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- Apple TV+
- Nov 17, 2023
- Apple TV+
- Nov 17, 2023
- Apple TV+
- Nov 17, 2023
- Apple TV+
- Nov 17, 2023
Season Episodes
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
68
62% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
38% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
68
62% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
38% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The people are actually fun to follow in Apple TV+’s MonsterVerse spin-off Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters, which premieres November 17. And Godzilla is in the show! You get to see Godzilla every few episodes! And other monsters!
Where the big-screen American films can be a noisy, dark slog, the dramatic equivalent of a giant lumbering dinosaur, “Monarch” stays fleet, and fun.
Monarch’s story does get a little dense at times with lots of scientific lingo being thrown around, leaving us lost in the weeds. Plus, I have to admit my eyes glazed over with all the talk about the shadowy corporation called Monarch that secretly monitors the beasts. But Russell’s natural charm and sly sense of humor go a long way towards cutting through all that and making the whole thing work.
When the series clicks, as it frequently does in the eight of ten episodes provided for review, it feels like a mid-century choose-your-own-adventure novel, the kind of pulp that immersed us in a world that felt like our own, right up until it didn’t.
Not quite the MonsterVerse’s high point, but far from its low point either, with some satisfying longform worldbuilding — and a hugely enjoyable dual performance from Kurt and Wyatt Russell.
Let’s hope the remaining episodes of the season cut to the chase but quick — as is, it feels like a leg of the MonsterVerse that chooses to place its focus too heavily on the human half of the equation. There’s still little sense of what Monarch is or does even five episodes in, and whether they’re meant to be a threat or boon to humanity.
Light on destructive colossuses and heavy on dull dual-timeline drama, it’s a footnote affair that fills in trivial narrative gaps and focuses on its least compelling participants—and, in doing the latter, manages to largely squander both Wyatt Russell and his father Kurt.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 5 User Ratings
7.4
60% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
40% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 5 User Ratings
7.4
60% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
40% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
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