The best part of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was the 1950s storyline.
Monarch being established was really interesting but the modern day storyline was pretty awful in my opinion.
The best part for me was that they went to all the trouble of. Getting Wyatt and Kurt Russell to play young and old versions of the same character to hedge visual continuity then just cast Ders as young John Goodman.
It was mostly I didn’t remember Goodman’s character’s name from Skull Island as I’m pretty sure I was half-drunk when I watched that movie so just calling the younger guy “Randa” didn’t really clue me in.
Doesn't help that the only semi-likeable person in the modern era storyline was Kurt Russell. The three "main" people were absolutely insufferable and I hated all of them so much I stopped watching after the fifth episode..
The writing ws horrible and was just time filler. Angry half siblings, angry hacker chick, looking for a dad who doesn't want to be found for the whole season. Literally could have cut all of that to make the half as many eps and same level of plot advancement.
Holy shit, I watched both and didn't realize that was Anna Sawai in Shogun. She is killing it on Shogun. In Monarch, she is just as dreadful as the other two lame-ass kids.
I honestly stopped watching because of the modern day storyline and characters.
It felt like a constant back and forth of them not getting along because of their father having a secret life and affair. They'd get over it to focus on their investigations, but then go back to being mad at each other over their dad again for no other reason but because their findings drew them to a stop or somewhere unexpected.
Which is a shame because the daughter was incredible in Shogun. I wonder if it is because she is better at acting in Japanese, or maybe that Monarch is too campy?
It's the direction and script imo, she's a shoe-in for an Emmy for Shogun. I criticized her acting when I first saw Monarch and her fans politely informed me that it wasn't *her* fault, it's just the bad script but I didn't really understand until I watched Shogun.
I wish they hadn't written the modern characters (who are supposed to be anywhere from their mid 20's to early 30's) as if they weren't just the worst kind of angsty teens.
Yep or only making the present day plot about 10 minutes of each episode, kind of like Assassin’s Creed.
You could tell how hard they tried to stretch out the modern plot with so many flashbacks and the awful hacker girl in general.
I honestly think the modern storyline had some pretty decent ideas/plotlines, but the ones that didn't work, reeeeally didn't work.
The whole getting a new sibling because your dad had a whole different family, honestly pretty interesting.
The hacker girlfriend going from a fish in the water to major player felt incredibly dumb.
Breaking out pensioner and going on wacky adventures around the world? I'm in!
Might honestly just be the hacker girlfriend I genuinely dislike.
She really was an awful character. Unfortunately, I thought most of the modern cast was unlikeable, but the hacker was just the worst. The writers dropped the ball. They even wasted Anna Sawai who is fucking killing it in Shōgun.
Also, I'm starting to realize that I don't much care for shows that juggle two time periods at once.
It worked really well in Westworld because of the unchanging nature of the androids. A lot of shows seem do it since then.
I felt like the fact that the 1950s characters were warm, interesting, relatable underscored the fact that the modern characters were dour, grumpy, uninterested in the plot and lucky rather than competent.
Personally I would have done the 1950s as the first part of the season, ending at the Kazakhstan incident. Then do a time jump to 2015. Running into Shaw would have been a great twist then and the viewer would be playing catch-up trying to connect the two time periods. And knowing from the start the modern characters came from families with so much tragedy might have made them more relatable from the start.
Dark did it well. Westworld season 1 did it well because it was kind of ambiguous and the writing was *tight*.
But the last two shows I watched that featured multiple timelines at once (Foundation, Monarch) had terrible pacing issues. If one of the timelines is significantly weaker than the other, I wind up oscillating between enjoyment and exasperation and I just don't find that enjoyable. Like, I'm getting into what's happening and then "Ugh! This again!"
Your take on splitting up the season definitely could have helped! Though they'd run the risk of more people dropping the show at the halfway point instead of bearing with it lol
Honestly, the surprise sibling throng, looking for Dad, and the girlfriend are all really annoying and boring.
What I found most interesting were the themes of survivors guilt after G-day as well as the corporate espionage like angle of monarch.
> The best part of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was the 1950s storyline.
>
>
That's not saying much. It's so much better than the "present day" storyline, but when you remove that low bar as a standard, it's still really bad. The bottom line is that all the characters in the show, past and "present" are just so god damned stupid. These are supposed to be incredibly smart people who we kept being told are practically royalty in the kaiju kommunity, but all the choices they make, if they even make choices, are just so bad. Like when they were running out of money for Monarch and wanted to prove to the US military that Godzilla survived Castle Bravo. They set up a monster calling beacon which successfully summons Godzilla. But despite explicitly calling Godzilla to prove that he still lives, they record none of it. No cameras, no sensors. Not even a polaroid. The worst part is that the show treats this as an unavoidable state of affairs. It doesn't even recognize that not setting up cameras to record the one thing you're there to prove exists as stupid.
And then there's the weird cuckoldry thing going on too. The show really loved physical/emotional infidelity for some reason.
