Search - Felicity - Senior Year Collection (The Complete Fourth Season) on DVD

Felicity's Grand Finally

J. Toteda | Vancouver, BC, Canada | 11/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If your looking for consistently amazing acting, then "Felicity" is the show for you. Sadly the fourth was the last season of "Felicity" and thus the graduating season. Nonetheless, many fans would have loved to see Felicity's life unfold outside of collage. This season of Felicity deals with the hardships of commitment. Many characters this season deal commitment issues, such as relationships, education, and with following a particular career path. Most viewers would assume that by now Felicity would know exactly what it is that she's meant to do, and who she is meant to be with, however this is not the case. No show has come closer to displaying this sense of regret and uncertainty as "Felicity" does this season. Just because we get older doesn't mean we know everything. Felicity's confidence has grown with each passing season, but much of her season one and two uncertainties come back to haut her. So just when you the viewers think they know her, she does something completely out of character. It keeps the show interesting, and along with the funny and charismatic cast, this show deserves much praise.

Because Felicity was only signed on for 17 episodes this season, like season three, the writers and directors wanted to make sure that the fans got their graduation episode. However, the show was picked-up for another five episodes. Because of this, the writers decided on a neat twist, and unrealistic twist of Felicity going back in time. Many complained of the unrealistic direction this took, others like myself enjoyed the lightness and comedy that these episodes portrayed. It was a nice change from the dramatic, and often melancholic undertone of the first 17 episodes. My piece of advice is to have fun with these 'extra' episodes and not dissect every piece of inconsistency, it was meant to be 'far reaching'. In the end, something may be learned from all this silliness, that no matter how much you may think you could have done better, or changed things for the better, on the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter, because you're always where you're suppose to be, and who you want to be with is a decision you must make considering where you've been, and everything you've overcome- together.

Also, we are spoiled with another spectacular quest appearance from John Ritter, "Ben's father". He and Scott Speedman share many touching scenes.

Lastly, I came across a quote from a "Felicity" Website (www.felicitypage.com/lessons.html) that sums up why so many people love this show:

"I think the reason that so many people love the show is because it mirrors our own lives at times. Although our circumstances may not be the same, we can appreciate the emotions and situations of the characters. Life's lessons are hard, but it helps to know that you're not alone in it all."

Just found out what kind of bonus material we could be seeing on this DVD box set. This is what is being reported on the trusty site www.tvshowsondvd.com:
1)"The Lost Elena Scenes: This exclusive, never-before-seen footage provides the long-awaited answer to Felicity fans' biggest questions." (this may make the inconsistencies that I was talking about a bit clearer to the audience.)
2)"Fade Out: Behind-the-scenes reflections on Felicity with Keri Russell and the show's creators."

I'm sure they will once again have some episode commentaries, but that's just me speculating, anyway for now that's all they're saying, I'll let you know if it changes.

"

Felicity Porter graduates, but did she LEARN anything?

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 03/26/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"After "Felicity" had filmed its "final" episode, "The Graduate," whatever show was suppose to replace it in the WB's lineup quickly tanked and the network requested another five episodes from creators J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves. Their exercise in retroactive self-reflexivity almost redeems the final season, but having Felicity end up with Ben not once, but twice, is just adding insult to injury as far as I am concerned. For me the point where the show threatened to jump the shark was not when Keri Russell cut her hair but when Felicity chose Ben over Noel, so when we stopped getting the WB on our cable system I forgot about "Felicity" and worried about getting copies of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on tape. I caught the endings of this fourth season when they original aired and now with "Felicity: Senior Year Collection" on DVD, I can see what I missed.

The major premise of the fourth season can be reduced to the idea that while Felicity (Russell) and Ben (Scott Speedman) are going to end up together no matter what, they should make the "no matter what" part as complicated as possible. If Felicity's concern about being admitted to the college's honors art program puts Ben's plan of becoming a doctor in danger is not enough to derail them ("The Declaration"), then maybe Felicity having sex with Noel will do it ("My Best Friend's Wedding"). It is not a true episode of Felicity if we do not get to the point where Ben is not talking to Felicity and she insists on talking anyway (e.g., "The Last Thanksgiving"). It is not enough that Felicity have a pregnancy scare ("Miss Conception"), because it is even more fun if Ben spends a night with another woman during one of his fights with Felicity and the other woman shows up pregnant ("Future Shock"). When Meghan's sister shows up pregnant ("Fire") your first impulse is to point a finger at Ben.

