Ridiculous Legends of Monkey

[swan_tower]

Just inhaled the first season of The New Legends of Monkey on Netflix, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

It’s loosely based on Journey to the West, insofar as it has the recognizable characters of Tripitaka, Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy, and characters heading vaguely west in search of some kind of important written thing — and that’s about where it ends. The setting makes no attempt to be Ancient China; it’s best described as “vaguely post-demon-apocalyptic wherever.” The show was filmed in Australia, and about half the characters have distinct Australian accents. The main actress (because Tripitaka is female here) is of Tongan ancestry; Monkey’s actor is of Thai ancestry. The cast overall is mixed enough that I’m pretty sure the show’s creators had no pre-set notions of what ethnicities they wanted in which roles, and just cast whomever appealed to them.

If so, it was a good decision. The central characters are mostly great (the exception being the villains, who are a little weak) — I particularly adore Sandy, likewise female, who strikes the note of being a little off-kilter without obxiously “look at how crazy I am!” The setting is 500 years after the gods disappeared; demons rule the earth now, and humanity’s only hope is to find and free Monkey, and then get him to show them where he hid the seven sacred scrolls. But the way Monkey is remembered may not be exactly what he’s like in reality . . .

The show is ten episodes, each less than half an hour. You can watch the whole thing in a long evening — I know because that’s what we did. It’s fun and good-hearted, and I hope they do more!

Mirrored from Swan Tower.

Comments

[sovay]

The setting is 500 years after the gods disappeared; demons rule the earth now, and humanity’s only hope is to find and free Monkey, and then get him to show them where he hid the seven sacred scrolls. But the way Monkey is remembered may not be exactly what he’s like in reality . . .

I had no idea this was a thing that had even happened. The post-apocalyptic demon stuff sounds like Saiyuki and nothing else does. I'm glad it's fun!

[swan_tower]

Yeah, I stumbled across the show entirely by accident. Added it to my queue at the same time as their Trojan War miniseries . . . which my sister and I bounced out of after twenty minutes, not because it was bad, but because it was boring. The dialogue was meh, the characters were neither sympathetic nor notably off-putting, the Judgment of Paris managed to be phenomenally un-numinous, and nothing about it was pretty: not the actors, not the costumes, not even the visuals. They managed to make the Mediterranean look mud-brown all over.

The New Legends of Monkey did more that was interesting in its first three minutes than the Troy series did in twenty.

[sovay]

the Judgment of Paris managed to be phenomenally un-numinous

HOW.

[edit] I hadn't even heard there was a new Troy story; now I know why.

[swan_tower]

HOW.

I don't even know. It was the kind of thing where I really wished I had a better grasp of filmmaking, because then I might be able to articulate what in their choices of framing or editing or lighting or something made it so boring. I appreciated the racially diverse casting of the gods (their Athena was pretty good), but that was about all I could say for it.

[sovay]

It was the kind of thing where I really wished I had a better grasp of filmmaking, because then I might be able to articulate what in their choices of framing or editing or lighting or something made it so boring.

I almost want to watch this to find out, but then I really, really don't.

[swan_tower]

It happens in the first ten minutes or so of the first episode, so you won't be out much time for having subjected yourself to it.

Of course, the lingering effects are another matter.