The New Legends of Monkey

I thought it was wrong not to cast Chinese actors but it's a new re-telling of an ancient legend, and isn't that what always happens with old tales, they change with the re-telling. In today's cultural diversity, the mix of different actors from different countries, the accents and the humour is quite good. Don't compare it to the old series, which I loved, it's a new idea and I quite liked it.

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.

Pay no mind to the 'serious' detractors of a whimsical fantasy-based tale. This is a family-friendly and lighthearted take on the legend. The acting may not be big-screen caliber, but it's decent enough and I am happy to support new and budding talent. If you go into it knowing what it is, a fantasy-comedy-action show (and not an accurate account of history or serious portrayal of an ancient legend), you wont be disappointed. Great fun for the whole family.

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!

Ignore the naysayers review, this is great, I'm 44 years old and loved the original so take that with a dose of salt. This reboot is classic and fun, binged the first 3 episodes and hanging out for the rest of the season

Thanks to Films NSW and Netflix for making this