Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters (2023) Review

Episode 1, Aftermath

From the minds of Chris Black (“Star Trek: Enterprise (TV)”, “Ugly Betty (TV)”) and Matt Fraction (“The History Of America (Short)”) comes the latest series to AppleTV+, Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters.

With Monarch we are in the world of Godzilla and we are referencing at least one of the previous movies with this episode kicking things off on Skull Island in 1973 with John Goodman. A bag is cast adrift, a bag that will come back to us later.

Next, we forward to Tokyo, 2015 and we are with Cate, Anna Sawai (“Pachinko (TV)”, “Girl/Haji (TV)”), as she looks for, and finds, her fathers apartment in the city. She wasn’t, however, expecting to find Kentaro, Ren Watabe (“461 Lunch Boxes”), and his mother in the apartment!

Whilst they are trying to sort that mess out, we flashback to Kazakhstan, 1959 with Keiko, Mari Yamamoto (“Pachinko (TV)”, “Kate”), Wyatt Russell (“Cold In July”, “Ingrid Goes West”), and Billy, Anders Holm (“The Muppets Mayhem (TV)”, “Show Dogs”).

They are following something they’ve been working on for a while, an idea that this place in Kazakhstan is some kind of epicentre, maybe, of the monsters. Something is certainly afoot when they arrive, not all of it good.

We flip back and forth between these two places, and times, whilst getting to know more about the people involved and the events that have unfolded, or are about to unfold.

Episode one is an intriguing opening, dropping us in a world where monsters exist, showing us some glimpses of some of them, a bit of action albeit in flashback and some seemingly shadowy organisation known only as Monarch.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is out on AppleTV+ with the first two episodes on Friday, November 17th 2023.