Monarch – Legacy of Monsters review: Apple’s excellent Godzilla series favours narrative ambition over monster mayhem

While Goodman appears only briefly in the first episode, much of the show features the younger version of his character, played in the 1950s by Anders Holm. The flashback scenes feature a young Bill and his first interactions with a Japanese scientist named Keiko, with whom he investigates the earliest-recorded sightings of ‘titans’ such as Godzilla. They’re joined by a dashing army officer named Lee Shaw, played by Wyatt Russell. In a fun bit of stunt casting, his father Kurt Russell plays the same character in the present day sequences, as he joins Cate and her newly discovered half-brother Ken on a grand adventure to uncover their father’s secret affiliation to Monarch — the secret government agency dedicated to studying these mythical creatures.

But while half the series is a conspiracy thriller with occasional monster cameos, the other half is a genuinely involving drama. Cate and Ken have only just met each other, but they’re already involved in something bigger than themselves. They discover that in addition to having two families on either side of the world, their father was also involved in shady activities with the government. The ’50s flashback sequences, on the other hand, focus on Cate and Ken’s grandmother Keiko, and the love triangle that she found herself in with the goofy Bill and the more swashbuckling Lee. These family drama in each timeline is infinitely more engaging than the clandestine government stuff, although nothing is as exciting as the handful of times that Godzilla appears in all his glory, complete with that chilling sound effect that is about as synonymous with its roars as the music of a Koto is to any Japan-set scene in a Western movie.

Monarch rarely feels like a television production. Unlike most shows these days, and, indeed, most big-budget movies, it’s mostly shot on location. The action hops from the cityscapes of Tokyo and Seattle to snowy mountains and harsh deserts. This should be a basic requirement for a story this sprawling, but we’re living in times when studios like Disney have made the very concept of shooting in real places obsolete. It’s clear how atmospheric location filming can be, especially in a show like Monarch, which aims to present a rooted, human-level view at large-scale drama. The same effect could never be created inside The Volume.

But as impressive the narrative ambition is — the writing team includes Severance alums — Monarch also suffers from an undeniable sense of bloat. Not every episode is gold, but different ones are engaging for different reasons. Episode five, for instance, is a pure thrill-ride, combining character-driven drama with genuine spectacle. But an episode that traces the origins of a supporting character played by Kiersey Clemons brings the momentum to a crushing halt. The performances, meanwhile, are hit-or-miss. While the Russells bring some genuine movie star charisma to the proceedings, Anna Sawai (Cate) and Ren Watabe (Ken) struggle with the stilted dialogue. Mari Yamamoto, on the other hand, is a revelation as Keiko — she’s able to generate empathy without even opening her mouth.

It’s also refreshing to not be assaulted by the borderline magic-level tech that the newer MonsterVerse movies have came to embrace; in tone, Monarch is a lot like Edwards’ more grounded first Godzilla film, which remains oddly misunderstood to this day. Fans of the franchise might be surprised by some of the creative choices that are made in the series, but the character-first approach is a great incentive for casual viewers to tune in.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Creators: Chris Black, Matt Fraction
Cast – Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Mari Yamamoto, Ren Watabe, Anders Holm, Wyatt Russell, Kurt Russell
Rating – 4/5