"Felicity: Season 3"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr

	MOVIE: * (out of 5 stars)     DVD EXPERIENCE: *** (out of 5 stars)     STARRING     Keri Russell as FELICITY PORTER     Scott Speedman as BEN COVINGTON     Scott Foley as NOEL CRANE     Amy Jo Johnson as JULIE EMRICK     Tangi Miller as ELENA TYLER     Greg Grunberg as SEAN BLUMBERG     Amanda Foreman as MEGAN ROTUNDI     Ian Gomez as JAVIER CLEMENTE QUINTATA     Robert Patrick Benedict as RICHARD COAD     Rated TV14     Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment     Back to DVD Review Home

Okay, here’s an analogy for you... “Felicity” is like a vegetarian lasagna.

Let me explain. The night I started to watch season three of “Felicity” on DVD, I was starving. The only thing I had eaten that day was a burger and salad for lunch, and it was pushing midnight. I didn’t want to run out to get something, so I scrounged in my kitchen.

Eventually I ran across a frozen vegetarian lasagna that has been sitting in my freezer since a film shoot I worked on almost two years ago. I’ve never had any interest in vegetarianism. Nothing satisfies me like good, old fashioned dead animal flesh cooked to perfection.

But I was desperate, and I made the lasagna. And, as I was suffering through the first couple episodes of “Felicity,” I couldn’t stop thinking about the lasagna. It wasn’t that bad, I said to myself... if only they did away with the zucchini... and the squash... and the peppers... and the mushrooms... and if they added some ground beef as well.

Then it hit me. This was exactly how I felt about “Felicity.” The show wouldn’t be that bad... if only they got rid of the whiney, insecure title character... and if the characters actually made rational decisions... and if it wasn’t more full of angst than an entire Alanis Morisette album... and it wouldn’t hurt to throw in some alien abductions or car chases.

So, ultimately, I can appreciate the series for what it was. But no matter how hungry I get, I’m never going to like vegetarian lasagna.

“Felicity” is a “thirtysomething” for twentysomethings. It is the story of the college years for an adolescent Mary Worth named Felicity Porter (Keri Russell). She’s pretty and beloved by her friends. But she’s dating a jerk loser named Ben (Scott Speedman), who is in dire need of some anger management therapy. Felicity’s friends spend more time cheating on their significant others and whining about their troubles than they do actually attending class at the (factitious and L.A.-based) University of New York.

Obviously, I never watched the earlier seasons of “Felicity.” And now it is clear why. I hate this show. Numerous times throughout the season, I found myself muttering, “This is terrible” when the characters jumped into self-laid land mines. By the end of the fifth disc, I felt a strange sense of accomplishment as if I had just run a grueling marathon. Now I know how Nelson Mandela felt after being released from prison.

However, the show is not a total waste. It had a nice cavalcade of actors, a who’s who of fame before they were famous. It felt good that Amy Jo Johnson, the pink Power Ranger, found a career after the evil Rita. And I will admit that as strange as it is to see a cast of twentysomethings populate a high school drama, it’s equally as weird to watch an even older cast try to pull off college students. Not to mention how odd it is to see Agent Weiss from J.J. Abrams’ better show “Alias” as the overly zealous documentary filmmaker Sean. If only Jack Bristow would break up this bubbling pot of dysfunctional adolescent emotion and kick some butt.

With seventeen episodes on five discs, you’ll either be in heaven or hell watching this collection, depending on your tastes. There are some nice special features, including a 30 minute “Docuventary,” in which Greg Grunberg shoots a video retrospective with the rest of the cast in the flavor of his character’s video segments during the season.

There’s also a “MAD TV” parody of “Felicity” that was filmed when Keri Russell was a guest on the show. However, I was sorely disappointed in this sketch. While this show is so ripe to be made fun of, the writers at “MAD TV” decided to use it as a showcase for their already overexposed stock characters like Miss Swann and Rusty.

Three episodes contain commentary tracks, and two are very standard. But the saving grace to this set is the commentary featuring actors Greg Grunberg, Amanda Foreman and Robert Patrick Benedict. Where “MAD TV” failed, these three are hilarious. About half-way through the episode, their commentary track turns into a “Let’s make fun of the show” routine that would make the “Mystery-Science Theater 3000” crowd proud.

Sigh... but alas, it doesn’t make up for the 760 minutes of “Felicity” I struggled through. If you happen to like the big steaming pan of vegetarian lasagna that “Felicity” is, you will really enjoy this DVD set. I, on the other hand, prefer something with a little more red meat.

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