Sometime around 3 o'clock on Monday afternoons my blood begins racing. All of a sudden I am as giddy as if I had just chugged two cups of coffee. There is a pep in my step, a gleam in my eye. Then it hits me. Tonight Roswell is on!! What is it about Roswell that makes my heart pitter patter? That makes the butterflies in my stomach flitter and flutter? Ohmigod -- it's like butter! So what is it that separates it from the other WB programming?

Well, the root of my Roswell love affair is its eternally intriguing teen love drama. Max and Liz -- yes, I am on a first name basis with them -- are always struggling with their feelings for one another. What sets them apart from their whiny Dawson counterparts is that they never psychoanalyze their emotions and situations. No, the Roswell teens deal with life the way real teens do.... they keep their emotions bottled up so we the viewers are forced to read the teen angst on their perfect non-acne'd TV faces. We are drawn in, only to become even further engaged when these emotionally crippled teens exhibit their feelings through teenybopper acts of love. We witness their internal emotional struggles, rather than having it explained through sorry-assed SAT words.

Mmm... Interplanetary love.

Unlike its WB brethren Angel (which lacks the post-teen/teen love-driven subplot, making it the weakest of the WB shows), Buffy and Charmed, Roswell could happen! Okay, stop laughing. Let me explain. As much as I love Buffy and Charmed, science has all but ruled out the possible existence of vampires and witches. Even if these types of mythical beings did exist it is extremely unlikely that they would have the extraordinary powers they exhibit on these shows. Yet aliens...although highly unlikely... are credible. No one can disprove life on other planets, so like Star Trek, Roswell can come up with any scenario and the viewer has the luxury of belief. Seriously -- if one friend told you they believe in witches and another said they believe in aliens, which one would you still hang out with?

Roswell is the literal translation of the best plot line in the world -- star-crossed lovers. Max and Liz are the new millennium's television answer to Romeo and Juliet. Max's Romeo isn't even from the same galaxy as his Juliet, let alone the same side of the tracks! The brief season of a happy Max and Liz union may have been shattered by Max's other self from the future, alien clones, and Tess, Max's genetically replicated wife from his home planet, but what we humans know is that human teenage love conquers all.

I haven't even mentioned the show's potential for tackling real socio-political issues such as discrimination. Roswell's versatility is what makes it accessible to different types of people on various levels. But the real reason I love Roswell is that it satisfies logic while more importantly fulfilling my suppressed suburban housewife daytime soap yearnings, making it overall the best show on TV.

Pictures are copyright © 2001 The WB Television Network
and are from the official Roswell site.