A warm, emotionally observant college drama with a strong central performance and a distinctly late-’90s WB sensibility. It’s best when it leans into Felicity’s interior life, romantic uncertainty, and the bittersweet feeling of becoming yourself away from home.
64% ★★★☆☆ (13,944)
Felicity
Where to watch: Buy
TV Show · Drama · Soap
1998 · ★ 64% (13.9K)
She's about to make the best mistake of her life.
Starring: Keri Russell, Scott Speedman, Tangi Miller
Overview
Felicity Porter, a sensitive and intelligent girl from the San Francisco Bay Area, decides to give up a slot at Stanford University's pre-med program to follow her long time crush to college in New York City. Things get even more complicated when she meets her dorm's resident advisor and they fall in love.
Production
Touchstone Television, Imagine Television Studios
Cast
Keri Russell, Scott Speedman, Tangi Miller, Greg Grunberg, Amanda Foreman, Ian Gomez, Scott Foley
Curator Review
Verdict
A warm, emotionally observant college drama with a strong central performance and a distinctly late-’90s WB sensibility. It’s best when it leans into Felicity’s interior life, romantic uncertainty, and the bittersweet feeling of becoming yourself away from home.
Best for
fans of earnest coming-of-age drama
viewers who like relationship-driven TV
people nostalgic for late-’90s network series
audiences who enjoy intimate character studies
Skip if
you want fast plotting or high-concept twists
you dislike melodrama and romantic indecision
you prefer cynical or edgy teen dramas
you need every season to feel equally strong
Overview
Felicity is one of the defining college-set dramas of its era: tender, introspective, and often more interested in emotional truth than in plot mechanics. Keri Russell gives the series its center, making Felicity’s anxieties, impulses, and self-discoveries feel vivid even when the story turns soapy. The New York setting and campus life give the show a strong sense of transition and possibility.
Worth noting
The series is especially appealing if you like relationship drama that unfolds in small, meaningful shifts rather than big reversals. It has the signature J.J. Abrams blend of romantic longing and identity crisis, but the show’s real strength is its quiet honesty about how messy self-invention can be. The early seasons are the most essential, with the college years carrying the emotional core.
Bottom line
It does have the occasional network-TV detour into heightened melodrama, and some viewers may find the central romantic fixation repetitive. Still, as a portrait of a young woman trying to choose her own life, it remains distinctive and surprisingly durable. If you’re in the mood for a sincere, character-first drama with a strong sense of place, it’s worth the time.