While season one of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” has wrapped up and season two has just been confirmed, I have quite a few things to say about this new on-screen adaptation. While I enjoyed the show, it didn’t quite meet my expectations.
The last episode was released on Jan. 30 and it left me wanting more. I think that Walker Scobell (Percy Jackson), Leah Jeffries (Annabeth Chase) and Aryan Simhadri (Grover Underwood) were perfect in their roles and completely encapsulated their characters. All of my issues were not in their acting, but in the writing.
The author, Rick Riordan, had spoken out multiple times about how this adaptation would be much more book-accurate than the movie. His promises seemed to fall a little flat.
The pacing of the show was a primary factor in this. It would be difficult to include every scene from a 377-page book, but with eight episodes I had hope. However, the episodes generally were forty minutes and mainly filled with dialogue. If there was one struggle the writers had with this show, it was the concept of “show, don’t tell.”
The show had nearly a 100 million dollar budget. After finishing the series, I was scratching my head to find what they blew their budget on. It became a game, by the sixth episode, to guess what they spent the most on.
It was not comparable to what Disney was able to do with the same budget for “The Mandalorian,” or what the producers of “Game of Thrones” were able to do with a budget of $60 million for the first season.
The show relied too heavily on dialogue to explain things, such as how Annabeth was the fiercest warrior at camp. Her strategic skills weren’t displayed. Instead, they talked about them while showing her watch other demigods train. Many other scenes like this could have relied more heavily on showing the viewers, rather than just telling.
I had some issues with character portrayals as well. Character development happened too quickly and felt too rushed. In the last episode when the prophecy is fulfilled, Luke, played by Charlie Bushnell, is revealed to be the one to betray Percy.
While the scene wasn’t quite the same as it was in the book, I was quite happy with the way they portrayed it and was excited to see some more cinematic shots that the show generally lacked. The happiness was short-lived, as it is revealed that Annabeth was watching the entirety of the fight.
This takes away from a key part of Annabeth’s character. In the book, when she finds out that Luke is the traitor, she can’t and doesn’t want to believe it. Throughout the series, she continuously has hope that he will change.
It’s a point I don’t understand the change for, much like I didn’t understand the change of the Lotus Casino scene, where they are sent to meet Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda, which was a bit of a jumpscare). I didn’t mind the change but once it was revealed that they already missed the deadline for the quest, my confusion grew.
Subtle changes in the show, such as Athena punishing Annabeth for her alleged “impertinence” or Percy being given four pearls rather than three, made it difficult to follow along the first time through for many book readers. Even if the changes weren’t necessarily important to the plot, they were important for character development we never got to see.
Now that I’ve aired my grievances, I would like to take a moment to talk about what I did love. Casting. I think that all of the actors did amazing with their roles. Charlie Bushnell did a fantastic job at portraying Luke.
In the books, once he betrayed Percy and camp, I didn’t care much for him. After watching the portrayal and how the gods acted in the show, it is difficult to not see where he was coming from.
A minor detail I loved was the naming of episodes after the chapters of the book, such as “I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher” or “I Become Supreme Lord of The Bathroom.”
I would still rate the show at least an 8/10, but I have hopes that the newly announced second season will exceed expectations.