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New trailer below with what appear to be new scenes and an extra story arc that may have been added since the postponement in January.
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The MONARCH trailer (hip hip hurrah!)
- Thread starter Willie Oleson
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Uh-oh.
Translation: Fox execs' most anticipated ratings HIT.
This doesn't bode very well.
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Yes, I was wondering where they had pulled this “most anticipated” bit from. Maybe I’m missing something but I haven’t seen a great deal of buzz about it online or anywhere else for that matter.
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Why so many new soaps seem to use the promotion style and look of TNT Dallas... when it was canceled 8 years ago (I wonder)?
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The country version of Empire. Pass. Last season wasn't very good for primetime soaps with Our Kind of People, Queens, Promised Land done after one season so I don't think Monarch is going to fare any better.
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If MONARCH is only half as soapy as EMPIRE then we're in for a treat.
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I think Monarch is a perfect example...
... why soaps just never go through with killing off their ailing Monarch since the flashbacks with Susan Sarandon's Dottie tend to be the best one. I can't help to feel like they put her a bit *too* front and center; Jock on Dallas was kind of sidelined in the business storylines as he passed and Jacqueline on Falcon Crest was just a recurring mother monster. I wish we would've had a full season of Dottie alive at least, even if they had to cast a "lesser" name than Susan Sarandon.
I guess Monarch at least puts to rest things like "would it have been a good idea to kill off Blake on Dynasty" or Lucious Lyon on Empire.
I guess Monarch at least puts to rest things like "would it have been a good idea to kill off Blake on Dynasty" or Lucious Lyon on Empire.
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I'm up to date and enjoying it for what it is - a soapy soap that isn't taking itself too seriously. Are some of the upcoming twists as plain as the nose on your face? Yes! Do the characters feel a bit directionless? Yes! Does it feel too lowbrow a show for Anna Friel and Susan Sarandon to be starring in? Yes! I could go on. It's a frothy soap that's easy to watch. However, it is throwing every soap cliche and the kitchen sink at us and we're only seven episodes in, so I can see it burning itself out and heading into silly territory to keep going if it's renewed. For now though, it's an easy watch.
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If I had to rate the recent soap attempts I'd probably put Monarch pretty far down the list, because as you said it's very predictable and I think they wasted their best character.
So I'd put them in this order (from the past two or so seasons):
1. Promised Land
2. Filthy Rich
3. Queens (it became a mess for the last half of the season; if I had rated it only on the first 8 or so episodes it would've been number one by far)
4. Monarch
5. Our Kind of People (didn't even finish this, just a mess that aspired to be a Tyler Perry show for some reason)
I still wanted them all renewed of course. I need a multi-season prime time soap to obsess over, especially now that the best version of Dynasty said sayonara.
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Apparently it really is only half as good as EMPIRE.
I don't want it to be an easy watch, and want it to be sweaty and difficult like TNT DALLAS.
Anything with "queen" or "diva" in the title won't even make the preview on Willie TV.
But now it's over it's really over, isn't it. Nothing more to say. STONE dead. I could easily pretend it never happened.
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Promised Land is definitely the best of the most recent bunch of soaps. It was well written and well cast. I liked the idea of the split timeline to help establish the character history but I also think that it hindered the show a bit, as it took time away from events in the present day. Some of the scenes felt a bit fleeting as they were trying to pack so much into each episode from past and present. At least they made an effort with their flashbacks. There’s scenes from the past in Monarch featuring Susan Sarandon where I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be ten weeks ago or ten years ago but she looks the exact same in each of them (the Texas Truth Teller origin story being a recent example).
Filthy Rich is a show that I thought I’d love as the idea of a televangelism soap always sounded great to me. Something just didn’t click for me though. I think it might’ve felt a bit cluttered with the various long lost children that I just wasn’t that interested in.
I never watched Queens and probably never will, now that it is cancelled.
Our Kind of People, as you said, was a mess. I think I gave it two episodes before jacking it in. It was really dire.
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I was a bit iffy on Filthy Rich at first and thought the cast didn't really gel, but by the end it was an enjoyable little ride. I'm not mourning it not getting a second season, but it felt like it was finding it's grounding and it would've been interesting to see what they would've done with it. Queens started out so strong but just lost its footing once Eve went on maternity leave and I also assume with the ratings being low, they sort of didn't want to start new long-term arcs which affected the writing.
Monarch is very stylish, I'll give it that, but again it's not quite as juicy as I wanted it to be.
I agree that Promised Land should've eased up a bit on the flashback scenes as we got into the season - I don't think they needed to be present in each episode; every third or so to explain past event would've been enough. Maybe that would've happened if there had been a season 2 (though they were blatantly setting up a mystery as to what really happened with papa Honeycroft).
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Marcia Cross has rocked up as media mogul Skyler. Not sure if it’s a guest shot or if she’ll be main cast but it looks like your classic “well known face comes onboard to throw the cat among the pigeons” move by producers.
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Looks like a guest spot since there's only one episode left. I doubt it'll be renewed since the ratings are terrible, but I could see her moving up to recurring at least if the show was to be renewed.
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I didn’t realise it was wrapping up pre-Christmas. But then again, I didn’t see anything anywhere to say it had gotten a full season order. I also doubt it’ll be renewed. As I said before, it’s an easy watch but it’s all a bit predictable.
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I wonder if there was another "version" that has been tampered with during the postponement.
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Looking at the original trailer from the start of the year and then the trailer released prior to the actual premiere, the scenes with Albie shooting and burying someone in the forest were new. There’s scenes of Kat at an actual grave in both trailers but the Albie scenes were new (to the trailer at least) which makes me think they may have added in the murder cover up during the delay.
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Makes sense to be honest. They dropped the whole plot line of Nicky helping Dottie die awfully quick, so it makes me wonder if it was originally going to play out more and Fox execs got nervous to be seen as too pro-death help or something. Of course, straight up murder is ok though.