| I stumbled onto Roswell quite by accident... I was
at Blockbuster, and was going through my TV Series-on-DVD phase
(which I'm still in!)... Having finished Season 4 of Alias, I was in
need of something new to watch. I have a passing interest in
the whole UFO phenomenon, so I'm reasonably familiar with the
Roswell Incident. I remember seeing commercials for Roswell
years ago, and thought I would give it a shot. I wound up
purchasing all three seasons of the show, and got totally hooked.
Roswell hooked me with every episode, beginning with the pilot, in
which the mysterious, handsome teenager Max Evans saves Crashdown
Cafe waitress Liz Parker, after she is shot in the chest during an
altercation in the restaurant. Imagine how your world would change,
if you found out someone you knew had an out-of-this-world secret...
and amplify that by your growing affection for this person... Liz
and Max are destined to fall in love, split up, get back together
again, and face all sorts of obstacles to a happy-ever-after,
human-alien love-nest.
My impressions...
(click to view)
Season 1 - the Love Story (below)
Season 2 - the Villain Parade
Season 3 - the Chaos
My Top Ten Roswell Moments
Where are the actors now?
My Roswell Trivia Challenge
My thoughts on aliens, life on other planets and
UFO's
George Carlin's thoughts on
UFO's and the Media
Season 1 - the Love
Story
Roswell, Season 1 was a delicious mix of romance and intrigue, as
relationships began to develop between Liz and Max, and Maria and
Michael. Max brought LIz back from the brink of death, healing
her by magically removing a bullet from her chest. The two
were already friends, and science lab partners, but their
relationship evolves steadily from that point. The tension
between the two was electric, as for weeks, they shared an unspoken
love for each other, and never kissed. After all, as a human,
it'd be a big step to kiss an alien... at least Max didn't have a
lizard tongue (remember 'V'?)... But
she finally gave in, and the fans loved it... Max and Liz were a
dream couple... so right for each other... until... more about that
in season 2.
In the meantime, Liz's best
friend, Maria, seemingly detests Max's friend and fellow Antarian,
Michael... but as it turns out, there's chemistry there as well, and
strangely, it was Maria who ultimately kissed an alien first.
The two carried a tumultuous relationship throughout the show's run.
Then we have the sweet guy, Alex, whom all the girls love -- as a
friend. That includes Isabel, for whom Alex has a major crush.
She teases him, but realizes he has a good heart, and can keep the
group's secret. Will Alex eventually get the girl? Seems
Isabel is only interested in guys for their looks. Speaking of
looks, Liz's ex-boyfriend, Kyle Valenti, is also in the picture...
as the token dumb-jock, he has a hard time letting Liz go, and is
suspicious of Max. His dad happens to be the sheriff.
Sheriff Valenti was the perfect
villain for season 1, attempting to uncover the truth about the
kids. But what he discovers is that other people are also
tracking down Max & Co., and they plan to do some pretty nasty
things to our Antarian friends. Valenti, who is at heart, a good
man, realizes where his allegiances lie, and it's a good thing,
because he'll need help from Max before the season ends. It's
a given that he likely will be putting his job on the line to defend
the kids, as time goes on.
Season
2 - The Villain Parade
As Roswell moved into its second season, the writers and producers
took a strong turn toward the Sci-Fi aspect of the show. With
that came a never-ending string of bad guys... Nasedo, Congresswoman
Whitaker, the Skins, the duplicate Michael, Rath, and the Duplicate
Isabel, Loni; Grant Sorenson and the blue crystal creature... Brody/Larek,
and finally, Tess. Tess, Tess... where did it all begin?
Emilie DeRavin joined the cast of
Roswell near the end of Season 1, completing the set of four
alien-human hybrid clones of the royal family of Antar. Tess
was separated from the other three at 'birth', and wound up living
with Nasedo, one of two alien 'protectors' living on earth.
However, unbenownst to us, but knownst to Tess, Nasedo made a deal
with the enemy back on the home world. More on that in a
moment. Tess struggled to fit in with the group, and her
'destiny' to pair up with Max put a serious strain on his
relationship with Liz. Couple that with the fact that "future
Max" visited her one night with the news that their relationship
would mean the end of the world, and as such, Liz would need to get
Max to fall out of love with her... she goes to great lengths to
accomplish that feat, as fans' hearts sank in the process.
Tess moved in with Kyle and Jim Valenti after Nasedo's demise, and
for a while, there was something sweet cooking between her and Kyle.
Kyle, who had once been a total jerk, discovered Buddhism and it
changed him drastically. He was one of my favorite characters
for the rest of the show's run. He had a great sense of humor.
