Monarch: Legacy of Monsters — Is It Fixing the Monsterverse? | Original Geek | S1E27

Is Monarch: Legacy of Monsters fixing the Monsterverse, or is the franchise getting too big for its own good?

In this episode of Original Geek, Steve Scarfo and Jeff Shaw dive into the secret organization at the center of the Monsterverse — Monarch — and debate whether the show strengthens the franchise or distracts from what fans really want: giant monsters smashing cities.

We break down how Monarch: Legacy of Monsters connects the modern Monsterverse films starting with Godzilla (2014) through Godzilla vs. Kong and beyond. We also explore why the show’s dual timeline storytelling works so well, the impressive Titan effects on a TV budget, and whether Apple TV+ is quietly becoming a powerhouse for sci-fi television.

Along the way we cover:

• How Monarch evolved from a small research project into a global black-ops organization
• Why the human stories in Monarch might actually strengthen the Monsterverse
• The surprise return of Kong in Season 2
• Whether the Monsterverse risks getting too big for its own good
• Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell playing the same character across timelines
• Why some fans still just want monsters punching each other

Plus we roll the dice for a Random Review, debate the franchise in Geek Court, and hand out our Critical Hit & Epic Fail for the episode.

If you're a fan of Godzilla, Kong, kaiju, sci-fi TV, and deep geek lore, welcome to the basement.

If you enjoyed the episode:

⭐ Follow the podcast
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And tell us:

Is Monarch fixing the Monsterverse… or do you just want more Titan fights?

Topics discussed in this episode include:
Godzilla, Kong, the Monsterverse, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Apple TV+, kaiju films, Titan mythology, Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, Monsterverse movies, Godzilla vs Kong, sci-fi TV shows, and modern franchise storytelling.

🎙️ Original Geek — Gen X geek culture from people who lived it.
Hosted by Steve Scarfo and Jeff Shaw.

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Transcript

Steve Scarfo (00:00)
So I will say I'm a little disappointed by that. Only because we've done Godzilla versus Kong. Right? It's not, ⁓ in fact, they've done it twice. There was a Godzilla versus Kong and then there's the new empire and now we're gonna go supernova. So this is about what I, this is what I was about to say before you, because I did not know that title. ⁓ I'm afraid they're gonna jump the shark.

Jeff (00:05)
Okay.

Steve Scarfo (00:47)
Welcome to Original Geek. This is the All Fandom Podcast where we dig into sci-fi, fantasy, comics, and every pop culture obsession that built the multiverse we live in today. So whether you're Gen X millennial or just geek curious, welcome to the basement. Hi, I'm Steve Scarfo.

Jeff (01:02)
And I'm Jeff Shaw and we'll be your red light containment breach for today's awakening of an ancient apex predator. Cause we're diving into the monster verse. yeah. What do you think about that?

Steve Scarfo (01:16)
Yeah,

I love it. But very specifically, this is all about the most recent iteration of the Monsterverse. And we'll be talking a little bit about Monarch Legacy of Monsters shortly too. So this is from the 2014 Godzilla film, the current ⁓ Monstrous Cinematic Universe, the other MCU that nobody likes to talk about. So.

Jeff (01:42)
Ha

why it's just the Monsterverse. No cinematic about it. It's just Monsterverse.

Steve Scarfo (01:47)
It is the... You know I had it though. The C in there was too easy.

MCU. Yeah, so what we're gonna do is we're gonna take a different tack. If you guys have been with us, you've maybe listened to our Creature Devil feature episode where we focused a lot on Godzilla. So we're not gonna focus as much on the creatures. We're gonna talk specifically about the organization, Monarch itself.

Jeff (02:11)
No cashew today. Not gonna talk about it.

Steve Scarfo (02:16)
Not gonna do it. Wouldn't be prudent. That's a really bad George Bush impression for everybody over 40.

Jeff (02:20)
It's so funny, when

we did the Creature Double Feature episode and you talked about Monarch and you recommended that I watch it and then I didn't until this past week as the new season launched. ⁓ We're recording this on the Sunday after it launched. So there'll be two episodes in season two when everyone's listening to this. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (02:32)
Hehehehehe ⁓

by the time this comes out, yeah.

Jeff (02:50)
I did not know that it was the same as Godzilla ⁓ and Kong. Like all those, like I didn't know it was part of that same universe. And I thought when I first watched it, I was like, hey, that's pretty cool. They use the same Godzilla. That's pretty cool. I like that. I like that they didn't try to reinvent the wheel. That they use the regular.

Steve Scarfo (03:10)
Hehehehehe

Jeff (03:18)
This also demonstrates my memory of any of those films is not great, because Monarch is a part of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, and then forward. Well, I don't even remember in the 2014 one. I remember in the 2019 one.

Steve Scarfo (03:33)
The 2014 one, yeah.

I did not remember it, but I did some digging and supposedly Monarch is present in the very first 2014, well, very first, for this version. In the...

Jeff (03:48)
But it's like a

major presence in the 2019 one.

Steve Scarfo (03:51)
Oh

yeah, yeah, yeah. mean, in 2014, it was just what they called the group. Like it was, I don't think they cared what it was called. It was just a thing, but it was there. Cause I was like, Jesus, was this their plan all along? Because I remember seeing, you know, I love all the Godzilla movies. So when it came out, I watched it and I didn't remember Monarch. Like it wasn't, they weren't a big presence in that.

