The Reel Rejects - MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS Episode 5 REVIEW & BREAKDOWN!!

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

GODZILLA MINUS ONE! Monarch Legacy Of Monsters Episode 5 Full Reaction Watch Along: https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Monarch Legacy Of Monsters Ep 5 Reaction, Recap, Commentary, Analysis, Spoiler Review, & Ending Explained as we revisit the events of G-Day, unpack more secrets of our characters involving Monarch, & MORE. The Apple TV series features Kong & is directly connected to the Monsterverse with Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla Vs Kong, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, & is debuting alongside Godzilla Minus One. The cast consists of Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, John Goodman, Anna Sawaii, Ren Watabe, Aners Holm, Kiersey Clemons, & MORE.  #Monarch #Godzilla #Kong #KingKong #GodzillaVsKong #Monster #MonsterVerse #Kaiju #monarchlegacyofmonsters #GodzillaMinusOne  Support The Channel By Getting Some REEL REJECTS Aparrel! https://www.rejectnationshop.com/ POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! Head Editor: https://www.instagram.com/praperhq/?hl=en Co-Editor: Greg Alba Music In Video: Airport Lounge - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Ask Us A QUESTION On CAMEO: https://www.cameo.com/thereelrejects Follow TheReelRejects On FACEBOOK, TWITTER, & INSTAGRAM:  FB: https://www.facebook.com/TheReelRejects/ INSTAGRAM:  https://www.instagram.com/reelrejects/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thereelrejects Follow GREG On INSTAGRAM & TWITTER: INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/thegregalba/ TWITTER: https://twitter.com/thegregalba Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I am excited, minus 1. Ladies and gentlemen, please roar at that like button. Smash that subscribe button. Thank you to Prepper for editing down these highlights. Thank you to all. Follow us on our Patreon page. That's where you catch the full-in-threatch and watch on recink with your own copy of Monarch. We'll recover several things exclusively with highlights and watch long as included.

Let's see how exciting. exciting and awesome this episode is I like you stoic lady dude those scenes that monariff were crazy they were like they're like oh there's so much you don't know

and you're like oh you don't know what you really don't know and what you want to realize how much there is not to know there's so much knowing that you're just not believing facts man they're hard to come by in these parts all we got is mystery i've been really satisfied with five episodes of that definitely definitely it's five episodes of like man my dad was real tough but why do this to us but we got to find him though okay yeah but man he was tough but we got to find him yeah he's kind of of traumatized us, but we got to find it. Yo, Kay would just be dropping truth bombs to her mom like nobody's business. I know.

Well, we can't afford to, you know, unpack this. We got to get it out there and friggin' quarantine zone it up. So when I go show up to see my mom after all this time, you know, dad had an affair. That's the son over there.

Yeah, hey, listen. Why aren't you reacting the way I would expect you to react? Why aren't you taking this more gracefully slash also unpack this with me right now? All right. Day two. All right. Now that I'm back here in the morning after you've pulled an all-nighter. Dad.

He worked for the secret organization of people who have... They worked for Godzilla. It worked for Godzilla. Yeah, man. Damn. It's compelling drama. But in terms of character drama... I think whoever plays Kate, I think she is the best she's been so far.

Agree. Mm-hmm. You have good ways of saying. She's the best she's been so far. This episode gave her some stuff to work with. I was here just going like, I would rather watch her pointless prequel show that took place during the events of Godzilla. Sure, where we could actually feel like we're not being team. with an old movie like it was it is like the flashbacks even though they're flashbacks i thought

the flashbacks were more compelling and intent i'm talking about even the moments where you don't see godzilla like that that alone was just so immediate and then having to handle the the the relationship drama in the midst of knowing that of the impending doom that were they san francisco yes yeah that knowing what the the impending doom of san francisco is before them and then also the naïivity of the nativity story the nativity scene yeah of like oh we're at school and they're like i like the nuance of that of her seeing the phone like i thought about that too like oh you know what if they were like ah there's a monster attack and someone showed me footage you know what if they were like ah there's a monster attack and someone showed me footage on YouTube. I'd be like, this is a really good. Whatever kid in his living here

made this did a good job. Yeah, but I totally wouldn't believe it either. Yeah. But are there in San Francisco, I think be like rumbles happening? Well, there would be too much, I feel like to military and I'm sure somebody would be able to

in the further way you are, sure. But I feel like people in San Francisco. There's like no kids at school today. Yeah, like if you were, if you, I'll give the benefit, I'll give a massive benefit of the doubt to people who might have been out of town. But if you were anywhere near San Francisco at the time, how could you have any reservation about the thing that caused all this, you know, seismic activity, destruction, loud, you know, sirens and explosions and popping and crushing and all this stuff? Well, you see, okay, they mentioned minus one here a couple of times.

