费丽丝蒂第一季

突然很想试试剧评，趁着大四没事干，就先拿这部最近刚看的老剧练练手吧。

之前也是在知乎上听说这部剧语速较慢，很适合练口语，于是又撩拨起了我“看美剧练口语”的心态，几番搜索，终于下到了全集（老剧真难下）。

--- Episode 01 -- 03 ---

一开始故事的人设还是很吸引我的，一个能去 stanford 的女生为了只有一面之缘且暗恋的男生去了大苹果城，很佩服女主的勇气。可惜的是喜欢的男生在留下暧昧的留言之后却火速在大学勾搭上一个女友（虽然好像是路人甲），看到这里我不得不吐槽 Ben 实在是暧昧界的高手，轻轻松松就牢牢占据了女主那颗得不到就永远在骚动的心。

前三集嘛，主要就是介绍一下故事背景，写了 Felicity 和家人一开始的异见到后来达成和解的过程，很温馨向和正能量。慢慢也浮现出了几个主要人物，F和她的美国好闺蜜 Julie，F喜欢的男生 Ben ，喜欢 F 但并不太被 F crush 的宿舍助理 Noel。好吧，我承认这是青春剧的烂俗设定，但是没办法，这就是青春啊。

插一句，以前我也觉得矫情，后来自己有了感情经历后才知道，原来喜欢的人也喜欢自己是一件太太太难得的事情了。

嗯，第三集是舞会，本来觉得没有什么高潮，结果却把 F 的性幻想录音带播出来了，我看的时候差点没把血喷在屏幕上，这也太太太尴尬了吧，如果是我的话我肯定当场杀了那个摇头晃脑的嬉皮士 DJ 。High了一晚上的 Ben 居然又来找 F 借宿，我说，那么多房间，你干嘛非来我们姑娘家住，明摆着是搞暧昧嘛，哎……

对了，关于这个臭屁化学教授，我只想说，还好我没有碰到这样的老师！因为我没带书根本就不会跟老师讲，哈！哈！

//ww2.kqed.org/pop/2014/04/29/felicitys-ben-or-noel-conundrum-how-the-side-you-took-predicted-your-entire-love-life/

Felicity’s Ben or Noel Conundrum: How The Side You Took Predicted Your Entire Love Life

By Meghan Lewit

There’s a rather famous deleted scene from the film Pulp Fiction in which Mia Wallace quizzes hit-man Vincent Vega on whether he’s a Beatles man or an Elvis man, whether he prefers The Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family, and other character-defining questions. “My theory is that, when it comes to important subjects, there’s only two ways a person can answer. Which way they choose tells you who that person is,” she states.

I’ve always found this to be a profoundly wise observation. My own cultural litmus test revolves around the love triangle at the heart of the late ’90s college drama Felicity. Or, more specifically, Ben or Noel?

The show, which first aired on the now-defunct WB network in 1998, starred Keri Russell (currently kicking ass on The Americans) as a good girl who thwarts her parents’ expectations by following her high school crush to college in New York City. (Also worth noting, Felicity was the first foray into television for a then-unfamous J.J. Abrams.) The show became a watershed cultural moment for me — partly because I was, at the time, at home in Illinois plotting my own escape to an East Coast university, but mainly because Felicity cemented my attitude toward romance for my entire adult life.

As heroines go, Felicity wasn’t particularly cool. She studied a lot, clothed herself in an unending parade of giant fuzzy sweaters, and recorded long, embarrassingly earnest messages to her absent friend Sally on a voice recorder. For a smart girl, she made the dubious choice to follow an 18-year-old boy across the country. But viewers who saw themselves in Felicity understood that the move to New York was about much more than a guy — it was about making a brash stab at independence, about carving out a place in the world where her uncoolness and her romanticism and penchant for oversized wool could flourish. In her insane, ill-considered moment of bravery, Felicity became the patron saint of nice girls who got good grades, followed the rules and more or less listened to their parents, and sometimes wondered what the hell it was all for.

