1 DVD
22 EPISODE
Season one
Liz Parker, Maria DeLuca, and Alex Whitman are high school students and best friends residing in the small town of Roswell, New Mexico, site of the Roswell incident. The Roswell incident is a continual point of ironic reference in the series, a theme which contrasts the town's sometimes cynical and commercial exploitation of the now ancient 1947 Roswell incident with the "real" Roswell event unfolding before the young protagonists' eyes. Liz's parents, for instance, own the Crashdown Café, which serves alien-themed dishes, and it is here that many of the scenes of the season are set. While waitressing there, an argument between two customers results in Liz being fatally shot, setting the scene for the entire series. Fellow student Max Evans rushes to her side and heals the wound by placing his hand over it, bringing her back to life. He leaves a silver hand print on her stomach. This act arouses suspicions that follow the protagonists throughout the series.
During a biology class experiment the next day, Liz obtains a sample of Max's saliva without his knowledge and examines it under a microscope. She discovers that Max's cells look nothing like human cells. She confronts Max, who then admits that he, his sister Isabel and their friend Michael are aliens whose spaceship crashed at Roswell in 1947. Max intimates to Liz that he saved her life because he has strong feelings for her and the romance between Liz and Max begins in earnest.
In the first episode Max Evans swears Liz to secrecy, but she tells Maria. Tension around the secrecy issue becomes a major theme both in the development of the relationships of the protagonists, and also for the action elements of the plot. Eventually Alex is let into the secret, resolving the tension between best friends Liz and Alex. This group of six teenagers are involved in a struggle to protect the alien trio from Sheriff Valenti, who is suspicious of them from the first episode and who alerts the FBI, and from FBI agents investigating the paranormal who secretly attempt to discover evidence of their real identities by fair means or foul.
In contrast to the romance tenderly portrayed between Liz and Max, Michael and Maria engage in a passionate and explosive relationship - Maria terms Michael "the worst boyfriend ever". Later in the first season a tentative romance develops between Isabel and Alex. As with the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series (which this TV series later ran alongside), there is a romantic tension which exploits the theme of the Romeo and Juliet type "star-cross'd lovers" - the "forbidden" relationship (the aliens and humans, vampire slayer and vampire, Montagues and Capulets).
Toward the end of the season another alien named Nasedo is introduced, who is a shape shifter. Nasedo has a violent, murderous past and nearly causes Max's demise at the hands of a vengeful alien hunter who had lost his wife and unborn child to Nasedo. The gang initially believes that Tess Harding, the new kid in town, is Nasedo as she seems to have a strange effect on Max, but it is revealed that she is a fourth alien hybrid just like them. However, unlike them, she possesses knowledge of their past lives and the concept of their supposed destiny.
At the end of the season, it is learned that Max, Isabel, Michael and Tess are clones of the Royal Four of Antar and that Max is the king, Isabel his sister, Michael his second in command and Tess is Max's wife. The four learn that they are alien-human hybrids: their alien DNA was mixed with human DNA in order for them to assume human form. Their mission is to one day go back to their home planet Antar and retake the throne from Kivar, Max's enemy. As a result of this revelation, Liz distances herself from Max, as she believes that she can't get in the way of Max's destiny.
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