User Reviews

I've been looking forward to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters ever since I first heard about it. Then I saw the trailer and my excitement grew even more. I can say without a doubt that this series did not disappoint. First of all, Kurt Russell is in this. That's reason enough to watch it alone. His son Wyatt also stars. But throw in Godzilla and other monsters and you have a hit. This series digs into the Monarch agency and their role in keeping these monsters under control. It also shows how everyday people are affected by these monsters being let loose on the world and the role it takes. It takes place in two different time frames, the 50's and today. It's gotten great reviews by both critics and fans as it currently has a 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is every bit as good as I was hoping for. It takes place after the Godzilla movie that became out a few years ago. Monarch is the agency that researches and tracks other titan monsters such as Godzilla. The series follows several of those Monarch agents. It covers when monarch was originally formed in the 1950's and also after the last Godzilla movie in the 2010's. A-list actor Kurt Russell plays a monarch agent in tr my oday's world and his real life son Wyatt Russell plays a younger version of his character in the 1950's. Both Russell's are terrific. In fact, the entire cast is great. This series does exactly what it set out to do and that is expand this monster universe and make people excited for what comes next. I hope they do several seasons of this.

I was expecting some sort of cheesy series, the main course being the monsters, and the side plate being some half naked woman. Nope. This is more in the vein of my childhood memories of Ray Harryhausen movies (e.g. First Men in the Moon, Mysterious Island). By the way there is also healthy dollop of the Journey to the Centre of the Earth, with Pat Boone and James Mason.

The monsters are the spice in this series. They add some zest or heat.

There is a good plot, with tensions and twists, and human insights and more than a pinch of conspiracy and jealousy.

I chanced the series because Kurt Russell starred in it. He is well used in the series, but he doesn't take over the move. If anything his son Wyatt Russell carries the load along with Mari Yamamoto.

Some viewers have voiced their dissatisfaction regarding the series' focus on Monarch, family dynamics and the alleged scarcity of monsters' screen time. Well, the title was pretty clear to me: first, Monarch; second, Legacy (as in family's); and only third, Monsters.

More Monsters can be found among the critics bemoaning "too many women" and "too much diversity" in the show, though. It's actually the series' commitment to showcasing a diverse range of strong, influential women and its broad inclusivity that stand out as its most interesting attribute.

Not all characters are designed to be liked though, reflecting real human complexity. And in general the Randa's family can be really annoying sometimes.

On the other hand, some characters are strong and memorable, as Dr. Keiko Miura - an assertive, brilliant Japanese scientist navigating the complex socio-political landscapes of the 1950s. Another great character is Emiko (Kentaro's mother), portrayed by the talented Qyoko Kudo, who adds depth and emotions to the Tokyo's storyline.

Admittedly, not all subplots manage to hit their intended mark; however, this is a common challenge within the television format, which inherently aims to explore and experiment with varying story arcs and character developments over an extended period. I hope there will be a second season to find out more about the storylines which were just mentioned in the first 10 episodes.

I was really looking forward to this show from the get-go, and I decided to give it a fair shot by watching four episodes before jotting down my thoughts. The first couple of episodes? Pretty much what I was hoping for, but after that, it's been kind of a letdown.

The choice to cast Kurt and Wyatt Russel, an actual father-son duo, was a brilliant move. These two are knocking it out of the park! But, they're pretty much the only ones keeping things interesting. The other characters? They're just filling in the usual slots - the hacker/sleuth, the love interest, and the usual daddy issues.

With the big names behind this show, the folks who've brought us hits like 'Mad Men' and 'Severance', and penned blockbusters like 'Thor' and 'Iron Man', I was expecting something special. But, this show is just forgettable. It's not about the CGI or how the show looks - that stuff's all good. It's the way things play out on screen that just doesn't add up at times.

That said, what's keeping me interested is the story set in the 1950s. I hope the show brings more of that.

I was super excited for this show but it has been a super disappointment (at 8th episode so far). Only the first episode was good, it all becomes downhill after that. Only Apple TV was still producing big budget sci-fi like Foundation and Silo. Now they are also going to invest less in big world building saga citing the failure of Monarch.

