Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

During the 1999/2000 television season my favorite new show was Roswell, even though as a woman approaching 30 I doubt I was in the right target audience for the show. Still, the depth of the characterization, the thoughtfulness of the plots, and the engaging characters kept me very interested, so I was thrilled when the second season started. Unfortunately I didn't like the second season anywhere near as much as I had liked the first...

The Show:

Season One kicked off with high school student Liz Parker getting accidentally shot as she worked in her parents' UFO-themed diner, The Crashdown Cafe. We then see her classmate, Max Evans, miraculously heal her before running off. We eventually learn that Max, his sister Isabel, and their friend Michael are actually aliens (or rather alien-human hybrids) with special powers. The 3 awoke from incubation chambers in Roswell, New Mexico as human-looking 6 year olds with no idea of who they were or why they were here, and were adopted and raised as humans by parents/caregivers who had no idea how "special" these kids really were. The 3 never shared their secret with anyone, for fear that they would be captured and studied by scientists rather than being allowed to live normal, human lives.

Throughout the first season we got to see the kids' secret get out because Max couldn't bear to let Liz die. A small circle of human friends try to help the 3 keep their secret safe from the government and others who would do them harm. The 3 also look for clues as to why they are here on Earth and who they really are. Max (Jason Behr) and Liz (Shiri Appleby) fall very deeply in love with each other, Michael (Brendan Fehr) and Liz's best friend Maria (Majandra Delfino) also fall for each other pretty hard, and finally Isabel (Katherine Heigl) and Alex (Colin Hanks) mostly flirt with each other. Although the aliens long to know where they came from, they also love their current home and cherish living as normal humans, hence they have love/hate relationships with their alien sides. Sheriff Valenti (William Sadler), who was hot on their trail throughout Season One, becomes their strongest ally as the season comes to an end, and they also find Tess (Emilie de Ravin), a fourth alien who had not grown up with them but who had hatched from the same pods as the others and completed the group of 4.

In the last episode the kids finally discover who they are and why they are here. The four of them were the royal family on their home world -- Max was the king, Isabel his sister, Tess was Max's wife, and Michael was Max's first-in-command and Isabel's betrothed. Max was a beloved king, however his world was overthrown by evil forces and the royal family all lost their lives. In an effort to somehow save them, their genetic material was taken and mixed with human DNA, and the 4 were sent to Earth so that they could live in safety until such time as they returned home to take their rightful place on the throne.

Thus we've set up Season Two -- the "Royal 4" (as the aliens are frequently called by those from their homeworld) have a predetermined destiny. Max is king of an entire planet and has a bride in Tess, although his heart belongs to Liz, a human. Now other aliens know of the whereabouts of the Royal 4, some of whom wish to do them harm. Although the 4 now know why they were put on Earth, there are still plenty of unanswered questions, and still the question of whether or not they have the choice to deny their destiny.

Thoughts on the Second Season:

Now I'm normally a big sci-fi fan, but as I admitted in my review of Season One that is not what really pulled me into the Roswell story. What I loved about Season One was the relationships, the characterizations of these sweet, good-hearted people caught in amazing circumstances, and the enduring friendships that were built between them. I loved seeing the 3 aliens work through the moral dilemmas of wanting to learn more about their alien side, yet fearing anything that would make them less human. Sadly, much of this was lost in Season Two, where the personal stuff all became too painful, the formerly strong bonds were trampled upon, and everything took a backseat to the more sci-fi aspects of the show.

