PART ZERO: INTRO

I first encountered the style of the MM videos by way of one of my favorite creators, The3rdBlaze, and their series, Our 3rd Silos. That series was inspired by MM, and more specifically, The Nixonverse. I had always been lukewarm to that series and its style, but I thought I should see the source material before making my complete judgement. When I got out of school earlier than my siblings, I had a lot of alone time I had to do something with. I decided: I'm either going to watch MM or GREYLOCK, and the coin landed on heads. But that's enough background. Let's get on with the review.

PART ONE: MOUNMENT MYTHOS SEASON ONE

One thing I want to say about MM is that the plotline is extremely outlandish. Like, the general concept, monsters living inside American monuments, isn't crazy by analog horror standards. It's just everything that happens around the concept is completely insane. The plot isn't as weird in season one, but some plot choices in season two, especially in the episode "SUEZCANALCRAB", are extremely absurd. However, there are some aspects of the plot I really like.

The plot, at its core, is an alternate history. There are kind of two plots going on. One concerns, well, the monuments and their monsters. Most of the early season one episodes are completely focused on this aspect of the plot, following a kind of "look at this monument, and look at the monster" structure. It was a little repetitive, but in kind of a funny way. Uh-oh, there's an Alcatraz episode! These early episodes were some of my favorites, because they were mainly horror-leaning and featured good effects and scares; and while being separate and taking place all over the US, they are connected and all advance the story.

The special effects in MM was one of my favorite parts of the series, and they are one thing it really excels at. The plots of the episodes are mostly told through a combination of interviews, diagrams, pictures, and found footage, which is where the effects come in. The diagrams were a kind of low point, because most of them were canonically film reels, and the film reel effects weren't very realistic. Most of the audio was done by voice actors, which was a nice break from overused text-to-speech, while some of the famous people in the plotline were likely AI voices.

The second major plotline is the alternate history. The main question: What would America have been like if the most famous and influential people of their time period were elected president? I really like that idea and think that was a nice part of the plot. This aspect of the plot begins with the episode "DEANDEMOCARCY", in which, through a very propaganda-esque video, we learn how James Dean, a movie star who died in a car crash in 1955, was elected president in 1960 on the promise he would end the Vietnam War, beating Richard Nixon. In response to his rapid rise in popularity, an organization called the Anti-Dean Association (or ADA) is formed. The ADA rebrands itself numerous times throughout the series. There was no horror elements in this episode, but there was a strange mention of a "silenced speech" by Dean.

Dean isn't the only alternate president; Norman Rockefeller, 1930s oil baron, is also elected president for two terms, and "President (Howard) Hughes" is mentioned off-handedly by Rockefeller in one of the season two episodes. A lot of the best alternate timeline episodes play around with what we assume based on our own history, including my favorite episode, "ROCKEFELLERTREETRAGEDY". I also like that episode because, while it takes place around the middle of the timeline, it appears to be the cause of, or at least a relatable connection to, the strange events throughout the series.

There is a third subplot, the Cornerfolk/Cornerworld, but they don't really appear a whole lot, aside from first and last episodes of the series. The Cornerfolk aspect of the plot is more of a short, separate series than a subplot and should be treated as such. There are some hints that the Cornerworld plays a big role in the creation of the monsters, but that's mostly just graphical similarities.

After the first few episodes, it alternates from semi-normal monsters ( "AIRFORCEONEANGEL", "WASHINGTONWORMHOLE") to very, very inexpiable and bizarre monsters/events ("DELAWAREDOULBLE", "LINCONLOOKER") but overall the plot is still pretty nice.

One thing I do have problems with, is the season one finale, "FREEDOMFALLER", concerning the statue on the top of the US capitol. In the video, after we learn the dark history of the statue, and how it's possessed with the soul of its sculptor, let's just say the ADA doesn't really like the fact that James Dean is going to be certified as president, and so they attack the capitol on January 6th, 1961. The statue, Freedom, falls and attacks the rioters. The End. The episode was made in February 2021, not even two months past the real insurrection on January 6th, 2021. I feel that's too soon to be making horror about it. People have been cancelled out of the AH community for even mentioning controversal topics or events, and after seeing what happened to Aidan Chick, I'm surprised I didn't have to find a reupload to watch MM.

Thus concludes my review of the first season of The Monument Mythos. I hope you enjoyed it. Stay tuned for more.