Felicity: Sophomore Year Collection (2001)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Series Created by J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves
Starring Keri Russell, Scott Speedman, Scott Foley, Amy Jo Johnson, Tangi Miller, Greg Grunberg, Amanda Foreman

Features:

• All twenty-three second season episodes
  
• Original pilot episode
  
• Russell's original audition
  
• Felicity Emmy Parody
  
• Running audio commentaries on selected episodes with actors Russell, Speedman, Foley, Johnson, Miller, Grunberg & Foreman, creators Abrams & Reeves, and director Lamont Johnson
  

Season One left us with a cliffhanger. Felicity (Russell) was sitting in the back of a cab as the school year came to an end. No, the cab wasn't on fire. No, the cabbie wasn't a terrorist. It was something much more important and deep than that. Felicity was having to choose between going to Spain with Noel (Foley), or travelling across the country in a car with Ben (Speedman). Well, it turns out she didn't go to Spain, so Noel finds a rebound girl while he's there, just to get back at Felicity. In the meantime, Felicity seems to have everything she came to NYU for in the first place...which is Ben. However, her neuroses just might keep her from hanging onto him for very long. Oh yeah, she also cuts her long, curly locks during this season.

The main problem with this season is the writing. I really believe that this show could be a half hour instead of the hour that it takes up currently. All the writers would have to do would be to cut out the forced angst in the show. Let me see if I can give you an example: at least twice in every episode, there is a scene where the characters involved won't talk or listen to each other. The dialogue goes something like this:

Character One: What's wrong?

Character Two: Huh? Oh...ummm...nothing, I guess.

Awkward Pause

Character One: So, how'd you do on that test?

Character Two: Huh? Oh...ummm...okay, I guess. Listen, I really don't feel like being around anyone right now, okay?

The funny thing about a scene like this is that it always takes up at least a good five minutes of the show. At least they give the actors something to do with their hands, but whatever it is usually has nothing to do with the plot and is happening just out of the frame so you really can't get a good idea of what they're up to anyway. The actors and directors don't know how to fill out those moments where there is supposed to be either dramatic tension or dramatically sexual tension in a scene. A lesser problem with the show is the unrealistic nature of the sets. These are supposed to be college students going to NYU, right? Well, their dorm rooms are the size of penthouses, or if they live in an apartment, it is a huge place that is looks like it was decorated by a very expensive interior designer. First of all, if every student at NYU got together and decided to room together in an apartment in New York, they would have a hard time pulling the rent together. Second of all, it's not a realistic view of how college is supposed to be. College is that awkward time when you are away from your parents for the first time and you are dealing with learning how to budget yourself. I mean, really, do most first or second year college students know how to shop for groceries? No! They haven't figured out laundry yet!

The DVD set itself is okay. There are five audio commentaries by various cast and crew members, but these are really not worth listening to. They talk about their experiences behind-the-scenes, which is fun, but after that, they try to fill us with psychobabble about their characters' motivations, but honestly, a lot of time, the motivations are either not there or not evident. The Pilot presentation was a shorter version of a fully produced pilot that was made when Abrams and Reeves pitched the show to ABC. So, if you've seen the full pilot which is on the Felicity Season One DVD, you've seen most of this as well. Abrams and Reeves admit openly that there are only very subtle changes between the pilot and the pilot presentation. My question is why present it without some kind of commentary to help us see what the subtle differences are?

Next up, we have Keri Russell's audition tapes. Typically, this can be kind of cheesy, but their presentation is well done. They start out with a scene they shot on home video where she is reading with the casting director and then splice it in with the actual scene from the show. The parody they did for the Emmys is odd. It's essentially a short re-write of the first episode of the sophomore year under the premise of various other shows on television, namely NYPD Blue, The X-Files, and ER. I'm sure that in the context of the Emmys, this was quite funny, but taken out of context, it's just weird. There is just no point to it.

You would have to be a hardcore fan of this show to be willing to shell out the bucks for this second season. But hey, if you are, have at it. The rest of us will just be over here having a sandwich or something.