Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 premieres Friday, Feb. 27 on Apple TV. New episodes drop weekly on Fridays.
Three years ago, Legendary’s “Monsterverse” expanded into the streaming realm with Apple TV’s big-budget series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and immediately raised the bar for the franchise’s storytelling with its human characters. Structurally, the series is an ambitious, multi-generational saga with a heaping helping of cranky Titans adding an extra layer of drama. Episodes flipped back and forth in time between the creation of the monster-studying org Monarch in the ’50s by Dr. Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto), her husband Dr. Billy Randa (Anders Holm), and their best friend Lieutenant Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell), and the events of 2015, a year after the infamous G-Day event when Godzilla first appeared to the modern world. And that continues into Season 2, as the Randa family in 2017 wrestle with the complicated consequences of Keiko’s retrieval from the Axis Mundi realm… and what inadvertently tagged along for the ride.
While its complex ensemble of characters and the Monarch vs. APEX Cybernetics plots might require a refresher before starting Season 2, co-creator/showrunner Chris Black and his writers have successfully refined their past/present storytelling this season so that the Titan and character problems of today are directly tied to Monarch discoveries or personal issues from the past. And that overall means plots are a lot easier to follow this season. The Titans are also far more present in Season 2, with a mix of Kong, Godzilla and the original Titan X monster given generous screen time with feature-film-quality visual effects work. Indeed, this season looks good. There were multiple times watching these 10 episodes that I genuinely lamented not being able to experience the scale of this season on a movie theater screen. It’s that impressive.
While Apple TV has embargoed the majority of this season’s plot points for pre-release reviews, what can be revealed is that Keiko takes point in the Season 2 storyline as her rescue from Axis Mundi makes her a woman out of time in 2017. While still discovering the effects of her years spent in Axis Mundi, Keiko gets to reunite with her grown son Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira), meet her grandchildren Cate (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro (Ren Watabe), and be shocked by the growth of her once modest Monarch operation.
While the timeline of the series inches closer to the events of Godzilla: King of Monsters, this season exploits a sweet spot of unexplored real estate between the feature films; it’s a previously unfilled gap where plausible Titan encounters let the show’s characters do plenty of consequential business within the mythology. Aside from Keiko, Cate is still struggling to find purpose, but she rallies around not abandoning Col. Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) behind in Axis Mundi, which activates her loyalty and drive to rescue the man who brought their grandmother back. Kentaro gets closer to his previously errant father, Hiroshi. Corah/May’s (Kiersey Clemons) hacker skills come into play for a substantial arc that involves Monarch’s Tim (Joe Tippett), a character who comes into his own as he’s folded back into the story on a much grander scale.
Meanwhile in the past, a 1957 Monarch research trip to Santo Soledad in South America with Keiko, Bill and Lee sets up the back story for the series’ first original Titan; the creature gets a meaningful story in keeping with the environmental subtext inherent to all of the franchise’s monsters. On the human side, the personal dynamics of the trio get infinitely more complicated, and that plays out through the entirety of the season in both time periods. Building on their already established chemistry in Season 1, Yamamoto, Holm and Wyatt Russell expand the depth of their character’s feelings and regrets in a way that makes the flashback segments feel vital and just as compelling as the present storylines.
Pace-wise, the first half of the season moves like a rocket with plenty of Titan set pieces of note as well as major plot twists and turns in the present and past. The back half slows down a bit until it introduces a clever device involving Axis Mundi that delivers poignant emotional turns that help close the season with unexpected resonance. In general, the cast rises to meet the complex material they’re provided with, which is why Monarch: Legacy of Monsters continues to shine as a franchise standout. Everyone in the ensemble gets something important to do with huge stakes at play. The only character who is sort of orphaned until the back end of the season is Kentaro, who gets stuck in a sullen rut that is enigmatic for plot purposes instead of feeling organic to his character. And his arc only stands out as less than satisfying because just about everyone else in the cast gets great material to move them forward in the season.
For those mostly interested in the Monsterverse mythology, you won’t be disappointed. There’s an abundance of tethers and connection points to the feature mythology, even Skull Island, Netflix’s animated sequel to Kong: Skull Island. Even better for those dissatisfied with major organizations, plot points or tech inventions that felt rather nebulous in the movies, look for many of those dangling issues to be better defined in the series, which in turn will enhance future rewatches of the movie-verse.
If you liked Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 1, there’s even more to love and appreciate about Season 2. Not to wholesale knock the major stars in the Monsterverse films, but the depth of this series’ characters, cast and storylines continues to run circles around what the features do. I pretty much go to the movies just for the Titans. Now, if I want great character work and monster moments, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is my go-to.
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