“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” isn’t known as a big screen hit, but it looks like it may have found success on the small screen. Fans of the books have felt disappointed about the film adaptations “The Lightning Thief” (2010) directed by Chris Columbus, and Thor Freudenthal’s “The Sea of Monsters”.
But Disney’s new series starring Walker Scobell has been rather popular lately. The show’s premiere episode had 26.2 million viewers and many people found it to be greatly enjoyable, including myself.
The series starts off with an introduction to Percy Jackson and what his life is like in New York City. We see that he is far from popular, gets made fun of at school and isn’t ordinary. In fact, he can see certain mythical creatures that others cannot. Grover, his best friend, isn’t very popular either and doesn’t necessarily fit in. The audience learns that Percy is more than a normal mortal, when, in the first episode he gets attacked by his math teacher who is a monster from the underworld that guards Hades known as a Fury, and his life turns upside down.
When he gets kicked out of school, his mother informs him of how his father is a Greek God. Grover then reveals he is Percy’s protecter and is a Satyr which is half human-half goat. Grover then joins Percy and his mom, and they must leave quickly because Percy’s life is now in danger. They drive to Camp Half-Blood which is a camp for children whose parents are one God and one human, where kids are known as demigods. While trying to get to the camp, Percy’s mother is supposedly killed by a minotaur. Percy and Grover manage to make safely into the camp.
Camp Half-Blood is a big change for Percy and isn’t all that exciting at first. He is grieving over his mother’s death and feels vulnerable, confused and angry. He knows that is father is a god but, unlike the other kids at the camp he doesn’t know which one. That is until Poseidon reveals himself.
He is introduced to many of the other demigods but the ones who stick out are Luke, son of Hermes and Annabeth, daughter of Athena. Luke welcomes Percy and becomes someone Percy greatly admires. But Annabeth comes off as a very independent and strong young woman, not someone Percy would easily become friends with. This makes them not very fond of one another. I for one love her though because of her strong confidence and bravery which makes her powerful.
With the help of Annabeth and Grover, Percy accepts the quest to clear his name and uncover the real thief. This leads them to the underworld where they need to take the lightning bolt from Hades and return it to Zeus before the solstice passes and prevent a war between the gods breaking out.
In Episode 2, I loved how after the kids defeat medusa, they mail her head to the gods which isn’t shown in the previous movies. Proving to the gods that they aren’t just some kids who have no power gave them a strong sense of character in the show.
Throughout the show there are many reasons to dislike Poseidon but, in the end, he truly does love Percy and will do anything to protect him. The episodes also feature a lot of chemistry between Percy and Annabeth including nicknames for each other, hugs, and sacrifices for one another.
In a few episodes they briefly touch on Hermes and Lukes relationship, but I wish they dived deeper into that. I wish they talked more about some of the other gods too like what are Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon like.
I would recommend this to anyone just because it is a lot more like the book than the movie is, and the plot doesn’t get boring. Also, all actors in the cast gave an amazing performance.
At the end of each episode there is a sneak peak of the next episode which makes it so incredibly hard to wait a whole week, but it is also exciting to see what is going to happen. It looks like there will be two more episodes left in the first season, capping at eight episodes. A second season is expected but has not yet been announced.
