U.K. Article-Roswell Article

Thanks to Janet for this.

Still no polio answers
CHRISTOPHER MATTHEW

09/22/2000
Daily Mail Associated Newspapers Ltd.
1ST
Page 61
(Copyright 2000)
Secret History (C4); Roswell High (BBC2)

* * *

WHILE we’re on the subject of secrets and mysteries, perhaps someone at the BBC could explain why Roswell High has been scheduled for Thursday evenings at six, immediately preceding Buffy.

It’s practically the same plot.

American High School girls with flawless complexions, shiny lips and exaggerated speech patterns get to grips with strange forces.

In Buffy, it’s vampires, in Roswell High, it’s aliens – more precisely three pupils, Max ( Jason Behr ), Isabel ( Katherine Heigl ) and Michael ( Brendan Fehr ), who are descendants of aliens who crashed in 1947 and somehow survived.

Not that any of them look even distantly related to the Central Casting alien with the big head and insect-like eyes in the famous photograph which purports to show scientists carrying out an autopsy.

Indeed, apart from Max having funny-shaped ears and Isabel being able to fine tune a car’s air-conditioning and radio with a simple hand gesture, they look and sound exactly like everyone else.

So much so that, if you didn’t know better, you’d think highly- strung earthling Maria ( Majandra Delfino ), sinister Sheriff Valenti (William Sadler) and the creepy curator of the town museum (Steve Hytner) were the real aliens.

In fact, the reason they behave so oddly is because they’re all harbouring secrets, too. Valenti suspects there’s more to the threesome than meets the eye, Maria knows there is and isn’t telling, and the manager knows that something sinister also happened in 1959.

Max knows something about 1959, too, and he knows the manager knows. But he’s too busy making eyes at Liz (Shiri Appleby), and who can blame him? Mind you, being Maria’s best friend, she knows something, too.

And then there’s this mysterious key. . . But perhaps you know something I don’t. It wouldn’t be too difficult.