Woo boy, are we Godzilla fans living in some good times for Godzilla projects. Not only do we have the Legendary Western Godzilla (along with King Kong) starring MonsterVerse, we have had Netflix animated movies, and Toho is back to making more Godzilla films in Japan. But right now, we’re talking about the new Apple TV+ series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. A series set in the world of the MonsterVerse explaining the origins of the organization called Monarch that’s been in all four films we’ve seen in the franchise. For those still confused, those are the people parts some folks complain about because they never watch Godzilla films. I haven’t seen most of the season, but most of it, and for me, it’s quite good, but it’s not entirely perfect. The show jumps between two main periods of time, one after the events of Godzilla (2014) and in the past in the 50s at the organization’s creation. The one character that connects these two times is Lee Shaw, played by Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell. There’s a mystery that begins with a school teacher named Cate (Anna Sawai) who survived G-Day and then learns her father, Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira), has passed. She goes to Tokyo to clear up some affairs there and learns more than she bargained for. This leads to meeting Kentaro (Ren Watabe) and his friend May (Kiersey Clemons), a mysterious American Ex-Pat who is a hacking genius. That ends up leading to Lee Shaw and a lot of globe-trotting. In the past, we see Lee Shaw meeting Bill Randa (Anders Holm) and Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), two scientists who want to explore mysterious sightings of Monsters in the areas around the Pacific.
For the most part, I really like this show. It’s a high-brow monster of the week show. It feels like something you’d see in the 90s on syndicated channels, but this show has a huge budget. With each episode between the two groups, investigate these mysteries while you also get to learn about them. Great cliffhangers in the early episodes lead to more character-building later. The show pivots with Monarch not being as altruistic as it’s been shown through other characters in the movies. My main issue is that I think some people will be confused with the time jumping; even though there are clear costume and lighting differences, it’s still jarring sometimes, even for someone like me who’s pretty good at following this type of thing. There also might not be enough giant monsters in this show for some viewers. Let’s keep it a buck – if the human storylines of the MonsterVerse movies are boring or annoying you and you just want Monster fights, you will not get that here.
I think my favorite part of the series is that many of the main characters are Japanese or Japanese Americans. Ken Watanabe’s Dr. Ishirō Serizawa never got enough time for me in the two movies he’s in, and he felt like fanservice a bit when Godzilla is not ours, and even though they’ve added King Kong, but for the most part, it’s still a Kaiju franchise. I feel it’s essential that they take a central role and have many solid characters around them. I do wish there could’ve been a few more Toho Kaiju in this, especially with its title of it being a legacy of monsters; there are only a few, but we know there are more. The two sets of hero groups are both interesting in regards to their storylines, and their later intertwining makes an entertaining watch. I feel all the leads’ performances are good ones; they all feel like they are interacting as the characters, and while the story has them do some things that look crazy, it’s not at the actors’ fault. Kentaro, the character, is amazingly annoying a lot of the time. The Russells do a good job of having the same ticks and body language as Lee Shaw. I don’t know if that was planned or because they are father and son, but it works.
The show really does help add to the films and gives more clarity to what is actually happening in those films that the films never care about doing. Storywise, particularly for the human issues of the movies, this show does the best job of making you care about the people. It makes me hope this does well enough to do another season, at least with the modern team really gelled well by later in the season. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is an excellent entry into the genre TV, helps make the MonsterVerse better, and gives me something actually to watch on Apple TV+.
Score: B+