At her high school graduation ceremony, California native Felicity Porter (Keri Russell) asks her longtime crush, Ben Covington (Scott Speedman), to sign her yearbook. He does, and what she reads changes her life plans entirely — she ditches doing premed at Stanford and decides to go to University of New York in New York City. Why? Well, that’s where Ben’s enrolled. Once there, she meets an endearing RA, Noel Crane (Scott Foley), and the quirky Julie Emrick (Amy Jo Johnson).
The four-season YA drama follows Felicity through her college years as she navigates life in the Big Apple, an increasingly complex love triangle, and balancing her academic life with work, friends, and everything in between. If you’re not sold on it yet, or haven’t decided to jump back in after a twentysomething-year Felicity hiatus, read on for some of the many reasons why this full-of-yearning show should become your go-to fall watch.
Felicity put The Diplomat’s Keri Russell on the map, long before she starred alongside The Beast In Me’s Matthew Rhys in The Americans. Her turn as the titular character landed her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in 1999. “She’s elevated this whole thing,” creator J.J. Abrams told ET at the time. “She’s allowed us to bring Felicity to life in a way that we hoped for, but didn’t necessarily think we could do.”
Russell will return as Kate Wyler in The Diplomat Season 4 on Oct. 14. (Read more about that here.)
Every season premiered in the fall as Felicity enters a new fall semester. Her wardrobe is like an autumnal Polo Ralph Lauren ad from the ’90s, all the time. The settings are dappled with the colors of changing foliage, Felicity strolls in various fall outerwear through the crisp city streets, and her gig at the specialty food and coffee shop Dean & Deluca has her slinging steamy cold-weather drinks all season long.
The series is set amid wood-clad university buildings, campus dorms, common rooms, and university hangouts like The Loft. Plot lines involve Felicity rethinking her major — should she stay premed or switch to art? The show features the characters actually studying and trying desperately to keep on top of their schoolwork. If you read Elif Batuman’s novel The Idiot, set in the mid-’90s, Felicity is right up there in terms of realistic university life.
There are some spooky plot lines, which add to the fall vibes. Felicity’s roommate Meghan (Amanda Foreman) is a goth Wiccan whose spells drift into the plot — like in Season 1, Episode 21 (“The Force”), when some romantic mishaps cause Felicity to wonder if Meghan put a spell on her. In Season 1, Episode 5 (“Spooked”), Ben and Felicity attend a Halloween party together. And Season 2, Episode 11 (“Help for the Lovelorn”) is a Twilight Zone send-up — paying homage to the episode “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” and is even directed by the same guy, Lamont Johnson.
Felicity moves to New York for Ben, but in the pilot she also meets Noel, the dorm’s RA, who immediately falls for her. The will they, won’t they plot lines happen right away, and never let up. You’ll swoon, you’ll curse Felicity for picking the “wrong” guy, you’ll cry with joy when she kisses the “right” one, you’ll maybe start a fight with your best friend about who she should’ve ended up with … and most of all, you’ll yearn.
Felicity attends the fictional University of New York in Greenwich Village, which is modeled on NYU. Her dorm, Kelvin Hall, is at 5th Avenue and 10th Street. She walks past old-school Ford Crown Victoria yellow cabs on her way to work at NYC chain Dean & DeLuca, managed by the always-colorful Javier (Ian Gomez). Felicity’s wardrobe was styled in part after Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, one of the most Manhattan movies ever. In Season 2, Episode 4 (“The Depths”), Felicity and Julie get into an argument as their subway car gets stuck underground. The 1998–2002 NYC references are pretty endless.
Felicity is set in the less digital, more analog, zero smartphones era. There’s nary a cell phone in sight — just landlines, pagers, and payphones, baby! Felicity pours her feelings into cassette tapes for her friend Sally, voiced by Janeane Garofalo (Wet Hot American Summer: First Day at Camp), then — gasp — mails them to her. The show even dives into the early internet era when Noel studies up on PCs to land a campus tech job (heck yeah, early adopter!). It’s a simpler world, contrasted with Felicity’s contemplative personality and her complicated feelings about Ben, Noel, and life in general.
In Season 2, Felicity cuts her curls after a breakup with, well, we’re not telling. She reveals the new look in Episode 3 (“Ancient History”). Felicity’s roommate Meghan warns that “guys are gonna hate it,” and it turns out those 1999 audiences had big feelings, too. Viewers emailed the network it aired on at the time with criticisms, and there were rumors it affected the show’s ratings — debatably, as it also switched the night it aired — and it stirred conversation for decades. We’ll let you decide how earth-shattering her chop is.
Abrams and Matt Reeves co-created the series. Abrams went on to create the series Alias and co-create Lost, then directed films like Star Trek, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, and Mission: Impossible III, while Reeves directed Cloverfield, two Planet of the Apes sequels, The Batman, the series The Penguin, and more.
In 1998, there were shows about high school like Dawson’s Creek, shows about being in your thirties like Sex and the City, shows about being a city lawyer like Ally McBeal. But no other shows fully about love, friendship, and romance set solely during the collegiate experience. Now go on, graduate from your current fave show and immerse yourself in Felicity’s university life now.