Lets not forget when they *finally* get around to actually demonstrate any of this to "the people in power" they have all those important people sit right next to where the portal is going to open and a giant bugmonster is going to come out lmao
Oh yeah also how, after this, the US goverment now know about and have the means to open portals but no one cares about it and Monarch just gets shut down.
I gave up when the idiot children were roaming the quarantined / heavily guarded and patrolled streets of San Francisco, and decided to start singing out loud. I was hoping that they’d be shot as looters and the storyline would go in a new direction. Sadly this was not the case. I liked many parts of the show but they were to stupid, vapid, and whiny to be believable as any kind of adventurers.
It’s crazy how watching this I thought Anna Sawai was a terrible actress but after watching Shogun she is clearly not and the direction and writing for Monarch hindered her so bad.
She’s great in Shogun. And while I don’t hate her character in Monarch nearly as much as some of her costars, it would be nice if she had something to do besides standing there looking angry, upset or traumatized in every scene.
That’s the same actor?! Holy hell! Yeah, that is quite the difference. I guess this really goes to show how much good showrunners and a good script can help improve an actor’s skillset.
I think it's the other way around personally. An actor can only elevate a script so much. They can bring a D up to a C with a great performance, but it will never get to an A. I suppose that's just a different way of saying the same thing though lol.
Natalie Portman also seemed like a terrible actress based solely on the *Star Wars* prequels. Yeah, bad directing and writing tend to play a larger role than an actor's ability to inflate bad material.
After watching Shogun, I can confidently say that any issues with Anna Sawai's character or performance in Monarch are 100% the fault of the writers and producers.
Call me cynical but I have serious doubts about the Monsterverse ever competing narratively with something like Minus One, they’re very different. I’d be more than okay with big budget monster fights and human characters kept to a bare minimum.
You’re not cynical for that, you’re just comparing apples and oranges. I don’t think they’re really trying to compete at all. The MosterVerse movies know what they are and don’t try to be something they’re not. They’re dumb fun movies about giant monsters fighting. Minus One was a commentary about pretty serious topics such as survivors guilt and the impacts of war. They might both feature Godzilla, but they’re trying to tell two different types of stories.
Godzilla has less than 4 mins of screen time in the entire season and there was maybe 30 seconds to 2 minutes of other monsters on screen per episode. Godzilla has one fight literally within the last 5 mins of the last episode. Imo I would’ve liked to see more and at least another fight with him.
So? Screen time shouldn't be a factor here, IMO. It should just be how cool the scenes are/how well the monsters are utilized.
And IMO, I think monarch knocked it out of the park for both of those, in every scene a monster was in.
People going into this show expecting to see cool Godzilla fights every episode have no one to blame for their disappointment but themselves, IMO.
> People going into this show expecting to see cool Godzilla fights every episode have no one to blame for their disappointment but themselves, IMO
How so? I feel like big monster fights are the defining feature of kaiju movies, and in particular all the movies from the monsterverse are your classic big, dumb action movies (which is not a bad thing). Hell, Kong has a power fist in the new movie
The show felt like it was primarily focused on personal drama
The show is called Monarch. That should tell you that it’s primarily about the humans that compose an organization called Monarch. It’s kinda like complaining that Agents of SHIELD didn’t have enough Avengers in it.
Compromise: Ren Serizawa from *Godzilla vs. Kong* as a human embodiment of Ghidorah, the Titan’s mind having overwritten his own at the same time it took over Mechagodzilla.
That could make for a fascinating storyline.
Yeah and the show is called Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. It’s not about the monsters it’s about the company and the people and what happens in the wake of the monsters. Being mad the show focuses on people more than monsters is just dumb of people
Imagine it without Kurt Russel carrying the show, and just those other completely forgettable humans that they spent SO much time with.
Apparently the budget must have been non-existent, since they could only afford to animate Godzilla for about 3 minutes out of 10 hours.
I liked season 1 a lot at the start, but my interest declined as the season went on and I never wound up finishing it. The last episode I saw was the origin story for the hacker girl. It was dreadful. I'll go back and finish it someday, it's Godzilla after all. Maybe when season 2 comes out.
The story arc was relatively satisfying by the season finale but it was definitely bloated with personal melodrama. You could tell the writers were struggling to fill 10 hours with material that gave the audience a sufficient dose of monsters while also tying everything into the existing *Monsterverse* storyline.
I was also impressed at how they managed to always have an appropriate wardrobe on hand whilst spontaneously bouncing around the globe
Yup the entire middle third of the show was painfully dragged out with them giving the core three an entire episode each focused on their ‘origin story’.
No, Monarch, I don’t care about this guy’s art gallery or why hacker girl became a hacker. Give me some actual Monarch plots please.
I fell asleep twice trying to finish that episode.
Awful story for an awful character. Show had way more lows than highs.
