Animation
Spy x Family
In order to infiltrate a highly prestigious elementary school, top spy Twilight will have to master a new set of skills—being a good dad.
In 2015, the world changed.
San Francisco was made a ruin when MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) arose and fought Godzilla there, making the world aware of the existence of such legendary monsters.
Of course, the secret organization Monarch already knew about the creatures, but this was the first time the general public figured it out, too. And decision makers knew they had to take action. Cities invest in defensive missiles to protect themselves, for instance. And people are required to be decontaminated when flying on airplanes now.
“Like spraying us for parasites would help prevent another monster attack,” one man quips.
Cate, a former teacher who survived that San Francisco showdown, is just trying to move on with her life. Her father passed away, and she’s flown to Tokyo in order to settle his affairs there. But when she arrives, she finds an apartment with a wife and son.
Who knew she would literally be dealing with his affairs?
It doesn’t take long for both Cate and the family to realize the truth. And now, Cate’s interested in what other secrets her father hid from them.
That’s when she finds his secret office safe containing a bag of encrypted film footage shot by Bill Randa (a man who ventured to every monster’s favorite paradise in Kong: Skull Island). And when she tries to bypass the encryption, it sends an alert straight to Monarch HQ.
One that’ll certainly be bringing some secret agents straight to her door.
Marvel has the multiverse, and Godzilla has the Monsterverse.
Even if you’ve never seen Godzilla or King Kong strut their way over the screaming people of [INSERT DESTRUCTIBLE MAJOR CITY], you’ve probably heard their names—and even some of the names of other titans with which they battle. You’re probably also aware that monsters of such magnitude don’t tend to pick up after themselves, leaving countless buildings and people flattened in their wake.
With that in mind, you can guess what content issues you’ll deal with. Yes, oversized beasts kill people—and not even children are safe in this Apple TV series. Likewise, when folks meet the towering creatures, they’re quick to utter a crudity in their terror. And halfway into the first season, we learn that Cate is a lesbian (and we see some flashbacks to her past relationship with another woman).
In general, though, there’s an easy rule to follow: As Fast & Furious is to epic car stunts and family, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is to massive versions of animals causing deadly chaos around the globe.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Cate travels to Japan to settle her father’s affairs, where she meets his secret family—and finds some other secrets, too.
A schoolbus full of children teeters on the edge of a broken bridge. While some of the children escape, most of them plummet to their deaths offscreen. Godzilla destroys some cars. A helicopter crashes.
Giant beetle-like insects swarm and attack three people. A man shoots some of them with a gun, and a woman is pulled by them into darkness, and she’s presumably eaten alive. A giant spider and a giant crab fight each other, and they both topple into the ocean.
A boy says that he thinks the “government burned a hole through the Earth all the way to hell.”
The s-word is used three times. We also hear a couple instances of “a–,” “h—” and “crap.” God’s name is used in vain seven times, including once in the form of “g-dd–n.”
Cate and her friends decide to travel to Skull Island in the hope of opening a portal to save someone left behind in the monster world of Axis Mundi.
King Kong destroys objects and crushes people beneath his feet. A woman gets struck by a massive tentacle and presumably dies. A man stabs a tentacled creature through the eye and kills it with his knife. Someone drives a forklift into a large monster to pin it against a wall and kill it.
A creature snaps the neck of a giant bat. It also rips a giant millipede bug in half to eat it.
A woman tells some people that one of the giant monsters is a local village’s diety. “He is like their god,” she says. “They worship him, and the sea provides,” calling the creature the great god of the sea. There’s a reference to Korean mythology.
People drink beer and liquor. There’s a reference to a sexual affair.
We hear the s-word seven times and “h—” four times. God’s name is used in vain four times, including one instance paired with “d–n.” Jesus’ name is likewise used in vain four times.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
In order to infiltrate a highly prestigious elementary school, top spy Twilight will have to master a new set of skills—being a good dad.
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The storyline here (and content) has far greater stakes than your typical whodunnit. And certainly, nobody who watches this series will think it’s paradise.
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