I’m on record for not being the biggest kaiju fan. There are some exceptions, “Godzilla Minus One” most notably, but most of the westernized versions of monsters and monster movies just don’t do it for me. Their biggest problem have always been extremely uninteresting characters, so a TV show primarily focused on those humans really isn’t in my wheelhouse. Nevertheless, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is a tale of two cities: one that has some really strong ideas and world building and the other that saddles them with often unlikeable characters at its core. Season 2 on the whole dials up the monster sightings from Season 1, with a significant increase in titans this time around. But it also traps itself by spinning its wheels too often and committing some key mistakes that hold the show back overall.
Season 2 Picks Up Immediately After Season 1
“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” Season 2 episode 1 picks up right where we left off in season 1 with almost no time to spare. If you weren’t up to speed from the previous events, it may be a good idea to catch yourself up with either a recap or at the very least watch the Season 1 finale. To kick of “Monarch” Season 2, our merry band of misfit heroes try to find another way to rescue Lee from Hollow Earth after the attack on the Apex base from Kong.
In their efforts to bring Shaw home, Cate inadvertently unleashes a new titan into our world, leaving everyone including Monarch, Apex, and our heroes racing against time to prevent another G-day. The past once again comes back to haunt them all – heroes and villains alike – and new buried secrets that come to light are poised to cause huge ripple effects and may even fracture some and create new bonds. It’s save the world time again, and failure is not an option.
More Titans, Strong Casting, But Not Always Better
Though I have seen all of the second season, I have to keep all spoilers and plot points close to the chest, so we’ll have to talk in broad strokes moving forward. “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” Season 2 definitely dials up the monsters, which is a smart thing to do since season 1 was primarily about setting up the pieces and getting all the players on the board. It’s also much easier to follow narratively as it continues to switch back and forth between the past and the present.
Still the greatest achievement of the show as a whole is the impeccable casting of Kurt and Wyatt Russell as older and younger versions of Lee Shaw. “Monarch” is so much better for these two playing the same role in different times, and both are always having a ton of fun essentially playing each other. The whole of season 2 is bigger and louder, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily better.
More Titans, Strong Casting, But Not Always Better
“Monarch” suffers from the Skywalker problem, centering the whole of the world and its fate upon the shoulders of relatively small players. We obviously need protagonists, but some of our main characters just have no reason to be so central to the story and Season 2 doesn’t really make a good case as to WHY it has to be them. The family business angle can only work for so long before we need something else more significant as justification for them to still be integral to events.
This leads to another problem that “Monarch” season 2 has: everyone constantly acts out of character for the sake of moving the plot forward. This doesn’t happen in the past, making the flashbacks the highlights of each episode, but in the present no character makes consistent decisions. It makes you ask where are the adults? Because everyone acts like petulant children and no one seems to know how to make any kind of competent decision.
Pacing Problems and Plot Wheel-Spinning
And it’s all in service of getting people where they need them to be so something else in the story can happen. This becomes increasingly tiresome about halfway through the season, where the main objective is decided and most of the allegiances are formed. The back half of “Monarch” season 2 sees it all just spinning its wheels, constantly globetrotting with instantaneous coming and going and an incessant need to restate the primary objective over and over and over again.
For all its talk about needing to save the world, no one really acts with any kind of urgency. People just DO things, and it starts to feel like “Monarch” season 2 could’ve been wrapped up in 5 episodes instead of 10. These flaws really take away from a lot of its strengths, namely the ideas it presents and the continued world building of monsters and mystical mayhem that ensues around them.
Fan Service, Kaiju Action, and Visual Highlights
There are easter eggs abound for kaiju heads, and fans of the show will almost certainly enjoy this second season. “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” season 2 starts strong but tapers off the longer it goes on. It’s just not compelling enough to ask you overlook its mostly forgivable flaws, incidentally highlighting them instead of earning our indifference. The titans look great, I enjoyed spending more time on Skull Island, and the performances are quite good despite the material they’re given.
I’m really not the target audience for this show, but for all its faults “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” season 2 did interest me enough to see it through to the end and still have some interest in seeing where a few of these characters go after these events. There’s a lot to like, but there’s a lot that stretches believability even in shows about mystical lands and mythical creatures.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” Season 2 Episode 1 premieres on Friday February 27th on Apple TV+ with the last episode airing on May 1st. You can watch the trailer below.
