hyped garbage

Excellent, smart action film.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This series combines elements of Lost in Space, assorted time traveler shows and The Fugitive. The cast is competent but none of them ever became stars. The two whom I remember are Gretchen Corbett, who was a regular for awhile on The Rockford Files, and Johnathan Banks, who is still active and makes his living with guest spots as various menacing types-gangsters and other unpleasant persons. Herein he appears as a Zone Trooper in pursuit of the hapless family.In each episode they change provinces. The gimmick is that each province is of an entirely different socio-economic system in which the family of fugitives must attempt to conceal themselves. The major premise being that the fugitives are on an alternate earth: all the provinces vary in time periods based on earth history, which means there are no elaborate special effects, space ship sets, etc. Chep enough to make, this series still did not get high enough ratings to warrant renewal; this was a hole filler until something better came along. Still worth watching for the clever bits, but it will never even rival the erstwhile Buck Rogers seres which hung on for two seasons..

My main concerns with this series are that it lacked decent characterisation and plot line. The family was far too 'normal' for the show to be exciting. And the plots seemed to be similar with a couple of exceptions.Some comic-relief type character (along the lines of Dr. Smith from 'Lost In Space') would have added so much to this series. And the younger boy did absolutely nothing! They could have at least had him stir up trouble, get lost, or whatever now and then.It seemed they tried to imbue a seriousness that just couldn't be carried by the plot or actors. Kroll and his sim-Nazi goons were way too obsessed with getting the Hardin family (or whatever the name was---I think they changed it frequently) to be believable. I mean they weren't leading a rebellion or anything. (Now, had they started a rebellion against the Zone Troopers, the show might have been much more interesting.).Personally, I enjoyed watching these, but not nearly as much as 'Sliders' or 'Lost In Space'. My wife particularly liked the 'beauty and the beast' and the 'princess from the balloon' episodes. (I can't think of the real titles right now.) I had recorded these on VHS and dug them out the other day. Much to my regret, I couldn't find my favourite episode...the one where they have the motorcycle duel and the biker guys all take some powder drug. Seems I only have 6 episodes left.As with any opinion, mine may not necessarily be consistent with our readers'. But, if you really liked stuff like 'Lost In Space', 'Sliders' or 'Dr. Who', you might like this series. I rate it a generous 6/10.

I saw this show when it was on, for it's very short run, when I was a little kid, and even then I could see the huge plot holes.A "typical American family" touring Egypt finds a local boy who offers to show them an unauthorized tour of the Great Pyramid, on the day of an eclipse, and the boy suddenly stops in the middle of the pyramid and demands more money. When the family refuses, he extinguishes the light and leaves them alone in the Pyramid, where the eclipse happens and they are mysteriously sucked through into another dimension/world.Now, at this point it seems vaguely akin to Sliders or Stargate SG-1, which treated the concept of other worlds and ancient Egyptian space/dimensional travelers much better, however here comes the big problem.They are barely arrived in this new dimension, where they land in a huge desert with a single road going through it. A futuristic car drives up and out of it comes some strange official-type person, who tries to arrest the family and is quickly beat up, looted of some strange crystal, and the family flees.Apparently this official was a very, very high ranking leader of the "Zone Troopers" this world, and that crystal was a huge, powerful command permit that gives its wielder nigh-unlimited authority over the computer and governmental systems of this world, which turns out to be huge set of vastly different "zones" with different cultures and peoples, all policed by the "Zone Troopers". Also throw in some bit about how they are trying to go home by following a series of obelisks that have the "eye in the pyramid" sign found on US Dollar bills on them that leads to a mysterious capital city they hope can send them home.This is all in the first 10 minutes of the pilot. This leader will be a recurring nemesis as he follows them trying to get his crystal back, but like Colonel Decker of A-Team fame, he's always 3 steps behind.Now, in one of the episodes the son does poorly on a test at school and is promptly drafted into the Zone Troopers. Bad, but it's worse when he finds out that conscription is for life, unless he can excel at the training program so well he's made an Officer and is allowed to resign immediately.Suddenly, that crystal goes from being able to shut down massive power grids, rewrite any computer file, open any lock, override any command, and being nigh-godlike in the system to being ignored. The dad just says something about "I can't use that to get you out of every little problem you get yourself into, you have to take care of these things yourself." The dad just arbitrarily decides to let his son be drafted, probably for life, on an alien world just because he failed a test at school, and decides not to use the plot-device uber-permit (mainly because it would completely shortcut the episode) but it makes the dad look like a real jerk.So the show sets up that the main characters don't have to worry about the bureaucracy of the new world they find, which they decide to arbitrarily ignore early on, and make the main characters look either incompetent or uncaring. They couldn't make it 8 episodes without completely backpedaling on one of the main concepts of the show?

As a television show, Otherworld was a train wreck. And like a train wreck, it's hard to keep one's eyes off it. In trying to portray the typical American family, fallen into a different dimension, they take the viewer to a hideously different dimension of bad taste and poor acting.Because of this short glimpse into how people in another universe fail to entertain or be entertained, I myself became an addict. It actually had some interesting stylistic touches in those few moments when it wasn't being completely predictable and offensive.Highly recommended for someone searching for a diversion from British Science Fiction programming.