The characters in the present time are so immature especially the teacher from San Francisco who seems to be a teenager living in an adult body. She is such a turnoff with her attitude similar to teenagers. May is useless and the brother from Japan, while not annoying, is so weak and useless.

I really don't care about their family drama or each of their backstory. This is a show about MONSTERS !! Why are we spending 90% of an episode with character backstory and their feelings, especially when none of them are likeable ?? Where are the MONSTERS? Where is the story about their habitats, their backstory, how they have been hidden for thousands of years, what is common between them, where do they come from? These are the elements that make a fantasy sci-fi interesting, not the annoying, unlikeable teenager mindset adults and their story.

They could have just kept this story in the 1940-50s and gone full on Monsters backstory, some WWII and Cold War drama about how many world powers were vying for the power of the Monsters and culminates in how this set off an underground Cold War that was hidden from the rest of the world with Monarch. Subsequent seasons could be what happened in the 70s-80s and so on culminating in D-day. Then once they catch up to current time, new seasons could be in between storylines between blockbuster Godzilla and Kong movies. This Monster universe could be the Marvel universe of this decade. Why are these Hollywood companies these days ruining entertainment ? People just want to be entertained, why is that so hard to understand? And the ironic part is that they could make a ton of money doing that.

It seems that most TV show producers hired the same Gen Z or millenials than mainstream media did and they only know the mindset of california people who have no personality, suffer from some form of anxiety / depression and, more or less, have an insuferrable character.

I don't know what's going on, honestly. Soon we'll have lead characters with a comfort peacock and they'll complain for 20 minutes, on screen, to a starbucks employee because they are out of oat milk. I'm not an American, so I have never witnessed such things, but I can imagine.

The TV show is not bad in the way that the story is good, you learn more about what happened with the monsters and all, the filmography is decent, CGI okay-ish, the scenario ok, but it's kinda ruined by the lead character and the ones around her. It might be because most gen Z actors, besides a few exceptions, seem completely interchangeable, to the point that you could switch one between two episodes, and you wouldn't even notice. It feels like today's acting is like what Kpop is to music or what McDonalds is to food. It's bland, uninspired, unimaginative, and totally forgettable.

It's too bad, because it could be a 10/10 TV show, especially since Apple TV produced a masterpiece like For All Mankind and very good TV shows like Foundation, Silo and severance (all have actual actors as main characters tho) and also because some TV shows starring only Gen Zs are absolute bomb, like the outer banks (pure gold), or even the wilds and yellowjackets (where only a couple characters are annyoing on a total of 20ish).

It's time that millenials / Gen Z TV show writers / employees realize that the vast majority of the world's population doesn't need a therapy animal, doesn't have 10 type of anxieties, isn't unsure of who they are and doesn't have daddy issues.

For that, it would be a good thing to start producing stuff outside of California, so that Netflix, Apple and Amazon aren't an echo chamber of a minority of the population. Kudos to Netflix and Amazon tho for releasing stuff produced in a lot of countries (india, S. Korea, France, Brazil, Spain, etc...), where you can find many quality TV shows with actual decent & likeable characters that you can relate to.

Bumped into this series by accident and started watching. I noticed an uncanny resemblance between Kurt Russell (who I knew) and the guy playing a young Kurt Russell. I thought at first, a brilliant casting direction and affiliated makeup. Finally got interested enough to look at cast to find it's Kurt Russell's son Wyatt. Still brilliant casting.

The show is well produced, the actors engaging. The time shifting provides two parallel stories to enjoy. However, the reason for noting all except Kurt Russel's son Wyatt is to meet their absurd minimal character review requirement. Overall a good series.

Is it that I am 54 ? And am too old to tolerate the kind of pathetic whiney crap that I'm not even sure people actually suffer from ? I mean, the characters, some of them, are so horribly lame and weak and seem to be incapable of acting anything like normal adults it forced me to just fast forward through some pieces, I have zero interest in seeing all the butt hurt emotions of these fundamentally unlikeable characters. May, the computer geek cum self destructive idiot is completely unlikeable, she rude, offensive, dishonest, an ugly person in all respects, how could anyone root for that ?.

