Brief Story Line (warning possible spoiler)
In 2015, a year after the appearance of Godzilla in San Francisco, Cate (Anna Sawai - Ninja Assassin, Giri/Haji TV series etc) who survived the catastrophe went to Tokyo to find out more on her father Hiroshi who was presumed dead. Unexpectedly Cate met with Kentaro (Ren Watabe) who was just as surprised as her when she appeared. After further digging on Hiroshi's past, they found some hidden encrypted data & they enlisted the help from Kentaro's ex girlfriend May (Kiersey Clemons - The Flash, Angie Tribeca TV series etc) to find out more.
These data led them to Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell - Sky High, Tequila Sunrise etc) who used to work with Monarch, the organization whose main purpose was to investigate and study the Titans. Monarch's agents Tim (Joe Tippet - Mare of Easttown TV series, Spirited etc) and his partner Duvall (Elisa Lasowski - Burnt, Versailles etc) were alerted of the data access and tried to identify & capture Cate and the others.
Meanwhile in the 1950s, Japanese scientist Keiko (Mari Yamamoto - Pachinko TV series etc) who was investigating radiation in the Philippines together with her protection detail from the US Army, young Lee Shaw (Wyatt Russell - The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV series, Night Swim etc) met with zoologist Bill Randa (Anders Holm - Workaholic TV series, Game Over, Man etc). Their investigation would be the start of the forming of Monarch.
So what would happen to Cate, Kentaro & May? And how did Monarch became what they were since their formation in 1950s? You could find out more in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
I was curious about this series as it focused on the Monarch organization that was made known in previous Godzilla and Kong movies. Since it shared the same monster universe (Monsterverse), I thought it would be nice if it had some of the Titans referenced. When I watched the pilot episode though, it was not very clear on where the series was heading and the moving back and forth in time was making it a bit challenging too. But as I continued watching and we were introduced to Cate & Kentaro with their unique relation, the story became interesting.
In the subsequent episodes, the series grew more exciting especially since the Titans were not only mentioned but also shown. And I was truly pleased that the special effects were amazingly done just like the type I would see in the movies. However, what made me even more in awe was the really intelligent way of tying up a lot of things with the movies Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla, Godzilla II: King of Monsters to the ultimate showdown of Godzilla vs Kong. I really admired the writing team as they must have done a lot of brainstorming to pull this off.
The characters in the series were mostly interesting for me. The people in the past were a joy to see with the wonderful dynamic of the Keiko, Bill and Lee. While the ones in 2015 were decent as well, particularly Kurt Russel who was very convincing as the older Lee Shaw. I also like Tim from Monarch here. Aside from the lead cast I said above, there were also additional support cast such as Takehiro Hira (Gran Turismo etc) as Hiroshi Randa, Tamlyn Tomita (The Karate Kid Part II etc) as Cate's mother, Christopher Heyerdahl (Tin Star TV series etc) as General Puckett and few others, including cameo of John Goodman.
This series had 10 episodes altogether with duration between 41-50 minutes which were pretty standard. The first few episodes felt like a teaser of something bigger with the third episode showing that this was not just a simple drama series. And as I said, the way they managed to include references from other movies was very smart with more and more shown in latter episodes. My favorite episodes have to be the 9th which was truly mind blowing and the final episode that had lots of drama and truly deserved as a season (or series?) finale. By the time I write this post, there is no indication yet of whether there would be a second season, though I remain hopeful.
Overall this is a really entertaining series for me not just because we got to see some of the monsters who were wonderfully created but also due to the story and interesting characters. Critics seemed to enjoy it as well so I hope AppleTV+ would be continuing it. But even if it was not renewed, I thought it was still OK since the story was set between the events of Godzilla and its sequel and it had a good enough conclusion. So if you are fan of these monsters and would like to see Monarch's involvement plus watching characters that were not just created to add human touch like in the films, then I believe you would be enjoying this as much as I did.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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