Image: Monster from the show Monster Hunters
As soon as I stumbled on Monster Hunters, the first AI streaming show, I wondered: Does it work narratively? With 30K views, it seems they attracted an audience. When I watch pilots from a screenwriter’s perspective, I look at things like structure, character arcs, story, the pilot’s promise, and the series engine, so I did, sort of, the same with this one. Before I dig into this part, I must say that I was happy to see that the authors did not dive into the spectacle. However, the show does struggle with stakes, character clarity, and internal logic.
The Hook
The opening hook of the first episode begins even before the first scene, when we read on-screen and hear a voice-over about Legend 25, a unique paramilitary, undercover government agency that handles supernatural visitors. Soon after, we are with young Officer Mark Flanagan, it’s 1:40 AM, and he is sitting in his car at Red Rock, Nevada. He sees a huge group of creatures on the ridge; they look like Bigfoot, and the show intro starts.
After the intro, which has too many characters, we are with Officer Gil Alvarado, who is, again, somewhere in Nevada, meeting with Julie, another officer, who crouches in the middle of the road. She crashed her car and found a lot of dead animals - the scene was too short, so I did not get it at first what really happened.
The character void
Bear with me now:
Around minute 6, Gil’s boss introduces him to Rick Miller and his dog (Duke the Dog), who are from the K9 unit - he is a new trainee. Also, asks him to check in with Flanagan - nobody believes him, and they laughed at him about Bigfoot. I paused here. If they are part of the same agency, why does nobody believe him, as it’s literally their job to handle supernaturals? This moment breaks the internal logic of the world that the pilot itself establishes.
What’s more confusing here is that Gil doesn’t talk with Flanagan immediately; they arrange breakfast the next morning at 7 am (and Gil told his boss he will report the same day afternoon), he also moves Rick Miller to the next morning, but later than Flanagan. I was confused here and lost with this unnecessary scheduling.
Unpause. Around 9 minutes in, Gil meets another character, Jade, again somewhere on the Nevada road. So clearly, Gil Alvarado is our main character, and others are part of this ensemble. What I am looking at now is what Gil wants as a character. After I saw the full episode, I can’t say I know. The pilot fails to establish that. His actions are unclear, and it’s hard to see where motivation comes from. He kind of walks from scene to scene and is more passive than an active protagonist.
Image: Gil and Julie
We learn too late that he (although it was not stated, but I guess we saw it) lost Gina, his partner, probably to aliens, and also that he does not bleed - so it’s possible that he is also a supernatural character.
On the other hand, the inciting incident occurs around 12 minutes in, when a sand monster attacks Gil and Julie, and Julie (who is Scottish, btw) is severely injured. The next morning, we learn that Flanagan is actually a rookie who does not know the agency’s real role, and that his grandfather worked here in the 1950s. If we had known from the beginning that Flanagan was a rookie kept in the dark, it would have been a lot less confusing.
I am not going to bother you with more, but let me just say that at one point, there is a starship, and the show ends with the battle with the sand beast, but we don’t know who won. What is interesting is that starship fits the story and does not feel out of place; in the world we are in, it feels natural. As for the ending, it is effective, but it could have been more intense.
Characters have some promising hints: Gil lost his partner (probably to aliens); Julie, the Scottish girl, ended up here because of love that no longer exists; Jade was in the military for 12 years; Rick is a surfer...But that’s just not enough to connect with them, and there are no strong character arcs.
Another problem is the stakes for the world. We don’t know much about stakes - are supernaturals evil, will they kill everybody if this agency fails? What are the stakes for our characters other than surviving the beast? Why should we care about them? Will Gil lose his kids (they are mentioned twice)?
The show’s world builds slowly, which I love. There was a scene in which a Bigfoot peeks briefly around the rock; we see it just enough to be surprised and scared. Some comedy is also there, my favourite is when Julie says to Gil Being mine training officer means never having to say you are sorry, which is a paraphrase from the movie Love Story. Another one is We are a government agency, overkill is our middle name.
Despite the flaws and underdeveloped characters, the few details we have about them suggest they could have depth we have not yet seen or back stories we could explore further, as we saw in Lost. I am interested to see where the show goes and whether they will tighten the script in the next episodes.
Feel free to share your thoughts on the pilot and where you think the series might be heading.