Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Is it that I am 54 ? And am too old to tolerate the kind of pathetic whiney crap that I'm not even sure people actually suffer from ? I mean, the characters, some of them, are so horribly lame and weak and seem to be incapable of acting anything like normal adults it forced me to just fast forward through some pieces, I have zero interest in seeing all the butt hurt emotions of these fundamentally unlikeable characters. May, the computer geek cum self destructive idiot is completely unlikeable, she rude, offensive, dishonest, an ugly person in all respects, how could anyone root for that ?.

The Russel's are both perfectly acceptable, I guess my beef is with most of the female characters but mostly the "weak" ones, so nauseating. Some of the story telling, the logic behind their actions is totally unrealistic and thus irritating, the little things like running around in a restricted zone with their flashlights still on after already narrowly avoiding capture, just stupid, or the stepping into an ice puddle or falling down a huge hole all these things that make the characters seem like utter morons certainly don't help, smarter story telling is required.

I've been looking forward to Monarch: Legacy of Monsters ever since I first heard about it. Then I saw the trailer and my excitement grew even more. I can say without a doubt that this series did not disappoint. First of all, Kurt Russell is in this. That's reason enough to watch it alone. His son Wyatt also stars. But throw in Godzilla and other monsters and you have a hit. This series digs into the Monarch agency and their role in keeping these monsters under control. It also shows how everyday people are affected by these monsters being let loose on the world and the role it takes. It takes place in two different time frames, the 50's and today. It's gotten great reviews by both critics and fans as it currently has a 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I was really looking forward to this show from the get-go, and I decided to give it a fair shot by watching four episodes before jotting down my thoughts. The first couple of episodes? Pretty much what I was hoping for, but after that, it's been kind of a letdown.

The choice to cast Kurt and Wyatt Russel, an actual father-son duo, was a brilliant move. These two are knocking it out of the park! But, they're pretty much the only ones keeping things interesting. The other characters? They're just filling in the usual slots - the hacker/sleuth, the love interest, and the usual daddy issues.

With the big names behind this show, the folks who've brought us hits like 'Mad Men' and 'Severance', and penned blockbusters like 'Thor' and 'Iron Man', I was expecting something special. But, this show is just forgettable. It's not about the CGI or how the show looks - that stuff's all good. It's the way things play out on screen that just doesn't add up at times.

That said, what's keeping me interested is the story set in the 1950s. I hope the show brings more of that.

This is a great series to watch if you're stuck on a plane with nothing else to do. It filmed better than most of the generic blockbusters but it has the writing of a CW show.

On the acting side, I am a diehard Kurt Russell fan, however, Wyatt steals every scene he's in and was the sole standout of the show. Joe Tippett, Anders Holm, Anna Sawai, and Mari Yamamoto are able to lift their thinly written characters, and Kiersey Clemons is serviceable in a role where her character sucks. However, Ren Watabe is a standout for all the wrong reasons. His wooden delivery behind a nonsense annoying character really took me out of any scene.

With all that said, it's worth watching if you like spinoff streamers that have more dialogue and less action than their movie counterparts, and it's worth watching Kurt and Wyatt Russell play the same character.

Even though I really liked the show, the good parts of the show was really good and deserved to be part of a much better show. Kurt and Wyatt Russel playing past and future versions of a character was really charming. But it was Mari Yamamoto who stole the show every time she appeared on screen, so much so that her appearance was what I was looking forward more like the occasional appearance of the monsters. But for all those good parts and the monster mayhem, there's so much things that are handled very badly. The human drama might not have been that bad when it was conceived but a lot of the situations were very forced and a lot of the dialogues were utter trash. The first three episodes were consistently of great quality and it was after that the quality dropped suddenly. Even though in totality, I thought it was good, it's a show that had great potential that ruined itself.