And I'm going to tell you what minus one is a very interesting character drama of why it still works, even though Godzilla is like only in the movie for like 20 minutes in that film, without spoiling it. Okay. Is that the character's traumatic memory is linked to an encounter with Godzilla. Yes. And everything we were watching after it, do you know anything about minus one? Not really. You know anything?

I don't know. I don't know anything about it either. I don't know anything. I've only heard people describe what they love about it, which have not been in any specific terms. You don't know anything about the plot? I don't know anything about how the movie presents itself. I just know that it has very endearing and rich human characters. Okay.

Then I won't go too far into it because I didn't know any. I didn't even know when it took place and all that. So I was like watching. Yeah, I don't know anything. Yeah. Somehow at the moment, I know almost enough. about it other than everyone's like this could win an Oscar if they wanted it to you know

it's pretty great and it was made for $15 million apparently yeah yeah so that that's just one element of why that okay I'd have to elaborate a little bit more to really it sounds like the traumatic flashbacks are very vital

to the telling of that story but even if even when they're not focused on Godzilla and they're focused on like other stuff there's still some type of connection where the the shadow that Godzilla casts. Yeah,

yeah. The Paul is the word for it. Yeah. Yeah. You love that word, but I just think of Paul from heavy spoilers. I don't use that often.

P-A-L-L. I know what the word is. If it, if like a hall. It's like casting a dark shadow. Yeah. That's why I said that. Looming.

Pire. Yeah. But anyway, I mean, it's like, I'm being kind of for anyone who's seen the movie. It's like,

I would go, little further. I'm like, yeah, I'm potentially holding back. He's preserving my virgin ears. And so I think with that Kate, that's part of what, like, what makes her a little interesting is her her, even though like

there's a lot like, okay, this thing with her lover and cheating and all that and her dad. I don't know. It's more interesting than it was before is what I could say. It is. It's more interesting than it was before. I want be nice today, John. I know. I want to be nice. I'll be the curmudgeon. I'll be nice. I mean, no, I... There was cool shots that reminded me of the last of us in the

world and, uh, Corrusel's charming and yes. And I liked him. He's a good actor. He's a good actor. And being nice today. The deputy lady, I like her too. And I like this, the stoic action, Kobe Smolders lady. I like Kentaro, just the first time in America, first time being around a bunch of like destruction and rubble and he's just so casual and cool yeah he's in his funnions yeah man i thought it felt like there was a scene deleted somewhere there i mean it was nice i like the mom casting the moms continue to kill it on this show whoever casts this show has a good relationship with a mom yeah whoever writes these scripts seems to have a good relationship with a mom just because the moms are inevitably the most the the kintaro's mom is a better

character than uh kate's mom just because we've spent more time with her but they're both the characters are the most heart so far they're different i know different they're different characters i'm not saying they're not i i agree kentara kate's mom has dealt with g day yeah and she's like continuing to whereas kentaro's mom is like kind of completely as we understand sort of separated from all that stuff yeah and yeah no i i i like harrow's mom seems like she kind of knew sure yeah well and deep down you know kate's mom certainly didn't uh yeah try too hard to confirm or deny her suspicions which means deep down she she knew yeah so uh i appreciate those things i thought this was a decent episode totally man like getting uh you know these little glimpses and stuff like that

little flesh on the character bones all that shit is nice uh you know i i keep on You said something during one of those scenes about, like, I take it back. Well, then I'm going to re-say it and take credit for saying it. That, like, the lead is always kind of on the verge of tears, but never quite crying. And I feel like that's how this show operates in terms of character development. I'm always like, oh, we're introducing something that could be an interesting,

nuanced thread that we could just spend a moment having, you know, play out. And we got kind of close to some of those things. I think the sweetest moment is when Kintaro is trying to cheer her up and they're singing the silly little song together, even though that kind of clashes with the circumstances, but I'll let it slide. There's a lot of lampshading of those things, but that's fine. I think they want to be the last of us, but they're not pacing-wise, they can't do it. I don't- Because there is kind of, there is like a somber, melancholic thing that I think they want to do, but- You want to look up at those buildings. and have that like, whoa, like that sort of breathtaking existential conundrum that happens when you see like a man-made structure, you know, ruined by nature or completely reclaimed by nature. Well, I saw this quote, this quote on, I think it was from Matt Shackman.

