Grade: B
For those who have read Rick Riordan’s popular young adult fiction series, getting to watch a Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV adaptation in the year 2023 is a pleasant sight for sore eyes. That’s because those sore eyes likely came about from watching the two terrible movie adaptations back in 2010 and 2013 (The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters, respectively), which deviated greatly from the books and pleased no one except the executives at 20th Century Fox (total gross: upwards of $200 million).
And so, to rectify the failures of the films, the eight-episode Disney+ reboot, which is co-created/written by Jonathan E. Steinberg and Riordan himself, opts for a much more loyal retelling of the books. Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 covers the events of The Lightning Thief novel, and each subsequent season — if we make it there — will correspond to each entry in Riordan’s five-part series.
The problem as I see it is that Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 is so concerned with hitting every major plot point in the book that it fails to flow naturally as a television show. Even at eight episodes of approximately 40 minutes each, the storyline moves too fast, with not enough time devoted to developing the characters.
As a faithful adaptation, season 1 will for the most part satisfy fans of the books. As a standalone TV show, however, viewers unfamiliar with the source material may suffer some whiplash.
The series begins with promise — Percy Jackson is an adolescent loner who has been ridiculed for being “different” all his life. He has visions of fantastical creatures, he doesn’t know his biological father, and his mom now lives with a piece of sh*t boyfriend who ridicules him at every turn. One day, while on a school field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Percy is attacked by a Fury (a vengeful winged goddess from Greek mythology).
This prompts Percy and his mother to flee to Montauk, where he finds out that his best friend Grover is actually a satyr, his teacher is actually a centaur and he himself is actually a demigod. It turns out that all the Greek myths are real, and soon enough an enormous Minotaur chases Percy and Grover to Camp Half-Blood, a safe haven for the children of the gods. But not before it captures and seemingly kills Percy’s mother, thus prompting his quest to rescue her from Hades.
All this occurs in the pilot episode, which gets us off to a quick start and remains the best and most exciting installment of the season. The exposition is combined seamlessly with the action, making the world-building quite easy to follow. The diversified ensemble cast is quite good as well, with actor Walker Scobell — who looks like a young Timothée Chalamet — doing an admirable job conveying the trials and tribulations of a misunderstood 12-year-old.
Overall, it’s a welcoming series premiere — fun, fast-paced and filled with interesting tidbits for classical folk tale enthusiasts.
The second episode (titled “I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom”) is another nice, self-contained adventure, with Percy meeting some new friends and adversaries, while also coming face-to-face with his destiny (he finds out that he’s the son of Poseidon). The straightforward storyline is both swift and satisfying.
But by the time we reach the middle portion of the season, in which Percy and his friends Grover and Annabeth are tasked with traveling cross-country to retrieve Zeus’ stolen Master Bolt, the fast pace becomes a problem. We’re whisked away from one adventure to the next without really getting to know the characters — the trio fights Medusa (“We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium”), then they travel to St. Louis to fight Echidna (“I Plunge to My Death”) — which in turn leaves the series devoid of humor, emotion and any real sense of surprise.
New characters are introduced, gods enter and exit with every episode, and even though the performances are colorful (e.g., Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes, former WWE star Adam Copeland a.k.a. Edge as Ares), the storyline eventually becomes confusing. There isn’t much discernible connection from one encounter to the next, and so Percy Jackson doesn’t set itself up well for the future — no scenes to fall back on, no foreshadowing to speculate on, no grand overarching arc we feel compelled to follow.
Sure, it’s cool to catch all the casual references to Greek mythology, but the universe that Percy Jackson populates is all one note. We only get to see things from Percy’s point of view, and we only know other characters based on their proximity to him. By the end, we barely even know Percy at all.
Fault doesn’t go to the actors, though. Scobell does good with what he’s given, and 14-year-old actress Leah Sava Jeffries is a revelation as Annabeth, the brave and courageous and selfless daughter of Athena. Likewise, the supporting cast of adults — from Virginia Kull to the late, great Lance Reddick — all bring a grounded reality to this fantasy world.
No, fault must go to the writers, who cram in too many plot-oriented details while ignoring important stuff like pacing and characterization. The story tries to do too much without doing anything at all, and so it’s hard to become emotionally invested. “We Find Out the Truth, Sort Of” and “The Prophecy Comes True,” the final two episodes of the season, are weak — not enough time was devoted in the beginning to set-up, and so the payoffs in the end lack feeling.
It’s a problem that is directly mirrored in the show’s sleek yet unimaginative directing and cinematography: take a snapshot from any scene in any episode, and you’ll notice that the forefront is clear but the background is hazy and out of focus. In that case, fault might also go to the production — Percy Jackson and the Olympians is noticeably cheap, with rapid CGI sequences and battle scenes that are great at saving money but bad at building tension.
And it’s hard not to notice that the centaur Chiron is always shown from the waist up, or that carefully placed objects in the foreground (e.g. trees, shrubbery, garbage cans) hide Grover’s satyr hoofs.
Nonetheless, Percy Jackson and the Olympians season 1 will be enjoyable for viewers who are avid readers of the source material. Every actor does a great job making their character likable, with no weak spots among the cast. I predict that there might even be some future stars among the ensemble — Jeffries, in particular.
On top of that, some of the visuals are absolutely stunning, like Hades’ lair in the underworld and Zeus’ temple at Olympus. It’s nice to see the CGI finally being put to good use.
But I’m not sure if the series is built to last, as nothing here indicates that Steinberg or Riordan have a firm grasp on TV conventions (Steinberg’s previous credits include a mixed bag of unsuccessful narratives like Jericho, Black Sails and See). Season 1 of Percy Jackson is an average young adult action-drama that is light on both action and drama.
Hopefully, the mistakes made here help Steinberg and Riordan learn what not to do in season 2, just as the movies helped them learn what not to do for season 1. One TV convention they’ll get used to is that you get smarter as you go.
Review of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Season 1
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