Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Season 2 Review: A Godzilla/Kong-Sized Adventure Bogged Down By Too Much Melodrama

Let's clear something up real quick regarding Godzilla and King Kong: You do not, under any circumstances, "gotta hand it to them." Still, whatever else you might say about our favorite Titans, they sure know how to leave an impression. If only the same could be said for "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters." Upon its debut in 2023, the Apple TV+ series attempted to ride the coattails of these uber-popular kaiju and their "Monster-Verse" blockbusters. When Legendary Television tasked creators Matt Fraction and Chris Black with slipping in an entire series set between the grander and more expansive movies, this probably wasn't the most obvious direction to take things. Rather than simply build an easily-digestible show around the monster-hunting organization known as Monarch, the creative team instead spent a full season building out a mystery box filled with fractured families, split timelines, love triangles, and rival tech companies ... with only the occasional cameo by Big G or the Eighth Wonder of the World, for good measure.

While that balance between human-focused melodrama amid big-budget spectacle (mostly) worked the last time around, this sophomore season of "Monarch" can't quite recreate the same recipe for success. Despite Black taking over as sole showrunner, the series finds itself subsumed by a few too many competing priorities. The ensemble is even more sprawling, the scale seems worthy of an actual feature film, and the expenses at Apple's disposal are enough to make the vast majority of Toho films blush. But to what end? Unfortunately, something seems to have gotten lost in translation between what the writing team finds interesting and what's actually most interesting about this universe: the Titans themselves.

All the manufactured interpersonal conflicts, abrupt character turns, and frustratingly hidden motivations in the world are no substitute for a narrative that never manages to fully come together in a satisfying way — or delivers on the monster mayhem audiences are tuning in for in the first place.

"Monarch" picks up essentially where season 1 left off, as our main group of protagonists makes their way back from the mystical Titan realm known as Axis Mundi. Anna Sawai's Cate Randa, Mari Yamamoto as her young grandmother Keiko fresh out of the 1950s (it's a long story), and Kiersey Clemons as May have been rescued safe and sound, though only after being forced to leave behind the aged Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) at the last moment. When Cate's actions to bring him back inadvertently unleash the fearsome Titan X, a tentacled monster that poses a mass-casualty threat, into the real world, the rest of the season turns into a race against time to prevent another "G-Day" from going down.

While a time jump at least allows for some "Avengers: Endgame"-style introspection about everything the characters missed — some time-dilation mumbo jumbo means our characters emerge two long years later in the Before Times of 2017, so we have to imagine stuff like the Brexit Referendum and the Trump presidency came as a bit of a shock — season 2 struggles mightily elsewhere. Since this is set after the events of the 2014 "Godzilla," but prior to any of the Monster-Verse sequels, prepare for all sorts of unsubtle winks and nods about a dastardly scheme to control the Titans ... which is undercut from already knowing this fails spectacularly with Mechagodzilla in "Godzilla vs Kong" back in 2021. But the greatest shortcoming is all the time spent on fairly bland storylines. The Titan X mystery builds a decent amount of momentum in the early season, but this soon peters out as our ensemble spins their wheels on uninspired and uninteresting subplots: a brewing rivalry between Monarch and rival tech companies, a heist staged at Apex Cybernetics, and an oddly underexplored connection between Cate and Titan X.

Still, the various flashbacks to Keiko, her lover Bill (Anders Holm), and third-wheel Lee (Wyatt Russell) in decades past continue to be a highlight, as is the endearing stunt casting of Wyatt and Kurt Russell as younger and older versions of the same character. Every actor here commits in a way that feels lacking elsewhere, likely due to having stronger and more emotional material to work with. Still, even this hints at the troubles lurking just around the corner in season 2.

Is it even possible to overthink a show about a bunch of puny humans caught between a radioactive lizard, a big monkey, and a rampaging squid monster? "Monarch" may have somehow found a way. The most consistent narrative surrounding many a "Godzilla" or "King Kong" movie is that the humans are never interesting enough, merely positioned as window dressing and victims-in-waiting for the kaiju battles to come. The Apple TV+ series appears to take that well-founded criticism to heart, but almost seems to overcorrect to the other extreme end of the spectrum. At the risk of criticizing an expensive production for paying too much attention to its own characters and not enough on spectacle ... well, I guess that's exactly what I'm doing. And, believe me, I'm just as bewildered about this as you are.

What could've been a memorable monster mash, supported by dazzling action and an all-star cast lending genuine weight to the proceedings, instead gets stuck in the mud thanks to well-intentioned (but ultimately misguided) storytelling instincts. Where viewers are likely tuning in for Titans wreaking havoc every chance they get, what they get in its place is a clunky globetrotting adventure bogged down by far too much melodrama at every turn. In theory, it's fascinating that "Monarch" is the only place where you can get down and dirty with nerdy tech-speak like "acoustic signatures" and "resonance frequencies" and time dilation, while also encountering a weirdly mature and adult-minded exploration of how certain individuals can have room in their hearts to love more than one romantic partner at a time. In practice, it's a tonal mishmash that borders on absurd the longer it drags on.

To paraphrase the great prophet Ian Malcolm, this show about monsters is eventually going to be about monsters, right? Instead, so much of the season is weighed down by half-hearted ruminations on PTSD, numerous examples of once-stubborn characters completely changing their minds on a dime, and love triangles galore. ("Monarch" more or less implies that cheating on one's significant other is hardwired into the DNA of the Randa family.) If the multiple abrupt plot twists don't faze you, the inexplicable withholding of basic character motivations for hours at a time surely will.

Incredibly enough, all of this could've been somewhat forgiven if only "Monarch" had given its first-billed star a little more to do. Unlike when season 1 first debuted, we now live in a post-"Shōgun" world where Anna Sawai is rightfully considered one of our best young actors on the rise. The second season certainly tries its best to keep Cate Randa at the center of the action, but here lies yet another casualty of a show getting pulled in too many different directions at once. Her inciting action that accidentally lets Titan X loose is treated as a source of guilt and trauma that haunts her every step, but the scripts barely give Sawai much more to do than mope around, lash out, and occasionally get plastered. Her most intriguing storyline, an undefined "sensitivity" to Titan X, later turns her into a Titan whisperer of sorts ... but even this feels like little more than a last-ditch effort to give her something to do.

Whatever else might be said about "Monarch," its missteps are not due to a lack of effort. An early instance of an unwanted visitor aboard a Monarch research vessel in the middle of the ocean flirts with the idea of turning into "Alien" on a boat, with Sawai as the final girl. A sequence set on a beach as hundreds of creepy critters overwhelm a pair of surfers (depicted through GoPro cameras for maximum chaos) is precisely the kind of gnarly action this season desperately needed. Amber Midthunder makes for a pleasant surprise in a recurring role, but she similarly feels let down by a sprawling story that can only hint at a bigger role to come in season 3. These flashes of a more interesting story, peeking out from the edges from time to time, will only make the overall experience that much more frustrating.

Unfortunately, the prevailing notion of missed opportunities sums up this season in a nutshell. This may be one of the most expensive shows currently streaming, frequently gorgeous to look out (shout-out to DPs Ben Nott and David Burr) and backed by an earworm of an electric score from returning composer Leopold Ross. Yet, without a compelling hook to bring it all together, "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" is stuck somewhere in the middle of no man's land: lacking the bite of its namesake Titans and missing the sheer pulpy thrills of its big-screen brethren.

/Film Rating: 5 out of 10

Season 2 of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" premieres on Apple TV+ February 27, 2026.