The JumptheShark moment for
Roswell.. no, not when Tess first appeared. The show's
producers had a chance to pair her with Kyle, which would have been
received well by Roswell's viewers... but fate conspired to do
otherwise. Colin Hanks, who played Alex Whitman on the show,
was getting offers to do Orange County, and had very little time to
devote to Roswell. Finally, the show's producers gave up and
let him go... and they decided to kill off his character! In
order to do that, they needed a plot arc, and a villain. Tess
fit the bill. In order to accomplish that, Tess had to be
reunited with Max. So for me, the moment where the show jumped
the shark came right after the Las Vegas episode... if Liz had just
told Max the truth then, while they were dancing to Maria's song,
the Max/Liz relationship would have been rekindled, opening the door
for a Tess/Kyle relationship, which would have kept Tess in Roswell,
and allowed the four to continue to be a complete unit.
Instead, the show jumps in the Prom episode, "Heart of Mine", in
which Liz says goodbye to Max, then sees him kissing Tess later on,
and Kyle admits to Tess that she's more like a sister to him than
anything else. Huh? She flirted with him like a sex
kitten at home, and she's like a sister to him? Anyway, from
that point, the show followed an arc that I didn't like.. the death
of Alex, and... as much as the fans didn't like her... it was still
a stretch to turn Tess into a killer. I guess I would have
preferred something else. "Heart of Mine" does provide some
sweet, romantic moments between Alex and Isabel, who has finally
discovered that she loves him for who he is on the inside, despite
what he looks like on the outside. It was lousy that the
producers killed off Alex just as this tender relationship was
beginning. At the end
of season 2, the treacherous Tess is found out, at the last possible
moment, and Max, Michael and Isabel remain on earth, as a pregnant
Tess is skyrocketed off to Antar. Oh... once again, a first
for Maria, rather than Liz. She's the first to sleep with an
alien... but of course it's in the name of love :). Michael
chose to remain on earth, having finally found home...with Maria.
Season 3
- The Chaos
The season that spelled doom for Roswell. After surviving
cancellation, the show was moved from the WB to UPN for its third
season, and only 18 episodes were ordered. Still, the show had
a shot at redeeming itself and avoiding the 'shark'. But Shiri Appleby's
role seemed reduced in Season 3, even as she and Max were reuniting
(despite her father's best attempts to keep them apart).
Instead, we got a great deal of Katherine Heigl... Isabel, who only
a short while ago had found out that real beauty lies within (Alex),
latches onto a handsome, rich lawyer in the season's first episode.
She drives everyone crazy until they go along with the idea of an 18
year old girl giving up college to marry a 26 year old guy she just
met. Yeah, right... and she winds up playing house and hiding
her secret from Jesse for most of the season. Yet she is
plagued by Kivar, the alien she had an affair with in a previous
life, and the guy for whom she betrayed her family. Season 3
is thin on villains (thank goodness)... it's limited to Kivar,
Morgan Fairchild (Morgan Fairchild???) and
of course, the FBI, who should have been the main villains all
along. The show seemed to struggle, and there were a string of
episodes that jumped right out of the main storyline to try to
highlight the relationships of the characters... the Christmas and
New Year's episodes spring to mind. What was it with Christmas
and Roswell, by the way... Shiri Appleby... Shiri is a Hebrew
name... and three aliens celebrating Christmas was just weird...
it's all about ratings. Which Roswell wasn't getting, despite
the best efforts of its wonderful fan base. They had sent
hundreds of bottles of Tabasco to the WB during Season 1, and their
campaigning helped keep the show going through Season 2. At
the end of Season 3, there was a glimmer of hope for a 4th season,
and the show's producers tried to set up the storyline... the kids
all tooling around the country in a beat-up van, helping people and
avoiding the law. In the end, we only got a glimpse of that,
but fans were treated to the moment they had been waiting for since
1999... the wedding of Max and Liz. Sooo satisfying :).
Cool Roswellian Guest Stars:
Morgan Fairchild (Season 3... the
evil scientist, trying to save her old hubby)
Jonathan Frakes (Season 1... playing himself, of course!)
John Cullum (Season 1... the first of two actors to play Grandpa
Valenti)
Kevin Weisman (from Alias... the Pilot, Season 1)
Joe Pantoliano (Season 3... he played the second Protector, Cal)
Genie Francis (Season 1 Finale... the Queen of Antar)
Nelly Furtado (She sang in Season 2, while Liz & Maria searched for
Alex's killer)
My
Top Ten Roswell Moments...
I think the thing I like most about Roswell is that I can share it
with my family. To be honest, we're all hooked! Even my
8 year old niece knows every episode like the back of her hand.
She's a huge fan of Max and Liz... so we put together this list of
Roswell's top moments:
10. Future Max gives Liz the 'wedding dance' the two will
never share, once he and Liz conspired to make present-day Max fall
out of love with Liz. A sad, but romantic moment nonetheless.