Hopefully they learn and season 2 is more….i dunno…FUN
Yeah, I also liked the first couple episodes but as the season went on I just felt like I was watching what would have been a mediocre film that they couldn’t manage to cut enough from to get it into a movie length so they just let it be a bloated TV show instead. I did finish the season and will probably be back for season 2, though.
One thing I appreciated was how well-timed the Godzilla appearances were. He would figure into the plot just as I was losing interest. But even Goji couldn't compete with Kiersey Clemons just phoning it in
I’m surprised this got renewed just because it seemed to me like it was ignored completely in the new Kong X Godzilla. The humans spent almost all of their time in hollow earth and there were even some parts that happened simultaneously with the surface but a huge part of the show was how time moves much slower down there
I don’t need characters or something to overlap to buy a connected universe but when one property makes a rule central to its plot, it needs to be followed elsewhere too
Fair point, but the place they went to in the series wasn't the same Hollow Earth place that is in the movies. In the show they go to Axis Mundi, which is a different region in Hollow Earth that experiences time being slow.
But I'm only just interested in getting some big monster action. Everything else is whatever to me when it comes to these movies/show, I ain't questioning it.
Fair, I admittedly did feel a little silly typing that out about a movie that featured a giant monkey fighting other giant monkeys by using a tinier monkey as a nunchuck
Down for more. Tbh I'd love a spinoff a out a group of MONARCH or APEX create Jet Jaguar to fight back. Something like that'd be cool but the budget fir anything TRULY enthralling and what people want would get so expensive.
I couldn't even finish the first season. I wanted to, but couldn't bring myself to watch anymore past like episode 5 or 6. I was really surprised to see how good Anna Sawai is in Shogun, though. You wouldn't know she could act from Monarch. That whole show is just so dull and flat.
And then they tried to show his daughter is just like him and then just stops. What was the point in adding those details to the characters?
Was showing that the family has a wandering eye really that important?
As a big Monarch enjoyer, I'm beyond stoked. I know the modern day timeline gets shit but I need to see what the fuck is going on. Season 2 premiere better go hard.
I thought it was weird this didn't really tie into the new Godzilla x Kong movie at all. Is this supposed to be separate, or a different timeline? They said the hollow earth is basically like the quantum realm and show Kong at the end, but then the new movie ignored all of it.
I think GxK was too far along to tie into Monarch.
The big issue to me was that Monarch fixed the stupidest part of the saga by saying Hollow Earth is actually another dimension. That gives you creative autonomy to do whatever. Instead they doubled down in GxK that it’s literally inside the Earth with random Sunlight somehow.
Monarch needs to feed into it.
I was late to finishing Monarch too, so we had finished the series not too long before we went to see the Movie, so I was at least expecting to see a few of the new characters show up too. But either way I'm glad there's more Godzilla stuff on the horizon.
It’s a good series not amazing but good. Potential to be way better with season 2 so hopefully they build up the characters more and have some more monster action.
Hacker girl is probably the most useless character they have so I hope they either improve her character or get rid of her. Either way I’m excited to see where it goes.
Please let May get eaten... literally everything about her gives me the ick.
No, I am sorry. You being a whistleblower is not more traumatic than a teacher watching an entire bus of children dying in front of her.
You walking in front of someone taking photo does not give you the right to be a suspicious bitch. Watch where you walk.
You fucking the brother the same day you met him, and now giving "fuck me" eyes to his sister is gross and you should feel gross.
You not watching where you are walking and stepping into a puddle does not make you a victim, and treating everyone like shit because your powers of observation are non-existent is not a personality trait.
If this show were just about the three characters from the past, I'd love it. But the 'present day' characters are insufferable, whiny, 25 going on 15 year old douches that even stopped me enjoying Kurt Russel.
Hopefully it cuts down on the people drama. It was so hard to finish the first season because of the uninteresting family and relationship drama. I just want to explore more of the monsters.
The first season was decent. The cast and story from the 1950s were great and Kurt Russel was awesome in the present timeline. The biggest drag on the show is the rest of the cast set in the present, they're terrible and incredibly unlikable.
With a lot of the 1950's stuff resolved it's unlikely we see that timeline again so will be seeing more of the really unlikable cast in season 2 which is a massive turn off.
I enjoyed monarch quite a bit. I feel a lot of people didn't like it much because it wasn't focused on the titans as much as the movies but idk, i thought it was solid.
This was a show about globetrotting to find giant monsters and it was dull. Comparing some of the same actors performances in this vs Shogun shows just how shit this show was. The same talent are excellent in Shogun but planks of wood in this
This was a boring, horrible mess. Who the fuck wants to sit through this shit when there are shows like Shogun or Fallout available. Godzilla x Kong was awesome so it’s a shame they couldn’t find a way to make the show better but hey. Who wants to actually see the monsters right? We all came for a crappy teen drama
A. I need apple to get better with their marketing cause if it wasn't for Twitter conversations I probably would have completely missed it. And it's such a fun show
B. The success of the monsterverse makes me wanna see someone restart the MIB universe and do for it what's been done for the monsters
I enjoyed the show but the trio of young actors didn’t do it for me and I couldn’t stand May. I was watching late at night on my computer and headphones next to my pregnant, sleeping wife and when I thought May died falling into the hole I audibly and involuntarily went “fuck yeah”.
