Blogging A to Z: The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

Throwback time! You may not remember this series which originally aired in the early 1990s for only a couple TV seasons. Like the Indiana Jones films, the TV series exploring a younger Indy was created and produced by George Lucas. It's a pretty cool idea given so much of Indiana Jones' life is wide open prior to the movies - what was his life like before he became a professor? The series debuted a couple years after the third film: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which even featured scenes of a young Indy played by River Phoenix. 

For the TV series, teenage Indy was played by Sean Patrick Flanery, a '90s hottie most known for films like Powder and later the cult fave The Boondock Saints. The show featured an elderly version of Jones who served as a sort of narrator, with the episode taking place as a flashback to a teen or a 10-year-old kid Indy. 

Ultimately the show was canceled because ratings weren't high enough to allow for the costly expense. Four made-for-TV movies aired between 1994 - 1996 to continue the story. 

Why You Should Watch: It's available on Netflix and DVD and is a deeper dive into the Indiana Jones universe. It's suited for kids and is more of family entertainment than anything edgy. A lot of historical characters pop up so it's even somewhat educational!

Factoid: Harrison Ford shows up in an episode called "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues."

DVD Throwback: Felicity Season Two (Part One!)

When season 1 left off, Felicity had the choice to spend the summer in Europe with Noel, her ex-boyfriend (but recently determined to be somewhat more than friends), or she could road trip it with Ben, her recently single crush, from NYC to their home state California.

Who did she choose?

**Warning: Spoilers**

(This warning is generous considering the episodes originally aired 13 years ago!)

She chose Ben!

(Booooo)

When fall semester hits, everything is bonkers because Ben and Felicity are together. It's what she wanted all through high school and half of freshman year in college. But now Julie won't talk to her because Ben is her ex and the break-up was pretty fresh when he and Felicity ran off together. Noel won't talk to her because she chose Ben over him. Plus, things are JUST OK because Ben is not really that cool and Felicity didn't listen to her viewers from over 10 years in the future.

For the record, I thought this would be one of those "I choose me!" conclusions, where Felicity ditches both guys and goes on a community service trip to help inner city kids or something. But no, she chose Ben!

The living situations are all mixed around this season. Felicity and Pop-Goth Meghan decide to become RAs (their interview and training process is either so minimal or non-existant that it isn't even mentioned) and because of a housing crisis, they have to share a room. This actually happens, I can atest, and it sucks if your room is single and booked as double because those rooms are incredibly tiny and not at all like what you see on TV! Noel and Elena get an apartment together (? but OK) while Julie is still crashing with Ben and Sean. Julie has plans to move out, but when it falls through, the guys are more than grateful to have her stay. Which leads to a new love storyline: Sean and Julie. I LIKE.

These guys can't figure out who they like.

Did I mention Noel HATES Felicity? It's almost difficult to watch; he can't stand her and will tell her to her face how she ruined his life (by choosing Ben over him). Eventually the hate fades, but there are some uncomfortable moments. Noel is dating Ruby (Amy Smart of Just Friends fame) who's enamored by his skills with the iMac and his general nerditude. She confides in Felicity about Noel, unaware he and Felicity dated. Felicity goes on a blind date with her professor's son, which at first goes as horribly wrong as expected, but it turns out David is just a hurt guy trying to find love again and they start a real relationship.

Things with David culminate in a visit from her parents at Thanksgiving when his family and hers have dinner at Noel and Elena's. Noel and Felicity have too much punch and kiss (that's a lame excuse. They WANTED to kiss). David ends it and Felicity's probably not passing his mother's class. I love that Pop-Goth invited herself to Thanksgiving at Noel and Elena's, completely abandoning three lowly freshmen waiting on a dorm event Pop-Goth forgot about. Worst RA ever.

Meanwhile, Ben is dating an older (probably 30 - gasp!) caterer who happened in on the coffee shop where he works. She looks part Helen Hunt part Jodi Foster. It's of course a terrible relationship because - whoops! - she's married and forgot to tell him. Their storyline is mostly boring, just like most storylines about Ben outside of Felicity. Even with the haircut he's just not intriguing.

SPEAKING OF HAIRCUT, this is the season I heard about back before I ever saw the show where Felicity cuts her hair. And she doesn't just trim the fro'ed-out curls, they're hacked off. Like almost to a Britney Spears breakdown level. It sort of works, but only because Keri Russell can pull off just about any hairstyle. I liked that an entire episode was based around her haircut, so it wasn't like the actress abruptly made a style change and freaked everyone out. It became part of the story, as a symbol for her rediscovery of herself, paired with the inevitable dropping of pre-med.

The rest of the season seems to be gearing up to more tension among Felicity and Noel and Noel's girlfriend Ruby, and Ben is questioning his breakup with Felicity. Also, Felicity's parents are separating. Stay tuned!

Throwback DVD: Felicity - Season 1

I got through most of season 1 during my holiday break and just caught up on the last few episodes. My initial reaction: this show's pacing is the polar opposite of The Vampire Diaires. Felicity is slower and quieter. It's a thoughtful show.

The big pitch of Felicity is she's a mousy nerd who doesn't think for herself, planning to go to med school like her parents want, but on impulse, she enrolls in a (fictional) New York university to follow Ben, who finally signed her yearbook after years of drooling over him behind her perm. So she shows up in NYC and Lots of Awkward happens. This show has awkward down.

