The Twilight Zone (TV Series) Many, Many Monkeys (1989) User Reviews

A Strange Solution

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 5 July 2017]

If the premise of this episode were accurate, just about everyone in our country would be blind right now. Many of us have stopped caring for our fellow creatures. In this show, a young nurse played by Karen Valentine has no time for her patients, other than to take their temperatures and blood pressure and to move on. Suddenly, an epidemic of blindness begins to affect huge numbers of people. It's not contagious, so what is it? This is a social commentary rather than a supernatural effort. It works on that level for sure. The ending scene is quite striking.

Many, Many Monkeys

[Scarecrow-88 · 7/10 · 24 August 2011]

This compelling episode of the 80s Twilight Zone deals with a blindness epidemic which seems to have derived from an accidental release of bacteria from a plant in Alaska. For nurse Claire Henricks, however, her blindness could come from a more "self-imposed" darkness, a shroud over the eyes which occurred because of the lack of care that has diminished because we as a society are losing our humanity—in her case, patients come in and she doesn't even look them in the eyes, they are "merely numbers on a chart", rules and regulations regarding insurance and hospital rules taking precedent over the need to care for the sick and ailing, her job practically a burden, with Claire only realizing this as the number of the blind start to grow and she is powerless to help. Ultimately, this episode uses blindness as symbolism for our diminished capacity to care for our fellow man, in a sense we become "blinded" to what matters most, that people be treated more humanely, perhaps this epidemic brought on by a fault of our own. Interesting approach to a new type of epidemic, along with a message about how we treat one another as human beings. Karen Valentine is Claire, for most of the episode she is overworked, shopworn, and browbeaten—she has come to a crossroads and perhaps blindness may "resurrect" her from the plight of indifference. Jackie Burroughs has a memorable part here as a blind patient, Jean, who tells Claire that they are a lot alike, maybe warning her of a similar fate if she doesn't change her ways. Ken Pogue rounds out the cast as Dr. Eddie Peterson, the physician Claire works for in the hospital. Pretty scary epidemic shows those afflicted have whites in their eyes, quite eerie. There are some interesting similarities between "Many, Many Monkeys" as compared to Fernando Meirelles' topical 2008 film, "Blindness", a film also dealing with a blindness epidemic that is overtaking the country in large numbers over a small period of time.