Review of Roswell

(CAPTIVATING SEASON-1) I've always had a keen interest in the actual Roswell crash. So,for me,the show "Roswell" was a natural. It would be the first prime time sci-fi show to feature teenagers as the stars and they all looked like average kids that you would find in any high school. With any great show,you'll find that the cast members are a perfect fit. "Roswell" was certainly that. With any new show,you need to grab your audience in the pilot episode,which they did. Then,you need to hold that audience for the next few episodes,which they did not. Episodes 1.2 through 1.5 were merely get to know the characters type episodes. Fortunately,things took a turn for the better. Beginning with episode 1.6 and in subsequent episodes,they uncover a number of artifacts and a series of clues in their quest to discover who they are,where they came from and why they're here. Then,with episode 1.17,came the two best additions to the show,the father-daughter team of Ed and Tess Harding. Jim Ortlieb would play Ed "Nasedo" Harding,a quirky,straight forward,no nonsense shape shifter and occasional killer with a deadpan odd ball sense of humor. Emilie de Ravin would play Tess Harding,a gorgeous vixen mystery girl with secrets and agendas,,the fourth alien,having knowledge of the royal four's previous lives and who holds the answers that the others seek. Both actors totally nailed their characters and brought a whole new dimension to the show. The writers created the Tess character to move along the "past lives" alien storyline and to place a wedge between sweethearts Max and Liz. It served to stir things up and bring turmoil within the group,something that had been lacking up to that point. In episode 1.22,the season finale,Max learned that he was,indeed,supposed to be with Tess and not Liz. The Max-Liz fan base was in an uproar. They hated the Tess character. They hated Emilie for playing Tess. They hated the writers for doing it. Those fans were short sighted. Max and Liz were the stars of the show. The show was built around them. No matter what happened,they would be together in the end. Anything that takes place in between is just good drama. I want to mention here that the writing in season-1 was exceptional. All of the episodes were very good or better and the story line had a smooth flow throughout. (ACTION PACKED SEASON-2) If you like action,this was your season. The stories became more dramatic as well,bringing forth the shows best episodes. On the down side,you had the shows first clunkers. Episodes 2.8 and 2.9 were laughable duds. This is also the season where things began to unravel. From episode 2.1 through 2.15,all was well. It was shaping up that each alien would be paired off with a human,Max-Liz,Michael-Maria,Isabel-Alex and Tess-Kyle. Then,In episode,2.16,Kyle tells Tess that he regards her more as a sister and not a love interest and Max drops Liz in favor of Tess. In episode 2.17,Alex is killed off. In episode 2.18,they broke the cardinal Romeo-Juliet rule by having Max and Tess consummate their relationship. Now,Liz would have damaged goods. There's no way to fix that. In episode 2.21,they tried to make Nesado and Tess the villains. Nesado could have killed the royal four at any time. Instead,he protected them and saved them countless times,as did Tess. So,none of these radical changes made any sense. Anyway,the show was cancelled. (FORGETTABLE SEASON-3) When UPN picked up the cancelled show for a season-3,viewers were delighted and eagerly anticipated that the aliens,at some point,would return to Antar to do battle with Kavar. Instead,we got the Jesse-Isabel spin off show. Everything that made the first two seasons enjoyable was gone. No longer was West Roswell High the focal point of the show. Nasedo was gone. Except for a couple of ghostly apparition appearances,Alex was gone. Unbeknown to us at the start of the season was that Tess had also been written out of the show. Without Tess,there was no catalyst. No evil aliens this season either. BORING! The one bright spot of the season was episode 3.17,when Tess returned with baby Zan. There was blood,gore,death,destruction,mayhem…..a great episode. Now,we come to the series finale,the episode that should leave everyone warm and fuzzy. Unfortunately,episode 3.18 was a pitiful ridiculous mess. All season long,Max declared,"I have to get my son back". When he finally did get him back,he immediately put him up for adoption. WHAT? Are Max,Isabel and Michael going to return to Antar to rescue Max and Isabel's real mother and free their enslaved people from evil Kavar,as they were created to do? NO! Instead,in an extremely cowardly manner,like draft dodgers heading up to Canada,they're going to go off and do their own thing. WHAT? Isabel tells her husband Jesse,"You're not part of this. Go back to your law practice". He says,"Okay,bye". WHAT? Yet,Kyle is allowed to go along with them on his odyssey of self discovery. WHAT? With Roswell swarming with special agents and the military,the group just drives out of Roswell uncontested in their hippie mobile. WHAT? Max and Liz get married. WOW! Like we didn't know that would happen from day one. The writer of this episode shouldn't be allowed to handle crayons,let alone a keyboard. You can always tell when viewers are frustrated and dissatisfied with the things that go on within a show…..they write fanfics. Well,this show had a gazillion of them. In short,this show stayed one season too long at the dance and took many wrong turns,which lead to it's demise.