Wednesday, May 1, 2013

"Felicity" Spring Break 2013


I found another show to obsess to/about and watched most of it during Spring Break...we had a staycation and Lila went to daycare a few of the days, she spent the night with her aunts, and I spent those days watching 'Felicity'.

OK, so I immediately saw myself in Felicity. Ugh. It was/is embarrassing. I think the only difference between the two of us (besides the obvious physical appearance) was that I haven't followed 'the boy' across country, rocking my whole world, and changing my life...um...although, I...

Anyway, whatever.

The week before Spring Break I started watching 'Felicity', I'd never seen it before. I wasn't sure I'd be into it. I'd heard that the show was sillier than 'Dawson's Creek' (such a vicious untrue statement) and I'd heard that it was pretty intense. So, I started the show and in the three hours of free time I had, I graded absolutely nothing and watched those first few intense, deeply emotional episodes of 'Felicity'. I laughed, I felt a little nostalgic for a time in my life that is no longer, and when the family came home I was in the middle of that mortifying tape scene in "Hot Objects" got a little weepy (I was there once, it was a letter to a friend about a boy...it was, I don't want to talk about it) and realized that I was 'hooked'.

I tell you right now I couldn't have watched this show while it was on the air. It's this emotional roller-coaster love triangle of girl angst with great hair and music (although I hear the music is different than it was when it originally aired) as a background. Three of the four seasons end in overwhelmingly awful cliffhangers that would have ruined my summer and unlike 'Beverly Hills 90210', a show that turned into a sexy soap-opera after it's first four years, and 'Dawson's Creek', a show that's just so sappy and ridiculous by the end, it has real feelings and real emotions acted by real people (albeit beautiful people); Felicity doesn't feel like one long music video.

So, before we spend some quality time digging in to what made this show possess a place in my heart and mind, let's get a few of the big things out of the way:

'Felicity' has a whole fandom of shippers...most of them are in their late 20s and early 30s; honestly after four years of Ben and Felicity and Noel I can understand. I am not a FAN. I am a hardcore FAB. Keri Russell and Scott Speedman make sure that you are...I mean seriously there's some too hot moments between the two of them that are...whew...cold shower, moving on. This starts in the opening scene. It does not stop until the final scene of the show.

I think I may have seen an episode or two of this show a long time ago. There were some things in season four that seemed familiar and hazy like a dream.

I miss the 90s. This show made me actually admit that. I loved the 90s. I feel sorry for any person who wasn't in high school or college in the 90s. I was in high school in the early 90s and college in the late 90s...there isn't a better decade to be nostalgic about...the music, the clothes, the end of the millennium, the movies, the shows, my life, the economy...sigh, good times. I love where and who I am now, but I miss that pretty awesome decade. And, while this show ended in 2002, everybody knows that the first few years of any decade look like the preceding decade.

I am a fan of the haircut. I am a fan of the reasons for the haircut. Girls could learn on to be so brave.

I am a fan of Felicity. Sure, she's selfish and self-centered (what girl, what person isn't???) and sometimes just plain 'girl' dumb and she makes horribly wrong choices and has to be forced to recognize the right ones, but she's real people and she makes me laugh and blush with embarrassment and, wow, such a nicely flawed character.

JJ Abrams is a bully. The WB is/was also a bully.

On the other hand the last five episodes of the show are pretty darned good. I am glad I was told about them first (thanks Jen!) otherwise I may have thrown the remote and punched a kitten. *SPOILER* I'm glad I watched them. I think it's important for all the shippers and the other fans that we see what 'Felicity and Noel' looks like so there are no regrets about 'Felicity and Ben'. These episodes give us a chance to reexamine our own choices/what-ifs. Plus, they give us a chance to see the hot cocky Ben that we haven't seen since the first season.

I watched the show with two brains. Brain One: 36 year-old grown-up Stephanie; Brain Two: college Stephanie...thank goodness they're both quite schmoopy and nostalgic.

I didn't watch this show in order. I am muy impatient. If this show had not ended the way I wanted it to, I would have felt like I wasted 84 hours of my time. I'd also watched the end of an arch (ie. like the whole Lauren thing--wth, was that anyway???!) before watching the beginning of an arch as I also hate surprises. After watching the show this way I realized that's the reason I can't watch 'Hart of Dixie' right now...ugh. Wade and Zoe and George...tell me what happens so I can watch in comfort...still gasping and crying like somebody killed my favorite pet.

Here's my list:
1] S1 E1-11 in order
2] S4 E1-7
3] the last two of Season one; the first two of Season two
4] S2 E11
5] S3 E14-end; S4 E1-2
6] S4 E17; S4 the finale and E21
7] S4 E5-7; S4 3-4
8] the last two of Season two; S2 E20-21; S3 E1 and E3
9] S1 E12-14
10] S4 E10-11, E8-9; S1 E15
11] S1 E16-18; S4 E14-15
12] S2 E3-9; S3 E2
13] S3 E10-13
14] S3 E4-9; S2 E10
15] S2 E12-15, E18-19
16] S2 E16-17
and, then I watched the series finale again...and, some scenes I found on YouTube...you know...for closer.





 More later...

No comments:

Post a Comment

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...