Ryan Shoots First: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (S1 Ep4) “Parallels and Interiors”
Welcome to Kaiju Weekend! It all started this week with some of the first posters for Godzilla X Kong. We got some very cool minimalist posters of both monsters over their footprints. Now we have the review of the 4th episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and on Friday, December 1st we also get Godzilla: Minus One in theatres. The latest Godzilla film from the Japanese studio (review coming soon).
Unfortunately on the hype of this week, Monarch released its most lackluster episode yet of the series. First, we stay 100% in the modern timeline in this episode with no flashbacks to the old team, which I would argue is the more interesting time. Instead, we spend the whole episode running around the Arctic exploring a lot about Kentaro and May’s relationship. Not that I don’t like these characters but I wasn’t really clamoring for an entire episode mainly focused on them. Style-wise I liked the way they transitioned in and out of how they were dealing with their past. The flashbacks were not just jump cuts but gradual blending of the current world which was a neat style choice playing off them dealing with the cold and hypothermia. Just not enough to push along the storylines I mainly care about like the monster threat or mystery, the 70’s era timeline, and what’s up with Kentaro’s dad? And Shaw’s change from company man to rouge. I would imagine most watching the show felt the same way as those are the storylines they have invested in the most in the first 3 episodes. Perhaps it will pay off down the line and the episode was fine just a noticeable down step from the previous 3 and when series like this only have 6-8 episodes to really tell their story these stick out even more. If you’re doing a 25-episode network run of a season sure these need to happen to pad out the season but time is crucial with these limited series.
Or perhaps they knew we would all be getting our big monster fix in the theatre this week so maybe it was perfect timing to have this episode now and there was a small tease for something big coming soon so I look forward to seeing that. So be sure to come back for my review of Minus One this weekend as we unravel the Monsterverse!
Observations
- It was a good plan
- Oh that’s terrible not being able to scream when freezing cold.
- Smooth kid
- Eh these two are ok but I don’t need a whole episode
- They did not lead us to believe this dude was successful in anything so far
- Yea IDK if the ominous blue beam is a good plan
- Somethings brewin’
- Kurt Russell has a bad track record of surviving monsters in the frozen arctic.
- Say whaaaat?!?
- Chocolate saves everything
- I mean you can give them a quick scan before burning
- SO what exactly did he want?
- Breadcrumbs!
- Well it was real at least
- Titan said Eff your plan!
- That Fire didn’t last very long at all
- Yea that can’t be good
- Thank God for those shavings
