Felicity - Freshman Year Collection (The Complete First Season)

"Sometimes it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever," states Felicity in the pilot episode of this fervently loved series. Not that impulsively defying your parents, ditching plans to go to Stanford Medical School, and moving 3,000 miles to New York to follow an unrequited high school crush who doesn't even remember your name is a small decision. But it does indeed change our winsome heroine's life forever. Golden Globe winner Keri Russell lights up the screen in her star-is-born role as the luxuriantly maned Felicity. For its audience demographic, the "previously on Felicity" soap opera elements make this series' freshman year as compellingly watchable as the early years of Beverly Hills 90210 and Dawson's Creek. Propelling the first season is the triangle of Felicity, the charismatic Ben (Scott Speedman), and charming doofus Noel (Scott Foley). But at the heart of the series is its real-world portrayal of college life, and Felicity's struggle to forge a life independent of her disapproving but ultimately supportive parents. Her sardonic, spell-casting now-you-see-her-now-you-don't roommate Meaghan doesn't think Felicity will last the year. "This might all be a colossal mistake," Felicity admits early on. (No, that would be your ill-advised haircut in Season 2.) Felicity's ensemble also includes former pink Power Ranger Amy Jo Johnson as Julie, Felicity's best friend and later rival for Ben's affections, whose own personal travails include searching for her birth mother (Malcolm in the Middle's Jane Kaczmarek). Look for a pre-Alias Jennifer Garner as Noel's old girlfriend Hannah in the episode "Thanksgiving," and listen for Janeane Garofalo as the voice of the unseen Sally, with whom Felicity shares audiocassettes relating her coming-of-age experiences and hard-earned life lessons. --Donald Liebenson

UPC: 0786936196450 Condition: New DVD Run time: 60 mins. Many young girls go off to college, but not all for the same reason. In the case of Felicity Porter (Keri Russell), her decision to enroll as a pre-med student at University of New York in Greenwich Village was motivated by a high-school crush. Enamored of fellow student Ben Covington (Scott Speedman), Felicity trails him all the way to the U. of N.Y., only to find that he isn't interested in her. Even so, our heroine decides to stay, and thus Season One of Felicity gets under way. And what a freshman year it is! No sooner does Felicity become best friends with another freshman, Julie Emrick (Amy Jo Johnson), than Julie herself gets involved with Ben. As for Felicity's mysterious, somewhat sinister roommate Meghan Rotundi (Amanda Foreman) -- just try to find her! But Felicity won't be lonely, certainly not so long as her dorm advisor Noel Crane (Scott Foley) carries a torch for her. Alas, Noel goes back to his former girlfriend, Hannah (Jennifer Garner), but Felicity isn't flying solo for long; in fact, by mid-term she has lost her virginity to an art student named Eli. Amazingly, with all this going on, Felicity still manages to do her homework and hold down a job at a café called Dean & DeLuca, where her gay boss Javier (Ian Gomez) is more than willing to offer a shoulder to cry on -- at least until Javier moves back to Spain near the end of the season (the better for actor Gomez to accept a role on a different series, Norm). Season one wraps up as Ben and Julie break up, whereupon Ben invites Felicity to take a summer-long cross-country trip with him. Felicity is certainly receptive to taking up with Ben again, but she isn't keen on hurting the feelings of Noel, who called it quits with Hannah and has been dating Felicity steadily -- nor those of her pal Julie. School lets out for summer break, and the decision is left to Felicity whether to go on the road trip with Ben or accept a free ticket to Europe for a chance to spend time with Noel on an important summer graphic-design internship. Rovi