The following is a quote from a recent interview of Jason Katims. "I think the science fiction part of the show is what should lift the show up to metaphor. It should make it feel magical, but it shouldn't take over what the show is about."
Well you are right about the science fiction not taking over what the show is about - but how dare you use the word magical! You who are totally responsible for destroying what was magical about Roswell. I cannot believe the audacity. Please point out to me at this moment what is magical about Roswell? Perhaps you think it's the holding up of a convenience store in the name of finding a spaceship? Or maybe it's the idea of stealing cases of Snapple as Michael adapts to life on earth? Maybe it's the rather rushed, mechanical marriage of 19-year-old Isabel to a character she has only just met? Is that what you mean by magical? Or maybe it's the magic of Max searching for his illegitimate son conceived with a murderess in a moment of hopelessness? Or maybe you meant to put back the magic with revisionist dialogue and revolting quips about 'still holding onto that?'
You had magic Mr. Katims and you deliberately destroyed it in favor of the ordinary. One of your most powerful episodes last season, End of the World, despite it's incredibly sad ending, was magical. But then you started ripping apart what made episodes like EOTW magical. Magical was the idea of soul mates finding each other across time and space. Magical were the flashes that allowed them to see into each other's soul. Magical was the idea that two people could love each other in this day and age and NOT be ordinary! Magical was the simple but profound idea that a boy could love a girl and change the world.
Metaphorically speaking, magical would have been the weaving of alien legend with today's humanity and discovering who we are and who we might become through the adventures of these aliens and their human friends and families. Now all we have are three aliens and 4 humans playing out separate, disconnected soap opera.
You further state in this interview: "UPN wanted to make sure that the back story wasn't too complicated... that it wasn't so drenched in mythology that you felt like you had already missed the boat on the show if you tuned in now."
Definition of Myth - mythology: a traditional story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a primordial type in the worldview of a people. A body of myths about the origin, history, deities, ancestors and heroes of a people.
Given the above definition, my question is 'what mythology'? Season one started to develop some ideas - but none ever came to anything and most were forgotten. What do we know of their heritage? The 'mommygram' told us there was a war and they were sent to earth to survive to fight another day. And that Max is a King and supposedly was married to Tess. That Michael and Isabel were betrothed. Nasedo was sent to protect them but somehow lost them and then wasn't there when they emerged from the pods and apparently for a reason never explained the pod squad then left Tess behind in her pod. Why? The beginning of a great myth - legend - history - that was never pursued nor answered and one that many of us thought would involve Liz somehow. All forgotten in favor of forcing Tess upon the viewer and your hero Max who you reduced to clueless, weak, angry and inconsiderate in the name of Destiny to justify conceiving an illegitimate child. Retelling the Arthurian legend might be mythology but at least Arthur was coerced by magic into his undoing, all you've done is finish the destruction of the magic you profess to want.
Buffy is filled with Slayer mythology built up over 5 years and I bet a new viewer would have no problem getting involved in an episode the very first time. I think mythology is something that the Roswell creators talk a lot about but do not deliver and they are missing out on a chance to give Roswell some depth and texture and nuance. Mythology isn't something that a new viewer necessarily has to know to enjoy the show. Mythology acts as a backdrop, a canvas for an episode (just as the science fiction should) and is not necessary to enjoying the episode. However, if intriguing enough, the new viewer will tune in again to learn more of the mythology. If the viewer is familiar with all that has come before the mythology becomes the metaphor that exemplifies or illustrates Roswell's long-term vision.
Katims then goes on to say: "It speaks to outsiders. In a weird way I have always thought of this as an immigrant story - dealing with how much of the other world do we hold on to and embrace, and how much do we let go... [in order to] assimilate."
What world? Where are the heroes? The legends? The history of Antar? What is the color and substance of Antarian culture? How can Max, Michael and Isabel decide "how much of the other world do we hold on to and embrace, and how much do we let go... [in order to] assimilate" if they know nothing of this other world? All they know and we know at the moment is that it's apparently filled with murderers, war and people you can't trust. No wonder Tess had to conceive a child to get Max to go home!
How amazing it would have been if the creators had slowly unfolded a mythology surrounding Max and Liz as soul mates! How they came to find each other again and make the discovery for themselves that they are meant to be! How exciting if Isabel had to come to terms with that part of herself that was capable of betraying her brother - how this might lead to a discovery that who they are now in their part human form is what their 'creators' had intended all along. That their interaction with and assimilation of humanity is the reason for their being on earth. If Jason Katims had built upon those vivid images of Max as a little boy noticing Liz on the playground, now that would have been magical! But they dropped any hint of 'magical' when 'flashes' became commonplace and then disappeared from S3 altogether and glowing hickeys just one more 'idea' dropped after an episode. If only the granolith had been something mystical as well as technological, if only Nasedo or that metal book or Alex's translation had yielded information about them and their culture and their existence. Then perhaps you could talk about myth and magic without making me laugh.
If indeed the creators of Roswell understood mythology and how to weave it into the stories from week to week, if they understood magical and if they used metaphor for more than rationalizing questionable behavior perhaps they wouldn't need to reinvent the show every season and perhaps we who still hold onto what was magical about Roswell and believe it can be again, maybe we wouldn't be once again campaigning for its survival.