Liz and Max had a love that ran uncommonly deep due to their ability to see into each other's souls (that sounds corny, but Max and Liz shared some kind of alien link that allowed each to feel what the other was feeling at certain points in their lives). When Liz learned that Max was destined to be with Tess, she distanced herself from him. This, for me, was so painful to watch. He still desperately longed for her, and I couldn't understand how she could be so cold to him at times. His need for her met against her out-of-character coldness made me not want to watch anymore. I held out faith that things would get better, but throughout Season Two things only got worse. Just as Liz was starting to break down under Max's never-ending sweetness and assurances of his love for her, she gets visited by a future-version of Max who has traveled back in time to tell her that if she doesn't get Max to fall out of love with her, Tess will leave, and if Tess leaves the "Royal 4" will not be strong enough to withstand an alien attack on Earth 14 years from now. While this is indeed one of the best episodes of the season, the entire episode (and those that follow) is just heartbreaking to watch. And although Liz's rejection of Max was bad, Max's "betrayal" of Liz toward the end of the season makes it look like nothing. The Max & Liz characters and their relationship from Season One had moved me so much, I absolutely hated to watch it die a very slow, very painful death. Their Season One relationship wasn't all-happy-all-the-time - it was a superb blend of angst and desperate longing mixed with moments of real joy and togetherness -- Season Two didn't have many of those "up" moments at all. The season started with a Liz that I didn't know, approached some kind of tolerable normalcy mid-way through, then ended with a Max that I didn't know...

Even if you ignore the Max/Liz relationship for a bit, all of the other relationships soured for a while too (with the exception of the Michael/Maria one, which was typically fun to watch throughout Season Two). The 3 aliens who had been so close (with a minor exception here and there) in Season One went through some very rough times in Season Two -- buckling under the pressure of knowing their destinies, some of them learning less-than-flattering information about the beings they were cloned from, etc. It again was so sad to see these strong bonds broken. Liz and Maria were still best friends, but there were times when even they weren't completely honest with or there for each other. And of course, another huge upset was losing Alex (I understand that Colin Hanks had other opportunities to pursue, but I loved the Alex character). Overall, whereas the relationships were such a high point for me in Season One, they were all darker in Season Two, and rather than being a saving grace they just made me sad much of the time (although there certainly were moments of brightness).

As a sci-fi buff anyway, I also took issue with some of the sci-fi plots in Season Two. Season One of the show had been mostly based in our reality, with the aliens trying to "hide in plain sight" and fit into normal human society. Use of alien-powers was kept to a minimum and most of the action-oriented plots dealt with trying to get away from very human government forces who wanted to capture and study the kids. Season Two went in a totally different direction, with various new types of aliens wanting to do harm to the Royal 4 or Earth in general. This placed the show much more "out there" where the plots were concerned, and they hit on some of my least favorite sci-fi themes (including time-travel, doubles/duplicates/alternate versions of people, alien babies, etc). We saw different types of aliens (shape-shifters, "skins", glowing white ones, etc) with no real explanation as to where these different "races" came from or which race the Royal 4 were cloned from. I didn't watch Roswell for the "out there" sci-fi stuff, because plenty of other shows do that part better -- I preferred the show when other types of aliens weren't the focus.

The Tess character infuriated me in Season Two. Sure, everyone hated her in the final episodes of Season One, but in Season Two she became quite an interesting character for a while. You couldn't help but feel sorry for her -- unlike Max and Isabel, who were raised by a loving human family, or even Michael, who was raised in various human foster homes, Tess was raised by an alien "protector" who had no regard for human life. When she moved in with Sheriff Valenti and his son Kyle (Nick Wechsler), you could see that underneath her tough exterior she really wanted to belong to a "normal" family and experience a life she had seen others have but had never known for herself. She bonded with Kyle and went out of her way to do nice things for her new family. That's why, when the last episodes aired and she turned out to be a bad person after all, it seemed very out-of-character for the girl who had been growing so much throughout the season.

This was also the season of longer story arcs - when you had to watch 3 or 4 episodes together to get the full story. I didn't think the 4-episode arc that told the story of Laurie Dupree was that great because we really didn't learn much (although it started off very strong and the Michael growth was really nice), and some of the plot points were kinda silly (a "queen" jellyfish-like being that can take over a human body? yeah), however it is the one point during the season when everyone wasn't constantly sniping or bickering at each other, so it isn't all bad.