And there's something about what gets, well, we get people to return every week is the characters, not the monsters. It's a bit of both It's called Monarch legacy of monsters By the way So you know I kind of show for some monsters But whatever Just having the characters on screen

Is what people show up for I guess by that By that metric Yeah Because the characters certainly were on screen a lot During this episode But this feels like it is written by It's so baffled

That it's Matt Shackman Partly helping to shepherd this Just because this does feel like It is written by people who are divorced from the idea that the plot is not the story

necessarily. So I always feel when I'm watching this like, okay, this is like a 100% plot show. And any piece of character intimacy we get barring a couple is like for functionality

and for the plot. Like I liked maybe John, maybe. I like, I liked that we got a glimpse into Kate's life. That's your opinion. I always just feel like we're scratching the surface of these things. And I'm not, again, it's weird. It's weird to be in the side.

I don't know how to quite articulate this position because I'm not sitting here going, I want life-changing drama out of this. I just want to feel like there's, like, character beats where, like, somebody brought a little bit of their own life experience. And, like, everything is very boilerplate continually. So it's like, oh, oh, here's her tragic. backstory she had a love and loves a woman and uh because her dad is bad at families she's bad at commitment and i'm like cool that's a good beat that's a good character nuance that's something that real people embody however i really feel like i just experienced only those bullet points and

an actual i don't know like when scenes play out the way they're written here it kind of starts to dismantle all the other movie magic that goes into it because then I just feel like I'm watching pretty actors on a pretty set. I think what you're trying to say your opinion, not mine. Yes. I have alone.

You are very much alone that I've chosen to doubt. I hope you know that or none of this. I think what you're trying to say is that it's not really about hey, I want to spend like more time in these scenes. You just want the again

got like a movie like Godzilla minus one is two hours okay this we've been here for five yeah yeah this episode felt like two hours and and my point is is that the common rhetoric with that movie is people connect with the characters and it can't be done and it's not about oh because they gave me five hours of the characters yeah it's just about how you execute the particular scenes where the emotion is there, with a combination of performer and qualitative writing and direction in the moment. There's a lot that goes into communicating and emotion, which is editing your music choice, the atmosphere, the performance, the dialogue.

I feel a lot that it's not about like, I want to see. more of this affair it's just about like it's how you articulate it's it's how yeah those certain scenes go down that should evoke an emotion in you is what I think you're trying to say I completely feel all

those things yeah I don't know I'm on I'm halfway to tears every time it feels like it just they they deliver they keep delivering information rather than like letting anything like breathe in itself why you feel that way not me well yeah yeah and my

my personal opinion is that it's like if you're going to go woke embrace it bro I don't know like it's nice that they made her you know a queer character but it also feels it's weird it doesn't feel necessarily quite as shameless as as I'm sure somebody will say like it's pandering like they spend enough time and it's like hard enough to cut down for some foreign market that doesn't approve of that that it feels like they committed to the choice however It also doesn't feel like it serves much of a purpose, which I guess is cool. I guess you want it to be such that like, oh, these characters are gay and the issues they're dealing with are universal still. She can't commit because of her dad.

And she's sabotaging this situation with her, I guess, girlfriend or her potential lover by, you know, sleeping around. And like, all that is fine. Like, you can, again, you don't have to create, like, the most unfathomable, circumstances to make me endeared to your character you just got to treat it like it's not requisite information delivery i guess is how it always feels to me uh so you know it's like i can always feel the actors i feel bad because i always feel the actors carrying all the way to the script like the script weighs so much down on the show for me solely i think i think chemistry is very important and i think what you're trying to say too is you don't feel like a real sense

of chemistry with our main cast of characters? Not really, and I don't know... But that's your opinion. What to attribute that to... Yeah, no, don't put... I won't put words in your mouth. Maybe it's the cast. Well, and I like all the cast individually, yeah,

and there's something about... I can feel the potential that these actors would potentially have chemistry. And at the same time, I don't feel like the direction is, like, bad, but I also don't think the direction is particularly attuned into character stuff either. So, like, the most effective things are, yeah, when you're, like, in the

quarantine zone and you've got, like, the vibes to ride in on. But it's like, if you want this to be your Last of Us, episode three, you know, I don't know, like, it's weird. They have this whole motif of her PTSD, which is such an interesting thing to do here. And I feel like it is simply just an excuse to have Godzilla footage.

