Always Be Streaming... big Japanese lizards

Godzilla is back on... the small screen?

What a monster week. Quite literally - the big show of this week is the Godzilla tie-in show on Apple TV+ Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. It’s actually rather good, giving a very grounded, boots-on-the-ground take on what it means to have giant monsters walking the earth.

If you haven’t seen any of the movies that it ties into, you will do just fine without having seen them. The MonsterVerse films include Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019), and Godzilla vs Kong (2021). Of those, the only watchable ones are the two Kong movies.

It’s worth noting that while Godzilla does appear in the show, there are different big monsters in every episode of the show. No sign of Kong yet…

In some fun casting, the show is split across two time periods with Kurt Russell and real-life son Wyatt playing the same character.

Other things you should know about viewing options this weekend:

• The Curse (Paramount+) stars Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone and will not be to the taste of most people. If you’ve already bought in on the comedic style of Nathan Fielder, you have a good idea of what you are in for. The show is about two reality show hosts trying to launch a new show, ethics be damned. I liked it, but will need at least a month between episodes.

• Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is an animated Netflix show that retells the comics with the voice cast being the same as the live action film. I’m not sure why this exists either…

• A Murder At The End of The World (FX/Hulu/Disney+) is from the creative team behind The OA. That may still be enough for a lot of viewers to press play.