I know that I'm griping a lot, but there were some high points. The Christmas episode where Max uses his healing powers in a children's hospital was heart-wrenching in the very best of ways. I thought that Michael's character continued growing in a wonderful direction throughout the season, and Maria's character was, as always, a hoot to watch. There were times that characters maintained their faith in each other against incredible obstacles (Sheriff Valenti trusting Isabel at the cost of his job, Max trusting what he knows of Liz's heart rather than what he saw with his own eyes, etc). I love any gratuitous shirtless-Max scenes (I can't believe I just said that -- don't tell my husband, okay?). I loved Alex and Kyle trapped in a cave together singing "American Pie", and although it wasn't my favorite episode, I liked the idea of the kids all getting away and taking a short vacation together. The acting is still top-notch, which is partially why it was so painful to watch these characters that I loved going through all of the pain. Around the middle of the season things were tolerable for me -- Max and Liz were at least on speaking terms, Tess was spending more time with Kyle than Max, and the brother-sister bond between Max and Isabel was strong.

As with Season One, some of the original music was changed out in the DVD release due to licensing issues.

Technical Specs:

This set contains all 21 episodes from Season Two spread across 6 discs. The discs are in slimline cases (meaning each case takes half the space of a normal DVD case), which I like because I'm always running out of room to store stuff.

All of the episodes are presented in widescreen (1.78:1 anamorphic) format, which I LOVE, and the sound is 5.1 Dolby Surround.

Subtitles for each episode are available in English, Spanish, and French. There are 12 chapters per episode.

Disc Contents:

~~ Disc One:

Skin and Bones (#101)
The first episode takes place a few months after last season's finale. Liz has been away for the summer and is just getting back to Roswell, a new school year is starting, and nothing "bad" happened to the teens over the summer. Then, a geologist finds Agent Pierce's bones buried in the desert, however alien shape-shifter Nasedo is currently posing as Agent Pierce to discredit the "Special Unit". Liz continues to distance herself from Max, and takes a job with Roswell's congresswoman (who has an unhealthy interest in aliens).

Ask Not (#202)
When Nasedo, their "protector", is killed, Max must continue to take the leadership role that has been thrust upon him (which doesn't always sit well with Michael and Isabel). There is also a suspicious new owner of the UFO Center, and we learn more about the new alien species, "The Skins", who killed Nasedo and is seeking out the Royal 4. Lastly, Tess has lost her "father", and must figure out where she is going to live from now on.

Special feature: Commentary track by Executive Producer/Writer Ronald D. Moore

Surprise (#203)
The group throws a big surprise party to celebrate Isabel's birthday at the Crashdown, but Isabel keeps getting flashes of Tess in danger. In the process of helping Tess, Isabel finds out much more about Vilandra, the alien she was cloned from. Liz discovers that her congresswoman boss has been taping Liz's personal phone conversations.

Summer of '47 (#204)
For a school project, Michael interviews World War II veteran and nursing home resident. Told through a series of interesting flashbacks (where the characters are played by our familiar cast), this assignment that Michael hated ends up shedding new light on his own origins and the crash of 1947.

~~Disc Two:

The End of the World (#205)
Just as Liz is starting to break down under Max's constant sweet gestures and declarations of undying love, she gets visited by a Max from the future who tells her that, unless she can get Max to fall out of love with her, the Earth will not withstand an alien invasion that takes place in 14 years time. This is a very well done, albeit heartbreaking, episode.

Harvest (#206)
Investigating the congresswoman who turned out to be a "skin", Max, Liz, Isabel, and Tess travel to the congresswoman's hometown to uncover more about her and her ties to a secret organization -- but they end up uncovering more than they expected. Michael and Maria continue to investigate the new Crashdown waitress, who is also more than what she appears to be.

Wipe Out! (#207)
Most of the human residents of Roswell disappear as the skins mount an attack on the Royal 4. Fortunately, Liz, Maria, and the Valentis were out-of-town and survived the initial attack, hence they are able to aid the aliens in their fight to figure out what happened, defeat The Skins, and get their families back.

Meet the Dupes (#208)
It turns out that the engineers of the Royal 4 had a backup plan... another copy of the Royal 4 clones are living in New York. This other set of aliens knows some different information than our Roswell group, and when the New York group loses a member they come to recruit Max.

