TL;DR – The mystery starts to catch up with people as enemies loom over the secrets of Monarch.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

In the last episode with Aftermath, we got to dip our toes into this multi-generation mystery surrounding the Monarch organisation, the group behind monitoring/studying/controlling/exploiting the Kaiju of the MonsterVerse. It was enough to intrigue, but today’s episode needs to take it up a notch, which it does.

So to set the scene, we open in Manila, 1952, as Lt Shaw (Wyatt Russell) sporting a shiner on his left eye. When he is given a mission by General Puckett (Christopher Heyerdahl) to escort a Japanese scientist on a mission, some awkward introductions later, he and Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) are crashing through the jungles of Mindoro hunting down odd radiation. Meanwhile, back in 2015 Tokyo, the revelations that Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira) had two families echoed through the lives of Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe). We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Well, if last week was all about hinting that something more was going on, this week was all about blaring that something is amiss from those Godzilla evacuation signals from last week. Nothing quite says you are in trouble, quite like getting attempted kidnaped by Tim (Joe Tippett) and his muscle Duvall (Elisa Lasowski). It was a quick way of butting Cate, Kentaro, and May (Kiersey Clemons) back together as a group, thrusting them toward an older Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell). I liked the moment when Kentaro realised that his mother (Qyoko Kudo) was playing the role of a dutiful mother while telling him secretly to run. Regarding casting, having Wyatt and Kurt Russell play older and younger versions of themselves was a good decision. Also, I liked the small touches, like the Tokyo police station being almost identical to the one I was in the last time I visited Tokyo. It meant that the set dressers took that extra step during pre-production.  

There was less jumping around the timeline today, bar for the fact that we have now gone back to a new moment in the past. The trek through the mountains of the Philippines was about seeing how our core three came together, even though we know it ends in tragedy for at least two of the characters. Keiko, Shaw, and Bill (Anders Holm) make an odd group, but that is where they find their strengths. It also is an interesting mirror to the trio in the 2015 timeline, or more likely, a foreboding mirror to the trio in 2015. They do a slight retcon to the USS Lawton here, but it is not a significant issue, and there is always something unnerving about seeing a large ship in a place that it should not be. It is probably why it is a staple of the action-adventure genre.

In the end, do we recommend Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure? Yes, we would. I like how they are revealing the layers of the show so far. They are making the most of their location shoots and monster designs. While also being thoroughly engaging.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Monarch: Legacy of Monsters yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.
    
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Directed by – Matt Shakman
Written by – Chris Black
Created by – Chris Black & Matt Fraction
Based On – Godzilla by Toho Co., Ltd.
Production/Distribution Companies – Legendary Television, Safehouse Pictures, Toho, Milkfed Criminal Masterminds, Chris Black Broadcasting System, Warner Brothers Television, Legendary & Apple TV+
Starring – Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, Joe Tippett, Elisa Lasowski, Wyatt Russell & Kurt Russell with Qyoko Kudo, Christopher Heyerdahl & Tamlyn Tomita and Ryuta Kato, Adam Kirschner, Ryan Cowie & Jory John