The second season of this short-lived teen drama finds the three alien children that have "hatched" in Roswell, New Mexico struggling with their identity (like most kids their age) and dealing evolving relationships within the community. This six disc set shows some dramatic swings and some experimentation by the writers to find the right niche with their audience.

Each disc contains 4 episodes and starts out where Season One left off, with Max(Jason Behr), Michael(Brendon Fehr), Tess (Emilie de Ravin) and Isabel(Katherine Heigel) dealing with their new identities as royals from another planet and developing their individual powers. It also follows closely the intertwining romances with their earth friends Liz(Shiri Appleby), Maria (Majandra Delfino), Alex (Colin Hanks), and Kyle (Nick Weschler). Their chief adversary , the sheriff from Season One (William Sadler) becomes a good guy in this season. The baddies this season are from a group called the Skins, who leave traces of their bodies whenever an attack occurs. While this teenage cross between Dawson's Creek and X-Files has some good moments in Season Two, the writers seemed to be struggling with developing storylines to sustain it in Season Two, some which work and some that don't. Highlights of Season Two include End Of The World, in which a future Max must return to the past (our present) to make Liz fall out of love with him. In so doing, he changes the future and thus eliminates himself. A very thought provoking episode. We see Liz and Max take on a fiery relationship in this season, first loving and then hating each other. Michael and Maria's relationship becomes much more ho-hum in season two, with predictable ups and downs, mostly because of Maria's insecurities. The big change comes to Kyle, the football jock from Season One, who has studied Buddhism over the summer and has a new outlook on life. This is also reflective on his father, the sheriff, who has become a real supporter of the aliens and takes Tess in as an adoptive daughter. One of the best episodes involves the entire cast portraying other characters in a flashback to 1947 ("Summer of 47") and the circumstances surrounding the "crash" and its aftermath. Dialog and costuming were outstanding for this episode. There is also a poignant departure of a cast member near the end of the season ("Heart Of Mine" and "Cry Your Name"), which carries over a few episodes and changes the nature of the series into a more mysterious, murder mystery plot, which isn't resolved until the series season finale.

A relatively new series, the picture is widescreen and shows little flaws or artifacts. Colors are rich and details are sharp. Sound is also very good, although I understand a lot of the original music for the series is not included on the dvd set, because of permission rights. The signature Dido song is included however in the opening credits.

Disc six contains the season finale and also the extras for the season two. They are fun to look at with cast members Shiri Appleby and Majandra Delfino reminiscing about season two. Max (Jason Behr) is also included in some extras recalling significant episodes. On location features the cast in the '47 episode in costume and on the set. Commentary is included on selected episodes.

Fans of the series will undoubtedly pick this one up-I found the season episodes a mixture of some great episodes and some bogged down too much by the Liz-Max ongoing relationship. While this relationship is central to the main storyline, the emotional roller coaster ride in Season Two was a bit much for me. I liked the injection of more science fiction into the series. Extras are fun but not readily watchable more then a few times, and the commentaries are less then on the Season One disc set. Watch for the final Season Three disc set to be available in the summer of 2005.