In Review: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (S1 EP 1 & 2) – Aftermath & Departure

Synopsis: After the world-shattering revelation that monsters are real, two siblings follow in their father’s footsteps to uncover their family’s connection to the secretive organization known as Monarch.

The Story

Set one year after the 2014 Godzilla movie. This series follows the story of Cate who flys into Tokyo to settle the affairs of her late father who mysteriously disappeared during the San Francisco Godzilla attack. But when she arrives at her father’s old home she learns that he had another family that she didn’t know about and meets her half-brother Kentaro. When Cate and Kentaro visit their father’s Tokyo Office to collect some papers. They find a bunch of old files that have been heavily encrypted. At this point, Kentaro introduces Cate to his friend May who is a gifted computer hacker. However, when she accesses Monarch to open the encrypted files the secretive organization is onto Cate and tries to capture her.

During a series of Flashbacks to the 1950s. We are introduced to Cate’s grandmother Keiko Miura who is working with Lee Shaw and Billy Randa to track down the source of radiation and its connection to a mythical monster.

The Acting

Anna Sawai puts in a pretty solid performance as Cate who has a tonne of stuff to deal with on her arrival in Tokyo. The first meeting between her and her brother Kentaro (Ren Watabe) was pretty well handled. As were the scenes where we see Kentaro showing Cate around Tokyo and explaining what life has been like since the Godzilla attack. The second episode introduces Kurt Russell as the older version of Lee Shaw who looks like he is being set up to help Cate and Kentaro get to the true fate of their father and Monarch’s role in it.

Overall

These first two episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters do a fairly good job of setting up the story and how it all connects back to the 2014 movie. The flashbacks are done quite well and are the most interesting element of the show thus far. However, that may change as the story begins to unfold. It’s just a matter of how long that will take because the pacing on this show had me glancing at my watch. Which is never a good sign. Thankfully, there were a few things that got my interest. And the characters are quite likable. But the story isn’t quite hooking me just yet.