And in the halls of the fictional University of New York, she found love in the form of two appealingly floppy-haired choices: Ben Covington (Scott Speedman), the mumbly, emotionally inscrutable crush she followed to college; and Noel Crane (Scott Foley), the charmingly geeky, nice-guy resident advisor. Although the Felicity love triangle came along before fans identifying themselves as “Team X” or “Team Y” had entered the vernacular, the Ben vs. Noel question became the basis of a four-season love triangle, the outcome of which can still spark heated debate among those who came of age at the turn of the millennium.

As Felicity Porter felt like my fictional spirit sister back in 1998, so her love life has provided the framework of a theory that has guided my beliefs about romance for the past 16 years: that every straight woman in the world is either a Ben-girl or Noel-girl.

Noel established his good-guy cred early in the show when he became Felicity’s confidante and Boggle partner. In the pilot, when Felicity is close to throwing in the towel on her New York adventure, he makes an endearing plea for her to stay:

Photo: FanPop
Photo: FanPop
“You’ll be the fancy doctor, with the fancy practice. You’ll be married and you’ll have like four phone lines in your home. And then, boom, it’ll grip you like a blast of freezing cold air. You know, ‘what the hell is my life?’ And you’ll be able to trace it back to this instant…when that geek RA gave you [these] words of advice: stay in New York or perish.”

From that moment we knew that Noel understood her particular brand of romantic idealism, and that he would have her back. And throughout their first season courtship and over the course of the show (with the exception of an out-of-character quickie marriage and divorce to the Doritos Girl in season 3), he remained a steadfast presence in her life.

The Noel/Ben choice reached its most dramatic climax fairly early in the show’s run, at the end of the first season when Felicity has to choose between spending her summer break in Germany with Noel, or on a cross-country road trip with Ben. The season ends on a cliffhanger with Felicity — in slow motion of course — getting into a cab en route to an undisclosed destination.

“I didn’t have to make a decision between Ben and Noel,” she tells Sally in voiceover. “But I did.”

A decade and a half later, it’s not a spoiler to report that she chose Ben, and that in season 2, just a couple of episodes into their nascent romance, he broke her heart. This event launched the infamous hair chop, and a series of forgettable romances with randoms until Ben eventually wins her back by tracking down a copy of the movie that had been playing when he stood her up (Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush). In his most swoon-worthy moment, he describes the film canister as a time machine that would allow them to rewrite their history.

Photo: Tumblr
Photo: Tumblr
And that was the trick with Ben. He wasn’t a bad guy. He wasn’t cruel or dismissive, although he could often be thoughtless. He was a little too good looking; a person for whom things had always come a little too easily. He was someone we have all known, and probably dated at some point. Even in the midst of their on-and-off coupledom, he remained, on some level, tantalizingly unavailable.

“You want something with me, but you’re not strong enough to have it,” Felicity tells him at the beginning of their relationship.

She had a point because in the fourth season — after Felicity and Ben have graduated and moved to Palo Alto together for grad school — Ben cheats. This earnest and heartfelt drama then takes a bizarre turn into the supernatural when Felicity’s former roommate, Meghan, casts a spell that allows a devastated Felicity to travel back in time and live out an alternate reality where she chooses Noel instead. The storyline, which is just about as absurd as it sounds, sets off a sequence of events that results in Noel’s tragic death in a fire on campus, but Felicity is ultimately able to make things right by reversing the spell and returning to her life with Ben.

It’s a deeply unsatisfying conclusion to a show that had dealt so thoughtfully with the college experience. At the end, we’re supposed to accept that she made her choice not necessarily because it was the right one, but because choosing Noel would directly lead to his untimely demise.

But the fact that the Ben/Noel question still lingers is a testament to the viability of both characters. Unlike some other notable pop culture love triangles involving young people, Felicity’s choice never felt like a foregone conclusion. (By the end of their runs, was there anyone left who was still hoping that Joey would choose mopey Dawson over Pacey; that Katniss would pick volatile Gale over gentle Peeta; or thought there was a chance that Bella would end up with the werewolf instead of her creepily possessive vampire beau?) Felicity, for all its ’90s trappings, holds up as a contemplative and authentic portrayal of the coming-of-age experience and the choices that it presents. The power of the Ben/Noel divide was that neither felt like a plot device, but rather a choice between two valid real-life archetypes: the nice (albeit somewhat predictable) guy who adores you, or the soulful sort-of bad boy you’ll never be quite sure of.

