Thanks to Nikki for sending this in.<\/p>\n
Dreamwatch (UK) June 2000<\/p>\n
\u2018Highs & Lows\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n
Roswell High bears many similarities to another highly popular teen fantasy
\nseries, as Keith Topping discovers when investigating its possible demise.<\/p>\nWe all know the scenario so well. It\u2019s a universal constant in science
\nfiction isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\nYou find a series that you really like. You start to get interested in the
\ncharacters, investing time and emotional attachment to them and their story.
\nYou look forward to forthcoming developments and then, just when you think
\nthat the future is in good hands and that nothing can go wrong, a bit of
\nhorrid reality shattered your little bubble universe and the rumours start
\nthat your series days are numbered. Typical. Most readers will, I\u2019m sure, be
\nable to quote dozens of examples of bygone favourites that have ended on the
\nwhim of a TV executive somewhere who, frankly didn\u2019t understand the concept
\nof what the series was all about. And even if there was only you and four of
\nyour mates watching it well, what the hell, you liked it.<\/p>\nTelevision, being the business of compromise that it is, we sometimes have
\nto take the rough with the smooth. True we only got five years of Quantum
\nLeap when another two or three would have been nice. True, Dark Skies had
\nfar more potential than it was ever allowed to display. True (and just to
\nprove that the concept is neither new nor wholly confined to US networks),
\nthere is no way Star Cops deserved to last only nine episodes. But
\nsometimes, such threatened cancellations can really hurt. The latest victim
\nof the rumours circuit is Roswell High. If you believe everything that you
\nhear, then all we may ever get to see of this strangest of strange love
\nstories between Liz Parker and Max Evans is twenty-two episodes. Just one
\nseason of looking at the world of hormone charged teen angst set amid the
\nstaggering New Mexico landscape. A mere six months worth of stories of alien
\nchildren and suspicious adults. Roswell (suffix added for overseas sales) is
\none of the best new series (SF or otherwise) to have emerged from the US in
\nthe last five years. It\u2019s right up there with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
\nStargate SG-1. Yes, it really is that good.<\/p>\nFor those of you who have never watched it on Sky, you\u2019re missing out on a
\ngenuinely impressive piece of imaginative, clever cross-genre television. A
\nteen soap that wants to be science fiction, or an SF show that wants to be
\nDawson\u2019s Creek? In reality Roswell High is both. And it\u2019s neither. In actual
\nfact it\u2019s so much better than Buffy, you have to wonder how it was that the
\nseries ever got off the ground in the first place. But once it did, it
\nmatured rapidly, showing a fine ability to be wryly amusing whilst keeping
\nthe dramatic storylines of creator Jason Katims and executive producer
\nJonathon Frakes never far from the surface.<\/p>\nSo the question has to be asked: Why on earth is Roswell High in trouble
\nwith its ratings at all? Everybody should be watching it. The simple truth
\nis that Roswell is possibly a victim of its own chameleonic abilities. Many
\nviewers simply don\u2019t know what to make of it. The series to which it most
\nakin, Buffy, also had these problems early on when its critical standing was
\nfar higher than its audience appreciation. Roswell High\u2019s very clear agenda,
\nfrom episode one really, was to stand aloof from the vast lore of the town
\nthat gave the series its name and to send up the whole idea of little green
\nmen and dodgy autopsy footage ( the episode The Convention which poked
\nmerciless fun at SF and UFO conventions and all the stereotypes that they
\nthrow up is particularly noteworthy here).<\/p>\nSo, if Roswell doesn\u2019t want to be a series that takes the staple elements of
\nyou average SF concept (and it seemingly doesn\u2019t) then what, exactly, does
\nit have that makes it so watchable? So special? The answer to that is
\nsimple. It\u2019s got a terrific cast. Again, Buffy is the most obvious template
\nhere; an ensemble piece centered around, but not exclusive to, a pair of
\ncentral characters with comic and aesthetically interesting foils that can
\npaired off to great effect. (Anybody else see an obvious link between
\nMaria\u2019s role in Roswell High and Willow\u2019s in Buffy? Or compare the pairing
\nof Isabel and Alex with Cordelia and Xander?) Ultimately, like Buffy,
\nRoswell features a superb bunch of young actors: Shiri Appleby (Liz Parker),
\nJason Behr (Max Evans), Brendan Fehr (Michael Guerin), Katherine Heigl
\n(Isabel Evans), Majandra Delfino (Maria DeLuca), Colin Hanks (Alex Whitman)
\nand Nick Wechsler (Kyle Valenti), all of whom are attractive and charismatic
\nand can do comedy and drama in equal measure.<\/p>\nBeside the are some equally impressive representatives of the older
\ngeneration; actors like William Sadler, Julie Benz and Mary Ellen Trainor
\nwho add the same anchoring qualities here that Anthony Stewart Head and
\nKristine Sutherland bring to Buffy. But where Roswell goes even further than
\nSunnydale\u2019s finest is that it can afford to drop its adult characters at
\nwill and spend entire episodes concentrating purely on its teenage stars and
\nthe sometimes near-the-knuckle nature of their trials and tribulations.