~~Disc Three:

Max in the City (#209)
Max and Tess have joined duplicate, New York versions of Isabel and Michael for a summit of the worlds from the aliens' home system, a summit that is held in New York (so as to include Max, the "King"). Max has more to worry about than just the hostile alien worlds currently doing battle, as there are more earthly treacheries in New York as well. Although the duplicates are an interesting idea, I don't think anywhere near enough was explained about the other worlds (such as why these different, battling aliens are all so good at taking over humans as their vessels for attending the summit, as well as how these others came to know of the Royal 4's whereabouts since they were supposedly put on Earth to hide them from their enemies, among many other issues). These plot holes keep me from really enjoying these episodes.

A Roswell Christmas Carol (#210)
Because of a large crowd of bystanders, Max is unable to heal a man who gave his life to save his young daughter. Max is haunted by the man's death, a death he could have prevented, and tries to find something that will enable him to move past his guilt. A very moving episode.

Special Feature: Commentary track by Executive Producer/Writer Jason Katims and Director Patrick Norris

To Serve and To Protect (#211)
Isabel, who can insert herself into other people's dreams, gets pulled from a dream into someone else's nightmare. She and Max enlist the help of Sheriff Valenti to help save a young woman, however the sheriff has a hard time explaining where his leads on the case are coming from... This episode also contains the first appearance of Maria's cousin Sean.

We Are Family (#212)
The kidnapping victim Isabel helped save, Laurie Dupree turns out to be a mental patient who believes that aliens are out to get her. Although she turns to Valenti for help, she freaks out when she sees Michael, claiming he's an alien. Michael later discovers that he's a dead ringer for Laurie's grandfather. Sheriff Valenti loses his job over his inability to explain his involvement in the case.

~~Disc Four:

Disturbing Behavior (#213)
Michael and Maria help a begrudging Laurie escape from the FBI, and they travel to her home in an effort to investigate Michael's newfound "family" as well as see why she's obsessed with aliens. Meanwhile Max and Liz attempt to uncover exactly who kidnapped Laurie and why.

How the Other Half Lives (#214)
Isabel, Max, Liz, Kyle, and Alex investigate the "gandarium", a substance from the teen-aliens' ship and the reason behind Laurie's kidnapping. Michael and Maria enjoy some time with Laurie and strive to protect her when her kidnapper reappears.

Viva Las Vegas (#215)
Michael decides that he needs a break from the stresses of being himself, and invites Max to accompany him on a vacation to Vegas, where he plans to blow the Dupree's bribe money. The rest of the gang invite themselves along, and we get a rare, somewhat lighthearted glimpse at the kids just trying to have some fun as Max and Michael's relationship undergoes some strain.

Heart of Mine (#216)
It's prom, and everyone wants to go. While the pairings are exactly what everyone hoped for (Max and Liz, Maria and Michael, Isabel and Alex, Kyle and Tess) the outcome certainly is not. Liz rejects Max yet again. Max, who is starting to "recover" memories of his past life, turns to Tess for comfort. Liz turns to Maria's cousin Sean for comfort as well.

~~Disc Five:

Cry Your Name (#217)
Alex is dead. When the car crash that took his life starts to look more and more like a suicide, Liz refuses to believe it and launches her own investigation. When she tells the others that his death may have been due to aliens, it drives a huge rift between the human teens and the alien teens. As if there wasn't enough pain and suffering in Season Two, we now lose Alex, the adorable guy I could always count on for some comic relief. I'm glad Colin had other opportunities to pursue, but I sure did hate that they had to kill Alex to let him go pursue them.

Special Feature: Commentary Track by Executive Producer/Writer Ronald D. Moore

It's Too Late, And It's Too Bad (#218)
Liz continues to investigate Alex's death, infuriating Max (who doesn't want to believe that he is indirectly the cause of a close friends' death). This was, by far, the most disturbing episode of Season Two. Max and Liz are "at war", Max and Isabel are at war too, Michael is the voice of reason, and Max and Tess become lovers. I don't even wanna think about it... Max, who always embraced his human side, starts going more alien, whereas Michael, who was more prone to embrace his alien side, goes more human.

Baby, It's You (#219)
Tess is pregnant with Max's baby, which is growing fast (those darn alien gestation periods). Suddenly the baby is sick, and Tess declares that the baby is alien and cannot live in Earth's atmosphere. Liz continues her investigation into Alex's death. Michael and Maria join in, and they discover that before Alex died he translated into English the alien book that the Royal 4 didn't know how to read. The book reveals a way for the four to go home...