The Russel's are both perfectly acceptable, I guess my beef is with most of the female characters but mostly the "weak" ones, so nauseating. Some of the story telling, the logic behind their actions is totally unrealistic and thus irritating, the little things like running around in a restricted zone with their flashlights still on after already narrowly avoiding capture, just stupid, or the stepping into an ice puddle or falling down a huge hole all these things that make the characters seem like utter morons certainly don't help, smarter story telling is required.

Even though I really liked the show, the good parts of the show was really good and deserved to be part of a much better show. Kurt and Wyatt Russel playing past and future versions of a character was really charming. But it was Mari Yamamoto who stole the show every time she appeared on screen, so much so that her appearance was what I was looking forward more like the occasional appearance of the monsters. But for all those good parts and the monster mayhem, there's so much things that are handled very badly. The human drama might not have been that bad when it was conceived but a lot of the situations were very forced and a lot of the dialogues were utter trash. The first three episodes were consistently of great quality and it was after that the quality dropped suddenly. Even though in totality, I thought it was good, it's a show that had great potential that ruined itself.

I have completely rewritten what was a largely positive review after 3 episodes. I don't think I've ever seen such wild oscillations of quality in a TV show: minute-to-minute swings up and down. It's like watching the shadows on the wall of a fight between a good writer and the terrible one.

The quality is more consistent towards the front of Season 1, and hits a low point in Episode 5 from which the series never really recovers. The faults become glaring when the series stops looking at the 50s era and stares too long at the 21st century period. Until then, the shifts in attention provide a regular refreshment of the atmosphere. You already know it in those earlier, better episodes but when the show stops focussing on Mari Yamamoto it becomes impossible to ignore: her performance carries this project, and the writers only have anything of interest to say about her role in the 50s. When the spotlight moves away from that, the weaknesses of everything else are on full display. The signs at the end of Season 1 are that "Monarch: LOTM" is done with discussing the past and will now be entirely in the present day, and that doesn't bode well for the show's future.

So it's a weird show. I continue to watch because I love giant monsters, and the series provides just enough flashes of quality to keep me engaged but I can pretend they're not testing my patience.

If you are looking for non stop monster fighting look elsewhere. This isn't a Jason Statham of monster movies. It is a great story with monsters perfectly woven into it. The history of monarch and how it ties into the past movies and possible future movies and TV shows. Characters are excellent, writing is excellent, would be 10 stars if there was more to watch. One of the most gripping and fun to watch shows in years for me.

They could do easily put a monster fight every 10 minutes but it wouldn't be as good as this actually is. The time hoping to tell the story is one part of the great work that brings this show to life. Graphics are excellent, acting is spot on.

They could make three more seasons and I'd watch them all in a weekend.

MUST WATCH!

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters delivers a great and outstanding story.

The story is a well precise legacy that bill randa left. The files brings mysteries behind the different monsters that exists around the world. Lee Shaw has a very good role for this series along with his colleagues bill and keiko. Those three are taking advantage in analyzing and exploring the myths about titans.

Godzilla's Role is very interesting, much like in the 6th episode when he awakes in the desert. Godzilla always protect the nature no matter what.

In the last episode which is episode 10, When Lee, May and Cate falls down in the axis mundi, they found keiko. Godzilla Fighting the Ion Dragon was so epic, It is very very amazing.

The VFX was so beautiful and the kaiju encounters are a bit terrifying.

The cameo of King Kong in the end gives me goosebumps.

Overall, the monsterverse is expanding and it improves their kaiju fighting scenes it focuses now on more screentime of kaiju fights no cut much like GvK. 9/10 not perfect but great.

Hoping for Season 2.

The characters are just so damn unlikable and annoying. The plot and script is very cringe.

The CGI monsters are badly comped, messy and uninspired.

But the worst part is that you just don't care about wth is going on because the characters are just so damn annoying and stupid.

Of course the usual rating brigade of bought shills already boosted this series so I'm afraid a lot of time has been lost on this countless piece of rubbish trying to capitalize on intellectual property of the past

I don't know what is going on with Hollywood and entertainment industry but they keep on pushing this reboot rubbish...

Not recommend.

