Good, bad or indifferent, the pilot of this short-lived series assigns responsibility for the new weirdness in Eerie to the breakdown of social traditions and the mind control brought on by the power of media, specifically cable TV with no less than 2000 channels. (Mitchell: "Are you sure it's the same Golf Channel"? Stanley, incredulous: "There's more than one?") On one level, the show seeks to entertain kids and teens with the usual "kids on a crusade to rid the world of evil" plot lines, the evil cleverly twisted into seemingly innocuous weirdness, an element that is immediately relevant to young people beginning to encounter the world outside their homes. On another level, the script of the pilot mercilessly skewers the contemporary (1998) obsession with media-delivered entertainment and the accompanying breakdown of communication within families and between friends; conformity (five identical cheerleaders all drinking Black Cows in exactly the same way at the World o' Stuff soda counter); and the marketing manipulation, in the person of cable-TV salesman for the Eerie region, Ted Tanner. Through the expressed concerns of our heroes, Mitchell and Stanley, and their counterparts from the earlier series, Marshall and Simon, Eerie and the world are warned that "Eerie . . . will cease to exist . . . it wasn't just normality on the line - it was to be our very existence." With nearly two decades of hindsight (as of 2017) the dominance of "reality" TV, obvious and hidden marketing, and several forms of social media not even invented yet as this show ran its course, makes "Eerie . . . The Other Dimension" prophetic beyond its modest satirical intentions.

Whether it was a cheap production or not, those monies could have been used for something much better. I'm going to give credit for trying to continue on the original Eerie Indiana (1991), but there is nothing that captured me with this version. Just as in movie sequels. If the sequel does not have any actors from the first movie, it wont be the same! If you watched the original Eerie Indiana and fell in love with those characters then the actors that played them will stay as the "real" characters, if you know what I mean. Seeing those actors as Mitchell and Stanley makes me wanna cry. It just looks like a parody on Marshall and Simon! And how can I say this without being rude... Mitchell and Stanley isn't the most "manly" names either... it's all a parody! I'm sorry but this version did not work at all for me! Omri, Justin, Jason... everyone from Eerie (1991) only gets sorely missed watching this version. It's so so so so sad that the show was canceled, but if ever making a remake... I doubt I would like it. If ever making a "sequel" kinda thing it would need to have the same actors... just an older version...Over and out!

I have to admit: Eerie, Indiana, The Other Dimension did better than I expected. But the series lacked the seriousness of the other show. More than anything, the adventures of Mitchell and Stanley seemed purely for the chance to do continuous gags, than an actual plot. And the kids just weren't as believable - they unfortunately did not have the grasp of their characters that Omri Katz and Justin Shenkarow had. The show was also rushed out at a time when FOX already had at least one show of this nature. Two at once was pure overload. I feel I must also mention that the books written for the series at times had more detail and plot than the show itself, another reason to its failure. It tried. And you had to admire the effort. But the original Eerie, Indiana was creepier, better written, and better acted.

As with so many things in recent years that have come out of the archive and remade for a modern audience, Eerie Indiana: The Other Dimension does not have the charm of the original. Why this is really unknown because it looks and feels the same as the original (apart from the cast) but... well I don't know. I think it just wants to be an updated Goosebumps really using the Eerie Indiana template but doesn't pull it off.One of the episodes, I presume the first in the run to set the series up, uses archive footage of the original series to try and explain (not very well it has to be said) that the wierdness of Indiana has spilled over into a new dimension. It should have worked. Just the way it was done ruined everything. The rest of the series was really a load of tosh in hindsight, nothing really memorable about it.I'm not saying that it shouldn't have happened but it was just so detached from the first run in a few regards that, well, it sealed its own fate really. Or maybe I just grew up instead. Still at least it launched Daniel Clark's acting career so some good came out of it after all :¬D