You want more about the past timeline with young Lee, Keiko, and Bill? You got it. You want to see how Cate, Kentaro, Hiroshi, and the others adjust to the years that have gone by since the group was split by the Axis Mundi rescue? You got it. You want plenty of Titan battles and new creatures? You got that in spades. Season 2 simply has it all.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 retains bragging rights as the Monsterverse project giving audiences the best balance of kaiju thrills and compelling storytelling involving its human characters. And for the super fans, this season continues to fill in the Monsterverse mythology gaps in surprising ways.

Bigger has rarely been the MonsterVerse’s problem. “Monarch” makes a persuasive case for spectacle grounded in character.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Season 2 mostly satisfies with a story that puts the Titans front and center — exactly where fans want to see them.

The fleshing out of the MonsterVerse continues to fail to make most of its human characters interesting, but scrapes by on the outsize thrills of its Titanic action.

Gradual genre excesses weigh down the fun and muddle the central theme. It’s a mercy that the cast is game for whatever direction the narrative takes them–Yamamoto and Russell Sr. are particularly delightful–but a real drag that the writing loses sight of what makes “Monarch” tick.

The storytelling here is no less rickety than that of the goofiest old monster movie, the difference being that the series insists on showing its work. The MonsterVerse films may lack a memorable human through line, but Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is a dire overcorrection.