Monsters Inside Me was an American television documentary series about parasitic infestations and infectious diseases. The series utilizes first-person interviews with medical professionals and patients telling their personal stories about contracting rare diseases, as well as dramatizations of the patients' illnesses. Interviews with contributors were shot on location across North America. Dramatizations were mostly filmed near hospitals and homes in New York City.
| Monsters Inside Me | |
|---|---|
 Monsters Inside Me logo | |
| Genre | Documentary |
| Directed by | Kyle McCabe, Alexis Siggers, Sally Freeman, Ed Hambleton |
| Starring | Dan Riskin |
| Narrated by | Justin Peed Jason Done (UK, until series 6) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 75 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Nicola Moody Erin Wanner Dominic Stobart |
| Producer | Kyle McCabe |
| Running time | 60 min. |
| Production company | Optomen Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | Animal Planet |
| Release | July 1, 2009 – December 17, 2017 |
| Related | |
| Bugs, Bites & Parasites | |
Summary
editEach episode has dramatizations that show illnesses caused by an infectious disease or parasitic infestation. Once the agent has been identified, their life cycles and general behaviors are illustrated. Justin Peed is the narrator, and biologist Dan Riskin explains how and why each infectious agent works inside its host. Most shows start as a commonly diagnosed disease but then transform into a different life-threatening or serious disease, which will be cured most of the time at the end. Out of the 216 cases documented on the show, only 12 of those ended in the victim dying, usually from a disease with an extremely low survival rate.
The overwhelming majority of cases and their victims occur throughout the United States, but a few cases and their victims come from Canada.
The show's first two seasons focused solely on parasites and parasitic infections, but since the third season, the show has included scenarios and medical cases about general infectious diseases and medical afflictions, including those caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, and foreign objects.
The second season premiered on Wednesday June 9, 2010 and then returned for a third season on October 5, 2012.[1] As of January 7, 2011, Monsters Inside Me was broadcast in Canada by Discovery Science. It also airs on Discovery in the UK, and broadcasts in different languages on various Discovery networks across the world.
The show's final episode aired on December 17, 2017.
Episodes
editSeries overview
edit| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 6 | July 1, 2009 | August 5, 2009 | |
| 2 | 10 | June 9, 2010 | August 25, 2010 | |
| 3 | 10 | October 5, 2012 | December 7, 2012 | |
| 4 | 10 | September 30, 2013 | December 18, 2013 | |
| 5 | 10 | October 9, 2014 | December 18, 2014 | |
| 6 | 10 | October 29, 2015 | December 22, 2015 | |
| 7 | 7 | October 6, 2016 | December 15, 2016 | |
| 8 | 12 | October 15, 2017 | December 17, 2017 | |
Monsters Inside Me: Extra Deadly
editMonsters Inside Me: Extra Deadly is a spin-off of Monsters Inside Me that airs alongside the original show. It features reruns of episodes from Seasons 6-onwards but adds extra onscreen trivia that appears when a condition, infection, or symptom is discussed. Aside from that, it also features onscreen trivia of various casual objects found in the episode, like when it was first invented. The spin-off started in 2016; the first season is composed of altered versions of all Season 6 episodes with added trivia, and would usually air before a brand new episode from Season 7 of the original show premiered. The second season, which started in 2017, is set to air altered versions of all Season 7 episodes and previously-aired episodes of Season 8 with added trivia, and will premiere before brand-new episodes of Season 8 of the original show premiere.
Season 1 (2016)
edit| # | Title | Original air date | Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "There's a Fungus in My What!?!" | October 13, 2016 | N/A |
| 2 | "There's Something Living in My Knee!?" | October 20, 2016 | N/A |
| 3 | "My Vacation From Hell" | October 27, 2016 | N/A |
| 4 | "Help! My Son is a Leper" | November 3, 2016 | N/A |
| 5 | "Worms Are Eating My Lungs" | November 10, 2016 | N/A |
| 6 | "The Eyeball Eater" | November 17, 2016 | N/A |
| 7 | "The Backyard Killer" | December 1, 2016 | N/A |
| 8 | "They Hijacked My Eyeball" | December 1, 2016 | N/A |
| 9 | "An Amoeba is Eating My Brain" | December 8, 2016 | N/A |
| 10 | "All I Got For Christmas Is Brain Surgery" | December 15, 2016 | N/A |
Season 2 (2017)
edit| # | Title | Original air date | Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "I Have a WHAT in My WHAT?" | October 15, 2017 | N/A |
| 2 | "There's Something Living in My Hand!" | October 22, 2017 | N/A |
| 3 | "My Wife is Rotting" | October 29, 2017 | N/A |
| 4 | "My Hands Are Falling Off" | November 5, 2017 | N/A |
| 5 | "My Evil Twin is Driving Me Crazy" | November 12, 2017 | N/A |
| 6 | "My Second Brain Is Killing Me" | November 19, 2017 | N/A |
| 7 | "Help! I'm Being Eaten Alive" | November 26, 2017 | N/A |
| 8 | "There's a Maggot in My Head" | December 3, 2017 | N/A |
| 9 | "Something Is Eating My Baby" | December 10, 2017 | N/A |
| 10 | "My Brain Is Under Attack" | December 17, 2017 | N/A |
Season 3 (2018)
edit| # | Title | Original air date | Viewers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Monster in My Mouth" | April 5, 2018 | N/A |
| 2 | "Braced for Death" | April 12, 2018 | N/A |
| 3 | "I Can't Stop Coughing Up Blood" | April 19, 2018 | N/A |
| 4 | "The Organ Shredder" | April 26, 2018 | N/A |
| 5 | "My Lungs Are Rotting" | May 3, 2018 | N/A |
Reception
editMike Hale of The New York Times said that "there's science amid the frightening stories" and said that the series "really grossed him out."[2]
Anne Louise Bannon of Common Sense Media said that "parents need to know that there is a lot of gross stuff in the series and the show has good educational content except for the tips on how to protect yourself from parasites because the information is vague".[3]
Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times wrote "Forget 'American Horror Story.' For several years now the scariest show on television has been Animal Planet's 'Monsters Inside Me,' which recreates real cases of bizarre, life-threatening infections."[4]
Spin-off
editIn 2013, a UK spin-off called Bugs, Bites & Parasites premiered on Discovery Channel UK.[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ "Expect the Unexpected in an All-New Season of Animal Planet's "Monsters Inside Me"". The Futon Critic. September 11, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
- ^ Hale, Mike (June 30, 2009). "The Enemy Within: Wrigglies From Hell". The New York Times. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
- ^ Bannon, Anne Louise. "Monsters Inside Me Review". Common Sense Media. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved August 18, 2009.
- ^ Genzlinger, Neil (October 22, 2015). "10 Unconventional Halloween Diversions". New York Times. Retrieved October 22, 2015.