Sometimes it feels like, and again this is just what I imagine you're trying to say yes it's that yeah please help me is that

sometimes it feels like actors with potential who are figuring out these scenes in an acting class kind of it feels like we're watching rehearsals

before they actually found the right camera angles and like the right approach to the scene like every scene feels like we're watching rehearsal and we're watching them test out a camera angle

and it's so strange. It's a fascinating conundrum because the Monsterverse movies have always been up and down in how they handle human characters. But I feel like the movie that they're hearkening back to the most, the 2014 one has arguably the most tempered grip on that. John, we don't need to repeat ourselves over and over again, especially yourself. I know. I am alone in this and I just keep on hot the mic. Especially after watching, I felt this way with the other movies. Every movie after Godzilla 2014 I felt this way

is that sure the characters suck but whenever they get to I do like EGIA and Alexander's I do like the little I don't know the actresses I do like Gia and I like Alexander Scars Scar Scars yeah I do like them

anyway that be CVK at least made the characters palatable but my point is that whenever they actually gets the monster stuff though they give so much TLC to that yeah not just in like visual effects but like there is an emotion it is genuinely like exciting and fun and cool and you're at least like ah well at least at least i know why i'm here

and they're a rush to get to here and this show is not about the monsters this show is about its characters and it's mystery box and it's and it's like like it's characters and uh this just not as um it feels like it's about its characters but written by somebody who is being forced to write about these characters and doesn't actually want to like i don't know i can't tell what they want because it doesn't seem like they're struggling to bring in kaiju i know i'm sorry legacy of monsters the monsters are our demons in our past or something yeah and monarch is bad but maybe not all bad mark a legacy of our art of our past consequences and choices some fucking bullshit writing cliche yeah and just so much of what is happening

is just like I don't know it's supposed to go a hand in hand yeah it's supposed to I think that's the thing is like you want like I'm not big on the shoulds and shouldn't have right I'm really not big on that it's I am thinking though why it's not as effective and it's because they normally that's why I keep comparing it to minus one with the vagary I'm doing it because I don't want to spoil anything for John is that you

you need it to go there needs to be a like a link between yeah the there needs to be an interplay between like the adventure circumstances and the character groups yeah yeah like as they're facing

so Kate's the closest you'll get yeah but you know like can taro a dedicated episode to uncover his art why is Sam here that's the point of that episode is why is Sam here has nothing to do with

or May sorry May May May there was nothing to do with Kaiju or Godzilla or any of that shit yeah like it needs to go hand because it feels like they're completely separate things like one is like a okay yeah

this person can have a backstory but once it becomes like the focus yeah of something like well this feels so divorced and not in correlation or... They don't feel complimentary and they don't feel like they're shaping each other.

Like there should be a back and forth of like this journey. I'm trying to be nice. The more they discover about their dad's alternate life, the more it should sort of alter and enlighten their growth along the way. And I feel like, yeah. Or it should lead to something about monarch. Even if it's not about Kaiju, it should be. something with a plot.

The plot and character development have to go hand in hand and the character development just seems like such a separate thing. It feels, yeah, completely divorced and like a thing we do when we have time for it or when we need to create

some kind of tension. Like it's so weird. I loved that they went into the quarantine zone and I thought they could have made that more tense and the most tension you get is when she's having the panic attacks. Stupid soldiers. And then, and she got these dumb soldiers.

evaded like a video game maneuver and it's just this one little cluster of them and then yeah and then you follow the cat like yeah i just it's uh it's it's it's interesting the the way that they seem to just keep this cycle going of like we're just got to keep going around the world to find dad we got to find dad and and everywhere we go there's some more information about what dad knows about this stuff but but it never feels like we're getting little rewards of information along the way and and and people just keep again it feels like a j j j rooms mystery box or people keep on talking up like oh man oh man our deep dark secrets we can't get him out there and you know stuff that we don't know and your dad and i'm like is there anything in the box but lost at least had like a something that felt like soup it the feeling was so compelling though that you had to tune in every week because you're like i don't know if i learned anything but i certainly got more questions don't feel yeah i got more questions even if you

didn't get answers, you got more questions. And here, I'm just like, I got the same questions. And Lost would at least throw you like a weird detail or something disconcerting or it would get quirky or, yeah, there was always this tone of sort of dread and mystery and like something's lurking that you can't define. And we're talking about a universe where like there's way more giant monsters and strange, timey, whimy things that are happening that we don't all need. know about and yet