Jeff (04:15)
Yeah, I will say this, ⁓ that those, if you have Apple TV, this is definitely worth the watch. the benefit is you don't have to have watched any of those movies. Cause I had to quickly like catch up and catch some clips and do some quick viewing just to be like, wait a second, Monarchs in this? Yeah, pretty significantly. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (04:44)
This is why you need to listen to my recommendations more when I say you have to watch the show.

Jeff (04:50)
Yeah,

well, yeah, obviously, then I would have had more time. Well, it also I became it made me aware that I didn't watch ⁓ Godzilla versus Kong. So like I saw the last one I saw was the twenty nineteen Godzilla King of the Monsters. I didn't watch the two Godzilla versus Kong movies in. ⁓ So that maybe that's another reason because I haven't seen.

Steve Scarfo (05:15)
Yeah.

Jeff (05:19)
a Godzilla movie since 2019, so seven years. anyway, Monarch, love that show and a great recommendation. So I'm glad we're talking.

Steve Scarfo (05:29)
Yeah, and the good thing about Monarch ⁓ is, and the reason why we're not talking specifically about the kaiju, right? Because there are, it's weird, it's like a double-edged sword because they actually introduce a lot more ⁓ in this show than just Godzilla and Kong. if you've, you know, again, if we talk Godzilla and we talk kaiju, everybody goes, okay, this show shows a lot more kaiju, but they're really not the main,

They are the driver, of course, because that's the whole reason Monarch exists. But the storyline isn't about that. The storyline is about, you know, it starts in, it actually starts in 2014 right after they call it G-Day, which I thought was interesting for the first time Godzilla attacked. And so it follows the daughter of a researcher. And then, you know, it does this awesome back and forth timeline.

situation we'll dig into that a little bit too, but ⁓ it really did open everything up. But it's really about this organization and how how the people who were first trying to research these creatures developed with the government and with the army, this this group that becomes it almost reminds me I was making fun of the MCU, but it does almost remind me of like an a shield like an agents of shield situation where it's this

Jeff (06:54)
yeah.

Steve Scarfo (06:56)
It's an organization born out of necessity that becomes this huge, powerful, ⁓ well, black ops kind of place. They have their front-facing stuff, and then really all the stuff they do is mostly stuff people don't know about.

Jeff (07:15)
Yeah, that's a good parallel, Agents of Shield. ⁓ Because it's telling a lot of, has a great story. It's more grounded, smaller, ⁓ but it also has some nice tie-ins. the special effects are really good, which I know once again, it's because I'm the Monsterverse.

where it belongs, but still, you know, when it's a TV show, you don't necessarily always get those special effects to make Kong's fur. And that's gotta be complicated, I think.

Steve Scarfo (07:56)
Yeah,

I will say I think, I'm gonna say golden age again. ⁓ I think we're living really in this, maybe I won't use golden age, I said it twice, but I'm not gonna use it in the sentence. It's an amazing time in graphics, right? ⁓ AI aside, they have tools to do these things easier than they did even.

even 12 years ago when they made the first Godzilla, it's so much easier for them to create. And I'm not saying they're not spending a ton of money, I'm sure they are, ⁓ but it's simpler. And I think it's been a weird, the prices have come down, the ease has gotten easier, the budgets have gotten bigger because people don't do the movies as much. They have to be big and spectacly.

So people are looking for the streaming services to put, I mean, we've done several episodes in the last few weeks that were all very heavy into CGI, the Star Trek episode, ⁓ the Wonder Man episode not as heavy into the CGI, but there's so many of these things that, yeah, it's crazy what they do. And I agree, it looks phenomenal. It's one of the things, it's a, ⁓ for lack of a better term, it's a pretty show to watch because,

you watch these creatures and there's never a point when you go, ⁓ they screwed that up, right? It just looks good.

But ⁓ yeah, and we talked a lot about the smaller show thing. We've been digging the smaller show thing a little tighter. All right. ⁓ This is going to be our most shallow flashback, but we're going to do it.

Jeff (09:37)
Yeah, absolutely.

Well, it's funny because when you talked about the special effects and how far they've come, it did make me think about those when I first saw King Kong. And it was in color, the one I saw, so it wasn't the original King Kong. yeah, that was before we'd have a lot of CGI, so they obviously had to have mechanical.

and then do the models. And you see this giant hand move in to hold someone. And I'll have to look up who that was, because I do remember that was ⁓ King Kong, 70s, 1976. And it was Jessica Lange, Jeff Bridges. So Jessica Lange was the one getting

Steve Scarfo (10:29)
I'm gonna do it. Yeah.

Was it even the 70s?

Just... God, was that 76?

Jeff (10:49)
you know, grabbed by Kong and lifted up. So yeah, I remember that.

Steve Scarfo (10:53)
It was, I didn't realize it was that far back. For some reason I thought it was more like late 80s, but yeah, 76. Yeah, again, I would say shallower because if we're talking Monarch, right, we're talking, I don't remember Monarch the name in any of the other movies pre-2014. The organization, obviously it starts with,

And it's one of the cool things the TV show did ⁓ because they tell two stories at the same time. And I said it to Jeff before we started recording that I actually for some reason thought this was season three because there was so much story that came out in season one because they tell you from the beginning, they tell you, I'm gonna say our time, but I think it's really supposed to start in 2014, 2015, but then they go back to the 50s and they show Kate, the main character's grandmother.

and how she meets her husband who becomes, I think there's actually a quick clip in episode one where they show the grandfather actually die, I believe. Spoilers if you haven't seen the show, but it's within the first five minutes, I'm pretty sure. Or he at least goes missing, we haven't seen him since. But ⁓ they go back and they show you these people back in time and it's ⁓ Keiko and... ⁓

Li Sha and I forget the dad's name, but they show them as younger people and then they tell the story of how they first find these kaiju. But again, it's not about them, the kaiju, it's about the, sorry, these creatures. But they are the titans, sorry, they're titans in this one. ⁓ But they're still kaiju, you guys know it. But they, yeah, but it's the story of the people and how they went on this journey and how they

Jeff (12:28)
How dare you call them kaiju.

