Starring Shiri Appleby, Jason Behr, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fehr, Majandra Delfino, Colin Hanks, William Sadler, Emilie de Ravin, Julie Benz
Written By:
Directed By:
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Buy on Amazon.com

I never saw this show when it was on TV and I kind of wish I did. I was in my “” stage at that time of my life where I didn’t want to see a show where it exploited aliens haha. I know that sounds dumb but that’s how I was back then. I was missing out though because the girls on the show are HOT, but Roswell’s also has an interesting story with likable characters.

The story takes place in Roswell, New Mexico and follows around a young high school girl named Liz (Shiri Appleby). She works at her family’s alien themed cafe called the Crash Down. One day she gets accidentally shot in the stomach in the cafe and a mysterious guy saves her life by using special powers. Liz and her friend Maria (Majandra Delfino) eventually find out that Max (Jason Behr), who saved her life that day, is not from this planet, along with his sister Isabel (Katherine Heigl) and their friend Michael (Brendan Fehr,). They become friends with the three and help them discover who they really are and where they came from.

Roswell is like a mixture of Beverly Hills 90210 and X-Files. I think that’s the sense the creators of the book & show were trying to go for. Something to appeal to both girls and guys. I’ve read that many people consider this a guilty pleasure and I can see that. It’s like watching high school all over again, but it involves aliens. Hey, maybe some of my classmates were aliens? They certainly acted strange; maybe they thought I was an alien?

But back to the show, I haven’t finished the first season DVD yet because there is 22 episodes. I’m currently on disc 3 and I’m just hooked. I watch one episode and I have to find out what’s going on in the next one. I have no idea where it’s heading because I never saw the show before. The acting is top notch and the cast has great chemistry together. Max and Liz are a perfect example of that. I liked William Sadler’s character, Sheriff Valenti. He was the bad guy for the most part, but he was likable and not all bad. He’s just a guy doing his job who has an intriguing past. He kind of reminds me of Peter Coyote’s character in E.T. He just wants to find out that aliens do exist, so he can get on with his life. But like I said, I haven’t finished the season to know what his character does or what happens. I’m glad Katherine Heigl was on this show because, well, she’s freakin’ hot. I’ve liked her since she was in that My Father The Hero movie. Colin Hanks added a nice combination to the group with some humor and goofiness, and it’s scary how much he looks and acts like his Dad, Tom Hanks. I believe that was the first time he was acting in front of a camera too. To have a show be successful, you have to have an awesome ensemble cast and I think this show pulls it off. It’s a shame it was only on for 3 seasons though. Without the hardcore, dedicated fans the show might not have made it to the 2nd season. They sent tons of letters to the studios, and cases of Tabasco sauce because that’s what the aliens liked.

I believe there was supposed to be more extras on this boxset but they were scrapped at the last minute. There are a few audio commentaries on selected episodes with Shiri Appleby (Liz) and Majandra Delfino (Maria), and also some commentaries with the the producers/directors and writers of the show. There’s two featurettes on 6 Disc DVD set. The first one is called Area 51: Behind the Scenes of Roswell and that’s about a half hour long. The cast and crew talked about the show in general, the dedicated fans, stories on the set, etc.. Colin Hanks was interviewed a lot and he’s looking mighty scruffy these days. Must be for another role or something. Maybe for Cast Away 2 haha? Some interviews looked like they were filmed recently for the DVD and then there were other interviews when the show was still happening. Or at least that’s what it looked like to me. I thought that was the best featurette out of the two. The second one was Roswell High, the book the show was based off of. The author and the editor talked about the book and how well it translated into the TV show. They said that Sheriff Valenti was a lot meaner in the book, and was a straight up bad guy but they liked how he was portrayed in the television series. Other extras include a small deleted scene from the pilot episode, audition clips from the actress who played Tess, and a music video from Sense Field. Oh, I forgot to talk about the video quality. The video is presented in widescreen and looks excellent. The show was originally in full screen so it was nice to see the DVD get a widescreen transfer.

I wasn’t sure whether or not I was going to like this DVD set but I ended up becoming a fan. The show is funny, thrilling, and interesting. I like some teen dramas, so when it mixes some science fiction in there, that becomes even more cooler! Roswell Fans will not want to miss out on this First Season DVD set. Get It now!

Features:
Selected episode commentaries
– “Area 51” and “Roswell High” featurettes
– Deleted scenes
– Audition Clips
– Music video: “Save Yourself” by Sense Field.

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 CC

Video:
Widescreen 1.78:1 Color

Subtitles:

Favorite Scenes: Pilot, The Morning After, 285 South, Heat Wave
Rating: Rated NR
Running Time: 990 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: