S01.E10: I Don't Want to Miss a Thing

[Chick2Chic]

16 hours ago, Cristofle said:

Eh, I haven't gotten an indication Liz was ever seriously emotionally attached to Kyle (unlike Alex re: Michael) so I still wouldn't be opposed to chem testing Kyle and Maria. But you definitely have a point that Maria has been effectively sidelined by Alex being written as the love of Michael's life, and Carina hasn't yet indicated a way that she will bring her into the fold in a significant manner. As it is, she is officially the last main cast member to find out about the Pod Squad, and is even behind Cameron. 

Which still bothers me on levels on how racebent Maria has been marginalized and no one in the media has called Carina on this cause the optics look really bad.

[Cristofle]

31 minutes ago, Chick2Chic said:

Which still bothers me on levels on how racebent Maria has been marginalized and no one in the media has called Carina on this cause the optics look really bad.

And I have not seen her address it in any way on Twitter. She addressed a fan being unhappy about how a Native American woman was portrayed in 1x09, and she told Malex fans she didn't want them harassing Michael/Maria fans or tagging her if they did, but I haven't seen a specific address of "I racebent Maria and then I sidelined the crap out of her and this is how I'm going to fix it." 

I was not a huge Michael/Maria fan in the OG show (though I liked them- more in S1 and S2 than S3). I was intrigued by the idea of Michael/Alex from the pilot, and I still like the pairing. Still, I'm getting uncomfortable with how Maria is being treated, particularly as the only African-American woman (or African-American character period) in the main cast. I'm also uncomfortable that they inserted her in the Michael relationship at all after writing Alex as basically this big cosmic love of Michael's, because it's setting up Maria to get a ton of crap from the fandom (and it's starting on Twitter from what I can see, particularly after this episode).

[shapeshifter]

8 hours ago, Cristofle said:

as the only African-American woman (or African-American character period) in the main cast.

I was wondering about this.

According to the real life Roswell, New Mexico Wikipedia page Demographics: 
"As of the 2000 census, . . . The racial makeup of the city was 70.96% White, 2.47% African American, 1.28% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 21.29% from other races, and 3.31% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 44.34% of the population."

So.
I count 10 main characters on the IMDb page, which would mean statistically that one tenth of them could be expected to be African American, which, arguably, they are. 

Still, since the show is dealing with an additional demographic pool not of this earth, that kind of throws the the real life stats out the space ship air lock.

IMO, Michael Vlamis is the best actor in the cast, but it would have been kind of cool if Michael Guerin had been Black. 
Or maybe even better if Liz and Max had been Black, because the societal racial tensions would have had double entendres vis a vis them also being extraterrestrials.
And then if Max and Liz had been Black and Michael had been white, it would have given the writers additional opportunities to explore through dialog the effects of genetic background, opportunity, etc. on socioeconomic success.

I thought they were going to do something like this with the true-to-life Latinos in the cast, but that ball seems to have been largely punted.

But here we are with a typical, real life, Roswell, New Mexico demographic, so, IMO, no harm/no foul, just maybe a few missed opportunities.

ETA: I've been waiting 20 years for the remake. I almost died in 2016. So maybe in another 20 years there will be another remake with more diversity. 

Edited April 2, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Cristofle]

Carina kind of acknowledged that Roswell doesn't have a big African-American population with Maria saying she at one point felt like the only black person in the world. Still, for someone who seems to take a lot of pride in being sensitive to diversity, she's not acknowledging that she hasn't exactly done the best by Maria. And on a larger scale, I want to know what the plan is for Maria? Are they going to include her in the "know"? She was noticeably out of the loop in this episode, because every main character and two significant guest characters are now included in the conspiracy. 

[shapeshifter]

Ignore

Edited April 2, 2019 by shapeshifter

[Jacks-Son]

The writers have no choice but to include Maria in the Pod Squad.  She cannot be excluded because of her relationships with the other characters.  In reality, the fans will scream their collective arses off if the writers exclude her.  Plus, it's a juicy addition to the drama.

What WOULD be choice, is they had cameos from the original cast.  Perhaps, Majandra Delfino, can visit Roswell as a visiting Singer in Maria's bar.

[shapeshifter]

6 hours ago, Jacks-Son said:

What WOULD be choice, is they had cameos from the original cast.  Perhaps, Majandra Delfino, can visit Roswell as a visiting Singer in Maria's bar.

