Jurassic World Meets Lost In Apple TV’s 2-Part Sci-Fi Series

Apple TV’s two-season science fiction series has combined the best parts of the Jurassic World franchise and the classic mystery box television series Lost. Some of the best shows on Apple TV are science fiction series like Severance, Silo, For All Mankind, and Murderbot. The streamer has such a huge catalog of great and acclaimed sci-fi shows that it has cemented itself as the single best streaming service for sci-fi fans to subscribe to.

While it is the kind of new science fiction shows, Apple TV does have some stiff competition, especially when it comes to classic sci-fi. Disney+, for example, has both Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s shows and movies, while Prime Video has superhero content like The Boys and hard sci-fi like The Expanse. Even Paramount+, perhaps the weakest streamer for sci-fi, has the entire catalog of Star Trek shows and movies.

Luckily for Apple TV, one of its best sci-fi shows recreates some of the best parts of two classic franchises. Lost redefined science fiction television when it premiered in 2004, and it invented the mystery box genre, where a show encourages viewers to try to solve its mystery as new episodes reveal more. Jurassic World is one of the most profitable movie franchises in history, and it proved that monster movies were still popular. Now, Apple TV has the best of both of them in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, a companion to the King Kong and Godzilla Monsterverse movies.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Titans Are Just Like Jurassic World’s Dinosaurs

The clearest similarity Monarch: Legacy of Monsters has is to the Jurassic World franchise. Jurassic World obviously features a world filled with dinosaurs brought back from millions of years in the past. By the time of Dominion, they’re a well-known thing in the franchise’s world, and they roam “exclusion zones” freely. The Jurassic World movies even frequently have special teams researching the dinosaurs and trying to extract their DNA.

In almost every way, the Titans in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters serve the same purpose as the dinosaurs in Jurassic World do. As with Jurassic World, Monarch features massive and ancient creatures that pose an incredible threat to humanity; they’re just called Titans instead of dinosaurs. It also has the powerful Monarch organization investigating the Titans and trying to learn more about them. The Titans and dinosaurs also serve as most of the spectacle of the movies and show, given their size and danger.

If you liked Jurassic World or any of its sequels, there’s a very good chance you’ll like Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. While Monarch is decidedly more far-fetched than dinosaurs, it leans just as heavily into science fiction as Jurassic World does. It also features all the massive battles and intense action of the movies, along with a great human-centric story to tie those set pieces together. Monarch is essentially just a different flavor of Jurassic World, and it’s arguably better than the most recent films.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Also Has Mystery Box Elements Like Lost

It’s fairly clear to see the connection between Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Jurassic World, but the show also shares a lot of DNA with Lost. As previously mentioned, Lost pioneered the “mystery box” format of television shows. Viewers spent hours trying to decipher the mystery of Lost‘s island by using every little clue and hint the show gave them. That mystery was the main selling point of the show itself, and the way it unfolded over time is why Lost is still considered one of the best television shows ever made to this day.

Monarch took inspiration from Lost‘s mystery box format, and it did it to great effect. Across its two seasons, Monarch dives into time travel, family secrets, the mysterious and highly powerful organization that is Monarch itself, and the Hollow Earth featured in other Monsterverse movies. Every episode unravels one mystery while introducing another in a way that keeps viewers guessing and engaged for every second of runtime.

While Monarch may not be the cultural sensation Lost was, it could end up being an even better mystery box show. The ending of Lost was famously divisive and left a lot of viewers feeling underwhelmed after years of speculation. Monarch, however, has already solved its main time travel mystery in season 2, and since it’s already been renewed for a third season, it should be able to tie up most of its loose ends in a satisfactory way. With any luck, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will stick the landing better than Lost did.

Release Date

November 16, 2023

Network

Apple TV

Showrunner

Chris Black, Matt Fraction

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  Kiersey Clemons

  May Hewitt

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