escued from the jaws of cancellation, Roswell moves into its third season on new network UPN, sweetly tucked behind Buffy with an episode that focuses on the three teen-age aliens as it dawns on them that after last season's events they may never go back to their home planet .
"Busted" opens with Max (Behr) and Liz (Appleby) making out in a car. He asks her if she's ready and she says she thinks she is. Then they each put on a ski mask, Liz pulls out her gun and they run into a convenience store. Needless to say, the store isn't just a store, and it all has to do with a hidden government warehouse and a spaceship.
However, someone is watching the action outside the store and tips the police. Before they know it, Max and Liz are running to the car and then racing from the scene with the cops in hot pursuit. Max destroys the gun, but when they are surrounded they are forced to surrender.
In jail, their parents rush to their side, confused why their "good" kids would do something so out of character. Isabel (Heigl) and Michael (Fehr) also hurry to help, but they're dealing with issues of their own as well. Michael is close to flunking out of high school, and Isabel has a secret romance going with one of the lawyers from her father's law firm (new regular Adam Rodriguez).
As the young lovers get embroiled in the legal system, all eyes are on Max and Liz, from their confused parents to the FBI to that mysterious police informant who started all the trouble. And one thing is for certain, Max and Liz's lives will never be the same.
A soft landing for new viewers
Through most of its life, UPN has had demographics envy when it came to The WB. It made a wise decision at the end of last season and went for broke to snatch Buffy away with the promise that if Roswell or Angel got canceled, it would take them, too. Well, The WB wasn't quite ready to part with Angel, but Roswell had been hanging on by its fingernails since it began two years ago. So the true winner out of all the high-profile spats and negotiations ended up being this quiet, smartly written and well-cast series about teen-age aliens pretending to be human in the small backwater town of Roswell, N.M.
The season premiere, "Busted," showcases all the series' best attributes, along with a few sloppy moments the series can't seem to avoid. But, as always, the good things far outweigh the bad as the episode takes its time to explore the changes Max, Liz, Michael and Isabel are going through now that
they are becoming adults.
As with the best episodes of the series, "Busted" focuses on the characters and their relationships. One nice development here is that we finally get to spend some time with Max and Liz's parents, and these people are not happy. The episode explores what happens when good kids get into
trouble.
Most of the story works quite well; however, not all of it makes sense. We know that Max and Liz are smart people. Yet the way they handle their little crime spree is just plain dumb. Why would they use their real names when committing a crime? Why wouldn't they try to figure out another way of breaking into the secret government warehouse? Why aren't guards protecting the government's precious property?
The rest of the series is so well written that it's almost surprising when an important plot point is given a convenient, illogical explanation. Max is an alien. If he can vaporize a gun with his special powers, why can't he get through the outside wall of the convenience store?
Fortunately, the rest of "Busted" is top-notch, from the characters' relationships to the wonderful actors to the fine production values. The episode takes Roswell back to the basics, taking these people and shaking up their lives with just enough science fiction to make things interesting.