I don't know it doesn't feel like there are that many of these creatures roving around at the moment and there's also like weird planetary travel stuff that you can do

yeah like in Godzilla versus Kong they go to Alaska to get Kong into hollow earth right is in Alaska you're an arctic is more recent than mine

is like an icy place definitely wasn't honk yeah and then and then and then and then when um Godzilla and then when Kong gets to his chair

and then Godzilla attacks he looks through the hole and he's in Hong Kong and I don't think Alaska in Hong Kong are like that close to each other right so my point is like there's something with hollow earth that creates an interesting thing about travel

yeah yeah and I thought like oh we might do something like that here but then again no one's ever been to Hollow Earth supposedly but maybe Monroe has secrets maybe that's why he's nice but he's not actually he's more like 70

Yeah Yeah 20 years behind is aging Um Yeah there's just like compellingness But you know

Well it's getting better It's getting It's it's it's just Yeah it's getting all right And it maintains an okayness I think it is suffering The one thing I will concretely say Is that I do think

That it suffers It suffers in these last two episodes from not having any of the 1950 stuff and what oh no no no modern day characters and i don't want to be the guy then going gets hung up on what i want rather than what they're trying to do but i did feel like having the contrast back and forth in these two simultaneous stories was an interesting hook and it was also an actual mystery there yeah and i felt more like i'm also learning stuff and my quag getting more questions and then when a question gets answered it's here it's just

oh wow dad had this map yeah oh hey he didn't have a safe but he did he put these bullet points for us to put up on the sunrise at the window and it's a strange very strange show

it's very odd it's like if we look I think last episode is more of a prime example of it all like sure how does Cantaro facing his past traumas lead to him getting on that helicopter and saving everyone, right?

Like, he just faces it and then cut to he's on a helicopter out of nowhere. As opposed to, like, it didn't help with some, it didn't help with something like overcoming something. Yeah. You know, like there's no real growth. You just, okay, he faced it.

But then, that's what I mean. But that's a totally different situation. I mean, about how it's divorced. And it's kind of the same thing. like she's forced to kind of run through the town but it's not like hey hey we need to keep going i can't i can't keep going no no we have to keep going it's like and she's like getting paralyzed because she's struck by her own trauma and it's like okay in order for them to get the necessary thing she has to overcome her trauma yeah you know and like why is kate the one essential why can't why can't

uh may may may why can't may and kentaro just go and and do it themselves uh because they're not the main character I guess but they're like why can't tell her like why that should be addressed like why we need Kate to go but Kate is too like all you have to do is like

a little bit of reworking is like Kate has to be the one for some reason I don't know show you're the ones with the writers you make it up because they're both genetically inheriting their father's blah blah blah but I'm saying like there's a reason plot wise

just plot not even character wise why Kate has to be the one to go right why they need her There. She's the one who knows San Francisco. She's the one who knows how to navigate, right? That's what the show said. She was there.

That's what they do, right? So they need her. Yeah. They need her. But Kate's like, I can't. I can't go through there again. I can't. It's too hard for me.

She has to deal with all the fucking trauma. Yeah. And then so every single time there's a hurdle or something or there's getting some of fear, then they have to like, pot. Like, in order for them to complete the mission, Kate has to face her trauma. To start clearing trauma. And I think that's what they were doing. but it's not clear

it just kind of seems like they did some of that but imagine if that's what we all were in unison on imagine if it wasn't just oh she has to face her trauma now every single time we're getting a flashback it feels like essential because then she gets her big crying moment that she got here

and you're like okay now we can proceed forward and know where we have to go let's do this and then she leads the charge yeah it shouldn't just be the thing we do while Kintaro finds the way out off screen. Yeah. And now it's like May. Yeah.

