Revisiting Felicity's polarizing Season 2 -- and debunking its sophomore slump myth

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https://tvline.com/2020/04/09/felici...-keri-russell/

Let’s get this out of the way right out of the gate: Felicity‘s ratings did not plummet in Season 2 because Keri Russell cut her freakin’ hair. It’s an attention-getting (read: lazy) headline and a fun piece of TV trivia, but it’s not true. Felicity‘s viewership plunged because someone at The WB thought it’d be a swell idea to move the show from Tuesdays, one of the network’s highest-rated nights, to Sundays, the net’s worst-performing evening by a mile. As a matter of proven fact, the series’ ratings downturn was already well underway when Russell’s titular character debuted her new ‘do in Season 2’s third episode. One had absolutely nothing to do with the other.

Among the unfortunate byproducts of this false narrative’s 20-year propagation was that it overshadowed the season’s real headline: Felicity Season 2 was a masterpiece. Series creators J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves followed up the show’s breakout, Golden Globe-winning freshman year with a superior sophomore run. (Disclosure: I am developing a TV series with Abrams’ Bad Robot and HBO Max about my childhood.) Not only did Year 2 feature Russell’s strongest work on the series, but it yielded many of the show’s most memorable episodes — so memorable that it was almost impossible to limit TVLine’s Binge Club assignment to just five (which is why I cheated and went with six-plus).