This all underscores what I realized when I watched "Felicity: Sophomore Year Collection," which is that I watch "Felicity" despite the title character and not because of her. While Felicity and Ben go through their revolving door relationship the other characters become more important. The one-note couple of Elena (Tangi Miller) and Tracy (Donald Adeosun Faison) finally get to the wedding day ("My Best Friend's Wedding"), at which point we get to forget about them and pay more attention to Meghan (Amanda Foreman) and Shawn (Greg Grunberg), a.k.a. Shmeghan, who are much more interesting, especially once their parental units become involved ("Your Money or Your Wife"). Even Ben's troubled relationship with his father (John Ritter) becomes more interesting than his roller coaster with Felicity ("Oops...Noel Did It Again"). But my favorite part of this fourth season is when they decide that the comedy team should be Meghan and Javier (Ian Gomez) who end up taking drama together ("Future Shock"). Meanwhile, Shawn and Noel (Scott Foley), become partners in the computer graphics business ("A Perfect Match"), which is good because Noel has been suffering from depression ("Moving On"). Lord knows the man has reason.

All I can say is that if Felicity was one of my students she would have failed for the stunt she pulls with that paper ("The Paper Chase"), and then everybody would have graduated except Felicity, as irony would have ruled supreme. But Felicity gets her diploma ("The Graduate") and then makes a decision concerning her future education that pretty much makes the four years she spent at NYU an absolute wash. I was going to say a farce, but they save that for the last five episodes when the producers had to come up with a creative way of telling more stories after the series has reached its natural climax.

The idea that Felicity would go back in time to rectify her mistake and choose Noel instead of Ben was just the sort of thing to get my heart pumping again. It was like the heavens had opened up and a shaft of light had descended on Felicity along with that all-important dollar that would allow her to buy a clue. Hit with a pair of tragedies, Felicity confesses to Meghan that the biggest mistake of her life was not picking Noel (as opposed to following Ben to New York so she could not be a doctor). Noel is about to get married so the only intelligent thing to do is for Meghan to use a spell to send Felicity back in time to the start of their senior year ("Time Will Tell"). Of course, since there are four more episodes to go and living happily ever after is not that interesting dramatically, trying to fix her own troubled life causes some major problems for the rest of the gang.

All the birds come home to roost during this mini-story arc, including both Julie (Amy Jo Johnson) and Hannah (Jennifer Garner), as Felicity undoes everyone's past. When we get to the point where Ben and Noel are both convinced that Felicity needs psychiatric help ("Felicity Interrupted"), the show turns really dark. Unfortunately, most of the final "final" episode ("Back to the Future") is a clip show done in the context of Felicity talking to Korsikoff (Kurt Fuller), the man who wrote the book from which Meghan got the time travel spell. The shift in tone does not work for me, and given that this was so much of a clip show I find it hard to believe they had to cut the deleted Elena scenes that appear in the special features on Disc 6. On the plus side, the show does end on a happy note for Noel and I can cherish that idea while reminding myself that I never need suffer through Ben and Felicity not talking ever again. This is what happens when you like "Felicity" more than Felicity."

Crash and burn

Miles W. Mathis | Bruges, Belgium | 12/20/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I am a big Felicity fan, but the Senior Year really hit a terrible wall. One of the creators admitted in interviews later that he had already moved on to Alias, and it shows. This is a mess. He and all the producers and writers should be ashamed to have let their fine project peter out like this. The scripts no longer make any sense. Characters act out-of-character, many things go unexplained, plotlines are dropped right and left, minor characters are played by the same person, and so on. Apparently, people at NYU have multiple jobs, working in the mailroom one month and in counseling the next, working in the health center one month and in the library the next. The producers can't even take the time to hire separate people to play these parts. But the worst is having Felicity copy her final paper and then be allowed to graduate. This after they had a show about cheating in season 2, making it a very big deal. Now, suddenly, there are no consequences. It is apparently OK to plagiarize papers and throw library books in the garbage and steal dissertations. I am not being a moralist here, I am just pointing out that all this completely goes against Felicity's character, a character developed over three long seasons. The Senior Year has many similar examples, which show that the new writers could not even be bothered to become familiar with the previous material. The scripts don't just have a different feel, they are nonsense. There is no continuity even week to week. And this is before all the additional mess caused by extending the season. I own all four years now, but I think I will stick with the first two. I doubt I will ever subject myself to the 4th year again. It is too depressing in too many ways."

Love it.

A. Boston | Boston, MA United States | 09/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've seen all the felicity episodes countless times. I think the season I get most involved in is the 1st and 3rd, but the senior year was good. If you enjoy her thought patterns and her indecision between ben and noel, this is a fun ending. Sometimes it's fun to go back to college with her. I personally never lived in a dorm, but this kinda lets you know what it was like, and also all the post-dorm, apartment living too.

I'll also comment that I think everyone on the show did great acting. Scott Speedman's portrayal of Ben is the hottest pain-in-the-ass with a heart who repeated screws up. Its so easy to sympatize with Scott Foley's character, Noel, and get frustrated with him every single time. Sometimes Felicity drives me crazy, but you can understand how she arrived at different conclusions time and again. And may I also say, Javier always adds the much needed dose of comedy, and most of the time steals the show. I love felicity, and I thought it was an awesome show."