The New Legends of Monkey

IF you are/were expecting Jet Li's Monkey King - then this is not for you.

On the other hand, if you might like to sit down with the kids and watch some good old PG Rated fun, then this modern twist on an old tale may be one for the family to watch together.

The usual Monkey King story is loosely followed with many of the usual characters and as has been mentioned here, this made in Australia series is very much akin to the old Hercules and Xena offerings of decades ago.

Put your brain on hold - kick back and let it flow. No deep thinking required. I'm giving this new Monkey 7/10.

I started watching the first episode, and thought it was pretty terrible. Hollywood type brash nonsense (even though it's Australian-made), cliches, takes itself too seriously, one-dimensional etc.. For some reason, I kept watching. It gets much better. It's funny and camp, slightly pantomime, and is knowingly so.

The characters also develop and become more real and sympathetic. They develop relationships with one another. I suppose this is partly actors growing into their roles and also the director/writers seeing nuances.

Some of the story lines are also quite interesting and it touches on some dark themes, as well as ideas of friendship and love. The last episode I actually found very moving, and also convincing based on how the characters had grown together up to that point.

Watch past the first two episodes.

Good memories of old times watching Xena. They should have a cameo by Lucy Lawless or Renee O'Connor (but I think she is in the US).

After watching 3 episodes so far thanks to ABC iView "The New Legends of Monkey" pretty much confirms what I thought from the trailers - it would be more in the style of Hercules or Xena in that not so serious, campy sort of way that isn't afraid to poke fun at itself with the cliches.

Chai Hansen as the titular anti-hero plays Monkey as a confident, brash character, if not overly confident in his skills and powers. Luciane Buchanan as Tripitaka is simply making the most of a bad situation by being the priest you don't expect but the one you need - being the only one who seems to care about what's going on in general.

They are quickly joined by Emilie Cocquerel as Sandy, a fellow god who plays as a more ethereal spiritual style character and Josh Thomson as Pigsy who also has decided to throw his lot in with the good guys after a stroke of conscience. They're clearly going to be constantly menaced by demons who are keen to see them not recover the holy scriptures and save the day by balancing things out again.

I can't say the cast are whitewashed given there's enough different ethnicities to avoid any obvious over utilisation of any one ethnicity even among minor cast - the average US show would do a lot worse and to be honest I think it's making the most of ANZ actors/actresses that are available without getting too typecast with styles, mannerisms or accents (which can hold a good show back in some cases).

The first eps definitely feels like a pilot that probably could have done with a few scenes having reshoots after getting the groove in later eps, however it is clear from set pieces that care, effort and attention to detail have been involved to have a historical Chinese styling. The CG sticks out as being obviously CG but is usually relegated to wide scenery shots or where appropriate - surprisingly enough a lot of practical smoke effects are used. Music is all computer generated in a '80-ish synthesiser style but seems to fit in fine.

Bottom line - nowhere near as bad as naysayers were making it out to be. If you go in with hard expectations from the 1978 show you will probably be disappointed - this seems to be a recurring theme with shows and movies nowadays. If you keep an open mind and know it's not to be taken seriously at all you'll probably do just fine.

I really enjoyed this series. Sure, it's not epic like Game of Thrones, but for me, not everything has to be epic all the time. Sometimes, a series can simply be entertaining, and that's what "The New Legend of Monkey" did to me: It entertained me, and that's good enough for me.

One of the few aspects I didn't like was the modern touch on some characters like Davari and Raxion. In an otherwise medievalish setting, something like this always pulls me out of the story, so I didn't enjoy their scenes very much.

Apart from that, there's really only good things I can say about this series. The weapons look sharp, the costumes look dirty, the make-up is adequate, the soundtrack adds to the atmosphere, the story is exciting, and the dialogues are great, often hillarious (in a non-ridiculous meaning).

Most of all, the castdelighted me! I heard people complaining about whitewashing because the legend of the Monkey King is a Chinese legend, and there are not only Chinese people on the show, but seriously: I've rarely seen such a diverse cast, can't you people be happy about this? I haven't looked all the actors up, but apart from "white" people, I've definitely seen Chinese, Thai, Polynesian, Maori, and some others I don't trust myself to define without accidently placing them in a wrong country. ;-)

Chai Hansen did a fantastic job to portray Monkey as a bigmouth with some hidden layers under his proud skin. Rachel House was as much a joy to watch as she is in every movie and series I've seen her in. Luciane Buchanan is a talented young woman I had never seen before, she portrayed Tripitaka very well. Josh Thomson portrayed Pigsy as a gentle giant with a heart as big as his shoulders, he was real dearie. My favorite performance of all came from Emilie Cocquerel, another actress I had never heard of before. Her performance reminded me so much of Alice in 'Once Upon a Time' season 7 that I had to make sure it's not actually her. I LOVE how she portrayed Sandy, and this scrubby goddess was by far my favorite character.

Conclusively, I think I can say that the exciting script, the clever dialogues and overall the great chemistry among the main cast is what made 'The New Legend of Monkey' such a joy to watch. I'm very much hoping for season 2 - 4 as the plot indicates!