4 out of 5

Director: people with cameras

Cheesy and silly, Eerie, Indiana nonetheless edged into a formula for TV that still has not gotten picked up in this exact format again – a half-hour, sci-fi/horror comedy show. Shows that exploit weirdness will always grab the publics attention, but they seem to only work from a dramatic standpoint. As Eeries characters and dialogue slant it toward a younger demographic, I wonder if it would have survived skewed to an older crowd. Anyhow, Eerie, Indiana was about Marshall Teller, who had just moved to the titular town only to discover it to be the center of weirdness for the world. He and his pal Simon confront a different oddity (some norms, like werewolves, but some truly strange) each episode, choosing to document it to one day expose everything to the unbelieving world. Probably thanks to B-movie fan and series creative consultant Joe Dante, Eerie, Indiana always has this cheesy feeling to it… which keeps the show feeling harmless and fun but also prevents it from building momentum outside of its 30-minute format. This is the main criticism: that some ideas are so cool and executed with fun sets and characters that youd wish theyd let be a little scarier, or a little more fantastic, but it never quite reaches that point. The flipside to this is that watched with the proper mentality, the show is immensely enjoyable and entertaining, with two great kid leads who are mature enough to never be annoying, even when the show gets sidetracked by trying to introduce more real-life romantic subplots. The addition of Dash-X toward the end was plus/minus: the character is sort of annoying, but the show starts to gain more of an awareness at this point, building to what was a genius show conclusion… Geared for kids, but they wont get the majority of the in-jokes.