Roswell

This interesting story of extraterrestrial alienation is a fascinating metaphor of teen angst -- a topic that has often been treated in movies and on TV, but here it is offered with new and insightful perspective.

The show is a way to symbolize common human fears in an imaginative parable. Issues that are woven into the story line include not knowing who you are, the experience of being a foster child, keeping secrets from parents and other authority figures, the danger of making close personal connections with others, and the isolation of being in or from one's own strange world.

ROSWELL is a clever idea with a fresh, interesting young cast. The show is an imaginative cross between, on the one hand, THE X-FILES and THE FUGITIVE, and, on the other, the odd perspective of ALF and THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN. This is an excellent show in a time when too many shows are carbon-copies or silly assembly-line junk. I give the show an A+.

My sister got me hooked on "Roswell" at the beginning, but I kept watching because it was such a fantastic show! The episodes are wonderful, I love the music, and the storylines were incredible (even the often-dreaded Season 3, which I actually liked). I identified most with Max because he had been an outsider all his life, and had been in love with one woman but never had the courge to tell her (I felt like that a lot of the time). All the actors were wonderful, but I wish they hadn't made some of the decisions for Season 2 that they had. Well, I might as well list my favorite episodes, so here goes:

Season 1: Pilot, Leaving Normal, Blood Brother, The Toy House, Max to the Max.

Season 2: Skin & Bones, A Roswell Christmas Carol, Heart of Mine, The Departure

Season 3: Who Died & Made You King?, Graduation

The first season of Roswell was a magical experience. It was about love, about alienation, about self-discovery and learning to trust people. Unfortunately, when the show was faced with cancellation at the end of its first season, the writers took what was a mystical show and made it into a hackneyed and badly written science fiction rip off. The magic of Roswell lay in the three aliens (Max, Michael and Isabel) and the fact that they knew nothing about where they came from or why they were on Earth. All Max Evans knew was that for some reason, he was in love with Liz Parker. They were faced with trouble from the government, who wanted to study them, and strangers who claimed to be related to them, but they were never sure who they could trust except each other. Even after Genie Francis appeared in holo-mom form with a ridiculous tale of inter-galactic royalty and war, the show could have been saved - that hologram should have been revealed as a tactic by the mindwarping Tess, but the aliens made the mistake of not doubting it for a second. When Tess was accepted as their friend (and there was no reason for them to trust her), this show took a plunge that it never came back from. Stick with the first 15 episodes - the rest is a downward spiral.

Firstly, I watched Roswell (or Roswell High, as it was called in the U. K.) when I was a child and greatly enjoyed it. After having not seen it for over twenty years, I recently became curious to see as to whether my memories of the show's quality were exaggerated by the passing of time and nostalgia or whether they held some merit and a place in reality. I am glad to say that Roswell, for at least its first series, is everything I remember it being, in a good way.

Produced at the very end of the 1990's, a golden decade for the long form syndicated T. V. drama, it is perhaps not too surprising that Roswell is probably best described as a direct and blatant cross-pollination between 'The X-Files' and 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', arguably the two most iconic and influential T. V. dramas of the decade in question. The first series harbours all of the mystery, paranoia, conspiracy and extra-terrestrial intrigue of the early series of The X-Files while combining it, in surprisingly effective fashion, with the tasteful but tragic romance between a young female protagonist and a man not of her world, a motif that itself sat at the very core of the early series of Buffy.

I should note that teen dramas aren't really my thing and haven't been for a long time, but the main romantic plot in Roswell is undoubtedly compelling. The chemistry between the two leading actors is undeniable and some skilful writing alongside an abundant supply of adolescent charm help the love story to very often elevate into a place of the sublime and profound that not only excels beyond the expected limitations of a 1990's teen drama but that also goes far beyond any romantic portrayal on television in the modern day (this review dated February, 2022). I simply do not see romance or sacred love so well or patiently constructed in modern television or cinema anymore as I see it in the first series of Roswell. I am not really sure why that's the case or as to when that change occurred but it's a breath of fresh air to get back to a show that at least tries to confront the reality of love and its consequences rather than painting it as an old-fashioned inconvenience, worthy only of ridicule and ultimate dismissal in the wake of cheaper forms of drama.

I am really not too sure what was happening in the U. S. television industry at the turn of the millennium. Perhaps there was a general feeling of 'out with the old, in with the new' which led to an emphasis on finding shows fit for the 21st Century at the detriment of shows already in existence. Regardless, I am well aware that most top tier U. S. television shows saw a drastic decline in quality in the year 2000 and that while a number of those shows have continued on for some time in a lesser form of existence, namely 'The Simpsons' and for some time, a decent but uneven final few series of Buffy, many other shows, such as The X-Files would never be able to recover in form and would ultimately decline further into cancellation. Unfortunately, Roswell belongs to that latter group of television shows.

The rot is clear to see even by the end of the first series in which a new character is introduced who is neither likeable nor interesting and whose very presence badly disrupts a very well-constructed core group dynamic. Furthermore, the second series makes a rather bizarre and perverse effort to separate the two romantic leads, an act that damages the narrative and the integrity of its characters badly. Characters have their intentions and allegiances reshuffled, leading them to feel inconsistent and shallow in a way that they did not in the first series. Added to that, the protagonists seem to go missing for numerous episodes at a time. Altogether, it paints the picture of a show that is increasingly unfocused and at odds with itself while running out of ideas and chasing all the wrong ones.

In summary, the first series of Roswell is a criminally underrated and enjoyable drama of its time with charismatic performances from its principal cast, an honest and heartfelt love story that is hard not to root for and a complex but sympathetic antagonist in the form of William Sadler's Sheriff Valenti.

It was good while it lasted.

This show starts out sweet and tenderly as a coming of age teen drama with a SF undertone to keep things interesting and succeeds in this up to mid season 1,than quickly falls apart into teendrama 101 with melodramatic endless loops. Still season 1,some season 2 episodes - mostly those with a story arc spanning two or three episodes -,and very few season 3 episodes are enjoyable to watch.