Roswell
A
Review by Jessi
I’ll be the first to tell you that
I’m scared to death…TO DEATH of aliens in any form. Perhaps you’ve heard my rantings regarding E.T. and my firm
belief that he should have been destroyed on sight. I don’t like the X Files, I don’t like Star
Trek, and the only real science fiction that I know anything about is
the Star Wars trilogy, because in those movies, some of the aliens are helpful,
well dressed and down right cuddly. So
I’m quite sure that I’m surprising a lot of people here when I say: This Roswell show (Wednesdays 9:00, 8:00
central on the WB) is really good!
Never mind that it didn’t even
start until four weeks after everyone else’s season premiere, there’s just
something about finding a television drama that you can really delve into that
makes the fall season so exciting. I
have only one other show that I watch with such intensity, and that’s The
Pretender, which, in my humble opinion, is the finest show on
television outside of The Simpsons.
I think that the draw of Roswell
is that it IS sort of a Dawson’s Creek situation, with
overly aware and intelligent teenagers making logical statements that confound
adults. I don’t know where the hell
these kids were when I was growing up in Rochester. I mean, my friends and I used to go buy a box of 40 powdered
sugar Munchkins and throw them at people coming out of the opera, and we never
talked like that. The public school
system must have improved 40 fold since I was there. Of course, coupled with all this intense and creative dialogue is
the sheer beauty of everyone on the show.
I mean seriously, if aliens all look like Max, PUT ME DOWN FOR AN
ABDUCTION PRONTO. Plus, each week we
learn some new power that these alien teens have, and that’s always a light
comedic moment. So, what have we got so
far, beauty, brains, sense of humor, a government alien conspiracy cover up and
of course, the big mama of them all, sexual tension. As many of you know, sexual tension is my favorite
film/television/book device, and this show plays it to the hilt. Max (head alien) tells Liz (human liason) in
the very first episode that he digs her the most but that it wouldn’t be safe
for the two of them to be together.
When Liz asks him why he revealed his alien nature to save her life, he
simply answers,
“Because
it was you.” I don’t think I’ve ever
sighed so hard. So we not only have the
tension factor, but the danger factor as well.
Let’s hope this show takes a lesson from Moonlighting and doesn’t
ruin it by getting them together too quickly.
It’s sort of amazing that I like
this show because in addition to fearing aliens in any form, I also hate
teenage WB shows in any form. I don’t
like Buffy,
Dawson’s Creek, or the Fox equivalent, Party of Five. All I can say is that Roswell has that sort of
“weird small town” Twin Peaks-ish feel, that makes me want to watch every
week. Of course, I’ve only seen 3
episodes, and one of them was under the influence of Valium, so I can’t
proclaim perfection. Still, overall, I
give Roswell
a:
B+
© 1999 Absurd Pamphlet Press