Yes! Maybe since Shiri has already been on set, they could start with her. Maybe she could be a passing tourist or second cousin twice removed who now lives in Sweden.

[ellieart]

17 hours ago, Jacks-Son said:

The writers have no choice but to include Maria in the Pod Squad.  She cannot be excluded because of her relationships with the other characters.  In reality, the fans will scream their collective arses off if the writers exclude her.  Plus, it's a juicy addition to the drama.

What WOULD be choice, is they had cameos from the original cast.  Perhaps, Majandra Delfino, can visit Roswell as a visiting Singer in Maria's bar.

I hope they never try to include the original cast in cameos, this is a different show, they need to keep it separate and stop trying to ride the coattails of the OG.  It was one thing having Shiri direct, which they tried to use as a ratings grab.  But to shove in OG cameos, that'd just be another ploy and it screams desperation to me.  Just my opinion, obviously.  That being said, I highly doubt Majandra would ever cameo on it, nor Brendan.  They're not as supportive of this version as everyone was being led to believe and it's incredibly obvious when you follow them on social media.  

[Jacks-Son]

Hey, she's a fellow Cuban.  I, for one, would love to see her in a cameo.

[Scarlett45]

On 3/29/2019 at 7:50 PM, shapeshifter said:

I know I'm old when I cannot see a difference between these two interpretations of Michael's motive to go chat up Maria.

This is making me giggle because this is something my Mom would say. 🤣

[phoenics]

On 4/2/2019 at 7:18 PM, ellieart said:

I hope they never try to include the original cast in cameos, this is a different show, they need to keep it separate and stop trying to ride the coattails of the OG.  It was one thing having Shiri direct, which they tried to use as a ratings grab.  But to shove in OG cameos, that'd just be another ploy and it screams desperation to me.  Just my opinion, obviously.  That being said, I highly doubt Majandra would ever cameo on it, nor Brendan.  They're not as supportive of this version as everyone was being led to believe and it's incredibly obvious when you follow them on social media.  

I'm sure they hated seeing their pairing demolished (well, appear to be demolished).

[ellieart]

13 minutes ago, phoenics said:

I'm sure they hated seeing their pairing demolished (well, appear to be demolished).

Probably more the blatant lies a certain showrunner will tell to try and get original fans onboard.  And all their hard work for their own show that should have been made before this cliched, predictable re-imagining.  I love obvious, but subdued catty Brendan and Majandra.

Edited April 10, 2019 by ellieart

[Callaphera]

9 minutes ago, phoenics said:

I'm sure they hated seeing their pairing demolished (well, appear to be demolished).

I don't mean this in a snarky way but a curious way: didn't the original show end in 2002? Are they really that invested in a role they played 17 years ago? That only lasted 3 years? Have they not done anything since? I know the fans really want them to be but I can't imagine the actors really care that much - unless they haven't had work since and they consider these roles to be their end all, be all. 

[phoenics]

1 minute ago, Callaphera said:

I don't mean this in a snarky way but a curious way: didn't the original show end in 2002? Are they really that invested in a role they played 17 years ago? That only lasted 3 years? Have they not done anything since? I know the fans really want them to be but I can't imagine the actors really care that much - unless they haven't had work since and they consider these roles to be their end all, be all. 

Well there is the "spiritual successor" to Roswell show they produced online and hoped it would get picked up by Netflix, Baron and Tuluca, but that never took off and then this show came along.  It's probably a bit of that too.

[ellieart]

1 minute ago, Callaphera said:

I don't mean this in a snarky way but a curious way: didn't the original show end in 2002? Are they really that invested in a role they played 17 years ago? That only lasted 3 years? Have they not done anything since? I know the fans really want them to be but I can't imagine the actors really care that much - unless they haven't had work since and they consider these roles to be their end all, be all. 

They've been working steadily, but they've also been working on their own OG Roswell-esque passion project for the past couple years.  This show's existence kinda steals that away from them a bit (unless it turns out that this version is a godsend for that project and it makes people MORE interested in OG content).  They do love their characters though and they feel protective of them, no matter how many years have passed...if you play a character that people connected with and that's loved, you'll always feel protective of them.  

