Roswell, New Mexico: Pilot

January 15, 2019 7:49 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

When Liz reluctantly returns to Roswell, she discovers her teenage crush, Max, is an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life.

Vulture Recap: Nostalgia’s a Bitch

AV Club - The Roswell reboot’s most interesting idea is also its least developed

Den of Geek - Roswell, New Mexico is largely a carbon copy of the original, and full of faces you'll recognize.

posted by oh yeah! (10 comments total)

I adored the original 1990s Roswell -- and it's sort of 'the one that got away', in that they only cleared the music for broadcast, so when they put the show on DVD they replaced huge swaths of the original music cues, and it became un-re-watchable for me. I figure there must be TV-rips out there of the original broadcast versions, but I was never any good at figuring out how to torrent shows, so, it's just kind of filed away in my brain under 'shows I'll sadly never get to see again.'

So, it's hard for me to judge this reboot on its own merits. I didn't hate it like I did the Charmed reboot. But it did reawaken my longing for the old show something fierce.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:45 PM on January 15, 2019 [4 favorites]

MeTa
posted by Etrigan at 4:26 AM on January 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

I never watched original Roswell so have no commentary there.

* I think the whole ICE/wall/undocumented plotline is a good one to have these days, especially on an alien show.
* Liz and Max are legit hot. Though I agree with some review I read that Max does not seem the type to naturally rage out and that was awkward.
* Wow, New Isobel is a Heigl clone.
* Michael already annoys me and I wanted to yell "Get away from that guy!" when the military dude was making out with him.
* Was there ever some explanation for (a) ship crashed in 1947, (b) somehow human looking kids showed up 50 years later in the original show, and if so, what the hell was it? Because I didn't watch the original show because that plot point annoyed me. (I dunno why I watched it today, I guess I'm bored this morning.)
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:28 AM on January 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

that sucks about the DVD versions, oh yeah!. but i'm glad they kept the Dido song as the opening theme.

i'll give this a go just to see. i was not impressed with the Charmed remake for the 10 minutes i tried to watch of a random episode.
posted by numaner at 9:21 AM on January 16, 2019

Was there ever some explanation for (a) ship crashed in 1947, (b) somehow human looking kids showed up 50 years later in the original show, and if so, what the hell was it?

They were alien/human-hybrids, and their birthing pods were in the 1947 ship and then hidden in a cave for 40 years.
posted by Etrigan at 9:52 AM on January 16, 2019

Yeah, the ‘what are we/why are we here/how did we get here?’ stuff was revealed later on in the show’s run, they had a lot of angst to mine first in the characters not having any answers.. I expect they’ll go in a similar direction in this incarnation eventually, but probably not this season.
posted by oh yeah! at 10:26 AM on January 16, 2019

Nail polish remover? OK.
posted by ZeusHumms at 1:20 PM on January 16, 2019 [1 favorite]

I like this. I like the original too (only ever watched it on DVD and rewatch periodically). This feels like we're going to have some of the original plot, but more grown up. I like that the reboot is less white, and also that the aliens are the white ones, so that we're not mixing up illegally in the US with actual aliens. Also loving that we get gay characters this time. Curious where the new dead sister storyline goes, especially if maybe it's not mental illness, but that all the women in her family have been exposed to aliens.
posted by Margalo Epps at 4:15 PM on January 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm trying to give this show the benefit of the doubt (if only because I really want to be good, if only to live up to my love of the original), but wow this pilot episode was so awkward. The script felt super clunky and the actors were wooden. I'm also kinda sketched out by this version of Max and his obsession with Liz after all these years -- that kind of obsession might be more palatable as a teenager (especially one who's trying to hide his crush), but as an adult who hasn't seen his teenage crush in ten years, it's super creepy.

Also Nathan Parsons seems super bro-y to me in a way that goes against what I've always considered Max's character to be. I get it's a new take and I shouldn't be comparing it to the original, but I can't help it! The original was so good! This one is just a mess!

I'm still going to give it a few more episodes though, to see where it lands. But I'm not invested right now.

Nail polish remover? OK

Oh yeah, that seems like an odd choice, especially in an era of the Tide-pod challenge. I did find this article, which, okay, maybe hot sauce was off the table -- but they honestly couldn't have spent a little more effort thinking through better alternatives? Argh, it just goes to show how lazy I feel this entire reboot is so far.
posted by paisley sheep at 9:45 PM on January 17, 2019

So the show was fine, but did anyone else think that the whole thing was too dark? At first I thought my tv was the problem, but then I watched some YouTube clips and nope, everything is just really really dark.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:57 PM on January 19, 2019