The novelty of a TV series that bobs and weaves among the established lore of a pricey film series isn’t what it used to be. “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” depended on novelty value as it chronicled events off to the sides of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” (2023-24, Apple TV Plus) has to do more for today’s seen-it-all audiences.
It does. I admit I spent a lot of brainpower on these 10 episodes – guided by “Severance’s” Chris Black and respected comic-book scribe Matt Fraction — thinking about how things fit into the Monsterverse timeline, and whether actors’ ages line up correctly with other actors who play the same character.
A pair of likeable trios
But thanks to the sheer inertia of seeing a couple of trios – one in 1955, one in 2015 – investigating mysterious giant monsters, I grew to like these people. They make more of an impact than any humans from the films. (Off the top of my head, I recall Millie Bobby Brown is one of the movies’ humans, right?) I even got a little teared up over a late-series reunion scene.
“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” (2023-24)
10 episodes, Apple TV Plus
Showrunners: Chris Black, Matt Fraction
Stars: Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Mari Yamamoto
Although the story moves slow enough to feel like a puzzle box padded with Styrofoam pellets, it peppers in enough monsters that we never forget we’re in the Monsterverse. The special effects-driven action is just as good as in the four movies (a fifth, “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” comes out March 29), but more spaced out.
By the end, I felt “Monarch” wasn’t so much about filling in story gaps – it does that, but the Monsterverse comics had already done some of that work. The series is about injecting humanity into the saga, and the backbone of that is the pitch-perfect casting of son-and-father Wyatt and Kurt Russell as younger and older versions of Army man Lee Shaw. The chronology lines up smoothly, with a clever answer to a mystery specifically crafted for the TV show: Why does Shaw seem a spry 70 when he’s actually 90?
On the other hand, the lining up of Bill Randa actor Anders Holm with John Goodman (who plays Randa in the 1973-set “Kong: Skull Island”) is off by about a decade. (An actor 10 years older than Holm should’ve been cast to line up with Goodman.) Also, the actors don’t look much alike. So we have a series that is on-point with one bit of dual casting, off-base with another.
Monarch flaps its wings
“Monarch’s” “X-Files”-esque forward inertia comes from how much information we know about MUTOs (a.k.a. “Titans” – Godzilla, Kong and other big monsters) and how, where and why they emerge onto the Earth’s surface.
The knowledge level advances in parallel between the 1955 group – Lee (Wyatt Russell) and scientists Bill (Holm) and Keiko (Mari Yamamoto) — and the 2015 group – whiny but rather likeable millennials Cate (Anna Sawai), Kentaro (Ren Watabe) and May (Kiersey Clemons). This trio links up with the now-seasoned Lee a couple episodes in. It’s immediately apparent Kurt Russell is doing more substantive work here than in his other recent franchise cash-grab, the “Fast & Furious” saga.
To be fair, both groups have things to complain about. They are a bunch of Mulders and Scullys – dodging the titular monster-tracking agency’s office politics in order to truly serve the citizenry. While Monarch’s purpose seems to be “nothing,” as Lee puts it, the TV series does give us definitive revelations about how Godzilla gets powered up and the scientific nature of the Earth’s core (the land of the Titans, as introduced in “Godzilla vs. Kong”).
Despite the time-hopping, “Monarch” never leaves a viewer in a Godzilla-sized dust storm. In a way, this is because the back-halls intrigue about Monarch is itself so much sound and fury. You can daydream about Godzilla fights during these stretches without missing much.
2015 Monarch leader Verdugo (Mirelly Taylor, resembling the villain of “Ace Ventura”) and 1955 military leader Puckett (Christopher Heyerdahl) exude enough smarm that I wouldn’t mind Godzilla accidentally stepping on them. However, Joe Tippett brings the softer side of G-Man culture to Tim, a scientist who works for Monarch in 2015 but sympathizes with the unconnected little guys who want answers.
Around the world in 10 episodes
Along with the time-hopping comes vibrant world-hopping, something the films are likewise known for. We truly feel like the whole 2015 world is in a state of worry and the 1955 world is in a state of anticipation. A late-series dialog between two key characters provides poignancy about the differences and similarities of the eras.
After G-Day (as seen in 2014’s “Godzilla”) wiped out San Francisco, Tokyo has constructed Godzilla shelters. I love how the signs are a silhouette of Godzilla, very helpful for tourists who can’t read Japanese. Tokyo and San Fran are home bases, but we also drop into Alaska (“The Thing” veteran Russell seems at home trekking through snow), Kazakhstan, Algeria, the Philippines, the Bikini Islands and more.
I have one notable quibble. Amid the many pre-2014 instances of people encountering Titans but failing to get the word out, one particular event needed more explanation: A 1960s military venture to Underspace (in contrast to outer space) has comparative pomp and circumstance to the space program of the same decade, yet apparently this was a secret that never made it to the masses.
But overall, the basic, on-the-ground humanity and the intrigue-across-time make “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” a foundational, sober story in the Monsterverse. It’s broader in scope than it is big in spectacle, but that’s the point, and it’s what the saga needed.