Felicity befriends Julie and Elena, eventually convinces Ben she's not a total freak, and her RA Noel falls in love with her. Her pop-goth roommate Megan is mostly hostile, but she has some great moments, like when her parents show up and she's dressed like a homeschooler with all her black clothing stuffed away in the closet.

So far, I'm not really a huge fan of Ben. He's not a jerk, but I don't get the attraction. He reminds me too much of Dawson (of Dawson's Creek, another show I never watched) and blond jocks are not my thing (at all).

Dawson chillin'

Ben starin'

Felicity and Julie both have feelings for Ben, and I like that the typical tension between friends and love interests morphed into something believable. I couldn't take an entire 22-episode run with Felicity longing for Ben. Something needed to give, and thankfully it does way beforehand. Ben and Julie get together, Felicity moves on...

Noel: TOTES

So enter Noel. He's enamored by Felicity, and ends up on the receiving end of Felicity's pining for Ben for far too long. I loved that his staff meetings with other Resident Advisors were more like counseling/bitching sessions (having been an RA it that is exactly how it is) and he asks the RAs advice for a "friend" on how to deal with a girl who's in love with someone else. I had to laugh when Noel got a new iMac and declared how fast it was (then promptly dropped it). But my favorite Noel moment so far is when he tries to get a deal on a new vending machine for the dorm. A girl from his floor refers him to her seedy cousins at a warehouse by the docks leading to a shady exchange.

The ex & current gf: AWKWARD

Lots of familiar faces pass through Felicity: Jennifer Garner is Noel's long distance, then ex, then on-again girlfriend. As a viewer, you kind of gear up to hate whoever his girl is since he's clearly meant to be with Felicity (maybe just my opinion) but when I saw it was Jennifer Garner, I thought, dangit, I can't not like her! Another pre-Alias J.J. Abrams favorite is Greg Grunberg, who was in Alias and played Matt Parkman in Heroes. He was also the pilot in Lost (and considering what happened to the plane, it was only a guest appearance). Greg plays Sean, one of Ben's roommates, because for some reason Ben lives in a loft and not the dorms. I must have missed why that's the case, but no matter. It gives the characters a reason to get off-campus and discuss their feelings in a new setting!

Krakow: more '80s than '90s

And then there's poor Brian Krakow. He's the curly-haired nerd from My So-Called Life who realized his chance with Angela Chase was futile after she quit yearbook and dyed her hair. He's another loner here as The Pink Guy (because he makes the tragic mistake of not separating colors and whites) and Julie takes pity on him and they date. But, the story's not over. Brian Krakow is... a rapist. The rape episode includes all the right lessons: Julie reports him, she questions what a sexual assault means, the rapist is vilified by other students. Krakow is defeated. He knows he's done for and sadly transfers back to Minnesota. And we haven't seen him since 1999...

One last face I proudly identified is one of the guys in the dorm who's always trying to use Noel's crush and eventual relationship with Felicity as blackmail, citing RAs can't date students (which seems really stupid) so he can get away with installing a satellite dish and running a hand model agency from his room. This actor played Chuck who wrote the Supernatural book series in the TV show Supernatural.

Chuck is not nearly as cool as Sam or Dean

*crickets*

You guys don't know Supernatural? Dean and Sam realized their lives were recorded in book form and showed up at their own fan convention... OK, moving on. (You should definitely watch Supernatural).

They actually go to class!

Toward the end of the season, everything is falling apart. Everyone's breaking up or getting together with someone who's probably totally wrong for them. Ben is GAMBLING. Noel is MOVING OUT. Felicity has a fling with an ARTIST (who's way cuter than Ben but I don't quite like him enough to oust Noel). Sean is filming a DOCUMENTARY. It's very Reality Bites.

In the season-ender, Ben is SUDDENLY HAIRCUT. He looks totally different and kind of cute. He also fends off the advances of his a friend's girlfriend, respecting the bro over the ho (I can't believe people legitimately say "bros before hoes"). His relationship with Julie ends, although at least it's not because he cheated on her. Noel didn't move out but he's going to Berlin for an internship for the summer. Felicity and Noel are on, then off, then... sort-of. There was going to be a road trip from NYC to California with the whole gang (not Elena since she's boinking Professor Prince Humperdink (really, it's the same actor)), but now the trip is just Ben, going back home to CA. Noel's heading to his internship earlier than he thought, and he invites Felicity. She's got to decide: Europe with her sort-of boyfriend, or a road trip with her long-time crush?

WHO WILL SHE CHOOSE?!

Throwback DVD Review: Felicity

Felicity is one of those shows I missed entirely when it was on, so here I am over 10 years later catching up. I was in college when it first aired, and I hardly watched TV. I mentioned this once to a guy in my dorm, something to the effect of not having turned my TV on in a week, and he looked at me with sincere incredulity: then what do you do?

Being a huge J.J. Abrams fan (Lost, Fringe, Super 8, the Star Trek reboot) I saw Felicity is available on Netflix streaming and figured I could recapture my lost TV years. Last year I devoured Gilmore Girls - all 7 seasons - which I also missed when I apparently had a more active social life.

So, I'll be writing a series of short recaps, as well as related twitter updates. If you like the Felicity, please chime in with your thoughts!

Here's Forever Young Adult's Highly Scientific Analysis of the relationships on Felicity if you want to know more.