[Review] Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 1 “Pilot”

Promotional poster of Roswell, New Mexico featuring Jeanine Mason and Nathan Parsons as Liz Ortecho and Max Evans respectively. Photo courtesy of SpoilerTV.

Set in modern America, Roswell, New Mexico follows Liz Ortecho (played by Jeanine Mason) as she returns to her estranged hometown days before the tenth anniversary of her sister Rosa’s death. On the way, she meets up with an old crush, Max Evans (played by Nathan Parsons), and later encounters a traumatic event that sets forth the central conflict of the episode. Evans meets up with his siblings, Isobel Evans (played by Lily Cowles) and Michael Guerin (played by Michael Vlamis), where the events that happen to Ortecho is discussed and the reason it impacts them which develops into another secret that connects back to the Ortecho family. Meanwhile, Ortecho does some digging of her own about her traumatic experience and finds help from another old friend, Kyle Valenti (played by Michael Trevino), who eventually departs with his own adventures and uncovers a family secret that involves a government conspiracy. The big conflict ends just as you’d expect, but it leaves room for exploration in later episodes.

[Review] The Passage Season 1 Episode 1 “Pilot”

Title poster of the FOX network drama series, THE PASSAGE, featuring Saniyya Sidney and Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Amy Bellafonte and Brad Wolgast respectively. Photo credit: SpoilerTV

In an apocalyptic tale that parallels reality, The Passage centers a high prestige research facility seeking a single vaccine for all the world’s diseases. These research doctors find themselves on track after a simple event years ago, and their unreluctant next step brings us to our protagonist, Amy Bellafonte (played by Saniyya Sidney), a ten-year-old child, who is, as the show determines, an untraceable, unwanted, and unknown child. Bellafonte has a tumultuous experience in this first episode that leads her from feeling alone in the world to slowly starting to open up as she meets agent Brad Wolgast (played by Mark-Paul Gosselaar), who is initially tasked to retrieve her. This new spin on the vampiric lore is the perfect balance of action, adventure, drama, and sci-fi.