|
In Roswell The Complete First Season, Shiri Appleby plays Liz Parker, a high school student and part-time waitress at the Crashdown Cafe in the sleepy town of Roswell, New Mexico. Liz's life is about to take an unexpected turn when an argument erupts at the Crashdown between two patrons, a gun is pulled and Liz is accidentally shot. A mysterious classmate of Liz's named Max Evans (Jason Behr) inexplicably saves Liz's life by using his special powers to extract the bullet from Liz's abdomen. Only Liz realizes what Max has done. We soon learn that Max is not your everyday high school student and neither is his sister Isabel (Katherine Heigl) and his best friend Michael Guerin (Brendan Fehr). Liz discovers that the three amigos are aliens and although they ask Liz to keep their secret a secret, it is not long before she spills the beans to her friend Maria (Majandra Delfino) and eventually her classmate Alex (Colin Hanks). Season One of Roswell takes us through the trials and tribulations of this group of six high school students as they deal with the lovey-dovey feelings that they have for each other, as they run from the ever-suspicious local sheriff Valenti (William Sadler), as they try to discover who they are and where they are from and as eventually, they have to deal with the FBI and the appearance of deadlier, less friendly, aliens.
Roswell The Complete First Season is now available on a six-disc set that includes all 22 Season One episodes and a handful of extras and special features.
After watching the entire first season, I was left with a bit of a roller-coaster of thoughts and emotions. The first ten episodes or so had some very intriguing premises - between the sheriff, the FBI and a couple of episodes with the girls in their bras and panties, I found myself mildly intrigued by this show. Then the show took a bit of a twist (or what I perceived as a twist) and seemed to spend too much time on the teenage soap opera aspects of the show - Liz loved Max, Maria and Michael had something going on, Isabel loved no one and Alex wanted to be loved by anyone. There were a few episodes that seemed to concentrate too much on teenagers making out with each other and I was just about ready to pull the plug on the show. Suddenly, a mysterious (and very hot) new high school student named Tess (Emilie de Raven) appeared and the show took a turn for the better. The show became more about the aliens, about the FBI and secret government agents, about where they came from and how and why and about the presence of a mysterious alien called Nasedo. There was no making out and no high school teenagers arguing with each other. Just action, intrigue, suspense, sci-fi and all that good stuff and the show ended on a very high note. It left me wanting more, wanting to watch the next season to see what is going to happen to Liz, Max, Michael, Isabel and all the gang.
As for other comments about the show? Well, the characters were decent. Brendan Fehr as Michael Guerin was quite good and probably the best of the bunch. Although he was a bit of a brooding sour-puss, there was something about this rather disturbed character that was somewhat likeable. Maybe it was his hair or his subtle sense of humour but he was probably my favourite character. Majandra Delfino as Maria was a perfect match for Michael as Delfino also brought a bit of an attitude and a bit of humour to the table that was needed to offset the rather stoic characters of Max, Liz and Isabel. None of these three characters really stood out for me. Max was a bit too passive and boring at times. Liz was okay. Isabel had a really bad attitude but had two very big assets that could not go unnoticed. Colin Hanks was quite good but with limited screen time. William Sadler, who played Sheriff Valenti, was probably the most seasoned actor of the bunch and this was quite obvious whenever he graced the screen. The dude who plays Marshall on Alias appears in a couple of episodes and he is quite funny.
As for the extras:
Disc One has a commentary on the pilot episode by Executive Producer/Writer Jason Katims and Executive Producer/Director David Nutter. An average commentary at best but probably the best of the handful of commentaries. There is also one deleted scene from the pilot episode.
Disc Two has a commentary on the episode called "Blood Brother" by Executive Producer/Director David Nutter, again a very average commentary.
Disc Three has a commentary for "The Balance" by Co-Executive Producer/Writer Thania St. John.
Disc Four has commentary for "Sexual Healing" by Shiri Appleby and Majandra Delfino. They just sort of babble on, talk about Brendan Fehr's hair and a few other behind-the-scenes antedotes but nothing too interesting here.
Disc Five has commentary for "Crazy" by Shiri Appleby and Majandra Delfino. The highlight here is listening to them tell a really bad story about Brendan Fehr pissing his pants to win $150.
Disc Six has commentary on "Destiny" by Executive Producer/Writer Jason Katims and Director Patrick Norris. It is one of the worst commentaries I have ever heard in my entire life. The final disc also includes a featurette called "Area 51", which gives an overview of Season One, complete with interviews of much of the main cast (and Colin Hanks doing his best impersonation of his dad from the movie Castaway - he is almost unrecognizable). This is a decent featurette. It is followed by "Roswell High", a featurette in which the writers of the Roswell High novels are interviewed - a relatively interesting featurette. Next up are two scenes from Emilie de Ravin's (Tess) audition tapes which really only give us men a reason to stare at her a bit more before we finish the discs. Finally, there is a music video by the group Sense Field called "Save Yourself" - never heard of the group or the song.
My final thoughts? Roswell Season One started out decently. It turned into a show where there were a group of high school teens making out and running from a bumbling sheriff and it started losing me. But before you know it, a hot new student was added to the mix, a murdering alien appeared from time to time and a secret government unit starting breathing down the necks of our friendly neighbourhood aliens and the show became quite interesting and intriguing and really quite good. Sure, if you really put your mind to it, there are questions that really need to be answered. Like why did the parents of these high school students never wonder why their kids would disappear for days at a time? I'm sure that I could think of a few more questions but that is really putting too much thought into a show that does not ask for such pettiness. Bottom line? Roswell is quite a good show. It is far from perfect and in fact, quite annoying at times, but if Season Two can keep up the pace on which Season One ended then we are all in for a great ride. The extras are quite average (at best) but if you can keep patient through the middle five or six episodes, you should be quite pleased with the end product.
By the way, about all that lovey-dovey stuff that happens on the show. Well, I watched some of the show with a female companion of mine and I commented on how I couldn't stand all the kissing and hugging and preferred the alien adventures and she retorted "I love all the romantic stuff. I don't like the alien stories." So the moral of the story is, to each their own. If you prefer the sci-fi aspects, be patient because it does show up late in the season. If you prefer the making out stuff, well, I would like to say go rent The Bridges of Madison County but there should be enough making out and lip-smacking in the show to keep you happy.
|
