A young american woman is locked in a controlled monitored environment. We discover that she has agreed to an experiment where she must be alone for several months with absolutely no contact with anything or anyone, as predicted she begins to slowly go insane as we learn the habitat she is in isn't man made but something from outta this world. The lead actress doesn't do a bad job considering the dialogue given to her is at times pretty bad, at only the usual 20 minutes it wears done quick. The absolutely goofy final doesn't do much to save it either, the message of man's loneliness and hypocrisy is a nice touch to the series, but, with a better overall episode it could have worked much better.
4 Reviews
Not that good.
poolandrews2 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Monsters: Habitat starts as 23 year old woman Jamie Neal (Lily Taylor) signs a mysterious contract, a contract that states she will spend the next nine months in a single room being observed. However after a very short space of time Jamie wants out, the loneliness of her confinement & having her freedom taken away has become too much to bear. Unfortunately her mysterious captor won't go back on the contract so easily...
Episode thirteen from season two of Monsters this originally aired in the US during January 1990, directed by Bette Gordon I am not really too sure what the makers were intending here. The story about a woman losing her sanity after being confined to a single location doesn't really go anywhere expect fro a silly twist ending in which her captor's turn out to be aliens conducting some sort of experiment. There's little horror here, not much variety & I am not sure anyone would agree to spend nine months in a single room for someone they have never either heard or seen before. The only thing that I can think of is that the makers were on a morality trip here trying to make a meaningful statement about liberty, freedom, the ability to see a sun rise every morning & that it shouldn't be taken for granted but overall Habitat isn't very good whichever you analyse it in my opinion.
Habitat only features one actress & she does OK on her own & carries the episode competently enough but the ending is spoilt by quite simply two of the most ridiculous looking aliens ever seen. You though the alien from Glim-Glim (1989) from season one looked daft, well you ain't seen nothing yet with these two beauties. There's no real horror here, sure there's supposed to be psychological horror rather than physical horror but it doesn't really work, I mean keeping a woman in a room with a jigsaw puzzle & making annoying alarms go off just isn't that interesting or effective.
Habitat isn't the worst episode of Monsters out there but it's far from the best either, at only twenty odd minutes it's short & those ridiculous looking aliens at the end are worth a few unintentional laughs if nothing else.
Episode thirteen from season two of Monsters this originally aired in the US during January 1990, directed by Bette Gordon I am not really too sure what the makers were intending here. The story about a woman losing her sanity after being confined to a single location doesn't really go anywhere expect fro a silly twist ending in which her captor's turn out to be aliens conducting some sort of experiment. There's little horror here, not much variety & I am not sure anyone would agree to spend nine months in a single room for someone they have never either heard or seen before. The only thing that I can think of is that the makers were on a morality trip here trying to make a meaningful statement about liberty, freedom, the ability to see a sun rise every morning & that it shouldn't be taken for granted but overall Habitat isn't very good whichever you analyse it in my opinion.
Habitat only features one actress & she does OK on her own & carries the episode competently enough but the ending is spoilt by quite simply two of the most ridiculous looking aliens ever seen. You though the alien from Glim-Glim (1989) from season one looked daft, well you ain't seen nothing yet with these two beauties. There's no real horror here, sure there's supposed to be psychological horror rather than physical horror but it doesn't really work, I mean keeping a woman in a room with a jigsaw puzzle & making annoying alarms go off just isn't that interesting or effective.
Habitat isn't the worst episode of Monsters out there but it's far from the best either, at only twenty odd minutes it's short & those ridiculous looking aliens at the end are worth a few unintentional laughs if nothing else.
The Crystal Maze for beginners
Leofwine_draca9 April 2015
HABITAT is one dull episode of the TV series MONSTERS - indeed one of the worst episodes I've yet seen. The entire story sees an annoying American woman who's taken to a spaceship, where she's tasked with nine months of solitude in return for financial renumeration.
What follows is a shoddy, makeshift story that seems to be being made up as it goes along. Much of the running time consists of the woman playing what seems to be THE CRYSTAL MAZE, although it's not nearly as fun as that gameshow. What sinks this one is the annoying acting on the part of the lead actress - all shrill and shouty - and the defunct writing, with dodgy dialogue and an almost entire lack of incident.
What follows is a shoddy, makeshift story that seems to be being made up as it goes along. Much of the running time consists of the woman playing what seems to be THE CRYSTAL MAZE, although it's not nearly as fun as that gameshow. What sinks this one is the annoying acting on the part of the lead actress - all shrill and shouty - and the defunct writing, with dodgy dialogue and an almost entire lack of incident.
Excellent episode
Woodyanders4 October 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Spunky young lass Jamie Neal (a fine and winning performance by Lili Taylor) agrees to be a test subject for nine months in exchange for a large sum of money. However, Jamie starts to go out of her mind from loneliness after a while.
Director Bette Gordan keeps the intriguing premise moving along at a steady pace as well as ably crafts a compelling enigmatic atmosphere. David Morell's clever script not only boasts a real doozy of a surprise punchline, but also makes a poignant and significant statement about the basic human need for freedom and companionship. Moreover, this particular episode is essentially a one woman show and boy does Taylor pull off that daunting feat by making Jamie a deeply sympathetic character. Cinematographer Irek Hartowicz works wonders with the claustrophobic setting, too. A bang-up show.
Director Bette Gordan keeps the intriguing premise moving along at a steady pace as well as ably crafts a compelling enigmatic atmosphere. David Morell's clever script not only boasts a real doozy of a surprise punchline, but also makes a poignant and significant statement about the basic human need for freedom and companionship. Moreover, this particular episode is essentially a one woman show and boy does Taylor pull off that daunting feat by making Jamie a deeply sympathetic character. Cinematographer Irek Hartowicz works wonders with the claustrophobic setting, too. A bang-up show.
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