The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles / YMMV

Alternative Character Interpretation: In the Florence episode: Did Puccini successfully sweep Anna off her feet during the week her husband was gone, or was it a combination of harassment and guilt-tripping on his part that made her feel she had to go with him? Many fans accuse her of the former, but her Broken Tears over the issue (and belief in Puccini's statement that he "cannot create" without her as his muse) seem to point toward the latter.
Bizarro Episode: "Transylvania, January 1918". It comes out of nowhere and even years later still makes no freakin' sense. In the original (never aired) cut, the Transylvania episode was told as a ghost story by Old Indy to some children at Halloween, so there was the possibility that it was completely made up. But then the new cut got rid of that. It does, however, feel closer in tone to the movies which often have supernatural shenanigans and goings on.
Broken Base: The framing scenes with Old Indy (played by George Hall, complete with eyepatch) are either tedious, preachy, and disrupt the pace or are nuanced storytelling that shows how some things are timeless and provides delightful insights into Indy’s older life (especially in the episodes where he interacts with his family). Fans either celebrate or bemoan how those framing scenes are absent from the DVD release. Those who like the Old Indy scenes also tend to dislike the fact that no mention was made of Sophie (the daughter) in the later films.
Complete Monster: "Transylvania, January 1918" (later remade into "Masks of Evil"): Mattias Targo is a bloodthirsty Romanian general and a literal vampire all but explicitly stated to be the reincarnation of Vlad Tepes himself. Targo liberates an Austrian POW Camp simply to murder all of the dozens of soldiers being held captive there, either to transform them into members of his vampire army or simply leave them staked around his castle. When three foreign spies investigate his affairs, Targo kills them and sends their body parts back to their superiors as a grisly warning. Targo later kidnaps Indy and his allies with gruesome designs for them, vivisecting one of them alive and screaming. A sadistic nightmare so in love with his brutality that he falls asleep to the sound of tortured screaming, Targo plans to have his army sweep through Romania and cleanse it in a wave of blood, slaughtering all those he decrees "intruders" onto his land.
Fanfic Fuel: What happened to Remy after he went off to look for the Peacock's Eye on his own after parting ways with Indy? And how did Indy find out that it was in China?
Fanon Discontinuity: Some fans of the movies prefer to ignore the TV series. However, the re-cut of the series (which does away with the contentious frame story) has been better received.
Growing the Beard: The Sean Patrick Flanery episodes are able to be have more varied plots, greater stakes, and more character development than the Corey Carrier episodes. The Carrier era is also repetitive, since its plots largely revolve around Indy running off and having mild conflicts with his dad.
Hilarious in Hindsight: A few examples.
- One episode involves Indy hunting down something known as The Phantom Train.
  - In that same episode, one of the African belligerents tells Indy "Hakuna Matata."
- In an early episode, we learn that Indy's father befriended Captain Frederick Selous, a historical British military officer who's widely believed to have been the inspiration for Allan Quatermain, during his travels in Africa. Sean Connery, who originally played Indy's father in the films, would go on to play Quatermain in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
- In "Daredevils of the Desert", Indy encounters Schiller, a German officer played by a pre-007 Daniel Craig. They get into a fight. That's right — Indiana Jones and James Bond had a fight!
- The Framing Device set in the early 90s has elderly, near-century old Indy recollecting his past exploits. He was portrayed by George Hall, who was 77 when production wrapped. During the filming of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Harrison Ford was 79 and portrayed a 70-year-old character, still adventuring.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: After watching Dial of Destiny the old Indy scenes are this, even if they and the series in general are in a canon gray area. He might have lost his son but somewhere down the road Indy will discover he also had a daughter and even grandchildren. In the end he discovered (again) that he still has a family.
Just Here for Godzilla: The most memorable scene from the whole show is when a scantily-clad Indy, who's playing a non-dancing background character in a ballet, moves to centre-stage and starts gyrating his hips in order to send a message in Morse code using the bejewelled codpiece which is part of his costume. Which is why Espionage Escapades is such a popular episode.
Padding: A few of the made-for-TV films are arguably guilty of padding out their stories to reach feature length on a limited budget. To name a few examples:
- The Treasure of the Peacock's Eye includes two lengthy back-to-back boat chases, the latter of which features Indy and Remy stopping at a small island and immediately leaving after a group of angry natives show up, eventually just winding up at a different island. The second sequence drags on for more than five minutes, and serves no purpose other than briefly delaying them finally getting the Macguffin.
- The Phantom Train of Doom features a mostly pointless scene where Indy, Remy, and Von Lettow are cornered by a pride of lions (who are very obviously just stock footage, by the way) after their hot air balloon is shot down over the African savanna. It ends abruptly when they manage to frighten the lions away by yelling at them.
Retroactive Recognition:
- Episodes featured then unknown actors Elizabeth Hurley as Young Indy's British suffragette girlfriend, Catherine Zeta-Jones, future James Bond and Felix Leiter Daniel Craig and Jeffrey Wright (in different episodes), Jane Krakowski, Anne Heche, Douglas Henshall from Primeval and Shetland and Clark Gregg. Even Young Indy himself, as nowadays most know Sean Patrick Flanery from The Boondock Saints, Dexter or The Boys (2019).
- Delfina from "Barcelona, May 1917" is played by Liz Smith, who would later be best known for playing Mrs. Cropley in The Vicar of Dibley and Nana in The Royle Family.
Special Effect Failure: Oh, so much. Granted, it was made in the early '90s, but still...

YMMV / The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles

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