It doesn’t seem likely that a nearly beat-for-beat reboot could put such a new spin on old material, yet such is the case with The CW’s forthcoming Roswell, New Mexico. I missed the original series when it premiered in 1999—a combination of being a tad too young, and also Buffy the Vampire Slayer taking up all my too-young-to-be-watching-this time. So at first I didn’t realize that the new series, rebooted by Carina Adly MacKenzie (The Originals), retreads nearly every plot beat of the twenty-year-old pilot—but aging the main characters by ten years and layering the plot with an added dimension of immigration issues makes it a story worth retelling.
Warner Bros. Television screened the Roswell, New Mexico pilot at NYCC. While this is a non-spoiler review, it does touch upon minor plot points.
In 2018, biomedical researcher Liz Ortecho (Jeanine Mason) reluctantly returns to her hometown of Roswell after the funding gets cut from her experimental regenerative study in Denver (“somebody wants a wall,” she quips) and picks up work at her father’s restaurant, the Crashdown Café. Liz’s return happens to coincide with her ten-year high school reunion, which dredges up old ghosts—both in the form of the ten-year anniversary of her sister Rosa’s death and how it turned the town against her family, and in Max (Nathan Parsons), her high school crush, now deputy sheriff.
Roswell may be the alien capital of America, but it’s also a small town full of gossip and grudges, the kind of place that effectively erases the past decade in a moment. Liz may be almost thirty, but back in her waitress uniform, making eyes at Max through the café window, it’s as if she’s back in high school.
Except that there are two new things to worry about: the increased ICE presence at the borders (her father is an undocumented immigrant), and the revelation that Max is an alien.
If, like me, you never saw the original Roswell, I won’t spoil every beat of the new pilot. If you have, rest assured that even if the groundwork is laid in the same way as it was twenty years ago, each piece is a refreshing new take: how the alien siblings and their friend handle getting their cover blown takes on new meaning when they’re adults with complicated lives, not pretty teenagers trying to get through high school. Isobel (Lily Cowles) brings both gravitas and levity to their precarious identity, frustrated that she must keep their secret from her human husband yet also determined to make this reunion the best it can be, dammit. Michael (Michael Vlamis) is more volatile, the one of the trio taking the most steps toward discovering their origin but also the most willing to eliminate any external threats.
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The funny thing is, Liz barely bats an eye at this world-changing information. On the one hand, growing up in Roswell must prepare a person, even subconsciously, for the eventual revelation that aliens have been in their midst this whole time. On the other hand, between protecting her father’s immigration status and grappling with the terror that she might share Rosa’s mental health issues, Liz simply has bigger things to worry about. The trio should really be afraid of the government—Commander Andy Manes (Gregory Nye), overseeing the shadowy Project Shepherd, and his son, Michael’s high school ex Alex (Tyler Blackburn). In that, they and Liz have a common enemy.
Roswell, New Mexico is infused with the political, almost too on-the-nose at times: the local conspiracy theory nut says on his podcast, “Aliens are coming, and when they do, they’re gonna rape and murder and steal our jobs!” And yet, there’s a reason that line got so many knowing laughs at the screening. The instances where “illegal aliens” and extraterrestrials dovetail are the episode’s most powerful, like when Max tells Liz about how he and his siblings grew up watching movies where visitors from outer space were the villains, blowing up the White House and portrayed as foreign threats instead of beings with their own hopes, their own loves, their own rich lives full of potential toward changing the world.
Speaking of loves—yes, there are plenty of romantic entanglements in the pilot. Rest assured that Max and Liz still have that out-of-this-world chemistry, thanks to Mason and Parsons’ history of working together on Bunheads. Her ex Kyle Valenti (Michael Trevino), son of the sheriff, provides some interesting friction, though his influence pales in relation to her and Max’s psychic bond. While they are the series’ will-they-won’t-they, Michael sparks with Alex, home from the war, in ways I can’t wait to see explored. Yet that yearning for connection might not be enough to make this alien believe in humanity as a whole. Michael’s anger—at the foster care system, at this country, at the human race—is especially compelling; despite his obvious talents, one of the siblings observes, “I don’t think Michael likes the world enough to bother changing it.”
In short, they’re just like us. “You asked me what I am,” Max tells Liz. “I’m just a guy from Roswell.”
Roswell, New Mexico doesn’t premiere for another several months, but fans have plenty to look forward to, including an episode set entirely in high school circa 2008, and one directed by Shiri Appleby. In the meantime, watch this teaser from SDCC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTk24tf_cyY
Roswell, New Mexico premieres midseason 2019 on The CW.
Natalie Zutter is torn between watching the original series to anticipate all the Easter eggs, or going in fresh. Talk reboots and aliens with her on Twitter!
I will definitely give it a try, but I’m not that optimistic.
For one thing, a big part of the original show’s appeal was seeing alienated teenagers — who are actual aliens. I think my favorite episode was the one where the alien kids try to negotiate the minefield of … finding dates for the prom.
Another delicious moment was when, to foil eavesdroppers, the two human girls decide to always refer to their alien friends as “Czechoslovakians”.
Also, the original show lucked into a very good cast: William Sadler, Katherine Heigl, Brendan Fehr, Majandra Delfino, Shiri Appleby, etc. The new cast looks a lot like, well, the casts of other CW shows, nonentities selected mostly for their looks. (The CW‘s bread and butter is still teenage girls, I think.) Then again, every star starts out as a nonentity.