And then May is now like, I want to go home. And so like when deputy director lady or whatever, I don't know what her position is, when she said, they're like, oh, but this one's interesting. When one tough girl, assassin woman says, oh, this one's interesting about May. And then deputy director of lady is like, you don't even know like what, I bet you guys are even know what their position is. Sorry, but I'd say that, and you just know what fucking who fuck I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah, totally. Well, because only four people work at Monarch right now. So then, Debbie, director, the lady is like, but what, what is her backstory?

Why did, that, I was hearing just going, what the fuck doesn't matter? It's the most random character of all of them. Like, what is it? What does it? What does it? Like, what do you care? She decrypted the files. That's all your concern is.

Yeah. And it's so strange because it's like they could make something out of her Because she's just she has been along for the ride and I like this the idea and the work in the scene of her consoling Kate But at the same time they've not really done anything to really buy or sell the idea that like She is opening up as a person to like it seems like she's doing this because it's like a good thing to do You don't want to be a jerk in a situation and leave somebody flailing as they're going through trauma But she's sarcastic yeah so she's likeable yep

totes she's like give her dry sarcasm to mask her pain it was nice getting we got a character it was nice getting to that point where they were singing and they were doing the stuff later on in the episode because I was starting to get a little bit graded on about the in the first half I started to find it a bit grading that I'm like I know that all these three of the main

characters are they're dealing with trauma and they're dealing with pasts and all that stuff. This is a grumpy gang to hang out with. And they're always kind of snippy at each other. And I'm not like having fun watching them despite that. Or I'm not like, well, you know, but they've got like an appealing attitude. They just all seem tired and annoyed. It's because their lack of chemistry.

Yeah, I guess so. I guess that is what it is. Like to use a very different dynamic of a bunch of traumatized characters who had like messed up story backstories but then and when they hang out they don't get along but they have chemistry and the breakfast club yeah the breakfast club man that's what we knew was a little godzilla's breakfasts just heard the kids godzilla attacks it's guardians the galaxy the suicide squad anything of something of like we don't belong together but actors have chemistry so we like watching them not get along yeah because you know underneath that so the one you know that the reason

they don't get along is because of some actual thing underneath that it'll come out. It could be as simple as like a cop from Hong Kong and an L.A. cop. You have to work together to save it. Save a little girl. Neither that wants a partner, but they're forced to work the case.

Yeah. But you're like, oh, man, but if you guys were able to move past this, you could be unstoppable. You guys could be you could have a whole franchise. Then they had this whole thing with Tim being like, Monarchs in their blood. I was like, ah, is that where we were going with this this whole time?

I think they are genetically predisposed to have, like, his intellect and be able to figure his shit out. Like, I think they mean that when they say monarch. You think they're going to do some, like, weird sci-fi mumbo jumbo. I do. I think they are chosen. I think whatever ju-ju permeated leave. I don't know, man. I think it was more like how, what's his name?

Who's let them fight? Was everyone in the room for that? Apparently, Kerrosa was. Sarazawa? Sarazawa's kids in Godzilla versus Kong. He's the one to pilot's Shin-Ah, not Shin-Gonzola. Mechagodzilla. Okay.

Oh, that's right. Damn. Yeah, so I think that's what they mean by family. I guess so. I think it's going to be some kind of gym. I think this team is going to see in Godzilla. ex-cog. I sure hope. I'm gonna get the team of modern characters I've been waiting for. Well, the thing is about that though, I mean,

like, with these movies, if I knew that's where they were going. With these, well, I mean, the thing about these American Godzilla productions is that part of you, especially with the track record they've established part of me, I'm like, well, I might not be loving these characters as of this part of the franchise, but if they come back in a different part under a slightly different guiding voice it could work you know started off strong this show yeah it did i've been seeing the audience score dipping too and i'm like thank god people me catching up with us yeah well because it starts with so much promise but it stagnates i well just

yeah i don't know it starts out with that promise at the beginning and you're like cool i can look past whatever else because i'm sure once we get into the meat we're gonna flesh all that out and i'm like we're halfway into a 10 episode season and up Like, I feel like we've done so much, like, physical wheel spinning for, like, very little actual progress. Characters aren't interesting enough for me to not, for me to, like, disregard the lack of monster fun. Yeah, and I'm, and I will be the first person happy to do that. Which is what Godzilla might as someone does so well is you'll feel like, like, like, you won't forget it to Godzilla movie, but you're not like, where's Godzilla? So that when it comes in, you're like, oh, that's right.

Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's another, I won't mention. There's another movie recently that gave me that exact thing where I was like, there's stuff I expect from things like this, but I'm not even thinking about that. And that's one of the best surprises possible. Saw X. Yeah, actually. There are like saw elements to that movie that like it doesn't forget about, but I forgot about while I was just being pulled into the movie. And I love when that happens. I would love to be bamboozled by characters I actually care for. get some kaiju icing on top sorry man i got to watch um i got to watch the first purge and um now you see me too so i can make sure that it's we've not said enough about this we'll get to the bottom of it in another hours so this is why we were up late yeah just because we don't know how to shut up and we're filming for some reason this show always inspires the most like long winded like why doesn't this work it shouldn't be that hard it was just like if if if if if People just straightforwardly dislike the show.

It would be so much easier to talk about it. Because each time, yeah, every time an episode finishes, you're like, what is it that I don't see in this, that everybody else seems to? Like, fucking losing their shit over. I don't think I'm asking too much. I don't think I'm being too much of a grump about this. I just wish that it felt like we were moving anywhere.

Yeah. Kurt Russell, I feel like we've spent way more time with Wyatt Russell than Kurt Russell. And I mean... I just feel like, you know, like when people, people fucking say the two i don't know car russell's just kind of car russell's charming but i don't he's coasted man i don't really give a shit they're not using him yeah i which is fine if we have why russle but we don't now the um it's i i i don't know exactly what people would say when you're like well it's not fair to compare godzilla minus one and this and look like i could see a variety

of reasons why people would say that i'll boil it down to what just doesn't what baffles me is what is a two-hour movie where there's at least like 20 minutes of like intense action so really it's like an hour and a half of character moments there right and it's a 90-minute movie with a 20-minute kite you kind of to oversimplify yeah short because i don't know yeah it's more spread out to that yeah um it i'm saying that we're here we've been here for freaking um five hours

this they these guys should be more interesting yeah and there's bottom line they should they just should be like I should care more about what I'm watching when the three of them are like at the airport I'm watching this like forced interactions like

oh I'm angry at the flight attendant lady I'm like there's something that just feels so off about the direction this is just kind of abrasive yeah I don't know I feel like there's you're like one camera shot away from being like a Neil Bredden film.

Like one shot away. Maybe. Yes, yeah. But of getting good actors and just making them capturing them in an off way because there's no chemistry. And it's really it's really rough. It's rough.

It is rough. It's so strange. I was really trying, John, and you broke me. You broke me down. It's okay. This is the one. Broke me down, John. I was so good. I was like, oh shit, 10 minutes in, I'm done. I said all nice things. I'm ready to call this video.

These, no. And you wanted to keep talking. Second half of the season, get ready. It's going to be so good. Keep talking and now here I am. It's going to be so good. It's going to be great. It's going to give us some revelations.

We're going to feel like, I can't wait, man. This monarch feels so, these three people and one of whom is a good hacker and the other two are just, as ones, they're just regular people pretty much, have like this whole shadowy monarch agent. and see, like, what do we do about these three? And I'm like, why, though? Like, I get that May is a good hacker, but other than that, why? Why? What is the episode?

Because it's randos. Yeah, these randas kids, there's nothing we can do to contain them. There's a randah, good. We just got to let them do their thing and follow along. It's like they didn't know about any of this shit. Like a few days ago. Yeah. And they're just, like, finding random scraps their dad left around that are causing, like, they're causing so much, like, globe-trotting and, like, crazy scrapes to get to.

There's just so many, like, easier ways to simplify intensity here. Yeah. Of just, I think, I think they get lost in the weeds of pretentious exploration. Of, of just, just go down. You got someone at Monarch who's, like, just kill them. And then other people are like, we shouldn't kill them. because these are Randa's kids. Yeah.

And then that's the divide about legacy of, like, does it matter that it's randas? Because, yes, Randa, John Goodman is like the start of Monarch. And so should they be kept alive just because of that? What does Monarch do? I mean, I thought we're the good people. Now we're just going to kill them off because they know too much. And are they maybe, like, irradiated with some kind of Kaiju-Joo-Ju-Ju. Then you deconstructs.