\nBuffy, of example, was well into its second year before it got anywhere near
\ndoing a storyline on child abuse with Ted. Conversely, Roswell was doing so,
\nopenly and with a sense of outrage, by episode fifteen \u2013 the staggeringly
\nadult Independence Day.<\/p>\nThe back story on Roswell High is relatively straight forward. Liz Parker is
\na highly intelligent sixteen year old high school girl from UFO mecca
\nRoswell, New Mexico, working in her spare time as a waitress at her parent\u2019s
\ndiner, the Crashdown, with her feisty friend Maria DeLuca. One evening,
\nwhilst on shift, she is shot during an argument between two meathead
\ncustomers. As Liz lies dying on the diner floor, her life is saved by a
\nmysterious \u2018laying on of hands\u2019 by the darkly brooding local hunk, Max
\nEvans. Liz keeps Max\u2019s secret, but when confronting him with it later, he is
\nforced to reveal that he, his glamorous sister Isabel and their wild
\noutsider friend Michael Guerin are \u2018not from around here\u2019. They are from\u2026
\n\u2018up there\u2019.<\/p>\nAfter an effective pilot that sets up the characters nicely and displays a
\nkeen sense of dry humour, subsequent episodes detail the alien trio\u2019s
\nsearches for clues as to their ancestry, whilst simultaneously attempting to
\nhide their secret from sinister local sheriff Valenti, whose son is Liz\u2019s
\nex-boyfriend and who has his own agenda for wanting to discover aliens in
\nRoswell, and the attentions of a the alluring, but mysterious school
\ncounsellor Kate (sic) Topolsky. Writers like Thania St John (a Buffy
\nveteran) and Cheryl Cain tap effortlessly into the teenage psyche and
\nepisodes like Monsters (focusing on the uneasy alliance between Maria and
\nIsabel), 285 South ( mini road movie) and River Dog (where Topolsky\u2019s
\nelaborate trap for the aliens comes close to success) demonstrate an
\naccurate understanding of what, exactly, makes these characters so
\ninteresting.<\/p>\nThe outrageous sexual undercurrents of an episode like Heat Wave shouldn\u2019t
\nbe underestimated either, whilst St John\u2019s epic The Balance casts the group
\ninto Michael\u2019s psyche in order to save him, literally, from himself. In
\nRoswell High there are frequent revelations and dramatic twists, but there
\nare also moments of quiet reflection and touching resonance (Sexual Healing)
\nthat takes the viewer a long way from where they probably imagined they were
\ngoing to in a series about alien teenagers. A character like Alex, for
\ninstance, appears at first glance to be nothing more than an a literal
\nZeppo. A comic wall for the others to bounce sarcasm and insults off. But
\nRoswell\u2019s view of outsiders is essentially proactive. Again, like Buffy, all
\nof the characters have something to stand outside of and be embittered by.
\nAnd for that reason, if nothing else, Roswell scores again over many of its
\ncontemporaries.<\/p>\nThe world of Roswell High School is a world in which growing up and becoming
\nnormal may be a horrible reality for some, but it may also be an impossible
\ndream for others. Roswell began well in the US, a Wednesday night feature on
\nthe WB network fitting perfectly into the mid-evening slot that Buffy had
\nmade its own on Tuesday. But the ratings have been sluggish as conservative
\nviewers opt for less challenging (and as a consequence, less demanding)
\ntelevision.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s difficult not to criticise heavily those who choose to watch Who Wants
\nto be a Millionaire ahead of Roswell (although to fair, earlier in the
\nseason Roswell\u2019s competition included Star Trek: Voyager and NBC\u2019s acclaimed
\nWest Wing). The WB have gotten nervous and, in an effort to attract new
\nviewers have taken the desperate step of moving Roswell to Monday Nights.
\nInitial response seems positive, but it remains to be seen if, in the long
\nterm, Roswell has any sort of future. If there\u2019s any justice<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thanks to Nikki for sending this in. Dreamwatch (UK) June 2000 \u2018Highs & Lows\u2019 Roswell High bears many similarities to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roswell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}