A ChucksConnection TV Series Feature
Ren Watabe wears black high top Converse “Chuck Taylor” All Stars in the series.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
Kentaro wears black high top chucks as he searches for answers about his lost father.
Kentaro wears black high top chucks as he searches for answers about his lost father.
Godzilla is King. The giant kaiju has been stomping across screens since 1954, and in that time he has risen above all else as the King of the Monsters. He’s faced legendary monsters like Gigan, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla, and had allies like Anguirus, Mothra, Rodan, and Godzilla Junior. His films from Toho Co., Ltd. in Japan have crossed all borders, but there have been attempts from American companies to also bring the kaiju to the big screen. There was the disastrous Godzilla (1998), which forced a complete reboot of the series by Legendary Pictures in 2014. Godzilla (2014) was far more successful and spawned the MonsterVerse franchise where Godzilla has faced other monsters including King Kong. All these battles have left a wake of destruction and a whole new world for the humans of the MonsterVerse. The new Apple TV+ show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters looks to explore the perils of being a human in this world and flesh out the mysterious organization that has always been lurking in the shadows. The show premiered on November 17th, 2023, and stars Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, Mari Yamamoto, Anders Holm, Joe Tippett, Wyatt Russell, and Kurt Russell
Stowing away on a tanker to escape Monarch.
This show is set during two different time periods: the very early years of Monarch in the 1950s and in 2015, a year after Godzilla's battle with the MUTOs in San Francisco (which has been coined G-Day). In 1959, Bill Randa (Holm) and Keiko Miura (Yamamoto), follow radiation in Kazakhstan with fellow Monarch official Col. Leland Shaw (Wyatt Russell). They discover an abandoned power plant where hollow caverns exist in the bedrock beneath. Inside, they discover eggs belonging to insectoid Endoswarmers, and Keiko wants to gather genetic material from the eggs to study them further. She and Shaw rappel down, but the larvae awaken from the eggs and drag Keiko into a deep pit where she presumably dies. This storyline then jumps back to the founding of Monarch back in 1952, when Shaw is tasked with escorting Dr. Miura in the Philippines. While exploring the irradiated jungle, they meet Bill and together they discover the wreckage of the USS Lawton, a Navy ship that sank in 1943 from which Bill was the sole survivor. Inside the ship, they encounter an Ion Dragon that they narrowly escape. After this, the three found Monarch to study these “Titans”. Their journey over the next decade will lead them to fantastic discoveries that will truly change the world.
Welcome to Monarch.
Meanwhile in 2015, a year after Godzilla's battle in San Francisco, traumatized schoolteacher Cate Randa (Sawai) travels to Tokyo to settle her late father’s affairs. There she discovers that he had a second family: a wife, Emiko, and a son, Kentaro (Watabe). Kentaro takes Cate to their dad’s office, where they discover a safe containing files belonging to their grandfather, Monarch founder Bill Randa. Cate recognizes the Monarch logo from G-Day and together they look to find answers about their presence in San Francisco and Hiroshi’s connection to them. They recruit Kentaro’s ex-girlfriend May Olowe-Hewitt (Clemons) to decode the files until Monarch is notified of their activity. They go on the run and eventually are led to Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell), now living in a “retirement home” under Monarch’s supervision. They break him out and look to find their father together, but they will soon learn just how dire the world is in the hands of these monsters.
The gang meets their “uncle”, Col. Lee Shaw.
This show accomplished what many thought was impossible for the Legendary MonsterVerse films: it made people care about the human characters. The main criticism of the films has always been the focus on the bland human characters instead of the Monsters. This show has a stellar cast of humans that for the most part have interesting stories and connections to the conflict. The two stories of the past and the present being tied together through the performances of Wyatt and Kurt Russell is an inspired choice that pays off with such an interesting character as Lee Shaw. The Randa kids are both great protagonists and perfectly show how a “normal” person has to deal with this world of giant monsters. Cate especially resonates with her PTSD of the Godzilla attack on San Francisco. The only character that seems a bit weak is May. Her story feels less important and unrelated to the Monarch story which leaves her feeling like the odd person out in this group. With the way the show ended though, a second season looks like it will have a great storyline to follow.
“Uncle” Lee Shaw ready for another adventure.
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