Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: 1: Aftermath & 2: Departure

November 20, 2023 1:36 PM - Season 1, Episode 1

Following the thunderous battle between Godzilla and the Titans that leveled San Francisco and the shocking revelation that monsters are real, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” tracks two siblings following in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch. Clues lead them into the world of monsters and ultimately down the rabbit hole to Army officer Lee Shaw (played by Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell), taking place in the 1950s and half a century later where Monarch is threatened by what Shaw knows. The dramatic saga — spanning three generations — reveals buried secrets and the ways that epic, earth-shattering events can reverberate through our lives.

NYTimes: ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Review: Godzilla vs. Kurt Russell (archive)
RogerEbert.com: Apple TV+'s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Doesn’t Have a Big Enough Footprint
Variety: Kurt and Wyatt Russell’s Charisma Eclipses Godzilla’s Destruction in Apple TV+’s ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’: TV Review
The Guardian: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters review – casting Kurt Russell was utterly inspired

Discuss episodes 1 and 2 here.

posted by ShooBoo (12 comments total)

I liked the first episode more than the second. It looks like it's got a decent budget, so I hope there's lots of Kaiju destruction and monster roars and less running around Tokyo bumping into each other trying to outwit the bungling Monarch agents who should've recruited the kids instead of threatening them.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:38 PM on November 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

I plan to keep watching this to see how it goes, but I'm not particularly hooked by the conspiracy thriller that has been playing out through the first two episodes. We know that Godzilla and other Kaiju exist in this, so having a narrative where characters uncover a conspiracy about the existence/cover-up of Kaiju mostly just feels like it is getting in the way of the good stuff.

I really enjoyed that bit in Tokyo with the evacuation procedure for the Kaiju warning. That felt really promising to me as a thing to explore in a world where giant monsters exist. How has the world adapted to that reality? I hope there is more of that kind of thing in the coming episodes and less half-siblings arguing with and about their families. I worry that this show may have different priorities than I do when it comes to giant monster stories.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 7:40 PM on November 20, 2023

Monsterverse recap. This show takes place between the 2014 Godzilla movie and the 2019 Godzilla movie. And also before the 2017 Kong: Skull Island movie, which was set in 1973.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 11:58 AM on November 21, 2023

Thanks for the recap video link, 1970s Antihero. I haven't seen any of the movies that are part of the continuity, so the recap was both necessary and fascinatingly banana-pants crazy. But now I feel like I can watch this show before my Apple TV subscription runs out in December.
posted by seasparrow at 10:36 AM on November 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

First episode felt slow, but the ending was enough to keep me going.
posted by nubs at 1:09 PM on November 22, 2023

I was not a big fan of the first episode, and especially not Cate who's whole goal in life appears to be stirring up drama. The show doesn't need extra drama: it has kaiju. That should be enough.

Like, I didn't get exactly how she thought barging into an apartment in Tokyo was going to go for her. If I mysteriously disappeared, two years ago, and you showed up at my apartment today it would not be full of my things. You would be breaking into someone else's apartment, that's how rental properties work. To do so, in Japan, and then pretend you don't speak Japanese (when you entirely do) is just ... what the actual F? She really lucked out that her dad happened have a secret family who were still living there and were really forgiving of all of her shit. Anything other than that extremely specific scenario and she would have ended up at the local police precinct trying to explain herself.

I hope they find something for her to do other than mope about being awful to her half-brother.
posted by selenized at 2:53 PM on November 24, 2023

oh wait, looking at wikipedia it turns out G-Day was only 1 year before (for some reason I thought it was 2013). Oops!

I still think my broader point about Cate stands: You basically have to set out trying to engineer some drama to arrange it such that you walk into that apartment without ever talking with (a) the landlord or (b) the current occupants. Someone's been paying the rent, right? Either that's dad's estate, in which case the executor has been in contact with the landlord and knows there are still tenants, or someone would have to have let the landlord know what is going on so that they don't sell off the contents and rent it to someone else before you have the chance to settle the affairs.

A lot of the "secret other family" story line just makes no sense to me. How does the family in Japan know that dad has been declared dead, but think he died days earlier and in another state? Who told them that? Presumably, in Japan, they would need a death certificate to proceed with resolving his estate and that would list the date and place of death (at least death certificates in Alberta do).

There are so many utterly irrelevant administrative details that aren't lining up for me, completely destroying my suspension of disbelief in this...*checks notes*...TV show about giant monsters that "eat" radiation...
posted by selenized at 3:35 PM on November 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

I kinda wrote off the weirdness of the apartment situation as being the result of a world where big radiation eating monsters have been wreaking havoc, so not everything is working the way it is supposed to. But the whole thing is such a stupid means of creating drama that I'm also largely ignoring the subplot; I honestly don't care about the dual family thing.
posted by nubs at 6:12 PM on November 24, 2023

Everyone in the thread seems meh on this, I feel the need to say that I've started watching (despite not really being into Godzilla) and I find it delightful so far. The only problem is that I was absolutely miserable when I realized Keiko-Randa-Shaw storyline was set in the past -- I guess that explains why their outfits are so cool -- because I love them so much and don't want them relegated to backstory.
posted by grandiloquiet at 7:38 PM on December 7, 2023 [2 favorites]

So I'm coming to this a little late, and I haven't seen any of the movies - I didn't realize this tied into them and that the San Francisco attack was apparently a huge piece of a previous movie. I guess that explains why it's set in 2015 instead of just now.

But I have a question about the casting of Wyatt and Kurt Russell as Lee Shaw in the two time periods. We actually see Lee's birth certificate in episode two and he was born in 1924, which makes sense for his age in the 50s. But that means that in 2015, Kurt Russell's Lee is like 91 years old. Which Kurt Russell is clearly not. So are we just supposed to ignore that and get on with it, or is there going to be some in-story explanation for why 91 year old Lee can go bopping around Alaska dodging monsters and stuff? Is he full of monster DNA or something?

My mom is 92. She is definitely not going to be running off on monster hunts in the Alaskan wilderness.
posted by Naberius at 8:35 AM on December 22, 2023

Present-day Shaw being abnormally youthful is part of the story and not just a weird casting choice.

It does come up several times in the story that Kurt Russell is not old enough and at one point some Monarch flunkies comment on it and are told that there is an explanation "in his file" which is suitably vague and mysterious. So, no, we are not supposed to just ignore it and they have definitely set it up for some sort of in-universe explanation.
posted by selenized at 8:04 PM on December 23, 2023

It's hilarious that this show has the slam dunk same character at different points casting of Kurt and Wyatt Russell, but also posits that in 14 years, Anders Holm will look like John Goodman
posted by jason_steakums at 6:28 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]