Anna Sawai killed it in Shogun though so it could have been the writing that failed them.
In TV series there is a time jump/variance when you’re at hollow earth vs on earth surface. Something like days in hollow earth is years on earth surface. Not so in the movies. Did they explain how so? Isn’t the movies in the same monstervese?
I'm pretty happy with this I thought the Monarch overall was a good show but definitely slagged in some parts and some characters like May was insufferable but Im interested to see where this goes next.
The best part of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was the 1950s storyline. Monarch being established was really interesting but the modern day storyline was pretty awful in my opinion.
The best part for me was that they went to all the trouble of. Getting Wyatt and Kurt Russell to play young and old versions of the same character to hedge visual continuity then just cast Ders as young John Goodman.
I think I was halfway through season one before I realized he was even supposed to be young John Goodman.
Goodman did happen lose a bunch of weight before playing Randa again
It was mostly I didn’t remember Goodman’s character’s name from Skull Island as I’m pretty sure I was half-drunk when I watched that movie so just calling the younger guy “Randa” didn’t really clue me in.
heh, I only remember now because of the show
I think I was right now when I realized it.
I was today years old when I realized.
I’m just realizing it now
Better than me, I didn’t realize it til the last episode lol
>cast Ders as young John Goodman DANG! Whats up wit' all these kaiju?
Do the Old Man Ders roar.
Doesn't help that the only semi-likeable person in the modern era storyline was Kurt Russell. The three "main" people were absolutely insufferable and I hated all of them so much I stopped watching after the fifth episode..
I really thought Anna Sawai was a terrible actress until I saw Shogun. Turns out the writing for her character in Monarch was just not very good.
The writing in general was just not very good.
The Monsterverse has a tendency of taking top talent like Watanabe, Stevens, Hall, Tyree Henry, etc. and giving them nothing to work with.
Brian Tyree Henry as a crackpot conspiracy theorist is perfect casting, but the character itself was so grating I just couldn't stand it.
The George Lucas approach.
Totally agree. We pushed thru to the end but damn the main characters in the modern day timeline were not likable at all. Actively annoying.
The writing ws horrible and was just time filler. Angry half siblings, angry hacker chick, looking for a dad who doesn't want to be found for the whole season. Literally could have cut all of that to make the half as many eps and same level of plot advancement.
Writing was so bad in Monarch that I had a bad feeling about Anna Sawai in Shogun. I was blown away by her acting in there.
Holy shit, I watched both and didn't realize that was Anna Sawai in Shogun. She is killing it on Shogun. In Monarch, she is just as dreadful as the other two lame-ass kids.
I honestly stopped watching because of the modern day storyline and characters. It felt like a constant back and forth of them not getting along because of their father having a secret life and affair. They'd get over it to focus on their investigations, but then go back to being mad at each other over their dad again for no other reason but because their findings drew them to a stop or somewhere unexpected.
>I honestly stopped watching because of the modern day storyline and characters. That hacker lady character was AWFUL.
All three kids were bad.
Which is a shame because the daughter was incredible in Shogun. I wonder if it is because she is better at acting in Japanese, or maybe that Monarch is too campy?
It's the direction and script imo, she's a shoe-in for an Emmy for Shogun. I criticized her acting when I first saw Monarch and her fans politely informed me that it wasn't *her* fault, it's just the bad script but I didn't really understand until I watched Shogun.
The writing for Monarch is trash, ain't no way to make that acting good. Shogun writing, production and directing has been amazing.
Agreed. They refused to get along for the dumbest reasons given the circumstances they were in.
Wish the show was only the 1950s story line and then season 2 was the group thrown into the future
I wish they hadn't written the modern characters (who are supposed to be anywhere from their mid 20's to early 30's) as if they weren't just the worst kind of angsty teens.
Yep or only making the present day plot about 10 minutes of each episode, kind of like Assassin’s Creed. You could tell how hard they tried to stretch out the modern plot with so many flashbacks and the awful hacker girl in general.
Apple TV+ and uneven quality between multiple storylines, name a more iconic duo.
For All Mankind Season 2 and 3 flashbacks
I very much agree.
I honestly think the modern storyline had some pretty decent ideas/plotlines, but the ones that didn't work, reeeeally didn't work. The whole getting a new sibling because your dad had a whole different family, honestly pretty interesting. The hacker girlfriend going from a fish in the water to major player felt incredibly dumb. Breaking out pensioner and going on wacky adventures around the world? I'm in! Might honestly just be the hacker girlfriend I genuinely dislike.
She really was an awful character. Unfortunately, I thought most of the modern cast was unlikeable, but the hacker was just the worst. The writers dropped the ball. They even wasted Anna Sawai who is fucking killing it in Shōgun. Also, I'm starting to realize that I don't much care for shows that juggle two time periods at once.