Titans, they're Titans.

Steve Scarfo (12:45)
find these things and then they, and it's great when they do good storytelling. Timeline storytelling is tough because you have to make sure that you do it correctly and it can't be too overpowered one way or the other. But this evolution, if you will, of Monarch, ⁓ I think they lay it out really well.

Jeff (13:03)
Yeah. Are you going to flash back or?

Steve Scarfo (13:09)
I did already. Yes. Yeah, that's, that's, well, that's why I said it's a shallow flashback. I'm just going to 2014. That is why it was shallow. Well, cause we're trying to focus on Marnarch itself, but you know, I do agree of course that the, you know, the special effects of Jessica Lange being picked up by an actual monstrous ape hand that

Jeff (13:10)
Okay, oh, to 2014. Or to last year when the show came out.

Okay, gotcha. All the way back. Nice.

Steve Scarfo (13:36)
didn't go past the wrist, you know what I mean, was fun because we got to see it and it was practical effects. I don't think in 76, although Star Wars had some of the first special effects with stuff, so that was around the same time, but they weren't gonna use it. even as, oh God, in the late 80s, whenever the first Monsters Inc. came out, those special effects with the furry creatures weren't the best either.

they were all still pretty cartoony. Mike Wazowski, not Scully was like a, he was like a feat of engineering in software terms to get him to look the way he did.

Jeff (14:11)
Sully.

2001 just in case so we don't have to basement a Canon correction we haven't done that in a while

Steve Scarfo (14:20)
Yeah. So we don't have to do a kinetic correction.

No, we've been holding off. We've been doing live corrections because we hate, I love that segment, but I also hate when we have to do it. Yeah, so still 25 years ago, you know, they could barely get Scully to look the way he needed to. And now they on TV just throw a Godzilla up and not sorry, a Kong up and he looks amazing. But I think now, ⁓

We're gonna jump into, ⁓ yeah, Jeff's doing the dice. We're gonna do a little random review of Monarch.

Jeff (14:50)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (14:57)
All right. Hey, welcome to the original Geek Random Review. ⁓ We set the topic, but the dice set the direction. We know what kind of review, we just don't know how.

Jeff (15:08)
Yeah, so ⁓ this is a chart created for us by Google Gemini. So we are as ill-prepared as possible to review Monarch Season 1 and Episode 1 of Season 2. Spoilers, but we'll try to keep it a spoiler.

Steve Scarfo (15:19)
Yes, for-

Yes.

Yes, but you've been warned. So at some point in time, I will put up the chart. You guys will see it. I would like to focus on the ones that we roll to. But before we get our roll on, like, subscribe, follow us, send us notes about these reviews, tell us what parts you like and hate. I don't remember where we're at. Do I roll for you first this time? All right. Ooh, I get to go.

Jeff (15:30)
Yes.

I'm gonna roll for you first this time.

And looks like we got an 11, which is a successful perception. Keiko's out of time arc. Mary Yamato joining the modern cast, a refreshing perspective. Bringing the 1950s Keiko into 2017 in the season two premiere was cited as a brilliant move. Her scientific fascination.

versus Kate's traumatized weariness creates a dynamic that finally makes the modern day scenes interesting.

Steve Scarfo (16:25)
All right, there's a lot there. ⁓ And I agree with some of it, but not, ⁓ there's an implication that the modern day scenes weren't interesting before, which I do disagree with, but I do really like this idea that, and they, I think they show her at the end of season one, ⁓ Kate and Shaw fall into, ⁓ I have the name here for somewhere, Axis. ⁓ Axis Mundi is what the underworld is called.

Jeff (16:27)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (16:55)
⁓ And they fall in and that's when they see that Keiko is still alive and he actually hides from her because they were the same age or around the same age and now He's already time-jumped in his over a hundred years old even though he looks like he's in his 60s and she's still 90 Well, they yeah, I think they said a hundred so maybe they were just messing with him But anyway, it was he's old and she's still like 28 or whatever. She is ⁓ so I like

Jeff (17:10)
He's 90. Yes.

Steve Scarfo (17:24)
that they're tying the two timelines together. I talked about it before. If you're just watching the review, go watch the rest of the episode. ⁓ But it's, ⁓ the idea that they do this back and forth timeline has been amazing. And they're continuing that in season two, which is nice because they're still fleshing out some history for us, which I like. ⁓ But to have her now with her granddaughter and her son, her son and her granddaughter in,

Jeff (17:45)
Mm-hmm.

Steve Scarfo (17:53)
She's younger than the son and about the same age as the granddaughter. So it's gonna be really interesting to see how they handle the dichotomy of the two. now Shaw at the end of season one, again, spoilers, ⁓ was dropped and forgotten and in episode one, they bring him back. So now there's like a triple timeline thing happening, but all at the same time. So.

