[Weekly Update] I started watching the new Godzilla TV show

Sorry for the delay! I was busy censoring our next video, which is about a movie with too much confidence and nudity. You'll see soon.

CHANNEL UPDATE

We are entering the end of 2023. Time really flies when you are busy, I guess.

After our next video, we have two more scheduled: A look back at Chinese mainstream films and blockbusters from 2023, and a retrospective on Steven Segal. Place your bet on how many swear words will be in that video.

I'll be taking a break again on January to regroup myself. Patreon activity will be paused and you will not be charged for the month.

For 2024, we have a few interesting topics planned. I'm planning on doing a "references" video for Kung Fu Panda, focusing only on its cinematic inspirations. We have a retrospective planned for the Aces Go Places series, and take a look at how Hong Kong filmmakers write jokes that is funny without the need for comedians. We'll also hold a poll next month to decide between a couple of topics, including non-Chinese kung fu movies, and Chinese movies and TV shows where women plays male roles.

As for this month's bonus video, I think I'll talk about the Toy Story trilogy. And maybe a brief mention of the 4th one. I'm writing the script in about half an hour, so... unless inspiration strikes me in 30 minutes, I think this will be one of the rare instances where the bonus video matches the weekly update.

MEDIA TALK

While busy censoring naked butts, I started watching Monarch, the MonsterVerse Godzilla TV show on Apple TV. I guess one of the perks of being a YouTube critic is that I can have multiple subscriptions and then claim it as business expense.

I'll talk about it in increasing detail in terms of spoilers, so stop reading at any time when you feel like watching the series.

Currently there are 3 episodes, and it is so far so good. In terms of tone and atmosphere, it's much closer to the Gareth Edwards film, but with a much more interesting human story. It's not ground-breakingly good, mind you. But the bar is so freaking low, the show ended up being one of the best in terms of plot. Each character has distinct personality and motivation, and the banter is fun enough to watch.

Unlike the Edwards film, the series doesn't shy away from showing the monster. The on-screen time is limited, and so far there's only one fight scenes as far as I remember. But it doesn't teases you in the same way as Edwards. I'll go into more details in a bit. Monsters are also usually filmed from ground level, giving it a disaster movie feel, rather than the monster brawl of later MonsterVerse movies.

The film is told from two storylines. The main story happens in 2015, shortly after the destruction of San Francisco, but before King Ghidora's arrival. This storyline mainly revolves around a group of young people, trying to investigate Monarch, a shadow organization.

The other story happens back in the 50s, and it revolves around a group of renegade scientists on their secret mission to find Kaiju.

Both storylines are presented as mysteries, in ways similar to the Godzilla Singular Point. Because of this investigative angle, the limited Kaiju appearance feels justified. And whenever we see them, we see it from the character's perspective, which makes the Kaiju seems so much cooler, but also makes the characters more relatable.

A funny little details is that one of the characters in the 50s storyline is played by Wyatt Russell, who became somehow famous for playing the government appointed replacement for Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Dude is a pretty good actor. Fas back then really hated him because he looks so fitting as the fake Cap. and in this show, he also puts a decent showing as well.

The fun part comes in the 2015 storyline, when the young people meets the same character, which reveals to be played by none other than Kurt Russell. It gives me a good chuckle and made the whole series worth it in an instant. Kurt Russell is very much just being himself in this series, having fun, kicking ass, trash talking in the best way possible. Dude feels like a Godzilla character, provides a lot of levity to balance out the mood, without taking away too much.

Finally, one very respectable thing is how the series handles language. With Kaiju being a global thread, this series travels around the world, with characters speaking many difference languages. Outside of a few script writing and directing blemishes, everyone who supposed to speak Japanese, speaks Japanese for real. Characters who speaks French, speaks it without an accent. The lead actress actually speaks Japanese with a very faint accent, just like a second generation immigrant, which is fantastic. MonsterVerse has always been really good at this kind of things, hiring a deaf actress to play a deaf character, now hiring Japanese actress to play Japanese characters. Love it.

Overall, it's too early to know if the show will live up to its promise. I don't know how much the human drama will keep me interested, but I'm still optimistic that the eventual monster action will keep me entertained. With it being a disaster series, we don't even need a monster brawl, I just need to see a city being torched. That sounds kinda messed up now that I type it out.

Anyway, that's the update for this week. New video should be out in a couple of days! See you then!