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Review of Roswell

Roswell (1999–2002)
7/10
Just your regular late 90s teen drama...
7 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
With an alien conspiracy spin, for good measure. As a fan of both Dawson's Creek and the X-Files, I completely fell in love with Roswell back in the day. Granted it wasn't as edgy as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the series script really took shape near the end of season one. But once the story took off, you couldn't stop watching. It used to be one of my favorite series, only looking back, it clearly was not the best either. I liked the subtleties in writing of season one, and the offbeatness of certain situations, but the early episodes are the weakest. In my opinion, season 2 is a big mess, it's all over the place. The skins, dupes, hybrids, pregnant Tess, and Alex's death storylines, were like writers being under time pressure and rushing things, in case the show was canceled prematurely. Season 3 is a sure improvement from it, it still has silly storylines like Isabel's wedding, Liz's powers, or Max's « death » but it gained back first year's family drama aspect, and thriller undertones. And is more carefully constructed. The casting was once again a great find and addition to the WB « family », and all the actors gave more or less solid performances. Where Jack & Jill was clearly Felicity's « older » sibling, Roswell worked as Popular's gloomier and more mysterious shadow twin. The music was one thing that made the series so special for me, and gave it an advantage on most shows of that time. That late 90s pop/rock sound fitted perfectly into its scenery, so replacing it with songs you'd expect to hear on shows like The O. C. And One Tree Hill, make the episodes less impactful. Maybe it's nothing to most, but the difference is striking. Even songs heard at the Crashdown café, were chosen in a way that would complement the mood of each scenes. So now that they sound too different and not in par with the show's timeline anymore, the soundtrack isn't as relevant as it used to be. I still enjoy rewatching the series and go back to that time where they made good teen dramas, all the while daydreaming of eating at the Crashdown one day. But like Popular and the rest of WB's fall of 1999 lineup, Roswell was a show the network had very little faith into, and it risked cancellation each year of its run there. Skip the reboot.
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