Monday, July 4, 2005

DEAR SALLY, THIS IS ACTUALLY A PRETTY GOOD SHOW: Though, I, like Kim, am a big fan of J.J. Abrams' more recent work, I was never a regular viewer of his first series, Felicity. I spent much of the long weekend watching the first season, chronicling Felicity and her friends' Freshman year courtesy of Netflix. Interestly, while Abrams has gone in for pretty heavy sci-fi stuff on his current series, the first year of Felicity is pretty much a straight-shooter. (Abrams apparently veered toward the fantastic in later seasons with a time travel plotline and an extended Twilight Zone homage.) Felicity Porter is the stereotypical good girl--she's going to be pre-med at Stanford. Then, at her high school graduation, Ben, her high school crush, signs her yearbook, saying that he wished he knew her better. Felicity impulsively (for the first time in her life) decides to follow Ben cross-country to the "University of New York" (for some reason, NYU apparently denied permission to use their name, though extensive exterior filming is done there). There, she meets friends and develops a romantic relationship with her RA, Noel Crane (Scott Foley). Felicity and her friends' romantic and academic entanglements form the crux of the story (more emphasis is given to the romantic than the academic, as you might expect on the WB) .

Also fun is playing "spot the future famous folks." Jennifer Garner has an extended arc as Noel's girlfriend, and both J.Gar and Lauren Graham should note--the glasses make you even hotter. Greg Grunberg, now better known as Agent Weiss on Alias or "that pilot who got eaten by the thing" on Lost, plays Sean, Ben's overly entreprenurial roommate. Amanda Foreman, who now recurs on Alias as Carrie Flinkman, plays Felicity's "witchy" roommate. Jane Kaczmarek shows up as Felicity's friend's internship boss and possible birth mother. And yes, Brian Krakow himself, Devon Gummersall, shows up, in a very un-Krakow role--a date rapist. Smartly written, generally sharply acted (Foley, in particular, shows a flair for befuddled comedy), and gloriously scored by W.G. "Snuffy" Walden (one of these days, I'm going to get around to my long posting on the glory of his scoring) it's damn fine television that's well worth your time in the season of reruns.

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