Off the Menu (#220)
This episode is shown out-of-sequence for some reason (presumably to show Maria's mom being mindwiped so it can be brought up again next week - still it could have come chronologically...). Max's alien-abductee boss, Brody, receives an electric shock to the brain which unlocks alien memories. He freaks out and holds everyone hostage, including Max, Tess, Maria, Maria's mom, and Maria's cousin.

~~Disc Six:

The Departure (#221)
Because of Max's sick baby, the Royal 4 are going home, however before they go they still have the matter of finding Alex's killer. Max and Liz go to get the girl they believe is responsible, but discover that they've been misled. When the real killer is uncovered, all of their plans are off... This episode was originally 2 hours long but was cut to 1 hour before it aired, and I think it was a real missed opportunity to not have the full 2 hours, or at least some documentary/discussion on the cut scenes. On a positive note, this episode does get rid of one unliked character, and sets up for a Season Three that will at least make the Liz/Max fans happier.

Here With Me: The Making of Roswell Season Two
This is probably my favorite DVD documentary ever. Rather than talking about the series as a whole, each episode (except for "Wipeout!" and the last three) gets its own chunk of time. A writer, actor, or combination of the two talk about the episode -- either the overall episode or something that happened in it. Sometimes you also get behind-the-scenes of the filming of the episode. My favorite bits included Jason Katims (creator/writer/producer) teaming up with Jason Behr (who plays Max) to discuss two of my favorite episodes from this season, "The End of the World" and "A Roswell Christmas Carol". Another favorite was Colin Hanks talking about his striptease in "Surprise". It was cathartic for me to hear Jason Katims say that he didn't even want to write the "Heart of Mine" episode, because that's the one where Max and Liz really go their separate ways, and he didn't want to do it (I'm with him, I really wish he hadn't done it either). It was also good to hear him talking about "It's Too Late and It's Too Bad", another one that was very upsetting to the fan base. It's nice to know that he was always rooting for the Max/Liz relationship too, even as he tore it apart. I wish they had also done the final two episodes, perhaps mentioning why "Off the Menu" was shown out of chronological order and perhaps showing some of the deleted/longer scenes from the original 2-hour version of "The Departure".

The Shiri & Majandra Show:
A cute, fairly current interview with leads Shiri Appleby (Liz) and Majandra Delfino (Maria) as they talk about various aspects of Season Two. Very cute and funny.

A Little Something For the Fans:
I love the title of this extra. Basically, they took each romantic pairing and made a montage of "together" type moments set to music. I guess they were going for the "awwww" factor. First up is the Max and Liz pairing, followed by Maria and Michael. Each of those get the longer songs and are a bit heart-warming to watch. We then get shorter montages of Tess and Kyle, then Alex and Isabel (with the footage mostly consisting of Alex, due to his character now being dead and all). All of the footage is from Season Two, with the exception of the Alex montage which also included stuff from Season One.

Storyboard to Scene
This bit intersperses storyboard drawings with the actual filmed scenes from the climax of the "Wipeout" episode.

The Art of Composing Roswell
Focuses on the music during the interrogation scene in the "We Are Family" episode.

Final Thoughts/Comments:

As with last season, I'm disappointed that there are no good cut scenes (as we know they exist). Additionally, there aren't as many commentary tracks on this season as there were on Season One (and I particularly miss the fun ones done by Shiri Appleby and Majandra Delfino).

As much as I love Season One of Roswell, Season Two ultimately depresses me. Much of the season was spent destroying the relationship between Liz and Max, and spent exploring mostly alien themes (rather than the desire to be normal from the first season). In Season Two we rarely saw the kids' parents (with the exception of Maria's mom, who is always great), we rarely went to their school, we hardly ever heard them talk of the more "normal" aspects of life like they had during Season One. The show definitely lost its innocence in Season Two. The show, like the alien teens it features, embraced its "alien"/sci-fi side and let the emotional side we had loved in Season One slide, in my opinion losing what had really made it special along the way.

Related Reviews:
Roswell: The Complete First Season







Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older

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