RIOTUS

As a big Godzilla fan, I loved the first season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Connected to the Legendary MonsterVerse of films, this show is a sci-fi adventure genre series that, through well-crafted episodes, makes more sense of the world the MonsterVerse, especially Godzilla/Kong movies put out.

While the films have to gloss over the human parts, not enough for a lot of people, but to get to the giant kaiju battles. The show gets to focus on the human element through a family story and a love story. I reviewed the first season, so I’m not going to go over what happened there, but season two starts directly from the end of season one. For some viewers, it might make sense to rewatch the season finale of season one before the first episode of season two.

Here, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), feeling guilty about the fate of Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell), goes back to save him, causing a new problem from a new Titan dubbed Titan X by Monarch escaping into our world from the world of the Titans.

This season starts out going all out with action on action on action. It’s a full adventure, and it doesn’t slow down, and it’s very entertaining in doing so. Mari Yamamoto‘s Keiko Miura in the modern-day cast adventures shakes up the team dynamic a lot. Her performance as a person out of time is like a ghost that hovered over the last season into a palpable reality for Lee and Hiroshi, as it shakes up what they thought.

Her scenes with Takehiro Hira, who plays Hiroshi, are some of the best points of the season as these two are back in each other’s lives. The pain Hira feels when he’s with his mother. She is confused by so much that has transpired between him, his actions, and his relationship with his dead father, Bill Randa (Anders Holm), which adds a lot to the show that improves on the mystery and “bad dad” arc of last season for him with Cate and Kentaro.

Anna Sawai feels way more comfortable in this season than last, with her character arc being one of redemption that you have to understand from her perspective, versus being the viewer. She has a lot of consequences for her heroic actions this season. There is also a supernatural plot with her that I feel is more interesting if you are more invested in Toho Godzilla lore. It gives you hope that you’ll see more connection to other good ideas in the last Godzilla x Kong film that it doesn’t do, but it doesn’t affect your feelings on Cate or the season.

Kiersey Clemons‘ May Olowe-Hewitt story feels a bit all over the place and aimless on first watch, but I like Clemons and her character a lot, so I rode with it until it made more sense in the later part of the season. It feels like they wanted to give May and Cate more tortured arcs for their characters to overcome. Still, both, I feel, don’t connect enough with the viewer on what they actually did wrong, especially if you’ve seen all of the MonsterVerse and the characters who have really done bad things to the world, it’ll leave you with a bit of a shrug.

I wish May and Cate had more scenes together to continue the little romantic plot they were doing, but maybe we’ll get that back in season three if we get one. Dominique Tipper is back as Brenda Holland and is very important to the May plotline, and the whole Monarch vs Apex story continues. She’s a better foil for May this season than before.

I like Ren Watabe this season as Kentaro Randa, who is way less whiny and spoiled seeming, and a more active and mature character. While in the end, he’s still made to be at odds with Cate, the sibling rivalry regarding their father and May is way more subdued. Joe Tippett‘s Tim gets a lot more to do this season and feels less like a writer stand-in than an active character with his own arc and conflicts to overcome, especially with Apex. His learning to be a leader is a nice, small side plotline throughout the season. Tippett is fun and always a great addition to our main group.

Big surprises to see actor Curtiss Cook in here as a major figure in Monarch and a person really important for Tim to deal with. If you’ve ever watched The Chi, you know he’s very good, especially as an authoritative figure. Cliff Curtis is also a nice surprise as he’s been in so much stuff; his role is small, but it’s still great to see. Amber Midthunder plays a big, important role in the latter part of the season and mostly around Kentaro’s story. Midthunder brings so great mysterious energy into the show at a great part of the season that it works well with the last act of the season.

Now with all these words, I haven’t talked about either Russell, Kurt, or Wyatt as Lee Shaw. It’s still a great decision to have this father/son duo play this character at different points in time. Kurt is pretty amazing to me, still having his cool, badass Kurt Russell action hero energy at this age. Not everyone can pull this off. He does a lot this season, and his scenes with Mari Yamamoto have good chemistry and, along with scenes with Wyatt, are believable as a long-standing yearning love affair over decades. Kurt plays Lee well as a man with regrets and is in an accidental Patriarchal role with Anders, Bill long dead, Lee having to be the leader and father figure even for the father figures. He’s also able to keep that cool hero/anti-hero role as he breaks the rules set upon him from the US government, Monarch, and Apex.

Wyatt Russell‘s Lee story has a more romantic tinge while also continuing the fun factor of the past trio learning more and more about all these secret monsters in the world beyond just Godzilla. This time, bringing them to the Latin American island that Titan X has a connection to. The love triangle is still there, even more than last season, but it does well to push the story forward and connect the past and present timelines better. If they are making a show just about young Lee Shaw, as reported, I’m very much interested in that.

So Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season two is a great follow-up to the first season. It scratches an itch for a genre adventure show and builds up interest in Godzilla and Kong before the next movie comes out. Kong being more of the focus in this season and his movie Kong: Skull Island is a welcome change of pace, but don’t worry, Godzilla is here too, and you’ll be surprised by just how much and how expensive this show feels. Big tentpole movie energy on a weekly TV show. Apple TV is continuing its momentum of making very good entertainment.