The first season of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” is finally complete on Disney+. As someone who has been a fan of Rick Riordan’s characters and series since elementary school, I have been anticipating this adaptation since it was announced.
With such a beloved series with a loyal fanbase, comes lofty expectations. On top of this, after the 2010 and 2013 adaptations of the first and second book, which ,in my opinion, were overall bad, many fans, including myself, have been itching for a fresh, live action adaption where Riordan might even be involved.
Eventually, years after these films, we finally have a series on Disney+ with eight episodes in the first season. Rick Riordan acts as an executive producer on the show. I kept up with the show on its weekly releases and even re-reading the corresponding chapters for each episode beforehand.
Overall, I personally enjoyed the first season and most of the changes and expansions they did, but there were some areas that were lacking where improvement is needed. I immediately want to preface that NONE of my complaints lie with the new actors in the cast and the nature of the casting, in general.
In fact, I think the casting and acting choices are some of the show’s strongest aspects. Particularly, despite many people’s racist backlash of Leah Sava Jefferies, a black actress, playing Annabeth Chase, and originally white girl in the books, I think her performance was exceptional, and she added a whole new layer of depth to the character.
Furthermore, unlike the previous adaptation, I thought a lot of the changes they made from the books were tasteful and added value to the story and characterization. Some notable examples of these include Medusa’s storyline paralleling Annabeth, the Waterland theme park events, expanding Sally and Poseidon’s relationship, and Annabeth being there when Luke betrays Percy. They also added more easter-eggs and foreshadowing of events that happen in later books, which is always fun for book-readers like me.
The places I thought the series struggled in were mostly in the writing. The lack of emotional stakes and tension. I didn’t like how at almost every obstacle Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, faced, they immediately knew what the “trap” or problems that would arise from it were.
The prime example of this being the episode 6, “We take a zebra to Vegas” where the trio is in the Lotus Casino. In the book, while this event only takes up one chapter, it had immense effects on the rest of the story because it gravely shortens the time restraint the characters must solve the conflict, adding higher stakes and suspense.
The casino is described with flowery language to show how alluring the casino is paired with the true unsettling nature and intentions of the place. In the show, this aspect simply isn’t there. As soon as the trio sets foot into the casino, they immediately realize the trap within the casino and tell each other to avoid playing the games. The sense of looming unease is eliminated. I enjoy that the characters are aware, but I feel they are almost too smart.
Another issue I had with the writing was that I felt they “told” instead of “showed” too often. So much of the dialogue felt like an exposition telling us things about the world when they could use the dialogue to still relay the same information through less explicit means.
Despite these issues I’ve had with the first season, nonetheless, I am extremely excited at the news of a second season. I am hopeful that with the next season, the writers and other people working on the show will learn from the experience of making the first season and see the feedback from it.
I also selfishly want the series to keep going because my personal favorites are the third and fifth books. I really want to see it adapted accurately with the great cast. Only time will tell, if they take the suggestions from fans for the further seasons but I’m very excited to see.