Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (TV Series) Parallels and Interiors (2023) User Reviews

They are doing good job to make people hate May..

[guinden · 5/10 · 1 December 2023]

This episode is the weakest so far the Kentaro May backstory was not really interesting especially how May acts like througout the entire episode.

Kentaro tries to save everyone yet May is blaming him for everything which is ridiculous, May also harsh and rude not to mention Cate joins the female gang also. Cate cares so much about May(why?) but doesn't really care about her half brother ..

May also doesn't care about Lee either tells Cate to ditch him and let him die if she can or needs it cause only one of the two girls should get out alive Kentaro havent even mentioned in the entire episode after he decided to save everyone's life .. WOW! What a lovely relatable character! I wanted her to die 20 min into this episode..

in the meantime Kentaro trying his best to save everyone even though suddenly nobody believes anything he says and he is blamed...He saved their lives two times in this ep alone..

The pacing was off in this episode and again I would have loved May die horribly by the TItan :P

To make it worse when Kentaro saves everyone! Twice!

I mean everyone, and May thanks Cate..not Kentaro

Kentaro receives not a single thank you..

So again if the writer's plan was to hate the main character mostly May and partly Cate they have done a great job in this episode...

Oof... why do episodes like this need to happen?

[JabezGill · 5/10 · 1 December 2023]

Oof... why do episodes like this need to happen?

This episode totally derails the flow of the overall story by giving us the cringey back story of two characters (with absolutely no chemistry) falling in love with each other.

It is always so generic

They have a misunderstanding/corny "meet cute" then they spend the night out with each other with her giving him a hard time while he bumbles around falling in love with her. Then they go off somewhere where it's just the two of them alone and talk in low husky voices as they get closer... suddenly she is sweet and affectionate to him. They kiss/hook up... then we flash back to present day where she is angry at him for something he did in the middle of their relationship. They aren't together. There is tension between them...

Too much focus on that... you've gotta build the characters and the storyline a bit more fore you jump into this type of thing.

Then, more cliches... they split up. They want you to think he is lost... collapsing in the snow... I guess he is dead... now let's cut back to the other three... oh wow, at some point off screen the girl love interest has somehow injured herself. "If we don't warm her up she is gonna die!"

Now he is unconscious and she is unconscious and even though they're miles apart they're suddenly laying next to each other in the snow becaaausseee ANOTHER FLASHBACK of them being all lovey and in bed and tender and blah blah blah.

Yawn.

I get that relationships building is important in these shows but this episode should happen later in this show. (Although I hate that these shows tend to throw this episode just before the penultimate episodes because it also kills the moment) anyways... Monarch started SO SLOW that the action and story really didn't pick up until Episode 3. So, it took us 3 episodes to get moving and immediately we are given the massive speed bump episode of flashbacks and "love"... the long whispery scenes... the scenes of tension... and the slow crawl of overall narrative.

It's a monster and titan show... give us some monsters and titans.

May needs to gooooooooooo.

[midnightcub · 5/10 · 14 January 2024]

The Titan/MUTO in this episode is pretty cool. I'm not sure why people complain about the CGI.

This really is a filler episode and I hate that term. But if you cut out the parts that were irrelevant, it's be about 20 minutes long. I believe I can genuinely say NO ONE cares about flashbacks to when Asian Harry met Black Sally. No one. There's giant monsters everywhere, important people and information are missing, and we're supposed to care about an ok dude and a relentlessly unlikable female who have zero chemistry met? No. We do not. At all.

At least a Kurt is here trying to keep all these idiots alive. For people who believe in evolution you think they'd allow natural selection to work things out a little more often.

It's just a filler......

[vansharya-35337 · 6/10 · 2 December 2023]

Fourth episode of Monsterverse's most awaited series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is premereired and here's my thoughts on this episode i.e. "Parallels and Interiors":-

Positives :-

1. CGI and visuals are great.

2. Cinematography are very good.

3. Production budget looks very high, and you could feel it in cinematography, color grading, visuals.

Negatives:-

1. Huge downgrade to it's previous episodes.

2. You get easily bored in this episode.

3. Writing of this episode is just OK and this episode feels like a filler.

4. Direction and storytelling of this episode is worst yet.

Final Thoughts and Review :-

Overall, "Parallels and Interiors" is Just OK OK episode continuing the story of previous episode. But it's a huge backlash from it's initial episodes and it actually feels like a filler episode and it is the worst episode yet.

