I don't watch a lot of TV so disregard my opinion if you want. But I don't watch a lot because TV is so audience-focused. I.e. It's just there to please the audience, unlike film where you get given the vision of a director and have to engage with it on different levels - TV just lets you 'turn off your brain'.
TV and streaming is now very popular in modern society because it makes you feel like you're the centre of the universe. You choose, what and when you want to watch, and then some good-looking actors will run around for your entertainment. All in a non-threatening, nothing-too-heavy sort of way. That's TV. And it's great and it has its place as a distraction and place to unwind.
But most TV is just disposable. And I'm sad to see this as just another disposable TV show.
By the way, I really hated the opening. Ripped straight from the admittedly not very good 'Kong: Skull Island', they took the one good idea from that film - a spider that lurks in bamboo and uses it's camouflaged legs to skewer prey - and they play it for a cold opening action scene. Who cares if it makes sense (like the detached still running jet engine in the opening of Lost), it's just for entertainment. So this quite stealthy spider is now chasing someone out of the forest and toward the ocean and battling a giant crab. Must be really, really hungry. Anyway, the whole scene just reminds you that this show is just serving up entertainment for an audience who doesn't want to think. They don't care that this is not how the spider hunts. They don't care that it's all so conveniantly set up. They don't care that the spider and crab would rather fight to the death and jump in the water than back away from each other. None of these questions bother them because they are here just to be entertained.
And that's the difference. In movies they at least try a little harder. They try to reach the head or heart. TV just doesn't want you to think about anything other than the twists of the plot. Which is why it's so disposable. Which is why it's often so forgettable. And not very rewatchable.
So that's what's most disappointing about Monarch - It's just bog-standard TV. Which is disappointing because (a) it's from Apple, who are pretty much the opposite of Netflix (i.e. Not a lot of content but it's all high quality), and (b) a total waste of a franchise that has endured across nearly 40 films. They've taken that and turned it into just another TV show that will be forgotten as soon and it finishes. And possibly even before.
TV and streaming is now very popular in modern society because it makes you feel like you're the centre of the universe. You choose, what and when you want to watch, and then some good-looking actors will run around for your entertainment. All in a non-threatening, nothing-too-heavy sort of way. That's TV. And it's great and it has its place as a distraction and place to unwind.
But most TV is just disposable. And I'm sad to see this as just another disposable TV show.
By the way, I really hated the opening. Ripped straight from the admittedly not very good 'Kong: Skull Island', they took the one good idea from that film - a spider that lurks in bamboo and uses it's camouflaged legs to skewer prey - and they play it for a cold opening action scene. Who cares if it makes sense (like the detached still running jet engine in the opening of Lost), it's just for entertainment. So this quite stealthy spider is now chasing someone out of the forest and toward the ocean and battling a giant crab. Must be really, really hungry. Anyway, the whole scene just reminds you that this show is just serving up entertainment for an audience who doesn't want to think. They don't care that this is not how the spider hunts. They don't care that it's all so conveniantly set up. They don't care that the spider and crab would rather fight to the death and jump in the water than back away from each other. None of these questions bother them because they are here just to be entertained.
And that's the difference. In movies they at least try a little harder. They try to reach the head or heart. TV just doesn't want you to think about anything other than the twists of the plot. Which is why it's so disposable. Which is why it's often so forgettable. And not very rewatchable.
So that's what's most disappointing about Monarch - It's just bog-standard TV. Which is disappointing because (a) it's from Apple, who are pretty much the opposite of Netflix (i.e. Not a lot of content but it's all high quality), and (b) a total waste of a franchise that has endured across nearly 40 films. They've taken that and turned it into just another TV show that will be forgotten as soon and it finishes. And possibly even before.