9. Episode I... Max confesses
to Liz about his alien origins... Liz promises to keep it a total
secret, then tells a weirdly dressed Maria about it moments later.
Maria's reaction was classic.
8. The gang go to Las Vegas, and
Maria (as Margarita Salt) realizes her dream of singing in a Vegas
nightclub, while the others slow-dance to her song.
7. Soon after their first kiss,
Max drops a pencil in class, and gets Liz hot as he bends to pick it
up... Shiri Appleby must turn beet red every time she watches this
bit, since she lets out this orgasmic-sounding sigh here...
6. Michael discovers the
sister he never had, in Laurie Dupree. After escaping yet
another baddie, he's finally able to share some nice moments with
her. 5. Tess
watches as Kyle attempts to use his 'alien powers' to channel surf.
She's standing behind him, holding the remote, and switches channels
as Kyle calls out the channel he wants to see (even softcore
porn!)... he says "I am...an idiot" as he turns around to see her
standing there. 4.
Alex and Isabel share a tender kiss at the Junior/Senior prom.
Colin Hanks picked a stellar suit to wear, by the way.
3. Liz, armed with new alien
powers, uses them to smash Tess up against a wall, shouting "get up,
bitch! I'll kill you, you're a murderer!" Now that's
something the fans had wanted to see for years!
2. Tess is confronted by Max at
the granolith... 'I might have been able to teach you, but that
stupid bitch had you..."... "Don't you ever call her that!"
1. The Max/Liz wedding at
the end of the final episode.
Where are they now??
Something must be up at ABC.
Ex-Roswell stars keep turning up in some of the most popular shows
on television. First, Emilie DeRavin came back to the small
screen, as a pregnant airline crash survivor in LOST... then
Katherine Heigl, who has appeared in about a zillion fashion and
men's magazines, landed the role of Isobel once again... but this
time it's Izzie Stevens, model-turned surgeon, who fell in love with
a patient and later inherited $8.7M from his estate. And
finally, Shiri Appleby has turned up in the new ABC series, Six
Degrees, as an aspiring photographer who falls for a guy who is,
well, probably twice her age. As if that weren't twisted
enough, her boyfriend's son's name is...Max. As for the
guys... Adam Rodriguez has become a regular on CSI, Jason Behr is
still making B-grade horror flicks, and the woman who played Maria's
mom, Amy Delucca, is now starring in the hit show "Numbers".
On
aliens and UFO's...
Let me just say, first off, that I believe there is life
elsewhere in the universe. All over the universe. Heck,
probably within our own solar system -- scientists have found
evidence for liquid water bubbling up through cracks from beneath
the surface of
Saturn's moon Enceladus, and Jupiter's moon Europa. Where
there is water, there's a good spot to search for signs of life. It's
not a stretch to assume there are planets out there with life forms
that have evolved to the point where technology could arise and
advance far beyond our own. Sorry if this offends, but I think
those who say "there's no such thing as aliens" are being really
ignorant. It's possible that there's no such thing as UFO's,
I'll grant that. But to believe that the earth is totally
unique and alone in harboring life, in a vast universe of zillions
of worlds, is totally arrogant and closed-minded. As for
UFO's... I don't know. Granted, there's more hard evidence out
there for UFO's than there is for most 'unexplainable' phenomena. Eyewitnesses -- reputable individuals
including astronauts, teachers, and an ex-President. Evidence
on film and on radar. A myriad
of documents. An entire division of the government (Project
Grudge / Bluebook) devoted to UFO research in the 1960's. But
unlike, say, the existence of God, you can't simply take UFO's on faith.
Logistically, it's tough to imagine. The closest star to our
solar system is 4 light years away... so even at the speed of light,
a round trip for an earth visit would take 8 years.. seems like an
awfully big commitment just to carry out a couple of anal probes.
Of course, we don't know all there is to know about the universe,
and perhaps there are ways to get around the speed of light issue...
wormholes, bending space, black holes, extreme technology...
whatever... so I can't rule out the possibility that beings from
other worlds have visited the earth.
George
Carlin's thoughts on UFO's and the media...
From his
latest epic, "When Will
Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?". Before you laugh, check this
out. He's got a point. "I find it discouraging -- and a bit
depressing -- when I notice the unequal treatment afforded by the media to UFO
believers on the one hand, and on the other, to those who believe in an
invisible supreme being who inhabits the sky. Especially as the latter
belief applies to the whole Jesus-Messiah-Son-of-God fable.