I really like it and I think the acting has been great so I have no complaints there at all. But I like the fact that they bring her forward.

Jeff (18:29)
Yeah, I thought that was great. I also thought that was the, like, that was so obvious that they were gonna find her, I think. Like, they never saw her body. So, like, you know, she comes out of the woods with her bow and arrow and like, I'm sorry, I wasn't surprised. I was not surprised. I was like, when do we see her? Because she, we didn't get a body, so come on, come

Steve Scarfo (18:45)
No.

No, it was funny too because they, ⁓ the whole scene where the huge insect creatures drag her into the hole, they try to make it feel super momentous, like she died. But you know, they've already told us that people fall into another world. So it was, it was a little anticlimactic in that part. Still a cool reveal. It was a cool way to do the reveal. All right. ⁓ Any more on that before I roll for you?

Jeff (19:10)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, okay, come on. Yes.

Now, send it my way.

Steve Scarfo (19:24)
All right.

Go,

Jeff (19:26)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (19:27)
Ooh, if this was real D &D, this would be a great role. This is an 18, a successful charisma. Enter Kong. Kong's arrival in the season two premiere. Big screen energy on a TV budget. The season two premiere didn't hold back, showing Kong smashing through the forest and taking out helicopters. It proved that Apple TV Plus is willing to spend the money to make the Titans feel as massive as they do in the films. I think.

Jeff (19:31)
Mmm.

Yeah,

you know, it's funny, because we already touched upon this earlier, but the special effects in the show is amazing. yeah, Kong, I thought was so impressive. that ⁓ for CGI, and maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like Kong has to cost more than Godzilla or any of these reptilian creatures. All that fur moving in such a realistic way, like...

every little hair has to be created digitally in some way. It's just amazing. But in general, and I know this is supposed to specifically be about Kong, but I really thought that that ice creature ⁓ in season one when they were in ⁓ Alaska,

what had kind of a mole like mouth and the tendrils and had that glow. ⁓ The ion dragon ⁓ that they saw, that was, I think the special effects throughout have been amazing. So yeah, obviously you can call out Kong and I think that was really impressive. ⁓ And it's great that they're able to put the money into this show because, you know, ⁓

you know, people may not have been paying attention ⁓ earlier. We kind of reference SHIELD, but if you watch the SHIELD TV show, it does not have the budget of the Avengers. It does not have that MCU budget that the big, that all the movies have in the TV shows today have. But man, they're spending the money on Monarch. I highly recommend. So impressive.

Steve Scarfo (21:39)
Yeah, I think... ⁓

It was interesting because I was trying to remember it and I did not watch the end of last season before I saw the new episode. And I remember that it ended on that cliffhanger of them coming back. And I think we hear the sounds of Kong, but I don't know that they actually show Kong.

at the end of season two. You just know that the shit has hit the fan, that they're in the middle of a storm and they're trying to get out because wherever they are, they're not supposed to be. But I don't know that they tell us, I don't recall. This might be a correction that some of you will call me on, but it's, I don't know for sure if they say it's Kong's Island at the end of season one. And then we show up in season two and as obviously everything you just said, it's Kong and it's like, holy shit, they have him here in.

Jeff (22:14)
Ha

Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (22:29)
And it's the first time they actually, you know, they mentioned Kong, but they never show him. So yeah, very, very, very cool. ⁓ But again, so listen, we try to talk about stuff we love. So it's not gonna be a big surprise when we always say go watch the show, because we always do. And it's okay, because this is a show worth watching. If you don't have Apple TV, pay for Apple TV. This is the guy who bitched about shit a couple of weeks ago about having to pay extra for a movie that we wanted to review.

But I'm telling you, go get Apple TV. Besides this show, there's a ton of great shows, but this one specifically is fantastic. ⁓ So again, rate, review, like, follow us, send it to your friends. We'll send clips out and you can follow those as well. But ⁓ yeah, go see Monarch or go watch Monarch.

All right, so we said earlier, we're gonna focus on Monarch. So our court today has nothing to do with Godzilla or Kong or any of the other titans that we've seen and talked about. This is all about Monarch, the organization itself, the through line that has threaded this universe, this monster universe together. Is it worth, is it working or is it not working? I know I'm taking the,

the anti side of this so do you wanna go pro first or want me to lay out?

Jeff (23:59)
Yeah, I'll

go pro first. Yeah. So Monarch, as I said earlier, you could watch this show and not watch any of those movies. This show, it stands on its own. It's ⁓ I love that it is in those two timelines. We've got the 1952 when these were first becoming aware of modern society's first becoming aware of these monsters. They've been, you know, they're pursuing a lot of monsters that

exist in mythology or in stories, but there's not much evidence. And so they're getting the evidence that these creatures exist. And then that leads to the creation of the Monarch Agency, a parallel agency funded by the military and the American government, but not, or there's some funding there as well, but not a government agency in and of itself. ⁓

And then flash forward to 2014, I think we said. So I think it's 2014. That's the modern tale. And then 2015. And then in season two, we're two years later. So it must be 2016, 2017. And it's a smaller story and similar to how we praised Greenland's that movie.

Steve Scarfo (25:02)
first one yeah.

2017,

Jeff (25:24)
how we've praised, ⁓ man, there was something else where it was a smaller, what's that? Wonder Man. Yeah, when you have these smaller street level stories, because if you watch any of the MonsterVerse movies, they're mostly going to be, and that's what you're paying for, the fun, big, giant monsters fighting each other, with then, know, sprinkle in some human stories. This is...

