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The drama of alien life continues for the teenage inhabitants
of Roswell, New Mexico as Max, Isobel, Michael and Tess discover
more about their past and destiny...
The
second season of Roswell builds well on what has gone
before. However,
it feels as though the producers were not entirely sure on
which angle to follow for the show's second year. The main
characters have progressed to the point where the teen angst
story lines from the first season have started to be phased
out. And while there are a few episodes at the start of this
season which continue to follow the Liz/Max, Maria/Michael
and Alex/Isobel relationships, these are soon dropped to follow
different threads (although they continue to play as background
stories).
But,
it's not until the final quarter of this series that things
really start to get interesting. There is a great story arc,
which revolves around the death of a regular character, which
brings a whole new meaning to the term 'alien conspiracy'.
This
season sees the introduction of Brody
Davies as the new English curator of the UFO museum, who claims
to have been abducted by aliens. This plot device also throws
up an interesting angle on alien abductions, and why humans
are taken.
This
season also sees the almost obligatory (to sci fi shows at
any rate) time travel story (The End of the World),
when future Max comes back to warn Liz that she shouldn't
date him or the world will be in danger. This actually works
extremely well - mainly due to the fact that Jason Behr puts
in an incredibly good performance. There are a number of homages
to classic time travel movies including Back to the Future
- as events start to be changed future Max's hand starts
to vanish.
Another
sci fi cliché is tackled in Meet the Dupes -
an alternate universe story where the alternate evil Max and
Michael have goatee beards - which seems to be a sci fi law.
Again, as with The End of the World, this episode just
would not have worked if it wasn't for the fact that all of
the actors manage to put in great performances.
Other
stand out episodes include the Summer of '47. This
is a great Michael episode, where he has to listen to
an old army guys story about World War II. Charles Napier
is great as the ex-army officer Hal Carver. This episode is
almost entirely told in flashback and uses all of the regular
cast members to play other characters from 1947.
Even
the sickly sentimental A Roswell Christmas Carol works
its charm - even if the whole premise falls apart on closer
inspection. Max is haunted by a man who was killed trying
to save his daughter from being run over. The spirit of the
dead guy follows Max around because he could have brought
him back to life. But, my argument is that the guy should
have kept his eye on his daughter in the first place so that
she didn't run out in the street. It's not Max's fault that
an irresponsible father got knocked over.
Also,
about halfway through this season, you can tell that the producers
are worried about loosing their audience as they do away with
Liz's diary recaps and the "Previously on Roswell"
style explanations on what has happened in earlier episodes,
and instead stick Maria in front of a blackboard (well, a
greenboard to be precise) to give us a goofy recap on events.
Despite
some episodes and ideas that should have fallen flat on their
face this season, there is nothing here that doesn't really
work.
Extras
include Here With Me: The Making of Roswell 2;
A Little Something Extra For The Fans (basically a
collection of clips set to music); The Art of Composing
Roswell; The Shiri and Majenta Show (candid interview
with the actresses that play Liz and Maria); and a storyboard
featurette.
Season
two is works its magic and leaves us with a nail biting cliff
hanger.
Nick
Smithson
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