Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Episode 1.01: Aftermath

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: Aftermath

When Max Borenstein wrote 2014's “Godzilla,” he insists that Legendary Pictures had no plans for an interconnected series of films built around Toho's menagerie of giant monsters and Warner Brothers' film rights to King Kong. Even though the movie came out during the hay-day of post-”Avengers” lust for cinematic universes among movie studios. However, it must've been on someone's mind, since Toho did something kind of similar back in the sixties. By the time “Kong: Skull Island” was in production, Legendary's producers were full-steam ahead with the idea. Not only where Godzilla and Kong going to fight in a future film, it would be part of a whole network of movies and shows. 

Most attempts to copy Marvel's massive success have died on the vine. While the so-called Monster-verse has not become the cultural juggernaut Disney's cape movies did, the franchise has done pretty well for itself. Nearly a decade after Legendry's first “Godzilla” the series only numbers four films. However, as a fifth installment looms, the MonsterVerse has finally begun to move into TV. Or, at the very least, prestige, big budget streaming service programs. Following the release of a mostly ignored “Kong” animated series on Netflx in June, a live action program launched on Apple TV+ last November. “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” sought to expand the background of Legendary's Godzilla/Kong adjacent world, with the same level of star power and special effects fans have come to expect from the movies.

The first episode, “Aftermath,” establishes the structure of the series, leaping between the early days of Monarch and the wake of Godzilla's first battle with the M.U.T.O. threat. In 2015, Cate Randa – a survivor of the chaos in San Francisco – travels to Japan. She's there to close out an apartment owned by her recently deceased father. She's startled to discover an older woman and younger man living there. Turns out her dad had a whole other family on the other side of the world. Soon, Cate is working with Kentaro, the half-brother she didn't know existed, to uncover the mysterious documents their dad left behind. Meanwhile, in 1959, Bill Randa and Keiko Miura – Cate and Kentaro's grandmother – track down Titan eggs in a partially radioactive city in Kazakhstan. They are accompanied by Monarch officer Leland Shaw, soon inadvertently waking a whole nest of monsters. 

Judging from the first episode alone, “Monarch” already feels like two different shows. The scenes set in 2015 attempt to ground this universe of giant monsters in more human concerns. Cate's discovery that her father wasn't just unfaithful to her mother, but actually have a second life in a different city, is the kind of fallout dad's all too often leave behind. It's a reveal that's decently handled. Anna Sawai seems to be a decent enough lead and I like the somewhat antagonistic energy she shares with Ren Watabe, as Kentaro. Yet the sequences devoted to bringing in May, some sort of hacker played by Kiersey Clemons, to decode the Monarch documents come off as perfunctory. It's all set-up for more important events down the road and that's exactly what it feels like. 

In other words, “Monarch” is already struggling with something nearly every “Godzilla” movie has to deal with: The unavoidable fact that the audience is here to see the monsters and that the human storylines, all too often, feel like an obstacle to that. With that in mind, it's unsurprising that the 1959 sequences are more compelling. Wyatt Russell as Lee Shaw has a little bit of his dad's charisma, making Lee already an action hero we can follow. The scene devoted to the monster eggs hatching, unleashing a horde of beasties that recall both Toho's Shockirus and Meganulon, generates some tension. If nothing else, the image of a nest of glowing, orange eggs with little, insectoid monsters inside, nestled within a dilapidated silo, is a worthwhile one.

This is not the only monster action in the episode. The opening scene takes place during the events of “Kong: Skull Island,” showing John Goodman running from an enormous spider just to encounter some kind of rock-like crab beasts. Godzilla also makes a brief appearance as Cate recalls the events in San Francisco. And these scenes are pretty well done, carrying the trademark MonsterVerse balance of showing awe and respect to the kaiju while piling on pulpy action. Yet my favorite detail from “Aftermath” are the little bits of world-building. That Tokyo has instated regular drills for kaiju attacks, people filing into underground, monster-proof bunker. Or that there are even conspiracy theories surrounding the monsters, some people believing the events of “Godzilla” to be an elaborate hoax. If giant monsters were real, there would definitely be Godzilla truthers.

“Aftermath” isn't a bad hour of television. Matt Shakman – previously of “WandaVision” – knows how to direct spectacle like this. The enormous bugs of the final scene are properly skin-crawling and the episode ends on the kind of hook that keeps you coming back. Whether “Monarch” will build to a satisfying whole remains to be seen. “Aftermath” has its moments while also feeling a little tedious at times. Hopefully a stronger balance will take root soon. [6/10]