Steve Scarfo (25:27)
Wonder Man. W-Wonder Man.

Jeff (25:53)
human stories with some sprinkling and other monsters. And ⁓ I think it really works well. It's ⁓ an excellent TV show. If you already have Apple TV, ⁓ all the shows on there are awesome. And if you haven't watched this one, you should absolutely do that. So it's awesome.

Steve Scarfo (25:58)
Yes.

So, ⁓ counterpoint. So, as much as I do love this show, I will say ⁓ there are a lot of people, so I'm gonna be fighting on behalf of others. I am the, what you call it there, I'm the knight fighting for the people behind me who I know are pissy about some stuff. ⁓ So, there's a lot of people.

Jeff (26:18)
Counterpoint.

He's representing

the trolls, people.

Steve Scarfo (26:49)
Well, someone's got to. They only have one or a thousand voices. I don't know. But so what I've read a lot of is people are upset about the time, the time it takes to tell the story, the very things you and I are talking about in such great as such great things that there are a lot of people. So I will say I try to put myself in the position of these folks. And I understand. So this story does take a long time to tell.

It is very intense. The back and forth that you and I talk about positively, a lot of people are not a fan of because they're like, why are we wasting time? Because to your point, the monster verse isn't about human stories, it's about spectacle. The Godzilla versus Kong, the new empire, I think it was what it was called. Hold on, I got it right here. I don't know why I'm guessing. Yeah, Godzilla versus Kong, new empire.

where Kong gets like a power glove, like, and they have to fight, like that's what people want. People want that monsters fighting monsters, you know, it's the same with Pacific Rim when you have the two, you know, and in fact in Pacific Rim. But no, but in Pacific Rim, they have the huge robots fighting the monsters. It's just huge, it's all culture, you know, it's, that's what people want. They don't want to hear about Lee Shaw.

Jeff (27:55)
Those are Kaiju. This is Titans.

I know.

Steve Scarfo (28:09)
and all this other stuff and they don't care about Kate or Kako, they want the spectacle. So I will say, in that sense, I get it. People are like, wow, God, this is slow. And it's really, it's taking too long. Now, again, you and I are older, we are Gen X Geeks. So we have a little bit more patience, but there are folks in the younger generations who just like, let's get to the payoff. We don't wanna wait.

We don't wanna see the whole thing unfold. I just wanna see these two suckers punch each other in the face and blow stuff up and what new powers we can ⁓ make these creatures have, the Titans. But yeah, I get it. ⁓ I don't necessarily agree, but I do get it. It's gonna be, there are people who are gonna be mad ⁓ with all the stuff that we love.

Jeff (28:59)
they just need to go in like me, not having known that they were related in any way.

Steve Scarfo (29:04)
Thank

Jeff (29:05)
Just watch it ignorantly

Steve Scarfo (29:15)
All right, so we've been talking a lot about why we're trying to focus on just the organization, not the Titans. I keep wanting to call them Kaiju. They really do.

Jeff (29:28)
Wow,

it's so funny because when you did the creature double feature, we barely knew what Kaiju were and now that's all you want to use.

Steve Scarfo (29:37)
That's all I wanna use. Now I gotta go back to Titans and like, oh, I'm old, I'm set in my ways. I don't know if I wanna change it. But I will call them rightfully so Titans. But we're not talking about the evolution of the Titans. We're talking about the evolution of this secret organization called Monarch. I do think it's very interesting because, and we've talked about it, it starts with three people, right?

Jeff (29:40)
Yeah, it's tough.

Ha ha ha.

Steve Scarfo (30:04)
Keiko, her husband, Li Sha, ⁓ and they start off as, she's just a researcher, she needs an escort, because it's during wartime, so they put Sha, and they stumble into the other guy, and they're all out looking for the same creatures, and it starts very, very innocently, and then Sha is able to get them a meeting with the general, and they show them the dinosaur, well, the dinosaur print, they show them the Godzilla footprint that they find.

and suddenly they have all this funding. And it starts as a, need to defend the country. And they even have a point during season one where ⁓ the military tries to attack him, Godzilla, and it goes completely sideways, of course. ⁓ But the way that organization built and...

and in the newer, the modern time telling of it, it's very much like, you know, any black ops, you know, organization that we would see today. Like we talked about Shield or, or, or I guess Hydra, however you feel about what Monarch's doing. They could be Shield, they could be Hydra, we don't know. But it's a billion dollar enterprise now, right? They have donors, they have money, they're making money off tech and, ⁓

It really is cool to see this evolution of this specific group.

Jeff (31:35)
Yeah, and then they've, in season one, they come out of the shadows. So because they did that fake, ⁓ they did a fake, Titan, sorry, they did a Titan warning, the system went off and that got them into Apex to rescue their friend May. And then to cover it up for whatever reason,

Steve Scarfo (31:58)
Yes.

Jeff (32:05)
Tim, the pencil pushing ⁓ helper there, the geeky guy, the basement guy, our guy, our Gen X guy, he says, just go public. And then flash forward, and I was thinking about this when I was rewatching the beginning of the 2019 Godzilla King of the Monsters and how people are so angry at Monarch.

Steve Scarfo (32:08)
Hm, the geeky guy.

Yes.

Jeff (32:34)
as if Monarch made the monsters come out, which I guess sometimes they do, right? So fair enough. I guess that's true.

Steve Scarfo (32:40)
Yes. They,

yeah, they somehow figure out how to open the portals.

