Well, Monarch’s second season was always going to take its foot off the accelerator sooner or later, but I don’t think anyone was expecting it to happen so soon. That’s right, in only its third episode, Legacy Of Monsters has dropped the monsters part of its title almost entirely and focused fully on the humans that make up the smaller members of the ensemble. Now, considering that this season has essentially hit the ground running (literally) with Kong rampages, a new Titans popping up and plenty of footage of the shows brand new Titan X, a moment to kick back and take a breath does admittedly make sense, however, ditching the Kaiju entirely sounds more like a season 1 mistake than something that should irk us during a sophomore outing.
But are my complaints proved unfounded by all the human drama, or has Monarch taken a Godzilla-sized step backwards?
To kick things off on a deceptively epic note, we first return to 1957 where young Shaw and past Keiko narrowly survive the arrival of Titan X and its Sacrab brood in the Kaiju worshipping town of Santa Soledad. Surviving both the Titan’s swooping tentacles and a swarm of the littler critters, the pair still have to contend with those culted-up townsfolk who are even more pissed that Shaw and Keiko have not only survived, but they’ve even taken snapshots of their revered beast. But after giving the villages the slip and finding refuge to rest and tend their wounds, it turns out that the duo from Monarch have a much more potent enemy to overcome – their throbbing emotions for one another. Needless to say that the emotions win…
Back in 2017, the Monarch gang has been waylaid by the damage caused to the engines of Outpost 18 and are now debating how on earth they’re supposed to keep tabs on a gargantuan sea monster. However, struggling acting boss Tim is further shoved to the side when control over the aquatic base of operations is handed over to Apex Cybernetics head of special projects, Jason Trissop. But while a coup is apparently being allowed to occur by Monarch top brass, the cast all go their seperate ways to deal with the problems of Titan X. Despite being labeled as criminals, both Shaw and Keiko follow Hiroshi and Kentaro into Tokyo on order to fix up another prototype of that Kaiju phone in order to find a way to keep Titan X from creating chaos, but while they do so, Keiko has a few questions to ask her son about his multiple marriages. Elsewhere, May (aka. Corah) is convinced by Tim to take that job offer at Apex in order to act as a mole – but while everyone is trying to be productive as the threat of Titan X leaks worldwide, Cate returns home to San Francisco to wallow in guilt and self pity before embarking on some typically self destructive behavior.
One of the main criticisms that were leveled at season 1 was that sometimes the show just simply couldn’t maintain its balance between the people-sized family drama and the city smashing mayhem, but I feel I frequently went easy on it as it was a show trying to find its car park sized feet. However, while I was willing to let the first season off with a warning, that doesn’t mean I’m going to be a light touch with season 2 and I have to say, I was genuinely let down by a third episode that burrows into our cast’s emotional issues that brings everything to a screeching halt. It starts epic enough, with the episode giving us yet another eyeful of Titan X as it rears up, roars and thrashes it’s tendrils while it’s little underlings react to its bioluminescent light show. But after the season’s huge antagonist returns back into the waters of 1957 Chile, the more expensive aspects of the show recede with the wave of monsters to become much more character focused.
We’ve reached that part of Kaiju storytelling where the monsters tag out for a bit while the humans have to rush around and figure shit tech stuff out to move the plot along, but the problem is that not only have we reached it bizarrely early (we’re barely a quarter of the way through the season, remember), but also it’s television format means that it lasts for over forty minutes – easily at least twice as long as it would last in the Monsterverse movies. Maybe I’d be more forgiving if this had occurred maybe five or six episodes in, but I supposed that’s the price we pay for kicking off the season in such an action packed way.
However, what’s tougher to accept is how dull it actually is. If all the various plot strands had occurred while something big was brewing, then that would be something, but Titan X literally vanishes of our scope figuratively and literally the moment it bogs off in 1957. Some of it is admittedly intriguing as it manages to foreshadow things that go on to occur later in the Monsterverse, and the growing threat of Apex (aka. the future creators of Mechagodzilla) is given a boost with the familiar face of Cliff Curtis whose Jason Trissop simply walks right in and takes over Outpost 18. Elsewhere, we have Tim – who is clinging on to his leadership by the skin of his teeth – propositioning May/Corah to be his spy within Apex, which sound pretty cool – but it’s weird that the computer whizz would be so readily accepted back in despite agreeing to give back that vital code she once deleted. In fact, May/Corah proves yo be such a security risk that she’s barely there before she’s spying on Apex operatives targeting Hiroshi’s Kaiju calling gadget.
While May plays spy, Shaw, Kentaro, Keiko and Hiroshi literally wander around Tokyo buying supplies and looking for blueprints. It carries all the drama of watching them do their groceries and even when the episode gets to a juicy bit, such as Keiko taking her son to task for being a prolific bigamist, it gets sidetracked into something else – but at least it’s still more fun than watching Cate continue to act like a self loathing brat.
It’s cool to see how a ruined San Fran is getting along after it’s pounding back in ’14 and a quick stop in with Cate’s mother and James is a genuinely a nice callback, but Cate herself is becoming dangerously unlikable. Yes, I realise that PTSD and destructive behavior are all parts of her personality after her run-in with Godzilla, but watching her ditch friends, insult an old lover and drunkenly sob her eyes out because big monster went and made her life hard isn’t exactly where I wanted this show to go.
However, while the 1957 is likewise bereft of monsters for the most part, at least Shaw and Keiko giving in to their urges means that at least one of the storylines is going somewhere and the fact that a letter written by Keiko to Shaw telling him that they can never be causes some issues in 1962 means that once again, the flashback drama still continues to be more gripping than the modern stuff – another problem that this season should have licked by now.
While some will defend the influx of human drama, the show is supposed to be a monster hunting show and this sort of imbalance really should be something the writers have figured out by now. However, there is some good news. If the brains behind Monarch have given us an all-human episode this early, it probably means that some big shit is on the horizon. However, I wonder how long it’s going to be before it all kicks off.
🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 