I Miss TV Series Felicity: Generation X TV Shows
I miss TV series Felicity. It was one of the best Generation X TV shows. What I mean by this is that Felicity was one of the shows that defined and reflected my generation. In this hub I talk about the show and coming of age in the late 1990s. We reflect on the economy, reality TV, relationships, and innocence.
The Economy
It is fair enough to say that youth brings its own optimism along with it, no matter what generation you're from, but students in the late 90s weren't worried about much of anything.The late 90s were a time of unbridled optimism. The dotcom boom and the opportunities we all felt were there for us when we graduated college -- those times are far behind us. Yet it wasn't that long ago. On Felicity no one was worried about the future financially, only in the case of being able to pay a tuition bill. Such was the same for me and my friends.
No Reality TV Drama or Overbearing Noise
Felicity wasn't an obnoxious reality TV show. There were no annoying volume pitches or constant yelling or horrible tempers flaring up all the time. Sure the characters had their problems, but the cast on Felicity was basically a group of middle and upper-middle class kids who just wanted to achieve and go far in life.
A lot of today's TV shows are full of too much hostility and hatred, where the focus is to tear your castmates down or beat them at some kind of meaningless competition. Felicity gave us a storyline of young people trying to make it through college and learning through one's mistakes and life's ups and downs.
The Importance of Relationships
Generation X was not focused on "hookups." Young people mostly still wanted a regular boyfriend or girlfriend. Not that some people these days don't like the idea of having a monogamous relationship, but the culture seems to be pushing the idea that you should be sleeping around and "trying all of your options out." On Felicity, we saw that the characters were basically in monogamous relationships, or trying to be in them.
I guess that's what I miss the most about the late 90s is that feeling of innocence that seemed to be throughout our American culture, and especially in Generation X. And the funny thing is, no one would have called it innocence back then.