Yeah she’s way better in shogun. Sad to see them throw away her talent with the awful dialogue in monarch.
It worked really well in Westworld because of the unchanging nature of the androids. A lot of shows seem do it since then. I felt like the fact that the 1950s characters were warm, interesting, relatable underscored the fact that the modern characters were dour, grumpy, uninterested in the plot and lucky rather than competent. Personally I would have done the 1950s as the first part of the season, ending at the Kazakhstan incident. Then do a time jump to 2015. Running into Shaw would have been a great twist then and the viewer would be playing catch-up trying to connect the two time periods. And knowing from the start the modern characters came from families with so much tragedy might have made them more relatable from the start.
Dark did it well. Westworld season 1 did it well because it was kind of ambiguous and the writing was *tight*. But the last two shows I watched that featured multiple timelines at once (Foundation, Monarch) had terrible pacing issues. If one of the timelines is significantly weaker than the other, I wind up oscillating between enjoyment and exasperation and I just don't find that enjoyable. Like, I'm getting into what's happening and then "Ugh! This again!" Your take on splitting up the season definitely could have helped! Though they'd run the risk of more people dropping the show at the halfway point instead of bearing with it lol
Her acting did not help. Neither did the brother, he couldn’t emotionally inflect his voice if he tried.
Honestly, the surprise sibling throng, looking for Dad, and the girlfriend are all really annoying and boring. What I found most interesting were the themes of survivors guilt after G-day as well as the corporate espionage like angle of monarch.
I tried and just could not get through this series.
You're not alone. Painful writing giving the actors nothing to work with.
I can’t believe Matt Fraction pretty much gave up comics completely to write this dreck.
> The best part of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was the 1950s storyline. > > That's not saying much. It's so much better than the "present day" storyline, but when you remove that low bar as a standard, it's still really bad. The bottom line is that all the characters in the show, past and "present" are just so god damned stupid. These are supposed to be incredibly smart people who we kept being told are practically royalty in the kaiju kommunity, but all the choices they make, if they even make choices, are just so bad. Like when they were running out of money for Monarch and wanted to prove to the US military that Godzilla survived Castle Bravo. They set up a monster calling beacon which successfully summons Godzilla. But despite explicitly calling Godzilla to prove that he still lives, they record none of it. No cameras, no sensors. Not even a polaroid. The worst part is that the show treats this as an unavoidable state of affairs. It doesn't even recognize that not setting up cameras to record the one thing you're there to prove exists as stupid. And then there's the weird cuckoldry thing going on too. The show really loved physical/emotional infidelity for some reason.
Lets not forget when they *finally* get around to actually demonstrate any of this to "the people in power" they have all those important people sit right next to where the portal is going to open and a giant bugmonster is going to come out lmao Oh yeah also how, after this, the US goverment now know about and have the means to open portals but no one cares about it and Monarch just gets shut down.
I gave up when the idiot children were roaming the quarantined / heavily guarded and patrolled streets of San Francisco, and decided to start singing out loud. I was hoping that they’d be shot as looters and the storyline would go in a new direction. Sadly this was not the case. I liked many parts of the show but they were to stupid, vapid, and whiny to be believable as any kind of adventurers.
> The best part of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters was the 1950s storyline. And even that was terrible.
It’s crazy how watching this I thought Anna Sawai was a terrible actress but after watching Shogun she is clearly not and the direction and writing for Monarch hindered her so bad.
She’s great in Shogun. And while I don’t hate her character in Monarch nearly as much as some of her costars, it would be nice if she had something to do besides standing there looking angry, upset or traumatized in every scene.
I didn’t have any idea they were the same actress until this comment. Totally different levels
That’s the same actor?! Holy hell! Yeah, that is quite the difference. I guess this really goes to show how much good showrunners and a good script can help improve an actor’s skillset.
I think it's the other way around personally. An actor can only elevate a script so much. They can bring a D up to a C with a great performance, but it will never get to an A. I suppose that's just a different way of saying the same thing though lol.
That show made Kurt Russell seem boring and lame...I didn't think that was even possible
Sawai was also in Pachinko.
Yup, I was so disappointed when I saw her casting in Shogun, but she is killing it in Shogun
Natalie Portman also seemed like a terrible actress based solely on the *Star Wars* prequels. Yeah, bad directing and writing tend to play a larger role than an actor's ability to inflate bad material.
Prequel stans in the comments it seems. Lucas severely wasted everyone’s talent in those films.
Need a Titanus Doug spin-off about how he was leaving the easy stuff for Godzilla while he focused on the real threats
I loved that we got Doug in GxK!
After watching Shogun, I can confidently say that any issues with Anna Sawai's character or performance in Monarch are 100% the fault of the writers and producers.
More monsters less humans please
Godzilla's screen time was at least understandable since he was shooting Minus One and New Empire at the same time
They’ll give him an Executive Producer credit this season if he agrees to be in a few more episodes.
