Lazy, Indiana: Reviewing Eerie, Indiana

Okay, a promise is a promise, and I am starting now.
As soon as I started watching the first episode of Eerie, Indiana (from now on I am just going to call it EI) I remembered what I liked about it as a kid. The first episode starts out with a narration from the main character, Marshall Teller explaining that his family moved from a typical New Jersey Suburb to the town of Eerie, Indiana. Eerie seems fine, but Marshall tells us that under the surface, something sinister seems to be afoot. After the narration the credits roll and we are treated to the cast members in different situations like running away from Bigfoot, and different clips of stock footage from old public domain horror movies, so in other words, stuff a 10 year old boy would love.
The first episode is very much a first episode, we get a voice over from Marshal explaining in more detail why his family moved to Eerie, and kind of giving a character break down of his family. Basically his dad, Edgar, works for a product testing company called "Things Inc." and they moved to Eerie because it is supposedly the most normal town in America. Marshall's mom, Marilyn, doesn't get much of an introduction, just a typical suburban 90's mom. His sister Syndi, gets a similar short introduction though Marshal, does make fun of her for the spelling of her name, which seems like he should really be making fun of his parents for spelling it that way not her. Now, I realize that this is TV and they only have about 25 minutes to get through a story, but as soon as the voice over is done, we jump right into the plot of the first episode. When the Teller's neighbor, Betty Wilson, comes over, she is hawking some diner ware product called Foreverware. It's just like Tupperware but better. This stuff keeps things fresh FOREVER. Something is obviously off with Betty and her creepy twin sons Bertram and Ernest (get it, Bert and Ernie) because Betty is totally off her fucking rocker about Foreverware, dressed like a 60's housewife, and Bert and Ernie are creepy little shits. They just stand there looking creepy and don't shake hands or any other social niceties that normal people do. As they are leaving, Bert or Ernie (come on, there twins, I can't tell them apart either) slips Marshall a slip of paper that simply says yearbook 1974. You can probably all see where this is going. Betty and Bert and Ernie are all oddly out of date, and the stuff she is selling keeps things fresh forever. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. Marshall and his buddy Simon (who is simply introduced as the only kid in Eerie who believes Marshall) starts snooping around and discover the terrifying secret of the Wilson's. I am leaving some stuff out, but not much.
So does it hold up? Do I still love this show? Is it the X-Files Jr. That I remember it being? Well, it isn't bad. The first thing that everyone will notice is that the show it pretty dated. This show is obviously a product of the early 90's right down to the flannel and denim shirts that everyone is wearing. Marshall might as well be listening to Nevermind on his Sony Discman, while watching Home Improvement and drinking a Crystal Pepsi and reading a Spawn comic book (please give me some more ideas for 90's references). Also, and I dont know if this is just the Netflix streaming or a bad transfer to DVD, but the picture quality isn't that great. Other than that though, the show is pretty good. It is obviously aimed at kids, but there is enough stuff in there to keep an adult interested. The two kid leads, Marshall and Simon are also pretty good for kid actors. They aren't annoying or to sweet like a lot of kid stars and they carry the weight of the show pretty well. The episode was actually directed by Joe Dante who directed both Gremlin's movies, the 'burbs, Matinee, and multiple episodes of Amazing Stories, the new Twilight Zone and just about every other anthology series out there. EI is obviously right in his wheel house. Creepy small towns, strange happenings, out of time characters, and characters that are not at all what they seem or have some terrible secret, all of these things are common themes in Dante's work. Dante is a competent director, so this isn't just some by the numbers TV show, it looks like someone put some thought into it. I did think that this episode was a little rushed but like I said, they only have 24 minutes, so they really don't have a lot of time for exposition and plot details. I bet with TV shows, writers know they have a lot more time to flesh out characters and stories, so the first episode just gives us a taste of Marshall's family and friends and focus on how he is living in Eerie.
All in all, it is not that bad. Obviously a kid's show, but not intolerable like a lot of other stuff aimed at kids. I was actually a little worried that this would suck and then I would have to either watch 18 more shitty kid's shows or yet again abandon the blog. I probably wont have time to watch another episode, this weekend so episode 2 will have to wait til next week. Til then, thanks for reading!

Better late than never!

Okay, I knew this would happen, I totally abandoned the blog. Several reasons, I started during the football playoffs and we all know how the season ended and I was in a state of depression for a few weeks and then it just got away from me. I had every intention of doing sort of a Batman movie movie review series, I even watched Batman: The Movie (the 1966 version with Adam West) and wrote a few paragraphs of a review a few times, I just couldn't finish it, and I kind of gave up.
Well, today I was hitting my normal sites and came across this blog and started to feel lazy. I remember reading this when he first started and today he had an article on Badassdigest.com talking about how he surpassed the 1500 movie mark. That made me feel lazy. Well, even lazier than I usually feel. This guy is actually closer to almost 2,000 movies now so that means he has watched and written about a movie a day for the last 4 1/2 years. I cant even write more than five blog entries. This inspired me to start doing this again.
I think I am going to focus more on just movies and TV since football is gay and might not even be around next fall, and I really don't read comics or watch wrestling all that much. Plus I know a lot more about movies and TV than I do anything else. Literally, anything else. Not that I know a lot about movies and TV, I just don't know much about anything else. I am by no means saying that I am going to watch and write about a movie every day, but I'm going to try at least every other day.
With my apology out of the way, I think I am going to start small. The Batman movie got me to thinking, what else did I love as a kid, but wouldn't even be able to sit through today. Probably a lot of stuff, but I always kind of assumed that I could stomach the Batman show because I know it was supposed to be corny, so I would accept for what it was. I couldn't do it. The stupid plot, the over the top dialog (the writers love alliteration) and low budget all combine to make me stop paying attention a half hour in. But what about stuff I really, really liked? I loved Back to the Future as a kid and I think I like it even more now. I loved Jurassic Park, and while I still like it, I would much rather watch Jaws. I am obviously not going to feel the same way about movies and shows at 29 as I did at 9 or even 19 but would I be able to appreciate these movies or shows on different levels, or would I see it as trash?
Eerie, Indiana was a show that I absolutely adored as a kid. I would have been about 9 or 10 the single season that it aired, so I was just becoming interested in horror and sci-fi. Eerie, Indiana was the perfect mix. It was aimed at kids, but just creepy enough that I could watch it and think I was watching something a little more adult. I wasn't quite ready for Freddy or Jason yet, but watching a show about a kid around my age in a creepy Midwestern town, was right up my alley. I have not seen a single episode of this show since they originally aired but remember talking about it in high school and college like it was still something I would watch, if only those network bigwigs hadn't canceled it. Well now, thanks to the magic of Netflix instant viewing, I don't have to wonder if I would still like it, I can find out for my damn self. The entire series is available to watch and I am going to start the blog back up by watching every episode. There are only 19 episodes and at only 25 minutes a piece, I think I will be able to fit them into my busy schedule at some point. Hopefully this will get me back on track and I can start with some more ambitious projects like the entire Alien Franchise or something even more obscure like Twin Peaks. I promise that I will put up my first review of Eerie, Indiana tomorrow afternoon and hopefully knock them all out in two weeks. Thanks for reading!