Jeff (32:48)
Yeah, but I mean, they're there, so... Is it really their fault?

Steve Scarfo (32:55)
Well, I mean, especially at beginning of season two, we see ⁓ Kate ⁓ trying to save Shaw. So best of intentions, ⁓ trying to say, she intentionally, in order to try to get Shaw, she opens a breach, which brings out the largest Titan that we've seen so far, which is based in, I think it's a Korean myth. ⁓

Jeff (33:02)
yeah, that is true. yeah, they do. bring... Okay. Okay, that's true. You're right.

Yes.

Yeah, that's right.

Steve Scarfo (33:25)
And again,

they're doing a cool tie-ins with the creatures. yeah, so they intentionally, now that's not technically Monarch. This group went rogue off the floating base. ⁓ And I do think it's, yes. So Monarch, but it's one of those, they try to do stuff with the best of intentions, they're always doing it wrong. And they're always, they were trying to keep it secret and.

Jeff (33:36)
Yeah. Okay, good point. Fair enough. Monarch is to blame, yes.

Steve Scarfo (33:55)
Like, you know, once Godzill, once G-Day happened, it's a little hard to keep a friggin' three or four hundred foot creature secret when he's out destroying an entire city.

Jeff (34:08)
But I do think they're more in, we know Marvel so well. And so, you know, I think you're, you when you say are they Hydra, I think that's Apex. Apex seems to be more Hydra, Apex Cybernetics. ⁓ They seem to be more the Hydra, the bad guy.

Steve Scarfo (34:20)
Yeah. Right.

Well, yeah, they, I mean, they took May and they were trying to compel her to do their, and even in the season one, season two opener, they, know, the woman who's there keeps trying to bring May along because they want her genius to help them ⁓ with whatever their plan is supposedly to make things safer and being able to live in harmony with the Titans. And in Verdugo, I think her name was?

⁓ the deputy director of Monarch ⁓ that kind of controlled a lot of it. She was one of the reasons why they were able to get Keiko back ⁓ and set up the whole operation that bridged into season one and early into season two. ⁓ She ends up getting killed right in that first episode. ⁓ So, Monarch is being affected by as much as they are affecting

we've seen bases get blown up and so it's very cool what they've done. I think the use of this organization to bring together these stories in a way that I don't think I've seen it done before. You know, we make the parallels because it's easy. Like you said, we know Marvel so well, but to say SHIELD and HYDRA and APEX and Monarch is, but when you look at this in this situation,

Even, ⁓ I guess maybe Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is the only other show that has tried to do this, where they've taken movies and a TV show, and we talked about it during Wonder Man, where they weave the storylines. know, stuff that you, while you're right, you don't have to have seen Monarch. I mean, you don't have to have seen the movies to enjoy Monarch, but if you have, there's some inside stuff that you'll understand that better.

Jeff (36:20)
Yeah, and I feel like season two, based on the trailers, is going to be more of, because they seem to be saying we're going to get Godzilla and Kong to take out this bigger Titan that just came through.

Steve Scarfo (36:34)
Right.

Which makes me wonder, are they planning a movie or will they do it in the show?

Jeff (36:39)
Well, I the next movie is actually a sequel to...

And I think the next one is like the timeline doesn't match up.

Steve Scarfo (36:49)
It's not a,

it's a sequel to New Empire.

Jeff (36:53)
Yeah, it's the...

Steve Scarfo (36:54)
That was the one a couple years ago.

Jeff (36:54)
So it's, yeah,

it's the sequel to New Empire, I'm pretty sure. That's what I read.

Steve Scarfo (37:00)
I wonder what they're gonna do there. So I will say ⁓ I'm a little nervous because, and I don't know if we said it just as part of the show or if it was just in the review.

Jeff (37:13)
Yeah,

it's Godzilla versus Kong Supernova coming out next year in March.

Steve Scarfo (37:19)
So I will say I'm a little disappointed by that. Only because we've done Godzilla versus Kong. Right? It's not, ⁓ in fact, they've done it twice. There was a Godzilla versus Kong and then there's the new empire and now we're gonna go supernova. So this is about what I, this is what I was about to say before you, because I did not know that title. ⁓ I'm afraid they're gonna jump the shark.

Jeff (37:24)
Okay.

Steve Scarfo (37:47)
So in 2014, when the Godzilla came out, they had no idea they were gonna have a hit. How many Godzilla movies have they made? And they're all good in their own way, but they all usually treat it like all Godzilla movies where it's all about Godzilla and then the crazy city destruction and somehow we tame Godzilla, right? This is the first time that they've taken that step back and they made a great movie and it was like, holy crap, this is good.

we got Kong, let's make a Kong movie. Let's see if we can do it again. And they did it with a new property. And then they said, well, let's tie them together a little bit with this Monarch thing. And then they really start to connect them and they're doing great stuff. And my fear is they're gonna do what all the DC movies have ever done, which is screw it up by episodes two, right? The sequel or the third movie, you end up with an amalgam of too much crap going on because they feel like they have to step it up. And...

I just am afraid that they're going to go, well, we gotta just keep building this beast that we have. Why are you laughing at me? I'm telling you. I know. I am, I'll drop the fucking thing in. Here, hold on, I'll rant to the rant.

Jeff (38:49)
cause you're into the rant. It's like, this so naturally occurs so much.

Steve Scarfo (39:07)
you

Jeff (39:07)
All right, you're

telling us so we can get too much of a good thing.

