly warns Felicity not to touch on pain of death. It takes about two seasons before we finally find out what's in Meghan's box. Meghan's outspoken to the point of cruelty, but her dry sarcastic honesty is gloriously funny.

Meghan to Felicity ~ "Man, I had you pegged as this uptight, no-fun, like, follow-the-rules kiss-ass bore."

Meghan, about being Felicity's roommate ~ " That was kind of my reaction, too. Except angrier and louder, and in between ?we?re? and ?roommates?, I added a word."


Some of the story lines are far-fetched, but they do make you think and have led to my friends/family and I getting down to arguing and discussing some of the ideas after the shows. They'd probably be useful to watch with young teens as a way to get into discussing "awkward" topics in a more relaxed way.

Worst?

Well the story does wear thin at times, especially by the end of the third season. How many years can Felicity dit
her between finding true love with either Ben or Noel? Noel is sometimes so sweet and puppy-dog long suffering that you want to slap him, and Felicity's constant pondering and talking over and over about the deeper meanings of life can get boring. That's probably why I like Meghan who really does find Felicity annoyingly verbose and regularly tells her so! Like many American TV shows the cast can chew over even the smallest bit of angst until you want to yell "Get over it!!", but the stories are mostly entertaining enough to keep you coming back for more. Light weight stuff with heavier messages all sugar-coated and sanitised for easy consumption.

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LIST OF CAST:

Felicity ~ Keri Russell
Ben ~ Scott Speedman
Noel ~ Scott Foley
Elena ~ Tangi Miller
Meghan ~ Amanda Foreman
Sean ~ Greg Grunberg
Javier ~ Ian Gomez
Julie ~ Amy Jo Johnson
Sally ~ Janeane Garafalo

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Final quotes:

Felicity to Sally ~ "It's one thing to say you're gonna let go, it's another to actually do it - to loosen your grip and let yourself fall."

Sally to Felicity ~ "The hardest part about moving forward is not looking back."

Summary: