如果不親自看Felicity，她的故事會讓你覺得有些老套。
    懵懂的乖乖女，為了自己不切實際的愛情，放棄父母安排好的人生道路，選擇和那個連自己名字都記不全的男生去了一所學(xué)校。四年的大學(xué)生活，F(xiàn)elicity經(jīng)歷了愛情的單相思，感情世界大的兩難，學(xué)業(yè)道路的選擇和親情的真實體驗，這里面，既有難以言表的喜悅，也有無法擺脫的陣痛，而一切過后，我們和Felicity一起，體驗到了最真實的人生。
    這樣的一部劇，沒有吸血鬼和狼人，更沒有N男N女的雙飛3P。很難想象有多少青少年會喜歡上這樣一部淡淡的，有一點點小清新的連續(xù)劇。是的，也許很多人會很難喜歡上她，但一旦喜歡上了，便很難放下。
    Felicity的大學(xué)四年，仿佛照進了我們自己的人生。

//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.

So, this is what Ben Covington wrote:
“Dear Felicity, here it goes. I’ve watched you for four years. Always wondered what you were like… what was going in on your mind all the time that you were so quiet, just thinking, drawing in your notebook. I should’ve just asked you but I never asked you. So, now, four years later, I don’t even know you. But I admire you. Well, this makes me sound crazy, but I’m okay with that. So take care of yourself. Love, Ben. P.S. I would’ve said ‘keep in touch,’ but, unfortunately, we never were in touch.”
FELICITY; Hey! [Ben turns] What are you going to college?
BEN; New York, what about you?
FELICITY; That’s… pretty unclear.

  我大三了。卻現(xiàn)在才開始看《大學(xué)生費莉絲蒂》。
  I'm no longer a freshman.
  如果我從大一開始看這部劇，不知道我的大學(xué)生活會有什么不同呢？這是個很笨的問題，我其實并不打算問的。

  因為我不后悔我的決定。所有的。

  我想我上大學(xué)，學(xué)會的最重要的兩點就是：做人開心最重要，以及，要相信自己的決定。

  Felicity其實是個很“笨”的人（就目前來說），也許有人會問一個考上斯坦福的人怎么會是個很笨的人呢。且不去探究她考上斯坦福是不是僅因為她爸爸的關(guān)系，單單由她在對很多事情的處理上，都讓我覺得她很傻，最起碼不是我一直崇拜喜愛的那類精明且內(nèi)心強大的人。

  她僅僅為了一份癡戀，放棄了在斯坦福的就學(xué)機會。那個男的甚至不認識她。Felicity隨后的一連串花癡行為也讓我很無語，雖然我能理解，理解她只是在Ben身邊就能感到滿足，理解在這份滿足上她依然無法放棄那么點希望──Ben說不定有一天也會喜歡上她。但怎么解釋她擅自幫Ben改定paper這件事呢？是的，你很喜歡他，你希望為他好，你希望看到他成績高，這種心情讓你禁不住主動為他做一些事，但你怎么能笨到隨便修改別人的論文呢，且不說你很清楚學(xué)校非常反對cheating，單單就這個問題想一下：you rewote his paper without his permission,你不覺得這是一種很不尊重人的行為么?你覺得如果他知道了他會覺得感激不盡么？我想更多的是一種被侵犯的感覺吧。

  但我還是繼續(xù)看這部電視劇。而且這些一點都不妨礙我覺得它是一部好劇。為什么？Because that's freshman!That's all about university!That's what people are!We all confused,and we all did stupid things.
  雖然美國的大學(xué)和中國的大學(xué)差別還是很大，而且她的困惑跟我們的的困惑也未必搭旮的，更重要的是，你未必贊同她的決定，未必覺得她做的事情就是對的（我就覺得她在面試時的回答真是傻到不得了，困惑歸困惑，你應(yīng)該私下自己解決掉，如果想找人述說，大把人等著，你為什么非得挑面試這個時機非得挑老師這個人來說你那番成長宣言呢老大……別管那么多，先把面試拿下來吧＝ ＝，或者你干脆拒絕他：“把機會留給更需要的人吧！”），但相同的是，我們都在成長。看著她生活，看著她思考，會促使我們也跟著思考，去反思。我們坐在電腦前并不是要看一個成功人士的回憶錄，也并不是要看一個幻想出來的完美人物，我們在看一個跟我們有著許多相似地方的雖然虛構(gòu)卻依然真實的普通大學(xué)生。

   暫時寫到這吧。差不多要睡覺了。目前看到第一季第18集。＝ ＝

突然很想試試劇評，趁著大四沒事干，就先拿這部最近剛看的老劇練練手吧。

之前也是在知乎上聽說這部劇語速較慢，很適合練口語，于是又撩撥起了我“看美劇練口語”的心態(tài)，幾番搜索，終于下到了全集（老劇真難下）。

--- Episode 01 -- 03 ---

一開始故事的人設(shè)還是很吸引我的，一個能去 stanford 的女生為了只有一面之緣且暗戀的男生去了大蘋果城，很佩服女主的勇氣。可惜的是喜歡的男生在留下曖昧的留言之后卻火速在大學(xué)勾搭上一個女友（雖然好像是路人甲），看到這里我不得不吐槽 Ben 實在是曖昧界的高手，輕輕松松就牢牢占據(jù)了女主那顆得不到就永遠在騷動的心。

前三集嘛，主要就是介紹一下故事背景，寫了 Felicity 和家人一開始的異見到后來達成和解的過程，很溫馨向和正能量。慢慢也浮現(xiàn)出了幾個主要人物，F(xiàn)和她的美國好閨蜜 Julie，F(xiàn)喜歡的男生 Ben ，喜歡 F 但并不太被 F crush 的宿舍助理 Noel。好吧，我承認這是青春劇的爛俗設(shè)定，但是沒辦法，這就是青春啊。

插一句，以前我也覺得矯情，后來自己有了感情經(jīng)歷后才知道，原來喜歡的人也喜歡自己是一件太太太難得的事情了。

嗯，第三集是舞會，本來覺得沒有什么高潮，結(jié)果卻把 F 的性幻想錄音帶播出來了，我看的時候差點沒把血噴在屏幕上，這也太太太尷尬了吧，如果是我的話我肯定當(dāng)場殺了那個搖頭晃腦的嬉皮士 DJ 。High了一晚上的 Ben 居然又來找 F 借宿，我說，那么多房間，你干嘛非來我們姑娘家住，明擺著是搞曖昧嘛，哎……

對了，關(guān)于這個臭屁化學(xué)教授，我只想說，還好我沒有碰到這樣的老師！因為我沒帶書根本就不會跟老師講，哈！哈！