We’re at the point in Roswell where the big reveals are a little too enmeshed between weird mumbo jumbo. Despite the strangeness of the execution, it’s satisfying to be actually getting some answers this early on. It’s fine to piece together puzzles like this gradually, but they always work best when the answers that we get aren’t a big question themselves.
"River Dog" follows-up the fun cliff-hanger we were left on last week by giving us some fun action to get us back into the episode from the outset. That quick pace permeated the majority of this episode which highlighted the urgency and the intensity of the teen’s current situation. Being chased down and hunted by the government isn’t all that usual an occurrence for kids this age, and I liked that they took the time to feel scared and anxious over what might happen next.
There’s harshness to the male cast in Roswell that sort of makes it difficult to like them sometimes, and later on it really affects the viewers’ ability to see what these girls see in such obnoxious guys. It’s a subtle thing here, Max’s stubbornness to let Maria help work through the files they found could be due to the fact that he’s just trying to keep his own past to himself, but didn’t they just agree not to keep things from each other? This stubbornness reflected badly against Liz, who was brave enough to risk her own safety to help him find answers when she volunteered to visit the reservation.
The same goes for Michael, and though they play his terrible, unlikable qualities well against Maria, and it easily transforms into sexual tension thanks to Majandra and Brendan’s performances, it’s hard to feel for someone who hates spending time with “two chicks yakking”. Ugh. A lot of his vulnerability form last week stays put though and you can tell that what he feels for Maria is more than just sexual curiosity.
A lot about this episode felt more comfortable than the show has previously, with some great bits of humour throughout, and the pace increasing nicely. You can tell the show is starting to really go places, and though the ambiguity of some of this week’s findings is slightly frustrating, it’s still exciting to see things moving on so well, now that we have more to go on than a weird painting and a key.
Plus
I loved that part of the start with Maria stifling a scream when she saw the rat.
Vibrator! That’s a pretty cool term. All these weird quirks about Maria’s Mom make you really want to meet the woman.
He Said, She Said
Sheriff Valenti: “I woke up with one hell of a headache.”
Topolsky: “Must have had your head in the wrong place.”
Maria: “Under that weird, poorly-bathed exterior there’s, like, this whole deeply wounded, vulnerable guy.”
2.5 out of 4 weird Indian cave paintings.
Previously posted at PandaTV.
I think the boys are alright, myself... really it's Maria that kind of annoyed me with her berating Michael for not doing the stereotypical guy thing and feeding her assurances that everything's gonna be OK when they were both worried. Though I guess her expectations came from the fact that he was already displaying the non-comforting side of sexism earlier with his "clear the chickens off the runway"-esque comment. I guess that's fair, and anyway it was really all about hinting at Michael to make a move
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