Monsters (TV Series) The Offering (1990) User Reviews

Excellent episode

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 24 October 2019]

Lewis (a fine and credible performance by Robert Krantz) receives a head injury after surviving a car accident that enables him to see these hideous giant insect-like beasts that are the actual cause of cancer.

Director Ernest Farino relates the intriguing story at a quick pace as well as maintains a spooky mood throughout. The smart script by Dan Simmons gets a lot of nifty mileage out of the fresh and inspired cancer vampire premise. Orson Bean lends sturdy support as sympathetic physician Dr. Hubbard while Bob Larkin contributes a lively turn as amiable cancer patient Jack Withers. Best of all, Lewis's need and desire to somehow save his ailing mother from an untimely death gives this episode an extra wrenching poignancy. A superior show.

Interesting episode with some neats ideas.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 5 July 2009]

Monsters: The Offering starts as Lewis (Robert Krantz) wakes up in hospital after being unconscious for seventy two hours as the result of a car accident, his first thoughts are with his cancer stricken mother & that night visits her only to see a large slimy monster injecting slug like creatures into her. The next morning & Lawis tells Dr. Hubbard (Orson Bean) what he saw & that he thinks the slug creatures are the cause of cancer & the recent explosion in cases, Lewis believes that these creatures co-exist with us on another level & use us to grow these slug like creatures which they then feed on & he describes them as cancer Vampires. Obviously Dr. Hubbard doesn't believe a word of it but now he knows the truth Lewis is determined to save his mother...

Episode eighteen from season two of Monsters this originally aired in the US during February 1990, directed by Ernest D. Farino this episode actually has some good ideas like cancer being caused by invisible monsters who use human bodies to grow slug like creatures they feed on & that's why cancer has become so widespread as more & more of these things pop up. Unfortunately the twenty odd minute duration doesn't really give the makers enough time to fully explore this, cancer is a very emotive subject & The Offering also has it's fair share of poignant moments like the way Lewis sacrifices himself to save his mother at the end. However the subject matter is distasteful & the ending gets silly as Lewis eats a radioactive isotope which would be a really bad thing to do in reality. I did like the idea behind The Offering & it showed a certain imagination but it doesn't do much with the premise & in the end doesn't really come across as anything but a curiosity that uses a horrible disease like cancer to tell a fantasy story.

Like most Monsters episode there's only a couple of sets & a limited cast but the actual monster in this episode is quite good as it's a big slimy creature thing that injects slugs into people. There are a few nice moments with these slug things crawling in & out of people though slits in their skin but nothing too scary. The episode as a whole is pretty serious so there's none of that comedy which seems to blight so many episodes from this show. The acting is alright here.

The Offering is an episode which takes a wholly serious & emotive subject & twists it for entertainment purposes which some may like & others may not, I though this had more potential than it lived up to but on it's own I thought it was alright.