It seems fitting that ever since director Gareth Edwards rebooted the Godzilla saga in 2014, successive entries have grown ever bigger in scale, if not necessarily in ambition. After four big-screen adventures, the ‘Monsterverse’ has now made the leap to live-action TV, a reduction that will alienate much of its fanbase. Monarch takes some inspiration from Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ Kong: Skull Island (2017) which mixed up the formula with a novel historical setting.

Opening with a brief cameo from John Goodman set in 1973, the plot hops between the 1950s and the 2010s, much of it focused on the antics of adventurer Lee Shaw (played, in a nice touch, by father and son Wyatt and Kurt Russell). Much of the ‘modern era’ focuses on a familial scandal, doubtless to address the series’ notorious inability to humanise its drama, but at the expense of everything you’d expect in a story about skyscraper-sized monsters.

Things perk up enormously once Kurt Russell appears; now in his 70s he’s really grown into that grizzled, world-weary disposition and he gets some of the choicest lines. Hopefully his inclusion will give the rest of this series the boost it needs, not to mention some actual, you know, monsters. 

Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters starts on Apple TV+, Friday 17 November.