Adapted from Rick Riordan’s beloved young adult fantasy series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, The Percy Jackson TV series offers perfect changes, crafting a narrative ready to tell a different story with the same feel that appeals to all age groups.
Season one was streamed for over 110 million hours across both Disney+ and Hulu according to Disney CEO Bob Iger. Divided by the season’s runtime, that translates to roughly 20.6 million total views, suggesting that the season’s audience grew throughout its monthlong run
Walker Scobell’s take on Percy Jackson as a character instantly felt refreshing on screen as he showcased a more sassy or impulsive side to him that the first movies lacked that aided in making his “fatal flaw” consistent. This production also made the romantic tension between Annabeth, played by Leah Jeffries, and Percy a ‘slow burn’ that stays true to the original material.
Director James Bobin also reintroduced Ares into the plotline as the trio encountered the god of war in the early stages of their quest. He added a nice touch and kept my faith in the show’s potential. The production also steered clear of attempting to remake or emulate fan-favorite lines or scenes from the movie series, and instead intertwined missing pieces from the book.
Adaptations of preloved works attached with dedicated fan bases often utilize fans’ memories to incite support rather than creating new content for new memories, which this production thankfully never sought out. Each of the members of the trio (Percy, Annabeth and Grover) brought life to these characters never seen before.
Although Gen Z enjoyed the movie version of Grover’s personality, with distinctive traits like: confident, flirty and fearless, the reality of the authentic written character is quite the opposite. Aryan Simhadri truly embodied Grover’s nerdy, loyal and more timid charm perfectly. Luke’s betrayal also hit significantly harder and overall was written emotionally stronger.
My only true criticism of this show falls in the pacing and editing. Fighting scenes felt dragged on or awkward with little to no background noise. Long blackouts between scenes created transitions that disrupted the flow of episodes.
Overall, I’m a huge fan of the television adaptation of the Percy Jackson books. The magical elements made the mistakes irrelevant as a heartwarming watch experience unfolded. With season two in close grasp, I cannot wait to see the growth and continuation of one of my favorite stories from both my childhood and early adolescence.