It’s also important to note that the choice between Ben and Noel has less to do with the guys themselves than it does with the girl doing the choosing. Each type has its own distinct appeal, perhaps depending on where a woman is in her life. A Ben who seems irresistible at age 20 may feel like more trouble than he’s worth at 30. A friend of mine recently noted that, if she were going to write a memoir of her dating life, she’d title it: Too Many Bens, Not Enough Noels.

Although a staunch Noel devotee, when I rewatched the entire show recently, it was easier for me to understand the Ben appeal — possibly because I’m less self-serious about love now than when I was 17. Still, when I reached the end of the series, I had to conclude that my fundamental preference hadn’t changed. While Ben-girls will always crave the challenge and unpredictability, Noel-girls just don’t need that noise.

It may seem like an over-simplification of the vagaries of love and attraction, but some things really are that straightforward. Just like with the Beatles and Elvis, at some point you have to make a choice. You can like both characters — think they’re both cute, admire their overlapping taste in flannels — but no one likes them both equally. And the one you choose says everything about you.

'I really cant wait to see what the city looks like when it snows.'
Said Ben,
then Felicity said the same.

Out of the blue, I realized I've seen three cities snowing in the past three years, TianJin, NYC and Cph, not to mention all of the breathtaking snowing winters in my beloved hometown.

You never realize what life's gonna bring you until you went through it and look backwards to connect the dots.

  我大三了。却现在才开始看《大学生费莉丝蒂》。
  I'm no longer a freshman.
  如果我从大一开始看这部剧，不知道我的大学生活会有什么不同呢？这是个很笨的问题，我其实并不打算问的。

  因为我不后悔我的决定。所有的。

  我想我上大学，学会的最重要的两点就是：做人开心最重要，以及，要相信自己的决定。

  Felicity其实是个很“笨”的人（就目前来说），也许有人会问一个考上斯坦福的人怎么会是个很笨的人呢。且不去探究她考上斯坦福是不是仅因为她爸爸的关系，单单由她在对很多事情的处理上，都让我觉得她很傻，最起码不是我一直崇拜喜爱的那类精明且内心强大的人。

  她仅仅为了一份痴恋，放弃了在斯坦福的就学机会。那个男的甚至不认识她。Felicity随后的一连串花痴行为也让我很无语，虽然我能理解，理解她只是在Ben身边就能感到满足，理解在这份满足上她依然无法放弃那么点希望──Ben说不定有一天也会喜欢上她。但怎么解释她擅自帮Ben改定paper这件事呢？是的，你很喜欢他，你希望为他好，你希望看到他成绩高，这种心情让你禁不住主动为他做一些事，但你怎么能笨到随便修改别人的论文呢，且不说你很清楚学校非常反对cheating，单单就这个问题想一下：you rewote his paper without his permission,你不觉得这是一种很不尊重人的行为么?你觉得如果他知道了他会觉得感激不尽么？我想更多的是一种被侵犯的感觉吧。

  但我还是继续看这部电视剧。而且这些一点都不妨碍我觉得它是一部好剧。为什么？Because that's freshman!That's all about university!That's what people are!We all confused,and we all did stupid things.
  虽然美国的大学和中国的大学差别还是很大，而且她的困惑跟我们的的困惑也未必搭旮的，更重要的是，你未必赞同她的决定，未必觉得她做的事情就是对的（我就觉得她在面试时的回答真是傻到不得了，困惑归困惑，你应该私下自己解决掉，如果想找人述说，大把人等着，你为什么非得挑面试这个时机非得挑老师这个人来说你那番成长宣言呢老大……别管那么多，先把面试拿下来吧＝ ＝，或者你干脆拒绝他：“把机会留给更需要的人吧！”），但相同的是，我们都在成长。看着她生活，看着她思考，会促使我们也跟着思考，去反思。我们坐在电脑前并不是要看一个成功人士的回忆录，也并不是要看一个幻想出来的完美人物，我们在看一个跟我们有着许多相似地方的虽然虚构却依然真实的普通大学生。

   暂时写到这吧。差不多要睡觉了。目前看到第一季第18集。＝ ＝

American school life is totally different form chinese.
colorful complictated fruitful rich.

