What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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T2 WHATS UP! March 10 - 16, 2019 BY KYLA BREWER TV Media E xtraterrestrials have long been fodder for sci-fi television shows, movies and books, but a new TV series goes beyond typical alien cliches to address broader issues such as racism and immigration. Biomedical researcher Liz Ortecho (Jeanine Mason, "Grey's Anatomy") learns that her one-time high school crush, Max (Nathan Parsons, "General Hospital"), is really an alien struggling to hide his true nature from those who wish to harm him in "Roswell, New Mexico," airing Tuesday, March 12, on CW. Now a local Roswell police officer, Max isn't the only alien in town, and his friends are also keen to keep their origins a secret. "Roswell, New Mexico" is actually the second American television adaptation of the "Roswell High" book series by Melinda Metz. The first pro- gram, simply entitled "Ro- swell," aired on The WB and UPN from 1999 to 2002 and followed the lives of teenage humans and aliens in the epon- ymous town. The prime-time soap quickly became a cult hit. While "Roswell, New Mexi- co" does rely heavily on ro- mantic storylines, the show digs deeper to touch on mod- ern-day hot-button topics. In- stead of focusing on the lives of angst-ridden teens, the new it- eration finds the main charac- ters 10 years after graduation. In contrast to the earlier series, which was criticized for white- washing all of the main charac- ters, CW's new show is truer to the books, featuring a Latina lead and several other charac- ters who represent the diverse population of the United States. "I don't believe in color- blind casting," show creator Carina Adly Mackenzie ex- plained in a February ew.com article. "'Roswell, New Mexico' doesn't attempt to portray a world in which racism and xe- nophobia do not exist, so we can't arbitrarily fill roles." The show boasts a compli- cated web of alien and human characters, led by Mason as Jeanine Mason stars in "Roswell, New Mexico" Close encounters continued on page T10 TV FEATURE