Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season One Review

Literary adaptations, be it film or television, are always a tricky space to navigate, especially if they are highly anticipated. Fans set the bar high, wanting adaptations to be true to how the words on the paper to play out on screen. The “Percy Jackson” series definitely fits the bill, first released back in 2005 and ever since, fans have been asking for a true book or television adaptation. The first Percy Jackson adaptation, based on the first book in the first series, 2010’s The Lightning Thief quickly left fans disappointed (including this one). Its changes from the source material, including the decision to age up all the characters, led to an almost universal disownment by the fans. Now, once a television series was announced for Disney+, fans were cautiously optimistic. In December, when its first two episodes were viewed and reviewed by critics, it garnered mostly positive reviews, including our review where we deemed the series an adaptation that fans and new viewers would enjoy.

Now that the dust has settled following the recent season finale, reading over other thoughts from fans and thinking about the series as an adaptation, our initial thoughts have shifted slightly. While the series isn’t necessarily bad, that doesn’t mean it was not without its issues. The first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians was solid and fun, if too light in tone at times, but where it struggled mostly was in the writing department. Choosing to over explain to the audience, rather than letting situations play out, resulted in certain portions to feel rushed. As a book adaptation, the series hits most of the same beats, with some minor changes, ending up in the same spot readers land when finishing “The Lightning Thief”. 

Adding some context to this review, let’s take a look at what other fans felt regarding the series, the changes, and the adaptation as a whole. Searching the internet and reading what book fans had to say regarding the series, the biggest complaint from most of the fans, even among those who loved the series was its decision to over explain things rather than letting viewers figure them out in real time with the characters. For the most part, the season did too much telling and not enough showing. One of the most criticized instances was in episode six, We Take a Zebra to Vegas (which ironically contained zero zebras). Whilst in the book the characters stumble into the casino, tired and hungry, unaware of the effects of the place, the series takes almost the same path as the characters run into the casino and immediately blurt out the effects of the Lotus Casino and how time stops in the casino (but not the real world). The outcomes are ultimately nearly identical, but the audience misses Percy slowly realizing that there are people in the casino from different decades, and thus putting it all together.

With the amount of exposition, there is a lack of tension and discovery of the series world. Viewers essentially miss Percy, Annabeth, and Grover getting themselves into sticky situations and slowly figuring out the monster in that particular scene. It just is not as exciting whenever they immediately walk into a scene and know about the monster and explain the monster’s entire identity to them (this also happens in the episode after with Crusty’s Water Beds). This choice was most likely done to save time but the series itself is still relatively short, being only 8 episodes total and never surpassing the 45-minutes mark. In the end, this detail wound up being one of the weakest aspects of the series thus far. 

However, with the amount of exposition being blurted out by the characters, it also becomes a matter of episode lengths and pacing. Having so few episodes and with them all being fairly short, the series struggled with some pacing issues, particularly in the first few episodes. The first episode speeds through Percy’s time at Yancy and by the end of the first episode, Percy had figured out he was a demigod, saw his mom ‘die’ and gotten to Camp Half-Blood, all within the span of 39 minutes. In the book, during the first two chapters, readers follow Percy through Yancy (one of the changes is that Percy is expelled at the end of the school year, rather than after the incident at the museum) and watch as they head back home for the summer. The pacing feels less rushed and more like they writers had to get a certain amount of information out due to a limited amount of time with the characters. This issue does gets better later on, particularly in the last two episodes. With most of the book complete, there was only so much more needed to highlight from the book. Cutting out and changing only minor aspects, the latter episodes felt less rushed than the earlier ones. Moving forward, it would be nice if the series opted for longer episodes with a longer season of 10-12 episodes. That being said, The Sea of Monsters, the source material for the second season, is quite a bit shorter than The Lightning Thief, so it is possible 8 episodes will be enough the next time around. 

While the second season might not need to change as much, due to the shorter book length, the first season, fitting over 350 words split between 22 chapters into eight 30-45 minute episodes certainly proved to be a challenge. Making multiple changes from the source material to accommodate fitting in all of its major beats, to their credit, they hit them all and ended at the same place the it did. Saving time by opting to give Percy, Annabeth, and Grover immediate knowledge of situations and how to get out of them, it removed the trial and error aspect of the story to amend whatever sticky situation they would find themselves in. Most of the changes made are relatively minor, with little impact on the overall outcome of the season, with some being as simple as being placed at a different point in the story in the show as opposed to the books. Two examples of these are The Fates being seen later in the series as opposed to the beginning, and Annabeth’s fear of spiders being left out of the Waterworld scene and only being mentioned at the end of the season by Luke (Charlie Bushnell).

However, the single biggest change made for the series is most definitely the decision to have the trio miss the solstice deadline following the Lotus Casino encounter. Having Poseidon (Toby Stephens) come to save Percy makes him realize that the gods are good and can be selfish, despite their flaws, which affects his later decision to not side with Luke, who despised the gods. Also, despite the quest being “over” and failing, Percy opted to continue the quest with the bolt when he could have just gone back to camp. Whenever adaptations change anything, there will always be differing opinions from fans of the original book series and always harbours discussion of how adaptations adapt their source material. 