看到一篇特别搞笑的神评论。

【警告】这是一篇花痴Ben的文~~~

Team Ben VS Team Noel




~~~~~~~~~~~以下搬运~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Last week, Jenny reviewed a book about a girl who follows a guy to New York City, and most of us immediately thought, "OMG FELICITY!" Which then led me to the shocking realization that there are absolutely zero posts about Felicity on this blog, and that is an effing tragedy, you guys. Hello, it's one of the best YA TV shows ever, not to mention the fact that years later, I still feel like the characters are my real friends. And if you think that's sad, then I probably shouldn't tell you about how I have to go into every Dean & Deluca when I'm in NYC just to see if Javier is working that day. Y'all, I have SUCH a crunch on him.

Speaking of crunches, I had a tough time deciding which facet of the show I wanted to write about today. I could analyze how insanely pretty Keri Russell is (SO PRETTY), or I could talk about the amazing evolution of Meghan as a character. Or perhaps I could tackle the bullshizz of Elena always getting the crappy storylines (I mean, sex with Professor Humperdinck? COME ON). But throughout all of the conversations that have ever occurred about Felicity, there's one question that always arises.

And that question, my friends, is this: Are you Team Ben or Team Noel?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's right, before there was Edward vs Jacob, or Peeta vs Gale, there was Ben vs Noel. And it was a debate that raged fiercely through four years of Felicity's mothercussing indecision.

Today, I'd like to settle that debate once and for all. And yes, I do realize the immensity of my task, which is why I'm employing our usual highly scientific methods of analysis. I'll be comparing Noel and Ben and awarding them points (out of 10) in several pivotal categories, and their total score will provide the definitive answer to this debate.

So grab your lab coats and LET'S DO SOME SCIENCE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

【PERSONALITY】
Noel: 7

Noel exemplifies the finer virtues of sensitivity, and like our other fave sweetheart, Peeta, he even goes through a crazycakes period just so he can become more manly and badass. Deep down, though, he'll always be the nice guy, and while I find that adorable, it's the main reason why Noel will always be stuck in the Friend Zone. He's goofy and compassionate, but neither of those words spell SEXY.

Ben: 8

Ben can be a little aloof, and his impulsive behavior is frustrating as hell. But when you realize that he's overcoming some major family drama (more on that later), his grumpy demeanor becomes insanely charming. Speaking of charm, all the boy has to do is crinkle his eyes and smile, and I swear, a rainbow will shoot out of your chest and end in a pot of swoon. He's also surprisingly thoughtful and caring, and his loyalty knows no bounds. (I mean, have you MET Sean?)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

【LOOKS】
Noel: 7

Just look at those puppy dog eyes! That excellent bone structure! Noel is definitely a handsome dude, and if that's how all of the "nerdy" RAs at NYU look, I totally went to the wrong college.

Ben: 10

The first time I saw Ben on screen, I was like, "Oh yeah, Felicity should DEFINITELY move to New York." And that was before I even knew what he wrote in her yearbook! The boy is FOINE, from his adorable grin to his totes toned swimmer's body. I still can't forgive the University of New York for canceling their swimming program, thereby robbing of us of more scenes featuring Ben in a Speedo. Damn you, fictional college!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~·
【TRAGIC PAST】

Noel: 2

As far as I can remember (and I've seen this series many, many times in its entirety, because I believe in extensive research), the only tragic thing in Noel's past is his misfortune in dating a girl named Hannah who likes to pout her lips and play fugues. Of course, in real life, that turned into an even greater tragedy (Jennifer Garner, how could you?), but let's try to keep fiction and reality separated, ok people? We have an important debate to settle about our two potential boyfriends here!

Ben: 7

