Roswell: Season One (UK DVD Release)
Reviewed By Rob Dyer (UK News Editor, UK Conventions)

In 1947 something out of this world crashed in Roswell, New Mexico and 42 years later, hybrid descendants Max Evans, Isabel Evans and Michael Guerin emerged from their incubation pods looking like six year old human children. They were eventually found roaming the desert and adopted by parents who knew nothing of their inner conflicts or supernatural gifts.

One day when classmate Liz Parker gets caught in the crossfire of a shooting at the town’s Crashdown Café, Max rushes to her side and overcome by his lifelong crush on her, heals her with his hands risking exposure of both his and the group’s alien identity.

The connection that took place in the Crashdown allowed Max and Liz to see into each other’s souls, and like a modern day Romeo and Juliet the pair are drawn to each other but unable to be together.

Liz can’t help but tell her best friend Maria and eventually their childhood buddy Alex Whitman about the secret. Thrust into protecting their new friends and questioning everyone’s intentions, they must all survive in a town obsessed with finding and experimenting on alien lifeforms.

When the local Sheriff starts to pay abnormal attention to Max, the group wonder if they can trust the Sheriff Valenti or his son, Liz’s ex-boyfriend Kyle... Who can lead them closer to finding out who they are and where they have come from? The arrival of a fourth alien, Tess brings the hope of more answers, but also threatens the foundations of Liz and Max’s happiness.

Written and produced by Jason Katims and David Nutter, Roswell Season One DVD Box Set truly is out of this world. When this title originally graced my desk I hoped it would be a good show but didn't hold my breath - how wrong can one guy be! Roswell first aired in the UK a few years ago and I never managed to see the show due to scheduling and usually due to other programmes I regularly watched conflicting with it, so this was my chance to finally see why fans made such a noise when it was cancelled after season three.

As I work a busy schedule I resorted to watching my review set of Roswell Season One after I had gotten into bed at night and before I went to sleep. One episode per night was my goal, but by night number 4 I regretted my self-inflicted time slot as I found myself getting to sleep around 4am each morning after watching a hand-full of episodes - It was official.. I was addicted to Roswell.

The story in itself was very compelling and in a way very believable - the average teenage life with an alien twist, ordeals that we all can relate to from romance to discovery and growing up in general. By the time I had gotten to know the characters I felt for them as if they were friends, hoping things would turn out ok in the end - I truly felt involved in the life of these characters. The characters are well developed just like the storyline and even though the show focuses on the teenagers developing relationships, the adults in the show (namely the sheriff) get to play larger roles and interact well as the story continues.

DVD Features

'Area 51'
Area 51 takes a look behind the scenes of Roswell and contains interviews with various members of the cast from Colin Hanks (Alex) to William Sadler (Sheriff Valenti). If you enjoyed Season One then you will enjoy listening to the actors talk about the show.

'Deleted Scene'
Located on the first disc of this set rather than the last (where most of the DVD features are stored) is a short deleted scene from the pilot episode of Roswell. Usually deleted scenes and outtakes are for me the best features that can be included on DVDs as extras, but to be honest I found this deleted scene a little pointless. If the disc however was loaded with additional scenes then I would have been pleased but one on its own is't worth it.

'Roswell High'
Roswell High is a short featurette with the author of the Roswell High series of books (Metz), and book editor (Laura Burns) about the creation of the books and their relationship with the tv series. An interesting featurette which is worth watching for a little background on how the show itself got started.

'Save Yourself Music Video'
This is the music video of Save Yourself by Sense Field which features Shiri Appleby who plays Liz Parker in the show. Personally this type of DVD Feature doesn't do anything for me so I found this to be a disc filler with little value. The theme song to Roswell 'Here With Me' by Dido would have been a much better choice of music video for an extra.

'Audition Tape'
The audition tape of Emilie de Ravin was a nice addition to the DVD features, it was a little disappointing that the audition tapes for all of the main characters weren't made available.. Maybe in Season's two and three.. Who knows!

Final Verdict

Roswell Season One is an excellent DVD release, the show is vibrant and original and the storylines, arcs and characters are exceptionally well written. DVD Features are good but like always more would have been better. Well worth £39.99 of anyones money and highly recommended by me! An outstanding 9 out of 10!