Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is an ambitious, albeit flawed, new experience for Godzilla fans

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters kicks off a new chapter in the MonsterVerse saga but does it live up to its ambitions? 

“Please resume regular life.” That’s the central thesis at the heart of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the newest entry in the Monsterverse which began with Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla film in 2014. This new series takes place a year after “G-Day,” a.k.a. when Godzilla first appeared in San Francisco and it follows Cate Randa as she arrives in Tokyo to put her father’s affairs into order, but what she finds leads her into the path of the Titans, and back into the maw of Godzilla as she learns more about her family’s past. We don’t just stay in the present though as we also see the true beginnings of Monarch as we know them now, before even Kong: Skull Island.

Just from that very basic synopsis alone, this is a very ambitious series. Does it live up to those ambitions? It’s hard to say after only seeing the first five episodes, but so far, it has and it hasn’t lived up to those ambitions at the time same time.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has great ambitions

There is a lot of great in this show so far, but it is just bogged down by its lack of focus at times. The strongest aspect of this show though is that it does the thing that the Monsterverse series has struggled with since the beginning, it makes you care about the characters, for the most part.

The two you really care about the most are the aforementioned Cate and Lee Shaw – the latter of whom is played in the past by Wyatt Russell and in the present by Kurt Russell. Cate’s a character who is interesting from the jump as it is very quickly revealed that she has PTSD from G-Day. There’s a lot more going on with her, and her family as well, but as a singular character, she is the most interesting of the show simply on the basis that she’s learning how to live with her trauma and we get to see how that’s affecting and changing her throughout the first half of the season.

On the opposite end of the spectrum though is Lee Shaw, who is the only consistent character across the various timelines. In the past, where he is played by Wyatt, he’s more gruff, intense, and unbelieving of his surroundings, but cares immensely for both Bill and Keiko Randa (Cate’s grandparents), as well as being a true believer in what Monarch is building. In the present though, Lee (played here by Kurt) is so much more wild and out there, which is such a great dichotomy for the character (as well as the father/son actors for the character) and his character just makes Monarch a joy to watch whenever he’s on-screen.

The biggest issue with the show so far though is that because of its ambitions, it often lacks the focus and cohesion that something this ambitious needs. There’s a big question simply of, “Why do these two timelines need to be in the same show?” as of right now. As of what has been seen at this moment in time, there’s not really an answer to that question. Hopefully these ambitions be fully realized though because, if the show manages to pull off these ambitions in the end, it will deserve enormous amounts of praise.

End of the day though, Godzilla fans will more than likely be happy with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, as it is often a fun watch – especially whenever Kurt Russell is on-screen – and the characters, for the most part, are very interesting.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters premieres its first two episodes on Apple TV+ on Friday, November 17 with episode being released weekly until January 12.