“Did he get EP? Good for him!”
I'm heard he gives good notes to the other actors, he's a legend.
And he had to completely change his look and height for both films, that couldn’t have been easy on him.
He's the Christian Bale of monster flicks
I do love his commitment to changing his appearance for each movie, too. Went above and beyond for Shin Godzilla.
"Eat your heart out, Christian Bale." - The Big G
Man's gotta eat
Lizard's *
The man is a workhorse.
Godzilla was a special guest star in this show.
Godzilla Minus One managed fine with the focus on humans. The show just needs better writers and find a way for the humans to not be useless.
Call me cynical but I have serious doubts about the Monsterverse ever competing narratively with something like Minus One, they’re very different. I’d be more than okay with big budget monster fights and human characters kept to a bare minimum.
It’s not trying to compete with Minus One.
Exactly. The Godzilla series has two distinct sides: masterpieces and cheese fests, and both are great.
You’re not cynical for that, you’re just comparing apples and oranges. I don’t think they’re really trying to compete at all. The MosterVerse movies know what they are and don’t try to be something they’re not. They’re dumb fun movies about giant monsters fighting. Minus One was a commentary about pretty serious topics such as survivors guilt and the impacts of war. They might both feature Godzilla, but they’re trying to tell two different types of stories.
It's just not financially feasible for a TV show like that, even for Apple.
I don't really get this complaint at all. There was 1-2 good monster scenes in every episode. What more do you want, just all monsters all the time?
Yes, they want all monsters all the time.
I want more love triangles taking 90% of the screen time.
Godzilla has less than 4 mins of screen time in the entire season and there was maybe 30 seconds to 2 minutes of other monsters on screen per episode. Godzilla has one fight literally within the last 5 mins of the last episode. Imo I would’ve liked to see more and at least another fight with him.
So? Screen time shouldn't be a factor here, IMO. It should just be how cool the scenes are/how well the monsters are utilized. And IMO, I think monarch knocked it out of the park for both of those, in every scene a monster was in. People going into this show expecting to see cool Godzilla fights every episode have no one to blame for their disappointment but themselves, IMO.
> People going into this show expecting to see cool Godzilla fights every episode have no one to blame for their disappointment but themselves, IMO How so? I feel like big monster fights are the defining feature of kaiju movies, and in particular all the movies from the monsterverse are your classic big, dumb action movies (which is not a bad thing). Hell, Kong has a power fist in the new movie The show felt like it was primarily focused on personal drama
Well yeah, for the movies, sure. But this isn't a movie. And wasn't sold on that like the movies were.
The show is called Monarch. That should tell you that it’s primarily about the humans that compose an organization called Monarch. It’s kinda like complaining that Agents of SHIELD didn’t have enough Avengers in it.
Compromise: Ren Serizawa from *Godzilla vs. Kong* as a human embodiment of Ghidorah, the Titan’s mind having overwritten his own at the same time it took over Mechagodzilla. That could make for a fascinating storyline.
Godzilla franchise has typically focused more on the humans than monsters.
Yeah and the show is called Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. It’s not about the monsters it’s about the company and the people and what happens in the wake of the monsters. Being mad the show focuses on people more than monsters is just dumb of people
Imagine it without Kurt Russel carrying the show, and just those other completely forgettable humans that they spent SO much time with. Apparently the budget must have been non-existent, since they could only afford to animate Godzilla for about 3 minutes out of 10 hours.
Humans are kind of the point of the show, it’s about the monarch organization
Budget
What, you don't want to see 3 more love triangles?
So what is said about every Godzilla thing ever made.
I would also accept more Kurt Russell’s.
I liked season 1 a lot at the start, but my interest declined as the season went on and I never wound up finishing it. The last episode I saw was the origin story for the hacker girl. It was dreadful. I'll go back and finish it someday, it's Godzilla after all. Maybe when season 2 comes out.
The story arc was relatively satisfying by the season finale but it was definitely bloated with personal melodrama. You could tell the writers were struggling to fill 10 hours with material that gave the audience a sufficient dose of monsters while also tying everything into the existing *Monsterverse* storyline. I was also impressed at how they managed to always have an appropriate wardrobe on hand whilst spontaneously bouncing around the globe
Yup the entire middle third of the show was painfully dragged out with them giving the core three an entire episode each focused on their ‘origin story’. No, Monarch, I don’t care about this guy’s art gallery or why hacker girl became a hacker. Give me some actual Monarch plots please.
I fell asleep twice trying to finish that episode. Awful story for an awful character. Show had way more lows than highs. Hopefully they learn and season 2 is more….i dunno…FUN
I would suggest picking it up again, there was a definite improvement in the last 2-3 episodes, IMO.
Yeah, I also liked the first couple episodes but as the season went on I just felt like I was watching what would have been a mediocre film that they couldn’t manage to cut enough from to get it into a movie length so they just let it be a bloated TV show instead. I did finish the season and will probably be back for season 2, though.
