After almost a decade, Percy Jackson fans were finally welcomed back to Camp Half-Blood.
This came in the form of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” a series that launched on Disney+ on Dec. 19 of last year. The first season of the series is an adaptation of the first book in the iconic franchise, “The Lightning Thief,” which was originally released by Rick Riordan in 2005.
The series were the second on-screen and third overall adaptation of “The Lightning Thief;” following the 2010 and 2014 Off-Broadway musical that eventually found its way to Broadway in 2019.
While past adaptations have taken the liberty to make substantial changes to the story, the series attempted to be more faithful to the book. However, there were a few plot points that were slightly altered, or completely changed, that worked to varying degrees of success.
There will be spoilers for the series beyond this point. If you would like to watch the series before reading this review, feel free to do so now.
The series starts out the same as usual. 12-year-old Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), finds out that he is the son of the Greek god Poseidon, therefore making him a demigod. This revelation thrusts him into a world of gods and monsters, alongside his close friend Grover Underwood (Aryan Simhadri). Grover is a satyr and was in disguise to watch over Percy.
This leads to Percy’s introduction to Camp Half-Blood, a summer camp of sorts that is meant to house demigods and keep them safe from any monsters that would do them harm. It is there that Percy meets two other pivotal characters in his journey, Luke Castellan (Charlie Bushnell), and Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries).
After getting acclimated to the camp, Percy receives a quest to recover Zeus’ stolen Master Bolt within a week to avoid a war between his father and Zeus. This causes the trio of Percy, Annabeth and Grover to go on a cross-country journey to retrieve the bolt. Along the way they encounter several dangers, in the form of gods and other creatures that are trying to stop them.
The series comes to its climax with Percy returning the bolt to Zeus, who insisted on pursuing the war against Poseidon anyway, until Poseidon himself arrives and surrenders to Zeus, effectively ending the war before it began. But that is not where Percy’s journey ends.
Upon returning to camp, Luke meets with Percy in the woods and reveals that he was the lightning thief, and that he is working with Kronos to take down the gods. Upon hearing this, Percy begins a fight with Luke, causing the latter to flee.
Overall, most of the plot is very similar to the original. But before that is discussed, the cast is worthy of acknowledgement.
The casting was, for lack of a better term, perfect. Every actor represented the character they were playing to an impressive degree. It felt like they were, for the most part, the characters directly from the books. There was also chemistry between the main trio, and it was done in a way that felt uneasy at times, and solid in others, something that is also similar to the books.
As for the plot, the deviations that the series makes are a bit much at times. For example, Percy himself is simply too knowledgeable. This may seem like a strange issue, as having a smart protagonist is usually good, but in Percy’s case it doesn’t make much sense.
Percy Jackson is new to this world. He is meant to learn, with the help of Annabeth and Grover, how the gods interact with one another and what various monsters and other iconography means. However, the series made Percy know more about the world, something that lightened the weight that Annabeth and Grover carry.
In the books, they are Percy’s guides. They help him along the way because they know more. But in the series, there are times that Percy tells them information, something that does not make sense if you think about it.
Additionally, making Percy “too knowledgeable” about the Greek world took away a key characteristic of the original book series: its sense of humor. The humor in the book series is carried primarily by the three types of irony, all three of which depend on the unexpected. This could not happen in the series because almost nothing was unexpected since Percy already knew it all.
For example, a memorable humorous part in the book happens in the chapter "We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium;” when Percy naively mocks Annabeth, asking her how could an old lady who collects garden statues possibly be evil. It’s an example of humorous dramatic irony because at that point the reader already figured out that the “old lady” in question was Medusa, but Percy did not. This simply does not happen in the series because in the series Percy figured out the lady was Medusa just by glancing at one statue.
This also led to Percy’s sarcasm being toned down. In the book series Percy often had sarcastic reactions to the world he was being presented to; like for instance, mocking Ares and Aphrodite for having secret affairs like bright-eyed teenagers whilst being gods. Those sarcastic reactions made Percy a more relatable and humanized character and it contributed to the book’s humor. In the live action series, much of this is lost because there isn’t much for Percy to react to, given that he already knows it all.
Another issue with that subtle change in Percy’s knowledge was that it took away part of the suspense and action in the series.
This is something that can be seen at various points throughout the series, but the worst example is in the sixth episode, “We Take a Zebra to Vegas.” In that episode, the trio must enter the Lotus Casino. In the book, the casino chapter is a pivotal one, as the characters unintentionally spend too much time there, due to something that is put into the food to make people forget and trap them in the casino forever.
In the show, this was changed. Percy tells the other two immediately before entering the casino not to eat anything, as he heard from a story that his mother told him that it is dangerous to do so. It completely killed the suspense of the casino scene and opened the door to a rather heavy-handed “friends are important” message that felt a bit forced. It may seem minor, but for fans of the books, Percy being as educated as he is about the Greek myths make it harder to understand the dynamic that the trio has.
Despite that, there is still plenty that the series does very well. For example, the special effects and the set designs are very impressively done. In recent memory, Disney has not been putting its best foot forward in the special effects department, but generally those in “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” are very solid.
The series was renewed for a second season shortly after the final episode of the first season was aired. The second season will likely be a reimagining of the second book in the franchise, “The Sea of Monsters.”
Whether you are a fan of fantasy stories or not, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is a great series overall. Even with the missteps that is has, there is a lot of good about it and it will be exciting to see how Riordan and the showrunners take audience feedback into consideration with the production and writing of the second season.
