Product Description

The education continues during Felicity's junior year. Felicity, played by Golden Globe winner* Keri Russell, returns to the University of New York for a new course in self-discovery. Her big decision to move in with Ben shapes the direction of the school year, but it's just one of the many exhilarating challenges in a spectacular season of passion, heartache and excitement in the city.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6439 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-21
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 760 minutes

Amazon.com
Felicity: Junior Year Collection is an improvement over year 2--perhaps inevitably, as the characters are lurching toward adulthood more rapidly and definitively. For the most part, Felicity (Keri Russell) and the gang still face the same challenges--commitment, academic momentum, conflicts over values, pressure from parents--but the stakes are higher because everyone has outgrown adolescent defenses and revealed more of themselves to lovers and friends. The third season begins with lots of smiles and hopes as Felicity, boyfriend Ben (Scott Speedman), would-be filmmaker Sean (Greg Grunberg), kinky Wiccan Meghan (Amanda Foreman), and the rest return from a summer break to get reacquainted. Felicity, expected to move in with pals Julie (Amy Jo Johnson) and Elena (Tangi Miller), impulsively decides to move into an apartment with Ben instead--without telling Ben. The funky hovel becomes a source of conflict (even more after Ben lets a beautiful neighbor take a bath in his and Felicity's living-room tub) that exacerbates the couple's ambivalence about one another.

But a lot of things do that, including a visit from Felicity's mom (Eve Gordon) that finds the latter lobbying against Ben (who hasn't chosen a career and gets into a couple of fights this season) and for Noel (Scott Foley, whose character seems destined for success and who remains, secretly, in love with Felicity). Meanwhile, Sean and Meghan deal with the former's possible testicular cancer, Elena grapples with her virgin boyfriend's insistence on no pre-marital sex, Julie disappears while depressed over her relationship with her father, and newcomer Molly (Sarah-Jane Potts) tries to break off a relationship with a gun-toting drug addict (Robert Patrick Benedict). Typically, season 3 has frequent, jaw-dropping dramatic highlights, including a shooting that results in a profound experience for nearly everyone, an episode in which Felicity wakes up naked in a fraternity house, and another in which she is the recipient of an awkward pass by Ben's alcoholic father (John Ritter). Life is never dull in this series executive-produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, and the subject of growing up, when treated with as much insight as Felicity offers, is always interesting. Among the special features is a great parody of the series from Mad TV. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Good -- but lacking the dramatic tension of the first two seasons
There are a lot of changes in FELICITY during Season Three, few of them for the better. This can be seen even in the opening credits, where the gorgeous black and white photos of the first two seasons were replaced by an uninspiring montage from the first two seasons to go along with some insipid song about changing as a person. I don't know what motivated this, but I would guess that it was the result of pressure by the network. Usually when really bad things like this happen, it is because the corporate powers that be put them pressure on them to make changes.

More troubling is that the story arcs of Season 3 just lack the oomph of the story arcs of the first two seasons. Especially in the second half of Season 2 the dramatic tension was at times overwhelming. The situations created by the writers in Season 3 more often than not feel contrived and artificial. And not only are the arcs not as good, there are not as many of them. Season 3 is far shorter than any of the other three seasons.

Still, the show never gets actually bad. And I like that they kept Felicity and Ben a couple all season. Few Hollywood shows are willing to take up the challenge of keeping a shows main romantic couple together. Noel spends the year as the odd man out, without a major relationship like he had in Season 2 with Ruby. He does, however, start the season off involved in a hideously inappropriate marriage and briefly becomes essentially a stalker of Tyra Banks.

One thing that I really like about FELICITY in all of its seasons is a near complete rejection of fairy tale endings. Good things happen, but more often than not there is no deus ex machina to rescue characters when they get into bad situations. Bad things happen and they just get past them rather than easily triumph over them. Though the show doesn't compare well with the first two seasons, it nonetheless remained highly watchable. I am not the fan of Sean and Meghan that some are, but it is fun to see their roles expand in this season. The one downer is that Amy Jo Johnson left the show, reportedly because of the death of her mother. Her absence did hurt the show.

worth it if you are a felicity fan
I loved Felicity when it was on TV, so I really enjoy this DVD set. I can watch these episodes over and over again. Only buy this if you really enjoy the show.

good, but not as good as season 1
*Short review: Buy it if you want to own the complete collection, otherwise rent it from Blockbuster to make sure you really want it.

Longer review: I loved Felicity when it originally came out and once I started watching all the dvds I was realizing that almost all my memories of the show are from season 1. I mean once I saw episodes from the other seasons I was like "oh yea, I remember that..." and once I started watching episodes from season 3 (junior year) I had realized that this was not one of my favorite seasons (season 4 is even more frustrating).
I will say though that overall I enjoyed watching each season and I'm glad I have this one to add to my now complete collection.