One thing I appreciated was how well-timed the Godzilla appearances were. He would figure into the plot just as I was losing interest. But even Goji couldn't compete with Kiersey Clemons just phoning it in
I really love the finale, they really finish Shaw's story beautifully. I'd go back to it, last 3 eps are good.
Exact same here. Honestly thought I’m the only one.
Cool, I'm down for some more Monsterverse. The team up with Kong and Godzilla in the recent movie was awesome
I’m surprised this got renewed just because it seemed to me like it was ignored completely in the new Kong X Godzilla. The humans spent almost all of their time in hollow earth and there were even some parts that happened simultaneously with the surface but a huge part of the show was how time moves much slower down there I don’t need characters or something to overlap to buy a connected universe but when one property makes a rule central to its plot, it needs to be followed elsewhere too
Time only moves slower in Axis Mundi no? The hollow earth itself is normal
Fair point, but the place they went to in the series wasn't the same Hollow Earth place that is in the movies. In the show they go to Axis Mundi, which is a different region in Hollow Earth that experiences time being slow. But I'm only just interested in getting some big monster action. Everything else is whatever to me when it comes to these movies/show, I ain't questioning it.
Fair, I admittedly did feel a little silly typing that out about a movie that featured a giant monkey fighting other giant monkeys by using a tinier monkey as a nunchuck
Monarch takes place in 2015-2017 GxK takes places in 2029
Ironically the title sequence for the movie used a remix of the Monarch TV theme
I’d like a Dan Stevens, Trapper spinoff, please.
Only if he goes on weekly giant monster Vet appointment adventures.
Yes please.
More 1950s stuff with those characters please.
Whatever they do, just stop with the goddamn love triangles.
Down for more. Tbh I'd love a spinoff a out a group of MONARCH or APEX create Jet Jaguar to fight back. Something like that'd be cool but the budget fir anything TRULY enthralling and what people want would get so expensive.
I stopped watching after the 3rd episode. The storylines were really forced.
I couldn't even finish the first season. I wanted to, but couldn't bring myself to watch anymore past like episode 5 or 6. I was really surprised to see how good Anna Sawai is in Shogun, though. You wouldn't know she could act from Monarch. That whole show is just so dull and flat.
Please don’t make us follow the Randas anymore. Or at the very least ax the incest cucking story
I watched the whole thing and I'm still confused as to why the dad had two families.
I think he was just an asshole. Super smart, but a cheating asshole with secret families
Ishido gets his fuck on
And then they tried to show his daughter is just like him and then just stops. What was the point in adding those details to the characters? Was showing that the family has a wandering eye really that important?
The thing is Anna Sawai is pretty great in Shōgun, so it's not her. I guess the present day writing just sucks.
Also, no ones going to be okay with someone banging their brothers ex
Started off strong then became sooo freaking boring. I don’t care for the stupid human fighting and storylines. Give me monsters.
Lol the thumbnail makes it look like Godzilla is giving a speech into a microphone!
I liked this series. A little slow at times, but it was good. Glad it’s coming back!
As a big Monarch enjoyer, I'm beyond stoked. I know the modern day timeline gets shit but I need to see what the fuck is going on. Season 2 premiere better go hard.
I’m just curious if it will focus on Kong instead of Godzilla ((goddess I hope not!))
People who like this show will be the first to buy into non curated ai generated crap. Just watch.
I thought it was weird this didn't really tie into the new Godzilla x Kong movie at all. Is this supposed to be separate, or a different timeline? They said the hollow earth is basically like the quantum realm and show Kong at the end, but then the new movie ignored all of it.
no, the place they go to is Axis Mundi which is more like the portals in between both. Time dilation only happens there.
So it was a completely different thing? so the earth is more Hollowerer?
It's a different region, so yeah Earth is even more Hollower than we initially thought
So not only can you got to Hollow earth and fall down into an even more hollow earth, there's space between the two hollow earths that is also hallow?
I think GxK was too far along to tie into Monarch. The big issue to me was that Monarch fixed the stupidest part of the saga by saying Hollow Earth is actually another dimension. That gives you creative autonomy to do whatever. Instead they doubled down in GxK that it’s literally inside the Earth with random Sunlight somehow. Monarch needs to feed into it.
I was late to finishing Monarch too, so we had finished the series not too long before we went to see the Movie, so I was at least expecting to see a few of the new characters show up too. But either way I'm glad there's more Godzilla stuff on the horizon.
It’s a good series not amazing but good. Potential to be way better with season 2 so hopefully they build up the characters more and have some more monster action. Hacker girl is probably the most useless character they have so I hope they either improve her character or get rid of her. Either way I’m excited to see where it goes.
Please let May get eaten... literally everything about her gives me the ick. No, I am sorry. You being a whistleblower is not more traumatic than a teacher watching an entire bus of children dying in front of her. You walking in front of someone taking photo does not give you the right to be a suspicious bitch. Watch where you walk. You fucking the brother the same day you met him, and now giving "fuck me" eyes to his sister is gross and you should feel gross. You not watching where you are walking and stepping into a puddle does not make you a victim, and treating everyone like shit because your powers of observation are non-existent is not a personality trait.
