Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review

Before I dive into the review, I wanted to offer a quick note regarding my past experience with Godzilla-related media. I’ve never seen a single Godzilla film (or King Kong, or any other giant monster wreaks havoc on mankind film). So, while I will absolutely tell it like it is when it comes to the story Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is offering, I don’t have any other experience with these types of monsters and their stories to compare it to. All I have is this story and the characters (and monsters) contained within it.

If you’re planning on tuning into Monarch: Legacy of Monsters hoping to see some badass Godzilla destruction, I’m happy to report that your wish will be granted. Heck, you’ll even get a chance to see a couple different monsters – referred to in the series as Titans – terrorize humanity as our heroes (and others) attempt to make sense of their presence in our world and try to figure out the best way to contain the threat they pose to humanity’s continued existence. But if you were expecting a high-octane monster thriller, then you might be a tad disappointed. Because while there are certainly monsters to be had – along with some pretty solid CGI work – this series is much more concerned with telling the story of its core cast of characters and how their lives intersected with Godzilla et al. rather than just offering up a story about how to stop the scary monsters from killing us all.

And I have to say, the more I watched the series, the more invested I became in some of the characters involved – but the keyword there is some, as Monarch is more often than not a very uneven series, offering some thrills, some compelling performances, and some interesting writing. When the series is hitting on all cylinders, it’s great. When it’s not, well, then it’s plodding, frustrating, and flat out boring. The series is told from two separate timelines. We have the present timeline, which finds Cate Randa (a great Anna Sawai, when she’s allowed to move beyond the occasionally wooden dialogue she’s given), trying to tie up the loose ends of her recently deceased father’s estate by heading to Japan where he often went to conduct business. She discovers he also had a host of secrets, which leads her to Kentaro (Ren Watabe) and May (a compelling Kiersey Clemons), and the trio embark on a quest to see if Cate’s father truly is dead. Joining them on the quest is Lee Shaw (a really fun Kurt Russell), a former colleague of Cate’s dad and grandmother, who has a lot more information than the trio expect and gets them mixed up in the workings of Monarch (the company who keeps tabs on Godzilla and his friends) and gets the trio deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the monsters. It’s this timeline that, while uneven at times, is the more interesting of the two. As for the second, well, that’s set in the 1950s and tells the backstory of Shaw’s relationship with Bill and Keiko Randa (Anders Holm and Mari Yamamoto, who aren’t given all that much to do), the grandparents of Cate. In this part of the timeline, Shaw is portrayed by Wyatt Russell, Kurt’s son, in a nifty bit of casting. We need elements of this backstory to understand the action in the present – namely the motivations of the elder Shaw – but boy does the story stall out when we travel back in time.

The series, as a whole, suffers from an odd combination of way too much complex plot – largely when it comes to explaining the Titans, where they come from, how they manifest, and just why Monarch is tracking them – with a distinct lack of world building and too many characters and far too little time to provide enough development to make them all complex and compelling. As a result, I was left pretty confused throughout most of the eight episodes provided for screening as to just what Monarch was doing and how they fit into the world at large (I’m still not 100% certain what type of organization they are – Government adjacent? Military? Independent? Scientific?). And the only characters who really feel even partially fleshed out are Shaw, Cate, and May (and while a good amount of this comes down to these being the four strongest performances in the series – with the Russells accounting for two – these are also the only characters with whom we get to spend time genuinely solo, away from the rest of the group). That’s not to say there aren’t fun and interesting characters in the series – Joe Tippett and Elisa Lasowski play a pair of very different but compelling Monarch workers who get mixed up with our central group in the present day – but the uneven nature of the writing shows in how little we get to know the majority of the many characters we encounter in the series.

So, Monarch is an odd series to review. There are a number of flaws that prevent the series from reaching the heights it absolutely could, and frankly, should, reach. But it also has just enough in terms of cool monsters, a handful of interesting performances and characters, some intriguing plot points that had me willing to keep pressing play on the next episode (and, I feel I should stress that the further you get into the season, the stronger the show, on a whole, becomes). But if you aren’t willing to sit through some pretty convoluted plotting and weak writing in the early going, this might not be the show for you. And, if you’re hoping for a monster of the week type series, again, this isn’t it. Monarch is much more concerned with telling a slow burn tale of who these monsters are, why they are here, and what humanity needs to do in response – while also digging into the Randa family history as a character-based through line – so, your mileage may vary there as well. But for me, I certainly see myself tuning in for the final two episode when they air next year just to see how it all resolves itself. Because, despite all my misgivings, I’m just interested enough to want to see how it ends.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters premieres on November 17 on AppleTV+. Eight of the season’s ten episodes were provided for review.