Reblogged
Mari Yamamoto as Keiko Miura/Randa & Takehiro Hira as Hiroshi Randa MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS (2023 - ) Season 2, Episode 2: "Resonance"
Running the Gauntlet: 'Monarch Legacy of Monsters' (s2)
When season two was announced and I saw Kong being featured prominently in the trailers, I figured this would be closer to the spirit of Skull Island or GVK in terms of who the star monster would be. But like the first season, the budget limits how long the Titans will be on screen, and in the end, Kong is largely treated like an afterthought and Godzilla kinda shows up for a couple minutes and vanishes because of contractual obligations in Japan.
That said, I actually enjoyed this season up to episode five. True to streaming shows, a lot of things fall apart in the last few episodes. But I think the pacing was better this season, and there wasn't an attempt to replicate the look and feel of G14 like with S1 (which is always a plus).
Some performances from the cast are better than others (Kurt Russell, for example, is just playing himself.) I've never been one to moan about the mere presence of human characters like most G-Fans are wont to do, but I think the lack of a need for set-up (at least in the fashion of S1) freed the cast up to actually give far more varied performances than last time.
Things I liked about S2
- Keiko lived. Of the flashback cast, she really turned out to be the stronger character, even when the writers were far more interested in the woes of Bill and Shaw Jr. My preference would be for her to be an old lady rather than a model-like young woman, but it is what it is.
- Barbra Holland. She might be my favorite human antagonist in the MonsterVerse after Alan Jonah. Sharp, to the point about her opportunism, convinced of her own delusions, and enjoying every minute of it.
- The "kid" characters grew on me. I legitimately couldn't stand Cate, Kentaro, or Mateo in S1 (I really don't like S1 outside of the flashback narrative), but the writing for this season actually gave them something to do besides snipe at each other and count the ways in which Hiroshi sucked.
- Mateo telling Cate, "Yes, our current situation is definitely your fault. But what are you going to do about it?" It's one of the few instances in the show where the writing actually seemed genuinely confrontational with its characters. Cate owning up to it made it better, honestly.
- It largely abandoned the LOST format of storytelling and stayed grounded in one story thread.
- Pulgasari reference in the first episode. That was nice.
- The very obvious attempt to remake the Shibuya Attack sequence from Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris in Kentaro's nightmare. Toho never being able to top Heisei Gamera, just imitate it, tickles me greatly.
- I liked Hiroshi's storyline in S2, minus killing him. I preferred getting to know his character outside of Cate and Kentaro's perspectives.
- Kong. Of the two major monsters in the MonsterVerse, I feel like Kong not being limited by Toho's micromanaging means he's had the opportunity to be a far more interesting Titan than Godzilla. I want more Kong adventures, preferably with Jia. I can live without seeing Godzilla for the foreseeable future.
- Amber Midthunder showing up was a lovely surprise. Took me a minute to figure out it was her.
- Cliff Curtis as an Apex henchman was a lot of fun. The way he communicated the character's underhandedness with his delivery made me want more of him.
- Hiroshi telling Keiko that her actions drove his father away, and that was something she'd have to live with, like he lived with the contempt of his kids.
Things I didn't like about S2
- Tim. I'll articulate later, but I truly, genuinely, hate this character.
- Killing Natalia Verdugo to elevate that loser Tim to a leadership position. I've never seen such a succinct manifestation of mediocrity and falling up the ladder for a white male character in a show.
- Killing Hiroshi Randa. The moment they no longer needed him for the infidelity subplot(s), they just killed him instead of building on his character and his relationships with his family.
- The Hollow Earth entry points as time travel. It's just not an interesting narrative device, and more to the point, it convolutes what is an otherwise simple plot device for Kong, Jia, and the Iwi.
- The way the show Others non-Western locales, specifically regarding their minor characters and redshirts. The problem with a show doing a Shadow Over Innsmouth send-up is Lovecraftian shit gets real racist, real fast (which it did).
- It's clearly writing right up to the edge of the films (KSI, G14, KOTM, GVK) and trying to write around them, if not over them.
- Giving Walter Simmons an OC-esque adopted trust fund baby was certainly a choice, esp when Barbra Holland was already fulfilling the role Simmons Daughter #2 had. She felt like a less interesting version of the daughter from GVK, whose loyalty to her father meant she agreed with Simmons' entire ethos of Human Supremacy. Wanting to control the Titans or exterminate them if he couldn't.
- S2 apparently takes place two years after S1 (2015), so like 2017/2018, but Rodan is already out and about before KOTM? Get to fuck.
- The way Houston Brooks has been completely vanished from the Bill Randa/Skull Island/Hollow Earth narratives. Not even a mention or foreshadowing of his relationship with Rand, or his Hollow Earth theory by the time he becomes a professor. No, I will not shut up about this.
- Everyone coming up with a version of Emma and Mark Russell's ORCA gadget.
- Shaw Sr. being alive at all.
- Everyone going along with Cate and Keiko's assumption that he survived in the Hollow Earth.
- Shaw doesn't really bring anything to the show after S1 that wasn't better served in a flashback, or giving that screentime to Keiko and Hiroshi.
- Keiko writing some romantic missive to Shaw Jr., and then later telling Cate, "it was never like that with Shaw." Okay, sure, Nancy Wheeler. You were literally arguing otherwise to your son in an earlier episode.
- Kentaro's storyline feels very much like they don't know what to do with his character now that they've given Cate so much narrative real estate.
- Godzilla being back in play in Toho's films likely means MonsterVerse Godzilla is basically going to be a glorified cameo character in any future MV media.
- Titan X (Co-Cai). As an antagonist, she felt like a victim of the show's budget and too much like an attempt to replicate King Ghidorah/Monster Zero, but "not evil". It seemed quite clear to me she was protecting her own/child, but the show's deliberate effort to conceal this meant I was waiting for the characters to catch up. (It took them until the eighth episode.)
I truly think keeping Shaw Sr. in the present-day narrative hindered what could've been time better spent on the development of the Randa/Muira relationship between Keiko, Hiroshi, Cate, and Kentaro.
On top of streaming shows being more plot-over-character, so much of the show being dedicated to litigating Old Man Shaw only heightened this problem. Knowing he is a permanent fixture in the show probably means I won't check in on the third season. None of the conclusions the finale reached interested me much either.
The newer characters (Midthunder's) or the insistence to keep the more superfluous ones (Tim, Reddick) only added to the problems the Randa/Muira family experienced as characters.
lmao this show is killing lit. everyone except the two white dues I want to see dead.
Hiroshi seemed at least well on his way to becoming a character otherwise defined by his infidelity and the angst between himself and his children. And right as this happened, he gets the axe. Comparatively, he def had more to offer the narrative than Timmy and Old Man Shaw. Awesome.