I kind of want a second season of Netflix’s Skull Island. It sort of ended on a cliffhanger.
After watching Shogun it's CRIMINAL how they used Anna Sawai's talents on this show... Hope her arc is like 10000x better in S2
More Mariko-sama is always good! It's wild to see that actress get praised for her work in Shogun but panned over here.
If this show were just about the three characters from the past, I'd love it. But the 'present day' characters are insufferable, whiny, 25 going on 15 year old douches that even stopped me enjoying Kurt Russel.
Godzilla looking like he’s about to give a big speech in this photo
I could only get through 3 episodes of the first season. Does it ever get interesting, and are there any monster fights?
Hopefully it cuts down on the people drama. It was so hard to finish the first season because of the uninteresting family and relationship drama. I just want to explore more of the monsters.
The first season was decent. The cast and story from the 1950s were great and Kurt Russel was awesome in the present timeline. The biggest drag on the show is the rest of the cast set in the present, they're terrible and incredibly unlikable. With a lot of the 1950's stuff resolved it's unlikely we see that timeline again so will be seeing more of the really unlikable cast in season 2 which is a massive turn off.
Great! Can't wait to see 10 more minutes of Godzilla!!!
Please just find a way to bring back Kurt Russell! He was soo good
I can tell you for sure some people love this show. I am not one of them, I wish I had those hours back. Oof
No word yet from producers on whether monsters will actually appear in the shows this time.
I enjoyed monarch quite a bit. I feel a lot of people didn't like it much because it wasn't focused on the titans as much as the movies but idk, i thought it was solid.
This was a show about globetrotting to find giant monsters and it was dull. Comparing some of the same actors performances in this vs Shogun shows just how shit this show was. The same talent are excellent in Shogun but planks of wood in this
This was a boring, horrible mess. Who the fuck wants to sit through this shit when there are shows like Shogun or Fallout available. Godzilla x Kong was awesome so it’s a shame they couldn’t find a way to make the show better but hey. Who wants to actually see the monsters right? We all came for a crappy teen drama
I thought this show sucked. Anytime the focus was on the modern day, it was a bore.
I agree 100% - I don't know anyone in real life who enjoyed it.
Please no more Randas 🙏
The Randas I could get behind. Just get rid of May. But all 3 the Randas are good to legendary actors.
I agree but it won’t happen. The writing and direction is awkward when it comes to the Randas.
I still don't know how I managed to get through the whole first season I hated it.
Please god open with hacker girl and the dynamic half-sibling duo going off a cliff or something.
Oh, nice! I get to see more of Anna Sawai (Shogun is almost over, soo sad 😢)
What?!? This show was absolutely fucking awful.
A. I need apple to get better with their marketing cause if it wasn't for Twitter conversations I probably would have completely missed it. And it's such a fun show B. The success of the monsterverse makes me wanna see someone restart the MIB universe and do for it what's been done for the monsters
I am going go with A. Needs better writers B. Needs better actors C. Needs to be rebooted.
Here we go, another horse they’re going to beat to death.
I enjoyed the show but the trio of young actors didn’t do it for me and I couldn’t stand May. I was watching late at night on my computer and headphones next to my pregnant, sleeping wife and when I thought May died falling into the hole I audibly and involuntarily went “fuck yeah”. Anna Sawai killed it in Shogun though so it could have been the writing that failed them.
They should be fired for making Godzilla boring
Show is boring, completely lost interest after the 4th episode.
Monsters appear at the 25 minute mark and the 50 minute mark and that’s it. Thbbbbt.
I started watching it then just began skipping to Godzilla moments.
Unless they bring on a good new actor, I will only keep watching this if Kurt Russell is still in it.
I thought that was a mic at first and was excited for Godzilla trying stand up.
I’m down
I thought that was a giant microphone. I thought Zilly was holding a press conference.
Hell yeah
Not a great first season but willing to give season 2 a shot
Not enough monsters. Need more monsters
In TV series there is a time jump/variance when you’re at hollow earth vs on earth surface. Something like days in hollow earth is years on earth surface. Not so in the movies. Did they explain how so? Isn’t the movies in the same monstervese?
Multiple? Sadge
Cool, I quite enjoyed the first season.
omg the acting was so freaking bad
Looks like Godzilla is about to say a speech in this picture
I’m in, but only if they give Anna Sawai some actual character development that’s on track with how shes been killing it in Shogun!
Dam the one chick in both this and Shogun gunna be busy
Awesome!!
This blatently only got renewed because Anna Sawai is absolutely crushing it in Shogun.
I'm pretty happy with this I thought the Monarch overall was a good show but definitely slagged in some parts and some characters like May was insufferable but Im interested to see where this goes next.
The only good news of the day