In this adaptation, the characters, or the trio at least, stay mostly the same and, if anything, it allowed for further exploration of some other characters. As the source material was told from Percy’s point of view, it meant that readers never had the chance to explore the backgrounds of other characters as well as they might have wanted. In the series, we got to see more of Percy’s mother Sally (Virginia Kull) and her struggles of raising a demigod child and trying to meet his demigod needs. In a scene in the penultimate episode, viewers see Sally have a conversation with Poseidon about the decision to send Percy to Camp Half-Blood, where he will be safe, or to school so he could find himself before it was decided for him. Sally’s introspection, dealing with having a demigod son, was a small, but welcome change into getting to know the other characters more in depth. Similarly, viewers were also treated to Grover’s storyline. Though he did not seem to be as nervous or anxious as he is described in the books, watching the series dive deeper into him and his quest for a searcher’s license leaves the door open for more come The Sea of Monsters as well, a book in which he plays a vital role.

However, Annabeth saw some interesting changes in the series, as viewers learns less about her as a character than in the books. Viewers learn less about her family, about her passion for architecture (though it is mentioned), and less about her relationship with Luke, which is vital for the story going forward, as their tight knit relationship plays a key into Annabeth being in denial over his betrayal. Jeffries did a great job as she made Annabeth her own whilst staying true to the character, despite her lack of depth. As a whole, how the characters were adapted here was fairly accurate to their book counterparts. Being introduced to the gods throughout the season was a welcome introduction, allowing for a small look at each of the gods that will no doubt play a part over the remainder of the series. Even though some suffered from being underwritten, or had their characteristics changed from the book, none of their fundamental components were changed. 

The character that saw the most changes was Gabe (Timm Sharp), Percy’s stepfather, whose changes reflect the overall series’ change in tone compared to the source material. Whilst not a criticism, it is clear that the series is aimed at younger audiences, reflecting the target demographic of the original book series. As a result, its tone becomes less dark. An example of that is reflected in the changes made to Gabe where in the books, it is clear by the end that he’s a selfish jerk who abused Percy’s mother, but she remained with him to protect Percy (who’s smell masked Percy’s scent from monsters). However, here, he is seen as a more of an incompetent jerk rather than an abuser. In the same vein, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover’s encounter at Crusty’s is toned down significantly from the books, in which Annabeth and Grover are stretched out limb from limb on water beds. However, in the series, none of that happens, with Percy immediately knowing Crusty’s plans and saying them to him (and the audience). For older audiences, the lighter tone can be frustrating, especially across the darker moments from the books.

When the series was first announced, one of the biggest points of contention was casting, and that continues to be a hot topic ever since the announcement that the series was renewed for another season. Everyone has their own idea of who would be perfect for which character and inevitably, not every single person is going to be happy. Personally, there were no problems with the casting of anyone, the standouts being Kull as Sally Jackson and Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse La Rue. The main trio was perfectly cast, but the warmth that Kull gives off as Percy’s mother, everything from her demeanor to her line delivery felt perfect. Goodjohn gives off the mean girl energy that was required of Clarisse La Rue, a colder character in the earlier books in the series. However, it will be exciting to see where she will take the character as the series approaches the later books in the series when Silena Beauregard is introduced.

Aside from the casting, the technical side of the series garnered mixed results. Though the sets are certainly wonderful and built with great detail and care, in comparison to some of Disney’s other properties, the sets are mildly underwhelming, especially considering the budget of the series (over $10 million per episode). That being said, the sets for some of the later locations, such as the underworld, were particularly haunting and well executed. The CGI is a mixed bag, some of the CGI at the latter stages of the season is very well done, but some of the CGI earlier on is uneven and puzzling, considering the high per episode budget. For the most part, the state of the techs is confusing considering how much it cost to make each episode. Whilst not being bad, one never would have guessed each episode cost over $10 million. 

Even though the series does not follow its source material beat by beat, the first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians still remains faithful to the books. Despite minor changes, mostly in tone to accomodate a younger audience, its endgame is the same. After small changes to the plot and some scenes are portrayed differently, the story still ends up where the book does. The characters are the same characters that readers know and grew up with, despite being a little underwritten. The fantastic and charming trio of Scobell, Jeffries, and Simhadri, and their great chemistry, lead the way, and it will be exciting to grow along with the actors (actually cast age appropriate this time). Despite being held back mostly by weak writing, the series could do better with more showing and less telling, it hits all the major beats from the book, for the most part.

Yes, the pacing was pretty uneven at times, with a longer season and longer episodes being a pretty even fix, there’s no doubt there’s nothing like watching the series countless viewers have grown up reading finally being properly adapted. While the series isn’t perfect, and not a direct adaptation, if one wants a perfect adaptation, they would be better off reading the book series. No adaptation was ever going to be completely perfect and would inherently come with changes in some shape or form. In the end, the changes that were made here were perfectly fine, mostly having little effect on the plot as a whole, with only a handful of changes potentially affecting other stories during latter seasons. For readers of the book series both new and old, Percy Jackson and the Olympians may not be a perfect adaptation, but the love and care put into it is evident, setting the stage for what looks to be an exciting future as it approaches the latter books in the series. 

still courtesy of Disney

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Jasmine Graham