You may have noticed that, in the media,
UFO believers are usually referred to as buffs, a term used to diminish
and marginalize them by relegating them to the ranks of hobbyists and mere
enthusiasts. They are made to seem like kooks and quaint dingbats who have
the nerve to believe that, in an observable universe of trillions of stars, and
most likely many hundreds of billions of potentially inhabitable planets, some
of those planets may have produced life-forms capable of doing things that we
can't do.
On the other hand, those who believe in
an eternal, all-powerful being, a being who demands to be loved and adored
unconditionally and who punishes and rewards according to his whims are thought
to be worthy, upright, credible people. This, in spite of the large
numbers of believers who are clearly close-minded fanatics.
To my way of thinking, there is every bit
as much evidence for the existence of UFOs as there is for the existence of God.
Probably far more. At least in the case of UFOs there have been countless
taped and filmed -- and by the way, unexplained -- sightings from all over the
world, along with documented radar evidence seen by experienced military and
civilian radar operators. This does not even begin to include the
widespread testimony of not only highly trained, experienced military and
civilian pilots who are selected for their jobs, in part, for their
above-average eyesight and mental stability, but also of equally well-trained,
experienced law-enforcement officers. Such pilots and law-enforcement
people are known to be serious, sober individuals who would have quite a bit to
lose were they to be associated with anything resembling kooky, outlandish
beliefs. Nonetheless, they have taken the risk of revealing their
experience because they are convinced they have seen something objectively real
that they consider important. All of these accounts are ignored by the
media.
Granted, the world of UFO-belief has its
share of kooks, nuts and fringe people, but have you ever listened to some of
these religious true-believers? Have you ever heard of any extreme,
bizarre behavior and outlandish claims associated with religious zealots?
Could any of them be considered kooks, nuts, or dingbats? A fair person
would have to say yes. But the marginal people in these two groups don't
matter in this argument. What matters is the prejudice and superstition
built into the media coverage of the two sets of beliefs. One is treated
reverently and accepted as received truth, the other is treated laughingly and
dismissed out of hand. As evidence of the above premise, I offer one
version of a typical television news story heard each year on the final Friday
of Lent:
"Today is Good Friday, observed by
Christians worldwide as a day that commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, whose death redeemed the sins of mankind"
Here is the way it should be
written:
"Today is Good Friday, observed worldwide
by Jesus buffs as the day on which the popular, bearded cultural figure,
sometimes referrred to as The Messiah, was allegedly crucified and --
according to legend -- died for mankind's so-called sins. Today kicks off
a 'holy' weekend that culminates on Easter Sunday, when, it is widely believed,
this dead 'savior', -- who also, by the way, claimed to be the son of a
sky-dwelling, invisible being known as God -- mysteriously 'rose from the dead'.
According to the legend, by volunteering to be killed and actually going through
with it, Jesus saved every person who has ever lived -- and every person who
ever will live -- from an eternity of suffering in a fiery region
popularly known as hell, providing -- so the story goes -- that the person to be
'saved' firmly believes this rather fanciful tale."
That would be an example of unbiased news
reporting. Don't wait around for it to happen. The aliens will land
first.
|
|
,
Created by 20th Century Fox
Airdates:
1999 - 2001 (WB)
2001 - 2002 (UPN)
Links:
Internet Movie
Database Entries:
Roswell
Shiri Appleby (Liz)
Jason Behr (Max)
Katherine Heigl
(Isabel)
Brendan Fehr (Michael)
Majandra Delfino
(Maria)
Colin Hanks (Alex)
William Sadler (Valenti)
Emilie DeRavin (Tess)
Nick Wechsler (Kyle)
Adam Rodriguez (Jesse)
Roswell on
JumptheShark.com
I'll admit it jumped, but you might be surprised at
where I think it happened.
Roswell Fan Fiction:
Fanfiction.net:
Roswell
There are literally THOUSANDS of Roswell-related
stories here from fans of the TV show.
Roswell:
The Final Chapter
(Season '4' and part of '5')
A really GREAT continuation story for Roswell fans.
Roswell:
The Next Chapter
Picks up where 'Final' left off, and gives us
Season '5' and '6'...which finally closes the circle
Roswell Major Sites:
Crashdown.com - the most
complete Roswell resource on the Web!
RoswellMovie.net
A group of fans campaigning to get Roswell made into a movie
Antarians.com
This site is no longer actively updated but still
full of show info & trivia
Books & Video
Amazon.com
Season 1 DVD
Amazon.com
Season 2 DVD
Amazon.com
Season 3 DVD
Roswell Soundtrack
Something no Roswell fan should be without:
'Crash Into Me'(Amazon)
Season 4... in Novel form only!
Amazon link
Book 2 in the
'Season 4' Ryan series
Amazon.com link
Book 3 continues the story - written by Andy Mangels
Here's the book that wraps it all up! Rather nicely I might
add |