[Callaphera]

I didn't know that there was a continuation project that didn't get picked up. That makes a little more sense. 

[ellieart]

1 minute ago, Callaphera said:

I didn't know that there was a continuation project that didn't get picked up. That makes a little more sense. 

Phoenics said it best...it's a spiritual successor, not really a continuation.  But it has the same feel and nostalgia and plays into the original in a lot of ways.  It's definitely not dead yet though, thankfully.

[Callaphera]

1 minute ago, ellieart said:

Phoenics said it best...it's a spiritual successor, not really a continuation.  But it has the same feel and nostalgia and plays into the original in a lot of ways.  It's definitely not dead yet though, thankfully.

Here's hoping it's more... thoughtful? than this current one. 

[ellieart]

Just now, Callaphera said:

Here's hoping it's more... thoughtful? than this current one. 

I'll drink to that!

[AudienceofOne]

On 3/27/2019 at 2:42 PM, Myrrhine said:

 This handwavium ridiculous science stuff was a lot easier to swallow when it was being presented by a high school student instead of a research biologist. 

And it's an antidote and they keep calling it an antidote. An antidote negates the effect of something. You can't negate the effect of something MORE. For a show that seems determined to ground itself in science it's almost anti-science in the way it portrays Liz's work. 

On 3/27/2019 at 11:07 PM, backhometome said:

People finding out they are aliens is way too nonchalant. 

On 3/29/2019 at 5:42 PM, Callaphera said:

I'd think, in a "normal" world, Maria would be pissed that no one clued her in to the reason why her mom was losing her mind including her two besties but honestly, they had Cameron make a joke about alien STDs, throw a little "fuck you and the spaceship you rode in on" towards Max, and then everything was hunky dory. Hell, Noah is married to one of the aliens and he was over it in about three minutes. So Maria will probably just blink a few times, sing a popular song from 1995, and continue on like nothing happened. I suggest something from Garbage this time. Stupid Girl? I'm Only Happy When it Rains?

I feel like this show is trying to show people being 'mature' in their relationships, accepting others for who they are and simply expanding their universes to include them when they find out. The problem is that it makes these relationships seem shallow. If you don't care that your best friend is an alien who has been lying to you your entire life - is it because you're being mature and accepting, or is it because they're just not that important to you? Not one person has sat down Max or Michael or Isobel and asked them for their life experiences or how they feel about the world they live in. What do you know? What do you remember? How do you feel? Not a single one. Because everyone seems to just slide through their relationships with people jumping from shallow interaction to shallow interaction. So someone can declare their love for one person and have sex with someone else in the next scene and we're supposed to disconnect these two things from genuine human feelings.

There are some exceptions - Alex seems to demand more of people and ask more questions and think about whether he did the right or wrong thing in a situation. But everyone else is basically, "Oh sure you're an alien refugee but I have a spin class to get to. Let's grab a beer next time I can fit you in. Or sex if I feel like it, either/or." 

On 3/30/2019 at 1:26 PM, Callaphera said:

It's less messy. Cameron and Liz aren't friends like Maria and Alex, who were best friends from high school*

For the record I have huge problems with Max having sex with his partner. It's hugely unethical and I don't like how he was openly pursuing Liz while having sex with someone else. It wasn't fair to either person. Also I have no idea how that fits in with his character. I have no idea who Max is and the bad acting isn't helping. This show insists on portraying sex in a certain way: something you can separate out from your emotions and that it's fine in all circumstances as long as the people involved are consenting adults and are honest about it. And there are time when I'm grateful for it and times where I feel they are portraying a more mature attitude towards sex. The childish jealousy you see in a lot of romance shows and its associated possessiveness, controlling and stalking is horrible and I'm glad this doesn't have that.

But there are other situations - like Max sleeping with his work partner, Liz having sex with Kyle and then pretending it never happened, and Michael not seeming to care about Maria and Alex's friendship - where I have a huge problem with it. People generally don't work this way. There's no way that Kyle or Cameron don't feel used or Alex doesn't feel hurt. Now all three of those people may understand they have no basis to be publicly hurt or to act badly because of it. But most people would feel it. And this goes back to how I feel like all these relationships are shallow. It's like they just float from encounter to encounter and then bug out when things get complicated. It's not mature at all. It's actually self-destructive over the long term.