How hard is it to NOT make PEOPLE ruin a MONSTER show

[jonjkass · 4/10 · 3 December 2023]

Everyone that is trying this show out is interested in the monsters, the lore of the titans, the secret government agency, the mystery and the massive destruction. That's what we want. Of course there have to be human characters, but do you have to make them so insufferable?

The dialogue and acting is embarrassing - all three leads have gone with broody, sarcastic, chip on their shoulder and privileged as their personas, and it makes them all unlikeable with no redeeming qualities. The chemistry between the pair is nonexistent, the logic of the plot in multiple timeliness is absurd. May in particular is incredibly unlikeable.

Please, just give me some scientists that happen to be around monsters so we can watch what we came for. Let me see the world come to an end and the humans try to help out some monsters and hinder others, or try to find a way to coexist and understand them. No one is watching this for brooding unlikeable drama.

This is episode 4. It's not terrible, though this one was a low point. More monsters, less May.

Filler episode?

[tzhdmgtq · 3/10 · 1 December 2023]

Legendary's Monsterverse isn't what most people would call quality entertainment, but it is entertaining. It's what you get if you insert great monster battles in an average Hallmark movie.

This episode was scraping rock bottom of any logic and entertainment. The armadillo mole monster lives in the frozen tundra of Alaska...but feeds off heat? We get flashbacks to the beginning of Kentaros and Mays relationship throughout the episode...but ends with hints of Cate (Kentaro's sister) and Mays relationship? I really hope this isn't the direction the show is going, because the drop in quality from Hallmark to Jerry Springer is where I change the channel.

Please, Godzilla, eat them first.

[rrtiverton · 3/10 · 19 December 2023]

I am over this faux "teen-age angst" plot line. Done with it. Pointless.

And I get it - this is a series about "titans" - Godzialla-sized monsters that are hidden on Earth. I get it. Let got of any sense of reality. But come on... three angst-riddled psudo-teenagers roaming the Alaskan ice pack, in a snow storm, dressed like they just buzzed through the GAP at the local mall for winter apparel with nary a concern for hats, gloves, goggles, etc. Then to dump them out in a blizzard. I'm sorry, none of that scales for me.

The dialog is horrible, the only saving grace seems to be in the "Monster of the Week". I just hope whatever wakes up, wakes up hungry. Eat the kids first.

Well that was terrible...

[chin-rich · 3/10 · 7 December 2023]

Ok, I understand that we need to develop some of these flat characters - they all can't be Kurt Russell/Lee Shaw. But OMG, the Kentaro-May backstory was painful to watch. We didn't come here for this; give us more Monarch history/conspiracy stuff sprinkled in with some Titans here and there. Normally, I would have stopped watching this drivel, but since I'm committed now, I watched it all so that I didn't miss anything going into the next episode. I suppose that they needed to make an episode out of this Alaska situation, but there's maybe 10% of the story that actually takes place there. Save yourself some time, and fast forward through any of the stuff where it flashes back to Kentaro and May (about a year prior).

Incredibly Weak and Annoying

[peterairheartdesign · 1/10 · 4 December 2023]

Episode 3 ended on a cliffhanger, the arctic monster chasing the B-Team cast and Kurt Russell across the frozen landscape. How did they escape? They don't really say, but they do go on to shove heapings of unnecessary exposition, centering around Kentaro and May's barf-worthy love story, down our unwilling throats. As if it wasn't already painfully obvious that May's character was being completely forced into this story, they had to go out of their way to try and justify it. Those 2 have zero chemistry. Zero. They almost make Cate seem appealing.

It's Apple TV, so I knew they'd flatter. But why can't we like our characters? Why can't they make sense and exist in accordance with the theme, story, tone?

Without the flashback scenes to the trio, it's clear that this series struggles. The B-Team, even with Kurt Russell, are uninteresting and downright annoying.

