DVD Talk on the Eerie, Indiana boxset

[froodle]

In 10 Words or Less:
Two kids discover the weird world of middle America

The Show
Once in a rare while, someone in TV-land will realize that you don't need to talk down to kids in order to make a kids show. That someone gets his chance, sees his show run about half a season, and is promptly fired for his efforts. The executive who greenlit "Eerie, Indiana" is one of those someones. But thanks to his foresight, kids tuned into NBC in 1991 were able to enjoy a fun take on the themes "The X-Files" would start tackling a few years later.

Marshall Teller (Omri Katz) has been transplanted from New Jersey to the safety of the Midwest. His family settles in Eerie, Indiana, with a not-at-all-ominous population of 16,661. From the start he finds that his new neighborhood is a bit odd. From seeing Elvis to hearing dogs talk, Eerie is loaded with the bizarre. The only other local who notices these things is Simon, his next-door-neighbor and only friend. Together, they try to figure out what's going on in their town, keeping the evidence in a locker, away from prying eyes.

There's no real ongoing storyline to the show, with each episode mainly sticking to the current "case." The cases all involve some odd paranoid conspiracy theory on the part of Marshall, putting it into a genre populated by iconic characters. But in this case, our hero is a mix of some of the best there's been. Marshall's inner monologue serves to narrate the show, sounding like a junior Agent Cooper, lost on his way to "Twin Peaks," while his obsessive desire to root out the weird is inherited from Carl Kolchak of "Kolchak, the Night Stalker."

But the main character isn't the only one with a pop pedigree. Throughout the series, music cues, plot points and actions are lifted liberally from memorable movies and TV. In one of the most obvious references, the show added the character of Dash X, a silver-haired kid doing a bad Christian Slater in Heathers imitation. This mélange of pop culture references is sure to entertain any TV or movie fan.

The show takes place on level of reality similar to that of "Parker Lewis Can't Lose." Colors are brighter, behavior is exaggerated and personalities are cartoony. Because of this heightened reality, the outlandish storylines are more acceptable as they are free of pesky real-world expectations. Even the over-the-top performances by many of the actors don't bring down what is an entertaining show.