Red Queen, which is featured on Amazon Prime Video, has gained popularity for its unique concept centring on the character Antonia Scott, a troubled yet intelligence high investigator, as the IQ goes up to 242. The plot which is adapted from the novels by Juan Gómez-Jurado, portrays Scott working with the Red Queen Project, a group that aims at investigating various intricate and largely gory criminal cases. From the very first episode, when the show was promised too much of tension and engaging mystery, one aspect that certainly went out of scripted expectations is the brutal monkeys.
Several years earlier, the promotional video had made it quite certain that the monkeys would have a defined meaning within the story. In fact, they have a psychological connection to the main character, the protagonist. While the monkeys in the book are more or less a mix of tropes that characterize the disorder that is Antonia’s, the series uses this visual metaphor in a more literal interpretation, showing these animals as being representations of the disorder and influx of information that Antonia has to deal with.
As in the book, the analogy connects her brain to a ‘jungula of Apes’ with how “a lot of monkeys and a lot of things” dash around, clash and bear teeth, a picture which is used as an illustration of how her brain operates effortlessly melding and integrating various thoughts and associations in an illogical order and manner. This picture in the first part of Red Queen, where the monkeys rush aggressively within the frames, also succeeds in illustrating the psychological mess that is always present when someone with extraordinary mental ability as above is conducting a task.
The usage is rather unique and allows for a more progressive depiction of the character’s psyche and pulls one deeper into the surreal aspects of her mind. Many viewers of this part might have been shocked, however, it most certainly enhances the mystery factor of the entire show. Whether the monkeys serve their purpose as effective metaphors or not is still an open question, but it is quite evident that Red Queen is making bold choices in the adaptation.