Great Season wrap article

Thanks to Brister for mailing in about this!

There is a great article about the show on the Mania magazine site. We are including only a small part of it here so you can get the flavor!

Read the original here: http://www.anotheruniverse.com/tv/roswell/roswell060900.html

Here are a few excerpts:

by Jason Henderson
webdate: 6/6/00 3:18:28 PM

At times slow, at times remarkably sweet and savvy at once, Roswell wrapped up its first season with a guarantee from the WB that it would return for a second. That’s a respectable victory considering this was the season that gave us Chris Carter’s new series Harsh Realm, which Fox pulled almost immediately, and in which TNT cancelled Babylon Five: Crusade before the first episode even aired. So in retrospect, what made Roswell keep on ticking?

[…]

Each episode followed two tracks.

Track 1 followed the alien plot, with the teens sneaking around and meeting in cafes with strangers to get information while being tailed by mysterious agents of the FBI. These were scenes so shamelessly X-Files that you either accepted it or didn’t, with the marvelous conceit that this was a universe where teens could be important and commanded fear and respect. Paranoia reigned supreme. The guidance counselor turned out to be an FBI agent out to capture Max, and then she turned to his side, only to be destroyed. The aliens have powers that they’re only beginning to learn how to use–Max can heal, whereas Michael has heat-bearing powers, and Isabel is something of a psychic. Max’s chief nemesis early on was Sheriff Valenti, played by the invaluable William Sadler, who sought the alien’s secret to avenge the memory of his disgraced, alien-nut father. Max and Michael wanted that secret too, because they didn’t know their origin. And somewhere out there, a killer alien named Nasedo circled the camp, either trying to destroy or enlighten them.

Track 2 was pure romance, and sweet, gentle, saccharine romance at that, only saved by the calculated charm of the players. Liz and best friend Maria (Majandra Delfino) gossiped and obsessed about Max and Michael, who Maria took up with. Max and Liz became an impossibly perfect supercouple of sorts (Max sends flowers before he shows up for a date,) while Michael, so unaccustomed to intimacy, fumbled his way through romance, forgetting to pick up checks and getting Maria into trouble. (Love means never having to say you’re sorry for stealing your girlfriend’s car). Cold and smart Isabel Evans (Katherine Heigl) had an on-again, off-again respect/love affair with nebbishy Alex Whitman, the constant fifth wheel.