Growing up, I've never been a huge fan of the Godzilla franchise, but I gave this show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters a chance as it looked really cool in the previews, and after watching it, they won me over and got me really interested into the franchise. The show has a wonderful cast, and writing, and beautiful production. The CGI and effects on this show are stunning, even better than the upcoming 2024 movie Godzilla x Kong with a bigger movie size budget. I really like how the show covers both the past and the present. And how Monarch came to be, and we try to figure out if they are good or bad. The whole show is a roller coaster ride of action, history, sci fi, and family drama. Apple TV+ has been on a role with their high quality shows. I really hope we get a season 2. At the time of this review, the show had excellent ratings, but the renewal status is still a mystery. I definitely recommend giving this show a chance!

This is a great series to watch if you're stuck on a plane with nothing else to do. It filmed better than most of the generic blockbusters but it has the writing of a CW show.

On the acting side, I am a diehard Kurt Russell fan, however, Wyatt steals every scene he's in and was the sole standout of the show. Joe Tippett, Anders Holm, Anna Sawai, and Mari Yamamoto are able to lift their thinly written characters, and Kiersey Clemons is serviceable in a role where her character sucks. However, Ren Watabe is a standout for all the wrong reasons. His wooden delivery behind a nonsense annoying character really took me out of any scene.

With all that said, it's worth watching if you like spinoff streamers that have more dialogue and less action than their movie counterparts, and it's worth watching Kurt and Wyatt Russell play the same character.

This show is full of unlikeable characters that disengage their brain. The only likeable character was Du Ho.

Otherwise it's girl bosses and girls getting it done in true Mary Sue fashion while a bunch of guys are there for muscle when needed. This applies to both the good team and the bad team.

Is it possible to write female characters these days without making them girl bosses?

Probably not.

Cate is completely unlikeable and acts like this whole adventure was something unfairly inflicted on her. May the same.

The two guys trying their best to rescue the show... And the dynamic female duo... Are doing their best but they can't rescue either.

Jumping off this at episode 4. It won't get better. The ingredients are not here. There is nobody to root for. Except maybe Godzilla... If he ever makes more than a split second appearance.

Monarch is a series quite derived from the Monsterverse because the story focuses more on the human characters than on the titans. Being an installment of a franchise that revives the kaiju world created by Ishiro Honda, it was expected to see more about the titans. It must be admitted that in this aspect the series is not what one might expect by leaving the titans in the background in the first season. The story becomes a strong point of this series because it serves to connect the first 3 films of the franchise. The series plays an important role for that and also for taking into account Monarch's beginnings and its connection to Cate's lineage. Even though Godzilla and other titans have few appearances, they are still a good thing to see. Kurt Russell is even the best because he feels like he's back to being that action figure we used to see in his movies. It's been quite a while since we've seen Kurt have any level of relevance in a production. That the first season has two stories that take place in two timelines did not seem necessary, but the last episodes knew very well how to unite those two lines. What stands out in the end is that it seems that the kingdom of the titans is more than just an underground world. Godzilla Vs. Kong had already clarified that the titans are hiding underground, but it also gave signs that it was a world deeper than the human world and Monarch gives hints that there is still more to know about that world. In conclusion, Monarch is a chapter of the Monsteverse that serves to learn more about the organization and the world of the Titans before being able to witness more how the Battle of the Titans will affect humanity, as seen in the original franchise produced by Toho. My rating for this series is an 8/10.

Pretty decent plot, nice production and visual effects, but the acting from the 3 main characters is just terrible. The other characters are actually ok, but it's hard to keep up with the main actors performance. The two girls are really bad but the guy is one of the worst acting I've ever seen. It's just amazing that people throw millions of dollars producing a show and hire actors that can't act at all. Both Russell's are just terrible and deliver a very blase and cliche performance.

Being fair, the villains and supporting cast manage do deliver a decent job.

It could have been a pretty decent show if the acting was better.

The constant time switching may be an artistic figure but after some time it is getting on your nerves. And actually it does not help telling the story. I prefer when form follows function and this is not happening here. At one point the storytelling becomes more consistent so the story is getting boring and a bit absurd. But still it is quite watchable because the rest of it is made quite well - especially the special effects. Part of the acting is also good. I mostly liked Mrs. Yamamoto. She is very convincing in her portrayal of a Japanese scientist in a post WW2 America. Unfortunately there is some really bad performance too. E. g. Lasowski is so stereotype that I actually would choose not to watch a show because of her.

To me it's a good 6 out of 10.