You need to study. Yeah, you do have a Carr Russell's character. You get the sci-fi element of like, Instead of just constantly being like, shouldn't you be 90? You get it like a sci-fi. They just keep lamshading all the mysteries and then stretching them out. It's like there's ways where you can do what you're doing and just make it so much more compelling. Or fun.

You have a debate about the ethics and monarch and what monarch's place is in this world and what monarch does. And then you get the sci-fi juju with Kurt Russell. And then bam, you got two sides of monarch, which are interesting. Yeah. And then you get the backstory in the 50s. Let's you see the fucking monsters. Yeah, well, we still have yet to see where Kurt Russell in Wyatt Russell form learns, you know, all the stuff that he keeps saying to them about like, ah, you guys aren't really in control. You don't really know what you're dealing with.

You don't listen to me, you know. And I'm like, I would love to go back to that and listen to that. Yeah, no, it's really, yeah, I feel like it's just being really dragged out. It kind of feels like I'm watching Iron Fist. Yeah, it feels like somebody like, it feels like a drink. Somebody realized they needed to get 10 people a drink and they only had a pitcher for three glasses. So they're just like, just dump more water into this and spread it out. This was five episodes.

How much more interesting? Like, there were stuff here. Like, there should have been episode two. Yeah. There were stuff here I was watching. Five episodes in and we got our lead, a bit of backstory. Yeah, I was like, yeah, this should have, I should have learned. This would have been graded in, like, episode two.

There's so much I was watching. Like, this would have been so good to see it. And how much are we going to actually touch back? on this because my fear also is that we're going to have like, oh man, rainbow flags and it's got her girlfriend, oh, she's living this double life, she's cheating and whatnot, and then I feel like we're almost

never going to touch on her romantic life ever again after this point. I mean, I like kind of the casualness of her just being gay, but then the show does like production design choices that seem to be like they meet at the activism coffee shop. And the school that they go to has is a rainbow school.

And I'm like, I know San Francisco was one of the first P places in America to legalize gay marriage as a thriving gay community. But I don't know. It didn't feel like it was lovingly handled here. It felt like... It did have that Panderer version.

It felt like a capital C choice. Yeah. And it didn't feel like it's, yeah, it's the problem. It empowers people who feel like they are Cartman in the Panderverse episode because it is like, I am happy that you did this

and since this is a made up character it doesn't matter so people don't need to be mad even though I'm sure they will but what is like I'd rather have the choice than not have the choice but also like

did you really care when you made the choice or did you just is it another arbitrary detail it would have been better if you just kept the relationship instead of trying to be like gay stuff and because it was like

I can give a shit I didn't even like notice the flag I didn't you were pointing it out and I don't know but the thing is like a lot of people notice it like I didn't even notice any of that stuff I was more like oh thank God backstory yes yeah maybe we'll get to know this character a bit better and feel her struggle a little bit more she has emotional things that are not worse Papa and I was I was connected to that so and I liked how they like her a cheater like who it's a little interesting so she's got flaws without being a

stereotypical crazy Hollywood lesbian yeah yeah and it would have been more cliche if it was like a guy yeah because then it's like oh there's her daddy issues so I'm like yeah make her gay that's cool um but there and again it's always about how something is captured and and so once you start

like showing like a bunch of like a iconography all this stuff I feel like like now I feel like it's the show trying to make this feel lived in or are they forcing stuff heightened or are we going lived in I can't tell now now now

Now I'm distracted by it because the show's drawing attention to it. When before, if it was just like they show up, they kiss, and they're in a relationship. I wouldn't even thought twice about it. Well, and it doesn't end. And the trouble then for me becomes, too, that two of them are so utterly perfect that it breaks the illusion that much further because, like, her girlfriend, again, fine actress. I like the presence of that character, but I don't feel like they're, I don't know, it felt like actors on a set who were put together because they're both attractive rather than. than like a real relationship. Yeah.

You know? And I'm sure both of those actors are capable of making that feel lived in without a whole lot of excess. Oh, totally, John. You know, overwrought effort. Yeah, man, we got to end this. We got it. We're going to. This is the longest video of the year.

Guys, what do you think of Monarch episode of the five? Your thoughts down below. I think we'll finish it. I'll let you know. It's going to be good. Rage watching along with us. Sure. Yeah, do it or you want.

You've made your bet. You know what you're getting into? It's only uphill from here. I've been trying to be nice. Next week, episode six is going to be good. It's going to be the best one yet. I feel it. I'll see you guys soon.

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