MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS S2 Review: Kurt Russell Still Rules, But Anna Sawai Is Gaining

"Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin' into the future." -- Steve Miller Band, Fly Like an Eagle, released in 1976.

Monarch S2
All ten episodes of Season 1 are now streaming exclusively on Apple TV. The first episode of Season 2 debuts Friday, February 27; subsequent episodes will debut every Friday. I've seen all 20 episodes of both seasons.

Happily, Lee Shaw did not perish on Skull Island.

(Since Kurt Russell is featured in the official trailer and in all the official promotional material, I trust that is not a spoiler, even though his survival was left in doubt at the conclusion of Season 1.)

To clarify if you're a newcomer to the series, Kurt Russell portrays Lee Shaw as the grizzled incarnation of everything that is fine and heroic in the universe. His son, Wyatt Russell, portrays Lee Shaw as the somewhat less grizzled incarnation of everything that will be fine and heroic in the universe.

To put things in chronological order, which is the series is not wont to do, Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell) is a military man who is teamed up with scientist Billy Randa (Anders Holm) and his wife, Doctor Keiko Randa (Mari Yamamoto) in the late 1950s; they all work for Monarch, a giant corporation that was portrayed as rather evil in the so-called Monsterverse series of films.

The first season, created by Chris Black and Matt Fraction, serves as a prequel to the films, and also as a filler between Godzilla (2014) and Kong: Skull Island (2017), taking place at different times, from the 1950s right up to 2015, when Lee Shaw is introduced in a home for old people and portrayed by Kurt Russell. (See my review, published when the series debuted in November 2023.)

Season 2 continues following a fractured timeline that becomes increasingly difficult to track as the season progresses. The writers and directors have a fondness for cutting back and forth on monster beats of excitement, some of which is earned, and some of which function as the equivalent of 'jump scares,' only with giant monsters stomping perilously close to our heroes.

The series balances competing timelines featuring a large family that has splintered into differing factions that compete with each other, sowing continual division, as everyone pictures themselves as the one and only hero of the piece. What makes it more complicated are the so-called "rifts," in which characters -- including giant monsters -- can travel the globe and also travel through time.

Throughout the series, we follow, basically, two timelines: first, with Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell), Billy Randa (Anders Holm), and Doctor Keiko Randa (Mari Yamamoto) in the 1950s and onward into the 60s and 70s. Billy is consumed with tracking the giant monsters, or titans, and figuring out why they walk, slither, and stomp throughout the planet, with Lee and Keiko either working with him or in hot pursuit of him. The first season began with Keiko disappearing into a "rift," and so, after that, Billy becomes consumed with trying to find her.

In the modern day, thanks to Lee Shaw's heroics, Keiko returned from a rift, and now joins her intrepid son Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira) and grandchildren Cate (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro (Ren Watabe), along with their friend May (Kiersey Clemons) in dealing with giant monsters. Because things are not complicated enough, in addition to Monarch, another corporation, Apex, gets involved in the monster-chasing action, and, seriously, you need a scorescard to keep track of all the characters.

Rest assured, however, that only self-confident human minions will be eaten or stepped on by the monsters, giant or not, though more than one helicopter gets swatted, even as the battles become more and more furious. Most of the monster action revolves around a new giant monster who escapes from a rift, causing Cate untold guilt because she holds herself responsible for the monster's escape and the subsequent human wreckage.

At its heart, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is a b-movie from the 1950s, updated for modern audiences. Now in his 70s, Kurt Russell easily commands the screen with his eternal charisma and admirable energy. But Anna Sawai is gaining.

She made a good impression in the first season, then showcased her quiet, heroic, moving talents in an outstanding performance in the Shogun series (2024). Here, more so than in the first season, she becomes the soul and conscience of the series, battling her own impulses and fighting to save humanity with a fierce sense of her own agency.

The series is steeped in too much melodrama, with not one but two romantic triangles, but it is at its best when it's just heroes and monsters who are dominating the screen, in magnificent fashion, making the series a sheer blast of joy for monster kids like me.

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