The MONARCH trailer (hip hip hurrah!)

[tommie]

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.

I think the issue is that there's an absolute lack of conflict - Dottie's suicide by Nicky should've set off a domino of events with Nicky trying to be the new Queen of Country and Gigi knowing the truth while butting heads with her. But... it's everyone's just surprisingly fine with it. You have Trace Adkins character having an illegitimate child and a granddaughter, who is in love with Nicky's adopted son! Very juicy, right? But besides a bit of a tiff over the DNA tests it's been like, yeah okay. No one seems to be making a huge fuss over those two kids making googly eyes at each other either. Evil Dr Kimberly Shaw - eerr, I mean, Marcia Cross - comes into town as a no-nonsense record exec to take over/buy Monarch Records, which makes Trace Adkins pissed for a second until he decides it's okay because Nicky really wants it.

Like, I think the biggest issue the show has is that while the characters are put in absurd and soapy situations, they actually act like reasonable adults. And that's the last thing soap characters should do!

 

[tommie]

Again it's tied up with a minor cliffhanger (which is more interesting than the whole previous show, go figure).

 

[Brian Kinney]

Not a surprise or?

‘Monarch’ Canceled At Fox After One Season

The drama series, which starred Anna Friel, Trace Adkins, Joshua Sasse and Beth Ditto with Susan Sarandon, ended with Tuesday night’s season closer.

While the series opened with a decent showing – it scored an 0.8 adults 18-49 Live+Same Day ratings and 3.8 million total viewers with its premiere in September and ranked as Fox’s most-watched fall scripted debut in three years, it struggled over its subsequent 10 episodes.

Across the season, Monarch averaged a 0.3/3 L7, up 50% from L+SD, and 4.1 million multiplatform viewers, up +149% from L+SD. (...)

The show, which was filmed during the pandemic, originally was set to launch in January 2022 but was pushed to the fall as a result of Covid. It was purposefully designed for a shorter run of 11 episodes.

 

[tommie]

No surprise there. I guess since it was originally supposed to premiere in the spring they had to make a decision before the contracts ran out.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

No surprise here. It wasn’t the worst of the recent short lived soaps but it was kind of “soap by numbers”. It was all a bit formulaic and some of the characters just didn’t click with me, despite being played by good actors. Also, I haven’t watched the last two episodes yet but it did feel like we were seeing less and less of Susan Sarandon as we got further along (there’s obvious reasons for that I know) but I’d say anyone who came to the show to see her, bailed pretty quickly.

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Like, I think the biggest issue the show has is that while the characters are put in absurd and soapy situations, they actually act like reasonable adults. And that's the last thing soap characters should do!

Having watched the last two episodes last night, I can see that this approach carried through right to the end with the rather muted response to the Kayla baby reveal.

Now that it’s done, I can see why it wasn’t renewed. Maybe I’m expecting a bit too much from my primetime soaps these days but the writing was not good, particularly in the latter part of the run.

 

[tommie]

Now that it’s done, I can see why it wasn’t renewed. Maybe I’m expecting a bit too much from my primetime soaps these days but the writing was not good, particularly in the latter part of the run.

I think on paper there was very much to like - it was well-cast, the premise was intriguing and it feels like a no-brainer for a soap that takes a slightly more over-the-top/"camp" approach considering that it's what country music often is. If Empire could lean into how violent and "gritty" the hip-hop industry is, Monarch should've leaned into that over-the-topness because those moments was when the show was at its best - like Dottie's camp-as-tits funeral. That's what the show should've been. Not people acting like rational adults despite bizarre situations.

 

[Willie Oleson]