Steve Scarfo (39:10)
Not that we can get too much of a good thing, but they're gonna get ahead of themselves. They're gonna get too big for their bridges and they're gonna start screwing it up by thinking they're continuing their success, right? They started, it's the thing that happens when something unexpected does well. we're gonna make the best movie we can make. And it's a great movie, but then they go, shit, it was bigger than we thought. We gotta do it again. So they did it again. And then, my God, that one went well too. Let's make another. And then they did again.

And then they built, well, let's tie it all together with the show. I'm afraid they're going to go too far trying to get bigger and better. And I can't help it. always, I think I've made this joke before in the show where, you know, I don't need to see Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, right? It was too much. wasn't, you know, it was campy and it was a fun movie, but it wasn't what it should have been, right? It's not the way they handle the Marvel universe today where it's a good movie.

And it also happens to include Arnold Schwarzenegger. was, you know, they lit that like the old TV shows. ⁓ And this, I'm afraid that they're going to, that's why I'm disappointed to hear it's another Godzilla versus Kong, because it should be, we need, because they're setting it up in the show. We need Godzilla and Kong to fight together and fight this new guy. That's what I want to say. And maybe they'll do it in the show.

Jeff (40:33)
Yeah, it might be, because it's Godzilla X-Kong, so maybe they'll work together.

Steve Scarfo (40:42)
I guess. Do you have anything for rentables?

Jeff (40:48)
Who knows?

Um, no, I don't on this one. think that, uh, you know, I think, you know, my, message to the, to the new generation or to any, uh, generation is that, um, that this show is on Apple and I know you might not have that, but get Apple TV, get that's my rant, get that's our message. Get Apple TV because shrinking's there. Severance is there. There's so much great content there.

Steve Scarfo (41:08)
You

my god, silo, yeah.

Jeff (41:20)
And while you're visiting, you know, Ted Lasso, and you just wrap that up, jump on over to Monarch. It's worth it.

Steve Scarfo (41:28)
I almost think we need to reach out to Apple for sponsorship because we do nothing but promote them. And well within the silo, yeah. There's actually shows, ⁓ Dark Matter is another great show. ⁓ There are shows that I hadn't watched that I will now only because I know they're from Apple and they've done such a good job with other stuff. So 100%, as much as I'm afraid of this shit.

Jeff (41:31)
That's right.

Yeah. Silo.

Yeah, it's dependable.

Smaller library. Much, much smaller library.

Steve Scarfo (41:58)
but easier to get through everything. That's all I'm saying. And Ted Lasso's got a season four coming up. ⁓ But yeah, it's, ⁓ just don't screw it up. That's my thing, right? Keep it going, do the right thing.

Jeff (41:59)
Exactly. Quality.

Steve Scarfo (42:11)
Yeah, ⁓ god, feel the, I'm stressed. I feel it. ⁓ So I don't want them to screw it up. I just don't go too far. That's all I'm saying.

Jeff (42:14)
Ha

Steve Scarfo (42:28)
I have a big critical hit. We've talked about it a couple of times. I don't know that we've mentioned it during the last 45 minutes or so, but I know we've talked about this timeline back and forth, right? If you've watched the show and we can say it a hundred more times, if you haven't, go watch it. But they do this timeline back and forth where they start in 2014 and then they go back to 1950s and back and forth. And you see this character of Lee Shaw, Colonel Lee Shaw.

⁓ as both a young man and an older man. And the really cool thing to me, the critical hit is Kurt Russell, the amazing Kurt Russell who's been in so many great movies is the older version of Lee Shaw and Wyatt Russell, his son plays the younger version of Lee Shaw. And it's like, I think the first time they didn't really have to try that hard to make them look like the same person. Cause Wyatt looks so much like his father already that it's

It's really cool. you know, ⁓ I can't say enough good things about Kurt Russell. He's made some really goofy movies, but he's made some amazing movies. And even the goofy ones are amazing. But Wyatt Russell, a big part of the MCU, great actor in his own right. So I love the fact that they put them, I can't even think of another situation where you could do that, right? I don't know two other father, child or parent-child relationship actors that would fit.

Jeff (43:49)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (43:55)
⁓ in that situation. Maybe Ethan Hawke and Maya Hawke could play father and daughter in something for real. But you couldn't do the timeline difference because obviously once it's his daughter not his son. But anyway, yeah, I love it. I think they did a great, it was such cool. I know it's kind of stunt casting maybe, but it worked and I think it's working.

Jeff (44:16)
Yeah, well, I agree with you. And ⁓ I have to say, though, that when I first saw Wyatt, I thought this is T.Mu Kurt Russell. Like, he's not his dad. And I like I didn't I didn't quite see it. It's not that I thought he was bad. It's just Kurt Russell. I put on such a pedestal. I love.

Steve Scarfo (44:30)
Ha ha ha!

Well,

Jeff (44:45)
so many of his characters, so many of performances that he just seemed like the lesser version. But this, I was like, wow, he's more like his dad than I thought. And so, and yeah, it works. It really does. So I'm doubling down on your critical hit. That is an amazing, ⁓ amazing choice. Glad it worked out. And does kind of

Go to my epic fail though, because Bill Randers character, so John Goodman plays Bill Randers, of course, older Bill Randers in Kong and Skull Island. And then he's at the very, very beginning of Monarch. And then ⁓ goes back in time and I love the show Workaholics and Anders Holm is ⁓ the actor who plays young... ⁓

Steve Scarfo (45:30)
Yes.