The politics of the new show sound kind of dopey and clichéd. Also, do they really expect us to swallow a biomedical researcher becoming a waitress?
I vaguely remember the original series. Lots of fun for most of the first season, then it went way off the rails. Killed off a major supporting character for no particular reason (I guess the actor quit suddenly?), and the plot left local politics for interstellar politics. The duplicates plot, where it turned out that exact twins of the leads had grown up punk on the streets of New York was briefly fun, and would’ve been a fun series.
Right, there are absolutely no opportunities for a highly educated biomedical researcher when her current project loses funding. OBVIOUSLY her only option is to return to her home town and work as a waitress.
I’m glad they’re keeping some of the original story beats, and the new spin with the older cast I like.
I’m a little sad that there’s no Maria, Maria and Michael’s relationship was one of my favorite parts of the original show. So while it’s great to have some LGBT+ representation – especially in the core cast – it seems it comes at the expense of a gender balance? It sounds like there’s only two important female characters (and one dead one).
I see in the casting that Maria does still exist at least. I do wonder what they’ll end up doing with her, if anything. Hopefully they’ll bring in Tess eventually too.
I wonder if there is a class element involved in Liz’s backstory? Their lead has to have a working class job but they can’t, ick, have a working class lead.
Shows with very up to the minute politics tend to age badly, and quickly. Not a good choice.
@3
A friend has a master’s in a biotech field (Microbio? Something like that.) and is on no danger of unemployment despite taking time off for 2 kids. Of course, her husband has a useless (in the job market) history degree from Georgetown so he’s a stay at home dad which makes things a bit easier for her.
@6, That’s what I thought. I majored in history too. Very interesting but not exactly a job getter.
Wow they are digging deep for reboots. I am happy enough with an older cast, thought I did kind of like the old show, I will maybe check this one out one day.
I loved Roswell. I was just the right age for it when it premiered and it’s stuck with me all these years. That said, most of the similarities mentioned seem to be stuff from the original series of books (which I read). I’m actually hopeful about this show. I especially appreciate that they didn’t whitewash Liz again and they seem to be bringing in some things that interested me from books. I do wish that it was on sooner.
I work in biomedical research. I know one researcher who spent 6 months unemployed, another spent 4 months without work and then took a 30% pay cut, I know one guy who spent time as an Uber driver, another who ended up in construction and someone who quit to become a surfing instructor (that one was by choice). So, for me, I have no problem with the idea that a biomedical researcher would end up as a waitress. We frequently discussed how hard it is that the public perception of the field is one way, but the reality very different.
Of course, then I got a job at an amazing place where it is like what people imagine and it is awesome and all those things I thought it would be when I entered the field. So, there are a lucky few who do get that, but there are a whole lot of skilled researchers out there who can’t count on their job existing in 6 months and the time in between jobs seems to be several months for a lot of them (long enough to move home and take a crap job while still sending out your cv/resume).
@10, Sounds like acting. BTW I hear waitressing pays quite well, if your feet can take it. I knew woman years ago who kept going back to it in spite of health problems for that reason.
@10/Tami: That’s encouraging – so it’s not as stupid as it sounded. Maybe they’ll use her looking for a real job as part of the story going forward.
@9/Rikki: The book series the original show was based on was called Roswell High, as I recall.
@5/princessroxana: In the original show, some of the alien visitors were very dangerous. This may be a problematic theme today. Maybe they will kill only white nationalists this time around. [;)]
@2/wiredog: As I recall, the original show’s ratings were not that good, so the show runners tried to make it look as much like The X Files as they could.
Was super excited when I saw the commercial. Then instantly heartbroken to see it will not be the original cast.
I was hoping they would do like Roseanne had, and have the cast older but the original members.
That would have been so awesome.
Couldn’t get through the in your face political BS in the first 15 minutes. CW is circling the bowl.
@@@@@ Jess, totally agree that would have been beyond awesome.. the original was one of my absolute favorite shows of all time.. the old cast may not have wanted to return because Max & isabele actually dated for a while in real life. So that could’ve possibly be awkward… but even so, I don’t think this cast has a fraction of the chemistry that the original had. I mean the Max and Liz connection was one of the best I’d ever seen on TV.
@14/Bob: Actually less political than I expected. There’s the line where she says she lost a grant because “somebody needed the money for a wall“ — which comes across as pretty laughable, if you follow the news.
What really bothered me, though, as I continued to watch the clumsy first episode, was that I was constantly reminded of how much better the original show was. More intelligent, better acted, and with more chemistry between the actors. Of course, this is a CW show, so if any of these guys can act, in addition to being hunky, that’s an unexpected bonus.
There is also a problem with the basic premise of the show. On the original show, the alien kids were stuck in Roswell, and hadn’t gotten their act together, because they were kids: minors, and still in high school.
But these aliens have had 10 years to figure things out and make arrangements, yet have done little or nothing with the time. If they really feared being captured by the authorities and dissected (instead of becoming the new Kardashians, which is more likely), they could have changed towns and identities several times, and lost themselves in the vastness of America.
I saw the first episode. The music is more contemporary and I identified with going to my first class reunion. I have watched the old show on Hulu. I like this for being a little more edgy. The old show was a bit romantic.