I was a teen during the original airing of Felicity and saw the show so many times, I could recite many parts by heart. It was never exactly my "thing" but I remember being so thirsty for any sort of entertainment acknowledging girls my age, I eagerly gobbled up this trash.
I rewatched this show now that I'm in my late 30s. I'm in utter disbelief that something this bad could have ever been made. I could spend all day listing the many small problems with the show - such as 30+yr olds playing 18yr old "normal" college kids who never drink or have sex, the truly god-awful music, the fact that every woman in the show except for Felicity (and Megan in season 4, maybe) is written to be a villain, the fact that senior year featured very little-to-no talk about college, graduation, jobs, internships, etc at all, let alone college-related storylines. Julie, the character who exists solely to try and date anyone who dated Felicity, then yell at Felicity for dating her boyfriends who were Felicity's first... Elaina's lack of storylines in season 4, or just the awful way they treated her throughout the show. The terrible casting, acting, and writing in every repeating storyline about Felicity's parents who are about as mature and intelligent as 14 year old kids. The only time these writers attempted to write an actual surprise in the show, they had Keri Russel cut all her hair off (about 6 inches too short), which turned out so bad that fans stopped watching the show and the ratings plummeted. But I could almost let all that go...
The biggest problem/problems center around the terrible Ben storyline, which suffocates the show. Sure, I get Felicity having a big crush that set her on this journey, but Ben is a POS. He and Felicity have nothing in common. They have no chemistry, aside from a "confusing sadness" they pass back and forth to each other for 4 seasons. He cheats on her constantly, or straight up dumps her for selfish reasons/other girls more times than I can count. Nameless girl in the pilot, Julie, the OTHER pink ranger, dumps her at the beginning of season 2, avery, THEN gets his father's mentally-ill-middle-aged-AA spons-ee pregnant and makes felicty forget about senior year and any plans she might have in order to support him, THEN he cheats AGAIN by having a month long affair?!? He sure does cheat a lot in the 4 seasons of this show. And each time we are expected to just forgive and forget.
And Felicity... well, she doesn't matter. The entire premis/moral of the show is, "Girls, it doesn't matter what your dreams or relationship fantasies are. Friendships don't matter. Education doesn't matter. If you think they do, you're delusional. Your only purpose is to clean up the messes created by the idiot men in your life. The guy you love? He doesn't care about you, and he will make sure to let you know every chance he can. But he'll say "I'm sorry I love you" and you WILL instantly forgive him because THAT's what love is! Also, don't try to choose your own career path, because ultimately you're going to move back home with your parents and do exactly what those miserable controlling people want."
The end.
I hope I saved some of you from wasting your time.
I'd give zero stars if I could, but I gave 1 star for Megan. She's the only good character in the show, and she's highly under-utilized. Also 1 star for JJAbrams attempting to bring some sort of interesting sci-fi twilight zone/time travel elements to the show, too bad they Wizard of Oz/"it was all a dream"-ed it at the end.
Felicity should have been with Noel, for real, starting around the beginning of season 3. Then the show would have been a story of choosing your own adventure and unexpected life changes, making your own decisions and learning whats right and good for you vs what's wrong, instead of a "shy bro's" guide on how to politely and quietly gaslight women into giving up everything they want and dream about in order to stay in a *seriously* emotionally abusive relationship with you, until they end up isolated on the opposite end of the country from their only friends, forced to raise the baby you made with another woman, while you're out having one of your twice-yearly affairs.
I hate Ben.
I rewatched this show now that I'm in my late 30s. I'm in utter disbelief that something this bad could have ever been made. I could spend all day listing the many small problems with the show - such as 30+yr olds playing 18yr old "normal" college kids who never drink or have sex, the truly god-awful music, the fact that every woman in the show except for Felicity (and Megan in season 4, maybe) is written to be a villain, the fact that senior year featured very little-to-no talk about college, graduation, jobs, internships, etc at all, let alone college-related storylines. Julie, the character who exists solely to try and date anyone who dated Felicity, then yell at Felicity for dating her boyfriends who were Felicity's first... Elaina's lack of storylines in season 4, or just the awful way they treated her throughout the show. The terrible casting, acting, and writing in every repeating storyline about Felicity's parents who are about as mature and intelligent as 14 year old kids. The only time these writers attempted to write an actual surprise in the show, they had Keri Russel cut all her hair off (about 6 inches too short), which turned out so bad that fans stopped watching the show and the ratings plummeted. But I could almost let all that go...
The biggest problem/problems center around the terrible Ben storyline, which suffocates the show. Sure, I get Felicity having a big crush that set her on this journey, but Ben is a POS. He and Felicity have nothing in common. They have no chemistry, aside from a "confusing sadness" they pass back and forth to each other for 4 seasons. He cheats on her constantly, or straight up dumps her for selfish reasons/other girls more times than I can count. Nameless girl in the pilot, Julie, the OTHER pink ranger, dumps her at the beginning of season 2, avery, THEN gets his father's mentally-ill-middle-aged-AA spons-ee pregnant and makes felicty forget about senior year and any plans she might have in order to support him, THEN he cheats AGAIN by having a month long affair?!? He sure does cheat a lot in the 4 seasons of this show. And each time we are expected to just forgive and forget.
And Felicity... well, she doesn't matter. The entire premis/moral of the show is, "Girls, it doesn't matter what your dreams or relationship fantasies are. Friendships don't matter. Education doesn't matter. If you think they do, you're delusional. Your only purpose is to clean up the messes created by the idiot men in your life. The guy you love? He doesn't care about you, and he will make sure to let you know every chance he can. But he'll say "I'm sorry I love you" and you WILL instantly forgive him because THAT's what love is! Also, don't try to choose your own career path, because ultimately you're going to move back home with your parents and do exactly what those miserable controlling people want."
The end.
I hope I saved some of you from wasting your time.
I'd give zero stars if I could, but I gave 1 star for Megan. She's the only good character in the show, and she's highly under-utilized. Also 1 star for JJAbrams attempting to bring some sort of interesting sci-fi twilight zone/time travel elements to the show, too bad they Wizard of Oz/"it was all a dream"-ed it at the end.
Felicity should have been with Noel, for real, starting around the beginning of season 3. Then the show would have been a story of choosing your own adventure and unexpected life changes, making your own decisions and learning whats right and good for you vs what's wrong, instead of a "shy bro's" guide on how to politely and quietly gaslight women into giving up everything they want and dream about in order to stay in a *seriously* emotionally abusive relationship with you, until they end up isolated on the opposite end of the country from their only friends, forced to raise the baby you made with another woman, while you're out having one of your twice-yearly affairs.
I hate Ben.