Jeff (45:45)
the young Bill Randa, the young John Goodman. He didn't look anything like John Goodman. So I looked it up and see if does John Goodman have a son and did they miss out? No, he has a daughter who looks nothing like him.

Steve Scarfo (46:00)
Thank God for her.

Jeff (46:01)
So the epic fail here is that John Goodman didn't have a son. That's the epic fail. Because it would not have been cool if they had like that kind of thing working together. That would have been, that's the epic fail. John Goodman never had a son and ⁓ that is, that's a failure on his part.

Steve Scarfo (46:05)
Yeah

Okay, actually, listen, and I'm with you on that, because that would have been phenomenal if they could have pulled that off. But I thought you were gonna say, and I'm glad you said his name, because I couldn't remember, but Anders Holm as ⁓ Bill Randa. I thought you were gonna say he was the fail, like his performance as Randa. No, he's great. That's why I was like, wait, where are you going? ⁓ I thought you were gonna say he was the fail, but the fact that John Goodman.

Jeff (46:36)
Oh, actually, I really like him. Okay, all right. Okay. Well, he's

nothing like John Goodman, though. Like, they're not even trying, like they didn't even try. Like, I don't know who it could be, to be honest, because I was trying to, I was racking my brain, like who today would be a young John Goodman, and I couldn't really think of anyone that would work.

Steve Scarfo (46:50)
right.

Jeff (47:02)
So they might as well go with just a good actor like Anders Holm. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (47:02)
I mean, there's a couple.

There

are a couple actors, I can't think of their names, but they're more TV actors and they have that heavier look. Goodman's always been a heavy set guy, so they could have gotten a heavier actor to play the younger version of him, but I don't think any of them would have done a better job than Anders Holm was doing. ⁓

Jeff (47:29)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (47:31)
And the three of them, Wyatt ⁓ Anderson, I don't know the girl's name who plays Keiko, I don't know her real name, you said it earlier. ⁓ But the three of them have great chemistry together. And I think that helps that story. You gotta make sure that these people, because obviously they get married and ⁓ Shaw and Keiko have kind of a fling. ⁓

So they have to have this chemistry between the three of them. ⁓ yeah, that's hysterical that you went that John Goodman doesn't have a son. You son of a bitch, John Goodman, go get a guy. So really our hit is in fail is the same. They are the same. It's great when it worked out.

Jeff (48:08)
because that was so good. That was so good.

Yeah, yeah. Kurt Russell

and Wyatt Russell. That's a great pair. It works out fantastic. And John Goodman needed to do his job by having a child, a son. He did have a child, sorry, his daughter. So, yes, I'm sure. Yes. Yeah, but Wyatt Russell was born in 86. ⁓ John Goodman in 86 should have also had a child and then we'd begin.

Steve Scarfo (48:29)
You son of a bitch.

Who I'm sure is wonderful, but you don't work in this particular moment for what we want.

Wyatt Russell

was born in 86?

Jeff (48:50)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (48:52)
I feel old, I graduated high school in 87.

Jeff (48:55)
Yep. Not

Timu Kurosawa. I take that back. Don't post that.

Steve Scarfo (49:00)
not Timu Kurt Russell.

That's the clip I'm going to put on. going to find his social media and tag him and I'm going to become Wyatt Timu Kurt Russell.

Jeff (49:06)
you

My apologies. I was wrong. I was wrong.

Steve Scarfo (49:15)
No, that's

hysterical. Yes, and he does. They do a great job. All right. So ⁓ it's funny. We talked about this before we started recording. We didn't know if we were going to get close to the full hour, but we almost got there anyway. So ⁓ listen, I say a hundred times. ⁓ Listen, like, subscribe, follow, hit the hit the notification button. Check out Jeff's new shirt. This is a preview shirt of ⁓

We are heading to the Northeast Comic Con collectibles in a couple weeks and we'll be wearing our Never Give Up Never Surrender shirts that Jeff is saying. And you can buy them.

Jeff (49:53)
Yes, because Galaxy

Quest cast will be there. ⁓ Not the full cast, but the aliens, which are some of the best part of Galaxy Quest.

Steve Scarfo (49:58)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So Balthazar is played by Enrico Calantoni. I think I'm pronouncing his name properly. I think I might reach out to him on social media and see if he would be interested in doing. You guys, if you're following us, go find him on ⁓ Instagram and tell him he should talk to us, because I'm going to reach out and say, hey, we'd love to get you for 10 minutes. Doesn't have to be a long time.

Maybe we'll even invite them to do a little random review of Galaxy Quest with us. That would be kind of fun. I don't know what it'll look like because we'll have to bring our own gear, but and this is very much on the fly. So hopefully we'll be able to pull it off. And if not, we'll still bring your review and we'll do all the fun stuff. But we're also going to do a random review of Galaxy Quest at that time. And yeah, so stick with us. Like, subscribe. Thanks for being with us. what's the last thing we want to sell them?

Go get Apple Plus and freakin' watch Monarch, ⁓ Legacy of Monsters.

Jeff (51:06)
That's right. Do it.


00:00 Intro to Monarch. The Organization behind the Titans
09:44 Geek Flashback
14:53 Random Review: Monarch Legacy of Monsters
23:17 Geek Court
29:07 Geek Evolution
39:01 Geek Rant
42:22 Critical Hits & Epic Fails
51:08 Full Video End.mp4