Off the charts terrible

[mweratcliffe · 4/10 · 2 December 2023]

So they are in Alaska, which looks like it's standing in for the North Pole. There is deep heavy snow and thick glacial ice everywhere. The wind is howling. One of the characters gets her lower legs and feet wet, and at the time of the event the water is apparently so cold that even though she is being stalked by some huge Sci-fi creature that can freeze-dry you solid like a dragon can bbq you with its blasted breath, she can barely contain her screams because she's so cold. The characters move on for hours trying to save her from hypothermia. The sun sets. They search for shelter and split up to do so. The hours pass. One character passes out in the snow like a man in the middle of the Sahara without water. The character with, what by now should be solidly frozen legs has neon blue lips and is on the verge of passing out too. Meanwhile - throughout the ongoing action none of the characters have their hoods up or the tops of their winter outerwear zipped up and closed to retain maximum body heat. They look like they are out for a winter walk in some Hallmark movie version of Christmas in New England. Off the charts terrible.

Despicable

[steph-99824 · 1/10 · 4 December 2023]

This 4th episode represents everything that's wrong with today's american shows. Modern showrunners consistently find a way to NOT give people what they want. Think of Sons of Anarchy, The Wire, The Shield, Oz, 24, House MD, Dexter, Desperate Housewives... those were legendardy shows that actually had the audience on a roller-coaster. It was fun. It was entertaining. And most of all, none of these shows ever pretended to be anything else. Then watch this and tell me you're not embarrassed, tell me you don't notice a clear shift in writing and scripts, for the worst, and tell me you didn't notice lately that many shows bear the same issues. I double dare ya.

This episode doesn't even have a single flashback about young Shaw to partially save the day. It's all about the annoying young broody moody whining characters. Episodes 2 and 3 finally seemed to pick up the pace, it is now back to ground zero. IIRC it's about 44 mins long, but I actually only watched about 23 mins or so. That tells you how much I skipped. I gave Apple TV a chance because of this, but it's clear I won't renew the experience.

I'm watching a show based-off the Monsterverse for, you know... giant monsters. And a bit of government secrets. Give me what I want. Give me what I pay for. I don't need another Walking Dead experience (aka 50 mins episodes with 47 mins about pointless dialogues and "internal struggles"). Then studios wonder why so many people are unwilling to pay for "this".

This Episode Grinds The Show To A Halt

[traddroberts · 2/10 · 6 December 2023]

I was enjoying the series, at least for the first three episodes, but then this entry just ground everything to a halt. Flashbacks of Kentaro meeting May are absolutely pointless and there is zero chemistry between the two. Not in the present day and certainly not when they met and were dating. Implausible distance being covered by our foursome in hostile weather conditions only to have them almost instantly come back to the starting point. One minute, May has hypothermia, the next she's sprinting across the ice running from a monster. The visual effects are just terrible at times, especially looking at actors standing in front of green screen or maybe they are in the ILM volume. The CGI of the Titan is serviceable, but the rest is a letdown. Get back to the story, advance it forward and cut out all the fluff.

2 stars purely for the creature

[plhollyoake · 2/10 · 15 January 2024]

Awful episode! Boring, annoying and simply didn't add anything to the series!

A filler episode attempting to provide back stories to characters that no one cares about or even wants to care about!

The creature is different though and adds a minor amount of action, but realistically you could skip this episode and it wouldn't make any difference overall! I was actually hoping a couple of the supposed 'main' characters wouldn't survive!

I'm hoping this is the only episode like this in the series! Everyone is here for the creatures and the corruption etc etc... stop trying to make us like awful characters!!

Such bad writing

[briantrot · 2/10 · 28 January 2024]

I was unsure about the validity of this story during the course of the first two episodes. After this train wreck of a third episode, I think I have my answer. It confirmed for me that the writing in this series is as bad as I feared it would be. Godzilla stories aren't renowned for their award-winning dialogue, but at least a lot of the original were, at times, kitschy entertainment. Monarch isn't kitschy, and the writing is just sophomoric. Both the flashback and hallucination scenes with Kentaro and May are nothing more than superfluous and unnecessary filler that drag the story to a crawl. I'm hopeful that this episode was a one-off, and that it improves drastically through the remainder of the series, but I suspect that's not the case.