TL;DR – After grounding our story, we start escalating this week.

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

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

While I did not attend this to happen, this week has been very MonsterVerse-focused, with us exploring the first episodes of Monarch, as well as a dive back to the original 2014 Godzilla film that set this universe off (only this cinematic universe, I know Godzilla has had several of them in its lifetime). Well, all good things have to come to an end, well, an end till we come back next week, but it is time to look at the third episode of this opening bunch when things start unravelling fast.  

So to set the scene, at the end of Departure, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe), and May (Kiersey Clemons) found an old Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) living in a retirement home. However, it was not just an average home for the elderly. It was also a Monarch prison facility. Well, a short tour and a cut ankle monitor later and Shaw escapes, and well, if Monarch was not after them before, they sure are now. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

This week is all about showing transition in both stories as we escalate into the rest of the series. In the past, it was all about Monarch [Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), Bill Randa (Anders Holm) & Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell)] reaching the point where it does not have the resources to take the organisation to the next level. So, what do you do? Go to the military because where else do you get large quantities of uranium during the height of the Cold War? But unfortunately, the military is going to military, and when faced with an existential threat, they will use nuclear weapons. Once again, there are some slight changes between how this was shown in Godzilla and how we see it here, but the impact still works.  

We go from being chased to taking the initiative for the ‘present’ timeline. It was an interesting dynamic between the old Shaw [but not as old as he should be] and the other kids. They have more of the personal drive to discover what happened to their father, but Bill is more familiar with the underside of the world they must go through. If there was one thing that did not sit as well, it started to feel a bit forced, once it got to Alaska. The fact that they landed on the exact same hill in the middle of the Rockies and found the plane and camp perfectly preserved in those windy/snowy environments felt wrong. Also, while the visual effects have been generally stunning, there was one moment when a water simulation did not work.

In the end, do we recommend Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Secrets and Lies? Yes, we do. There were a couple of rough edges in places, but after Aftermath & Departure set the groundwork, it was good to see it blast forward this week.    

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 – Julian Holmes
Written by – Andrew Colville
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 Mirelly Taylor, Christopher Heyerdahl & Bruce Baek