By portraying the hunted aliens of the TV series Roswell as teens, the show draws parallels between the experiences of alienation felt by teens and those felt by theoretical aliens. But whats most interesting are the questions posed about the relationship between teens and adults, particularly in a post Columbine society. In the show, the character of Sheriff Valenti represents a majority of the adult presence. Valenti not only automatically see's aliens as dangerous, despite the only evidence of their presence being that a girl was saved, but refuses to believe any of the teenagers that he asks questions of. This distrust is further manifested when the three aliens are driving down the road and get pulled over by him for no reason. One of the aliens even days that he pulls teens over for no reason just to scare them. His constant surveillance and deep distrust of teens is what causes all of the problems for the aliens in the first place.
If not for the aliens, this series could have been a drama about the post Columbine society, despite being developed before Columbine. Instead of questioning the atmosphere that could cause a teenager to feel so distant from everyone else that he turns to mass killing, they blamed things like the music he listened to and the clothes he wore. Instead of working with teens to produce a more open environment where everyone could be heard and understood, adults mistrusted their children even more and policed them like never before. Much like in Roswell, fear is not the answer. Mutual conversation and understanding is.
That's a compelling point: "Valenti not only automatically see's aliens as dangerous, despite the only evidence of their presence being that a girl was saved." In response to this, in my opinion there are two preceding points that lead to this reaction = 1. There was that picture of the body with the hand on it 2. Aliens are unknown to them. Given these two factors I think the Sheriff was reacting to this feelings of fear and fear of the unknown.
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