Eerie Indiana Chooseday Challenge

[froodle]

It's Tuesday, so today you get a choice between two prompts. Pick one, combine both, pit them against each other - on Tuesday, you choose!

This week, your options are:

SYNDI VERSUS MARSHALL

Jamil Scalese on Eerie Indiana

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Way back when, in the time of preteen, Eerie, Indiana was a show that absolutely delighted me. For much of my life, it’s occupated that ill-defined space in my mind of something I remember fondly but also not too well. There was a kid, his town was weird af and it was funny but also suspenseful and mysterious. I figured I’d never really get to understand why I liked it so much — who would have time to watch a children’s show from the ’90s, and how exactly would I watch it??

Then Covid-19 plus Amazon Prime teamed up and gave me a venue and means to re-enter the extraordinary town of Eerie.

Predating X-Files by about two years (though I guess I watched it around ’97 or so) the show is about a malcontent named Marshall (Omri Katz) investigating the strange and supernatural occurrences of his new midwest town. The premise is wide and the plot is episodic, but there’s a snappy continuity to the show that makes for wonderful worldbuilding. Anything can happen in Eerie, from alien visits, to deals with demons, warped alternate dimensions, sentient tornados and erranding for Old Timey Ghost Tobey McGuire. The show starts to crackle once The Kid with the Gray Hair (Jason Marsden) shows up about halfway in, and the first season ends with one of the very best episodes of I’ve ever seen, of anything, across all TV (seriously), “Reality Takes a Holiday.”

Then, apparently, Eerie, Indiana got canceled.

That’s the most interesting part of my binge watch, I suppose. For a decade or so I thought I had just stopped watching the show because the timeslot had changed or maybe I just watched less TV one year to the next and fell off, but no, the reason my memory of it stopped so abruptly is because the show did as well. What a shame though, huh? The adventures of Marshall and his sidekick Simon (Justin Shenkarow) operate under a formula that grounds the viewer but promotes ingenuity in plot. Nothing ever gets too serious, and there’s a tenor to it that allows the main duo to travel all the way to the edge of insanity and safely back. There are creative choices in this show that amaze me, like when a movie mummy is accidentally pulled out of the TV, but instead of a shuffling monster Mars and Simon find themselves saddled with a really confused actor. An episode in particular that I must shoutout is “The Lost Hour” which stuck with me for two decades. It’s a time-travel adventure with a bold twist that expanded my sense of story and possibility. I’m glad I got to come back around to Eerie, Indiana. It’s not next-level good good, but without a doubt one of the better single season shows out there.

sarahkendzior on Eerie Indiana

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"It's weird, as an 1980s kid, watching MSM fall for Trump's image rehab because his crimes were *so* well-known they were the plot of kids TV shows! Sesame Street, TMNT. Eerie, Indiana did an episode about Trump being a tax cheat in 1992!" -- @gaslitnation https://t.co/EeuNoymEJw

— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) September 30, 2020

Eerie, Indiana rewatch 2020: episode three, ATM with a Heart of Gold

[froodle]

Strap on your Sky Monsters part 2 (with bubble sole!), and strut like a sky-walking machine down to First Eerie Savings to sing 99 Bottles of Beer with Mister Wilson. Ladies, gentlemen, ain't it good to know you got a friend? Put your white plastic cash dispensing hands together for... ATM with a Heart of Gold!

Eerie, Indiana rewatch 2020: episode three, ATM with a Heart of Gold

[froodle]

Strap on your Sky Monsters part 2 (with bubble sole!), and strut like a sky-walking machine down to First Eerie Savings to sing 99 Bottles of Beer with Mister Wilson. Ladies, gentlemen, ain't it good to know you got a friend? Put your white plastic cash dispensing hands together for... ATM with a Heart of Gold!