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 Betty and Bert and Ernie are all oddly out of date, and the stuff she is selling keeps things fresh forever.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!
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