Ben's dad (RIP John Ritter) is an alcoholic, and Ben grew up supporting his mother and fighting against the possibility of turning into his father. It's the reason he doesn't always know how to handle his emotions, which not only makes us sympathize with him, it also gives me a great excuse to still be in love with him even when he's an asshole.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~·····
【TREATMENT OF FELICITY】
Noel: 8

Aside from the time he drank beet juice and went batshizz insane at the library, Noel treats Felicity with respect and adoration, the latter of which can be a little much at times but still, he's super considerate towards her. He clearly wants the best for her, and he's insanely supportive of her dreams, whether it's helping her study to be a doctor or collaborating with her on Loser Pet Store. Sure, he drops her for Hannah, but that's a typical freshman mistake*, and even after Felicity leaves him hanging at the airport and chooses Ben, Noel eventually forgives her and takes her back as a bestie. Definitely a good guy.

*After publishing this analysis, I was corrected by fellow scholar Kate. Noel was a sophomore when he dumped Felicity, and therefore, he can't use freshman ignorance as an excuse. Consequently, he loses one point.

Ben: 4

We have now reached the Ben Handicap. Dude is TERRIBLE at being a boyfriend, or even a friend to Felicity. He's flaky and scared of his feelings, and he has major commitment issues. He'd sooner have an affair with a scary married catering lady (major cougs) or run off to the Hamptons with a spoiled rich girl (HATECHOO AVERY) than stay in a relationship with Felicity for more than a few months. The only reason he doesn't have a zero in this category is because, well, what goes around comes around. I mean, if some girl stalked you all the way to New York and then, like, looked at yr confidential college file and then re-wrote yr paper for a class and almost got you expelled, you'd be rushing to give her a restraining order, not a hug. Just sayin'.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
【ROMANTIC GESTURES】

Noel: 4

It's almost unfair to judge Noel in this category because being a clueless, awkward guy is part of his charm. And awkward guys are usually too busy being self-conscious to pull off anything romantic, although occasionally, they get lucky (hey-o!). Such is the case with Noel and his use of Boggle as foreplay. I gotta give the man some points for that.

Ben: 10

The silver lining to Ben being such a dick to Felicity is that he gets to make it up to her in super swoony, dramatic fashion. I mean, buying her the necklace was nice, but asking her to go on the road trip with him, out of nowhere? MEGA SIGH. And then there's the pice de résistance: presenting her with the film reels of the movie he missed in Bryant Park while earnestly begging her to give him another chance. Watching this scene always results in the strange physical phenomenon of my eyes filling up with tears while my lady parts fill up with lust. Ben, WHAT MAGIC YOU WEAVE.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
【JE NE SAIS QUOI】
Noel: 6

In order to account for every remaining variable, I felt it necessary to include this final category. Noel definitely has something special glimmering behind those amber eyes, and I would have ZERO problem breaking the "no RA/student relationships" rule with him.

Ben: A MILLION

I realize that number may seem ridiculous to you, but trust me, I'm a scientist. And Ben has earned every single one of those points. He just has that something... that swagger, that smile, the magnetism of thousands of high school crush objects rolled into one devastatingly hot, charismatic package. Without careful study of the show, it's easy to miss. Just ask my boyfriend, who thinks it's lame that I like "that dude from Underworld." Haters gonna hate, but I always understood why Felicity never got over Ben. It'd be like giving up Chimay for O'Doul's. It's just plain wrong.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


【【【【【CONCLUSION】】】】

Let us total up the points, shall we?

Noel: 34

Ben: 1,000,039

You can't argue with those numbers, folks, because numbers DON'T LIE. Noel put up a good fight, but we have a clear victor in this debate, and that champion is Ben Covington.

BOOM! CHECK THAT SCIENCE!

Now that I've solved a mystery that's been baffling scholars for years, how about we celebrate with one of my favorite Ben scenes ever?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

然后底下是视频放送。。。Ben&Felicity --first kiss