image courtesy of IMDb

Being one of the most popular book series in the world and having one of the most middling adaptations I have ever seen (which I feel is a kind take compared to some peoples’ opinion), it was only a matter of time before Rick Riordan’s hit series was adapted again.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians,”the T.V. show, is the adaptation fans have been waiting for. This new series sticks a lot more faithfully to the original books than the movies ever did while not being afraid to make changes that make the series, for both better and worse, more of an adaptation than a strict 1-to-1 retelling of the books.
Season 1 of Percy Jackson follows the events of the first book, “The Lightning Thief,” in which Percy finds out he is a demigod and the son of Poseidon, the Greek God of the sea, while simultaneously being accused of stealing Zeus’ master bolt. He goes on a journey to find the master bolt and clear his name with his best friend Grover, a satyr, and Annabeth, a demigod of Athena who’s been fighting monsters since she was seven and is itching to prove herself. Together, the three of them venture from Long Island NY to Los Angeles CA, fighting monsters (and gods) along the way.
I really enjoyed the new series, especially episodes 1-4, which serve as our introduction to the world of the gods through Percy’s eyes. The entire first episode is quite possibly my favorite in the series, with incredible pacing and a climatic and engaging ending that sets up the rest of the series beautifully. While the rest of the series never hits that peak again, it kept me interested for the next seven episodes.
One of the best things the series does is it keeps the heart of the characters from the book. A huge reason Percy Jackson books are so popular is due to all the characters being written in a compelling and intriguing way, especially the lead, Percy, who always has a dry or sarcastic joke to throw into every scenario.
Walker Scobell’s Percy is the perfect encapsulation of that with more than a couple lines an episode that got me laughing. Leah Jeffries’ Annabeth and Aryan Simhadri’s Grover are also incredible, making a very solid core three that I am very excited to see more of in future seasons.
That being said, I do have a few gripes with the pacing and look of the show. Every episode clocks in at about 40 minutes, which absolutely fly by. This is good because it allows the story to be told in a way that makes every episode feel very in-and-out, but it costs some extra details and story beats from the book. A big one is that in order to fit more of the journey into the series, they cut out a large portion of the “Camp Half-Blood section, condensing a large portion of the first book to just episode two. These pacing issues plague the series, and I feel a lot of this could have been resolved with the extra 10-15 minutes to make the series an average streaming hour length.
The other thing I didn’t care for in the adaptation was both the number of appearances, as well as the presentation of the gods shown in the series. In the books, the gods are shown only when strictly necessary for the plot, and when they do appear, they have an enormous presence, actively affecting not just the characters who can see them as gods, but every being around them with their otherworldly power. The book goes out of its way to describe raging influences of war felt around Ares and the chill feeling of death as Hades towers over our characters, wearing a cloak made of punished souls. Olympus is described as a paradise above all others, with glowing gardens and light emanating everywhere. In the TV show, the gods are just people. They do not give a feeling of power. The show tells you they are gods, that they are scary, but I found myself having a hard time believing it. They just felt like people who happen to be powerful instead of gods who control and bend the aspects of nature to their will, which is disappointing given the presumably Disney-sized budget the show was given.
Overall, I felt “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is a good series with the potential to be great, but hasn’t reached it yet. Rating 7/10