Credit: The WB

Keri Russell is all set to return to Netflix on October 15th with The Diplomat season four, and before we binge Kate Wyler getting caught up in another political shitshow, Netflix has surprised us by adding her breakout show Felicity to its catalogue.

All four seasons are streaming on Netflix on October 7th, and yes, this is the Felicity, the 1998 drama that turned Russell into a television star long before Kate Wyler was our “shero”. Created by J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, it ran until 2002, and watching it now feels like opening a time capsule… Oh, just so much nostalgia!

The whole thing begins because Felicity Porter follows Ben Covington, her high school crush, to college in New York after he writes something flattering in her yearbook. One note, that’s all. Man, rom-com characters were really crazy around the naughties, but come on, television would be awfully dull if everyone was getting ready to enter an Ivy at eighteen.

Thank god the show grows past that silly decision, because Felicity soon stops chasing Ben and goes on figuring out what on earth she wants once the future planned by her parents stops running the show. Noel Crane complicates matters, though, and feelings become a nuisance.

Russell sells every ounce of it, because Felicity can be very indecisive at times, and all you as viewers would want to do is yell at her from your screens. Seriously, it’s hard to believe this is the same woman who is dealing with international matters in The Diplomat.

The good thing is Russell never lets her become all about bad choices. The industry noticed too: she won the 1999 Golden Globe for best actress in a television drama.

And then came the haircut. Oh, the haircut. Felicity chopped off those famous curls in season two, and if you were following it back then, you would’ve felt that trauma too, because the reaction became television folklore, and her hair spent years being blamed for the ratings slide. Yeah, it really was that serious; in fact, The WB had moved Felicity from Tuesdays to Sundays.

Actually, it was Russell who helped set the whole business in motion after joking around with a short wig and sending Abrams a photograph, only for the makers to love the idea and implement it. Nobody is blaming her, but back in the day, she received massive hate mail for this.

Watching Felicity now makes Russell’s career arc rather delicious, because Felicity spends so much time wondering whether she has made the right choice, and on the other hand, Kate Wyler is walking on shells with geopolitical disasters.

So yes, The Diplomat season four is coming on October 15th, but do not spend the whole week staring at the calendar when Netflix has just given you the show that made Keri Russell a star.