“Look I didn’t want to be a halfblood,” is the phrase that began Rick Riordan’s novel The Lightning Thief. Now that same line introduces viewers to the very same universe when they sit down to watch the Disney+ series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Rick Riordan began his book series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, in 2005 with the book The Lightning Thief. The series now contains five more books and Riordan has since published over sixty more novels. Now his very first series was adopted into a television series on the streaming service Disney+.
The series first aired on December 20 with a two-episode premiere and the show currently has eight episodes available to stream. The story follows a middle school boy, Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), whose life is changed when he discovers he is half-human, half-god, otherwise known as a halfblood. Throughout the television series, he must complete a quest to bring back Zeus’ lightning bolt. On that quest, he brings along another halfblood Annabeth (Leah Jeffries) and his satyr (half-human half-goat) best friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri). The story portrays Greek mythology in a modern 21st-century setting.
The television series has the perfect balance of catering to a new set of viewers, while also being nostalgic to its returning, book-reading audience. The writing of the characters throughout the show is the most entertaining part. The main trio of the show make the episodes enjoyable with their witty humor, but also with their emotional connection. Scobell, Jeffries and Simhadri do a wonderful job portraying the beloved characters from the original series.
The series also does a great job of portraying classic Greek mythology. The writing and casting of the Greek gods and goddesses is amazing, and that of the monsters is even better. The story that the show tells is fascinating, the way that three middle school-aged characters can live within old Greek myths.
The Disney+ series provides not only an opportunity to retell an already great story but also a chance to rewrite some portions of the story. In 2010, there was a movie released also based on Riordan’s Lightning Thief book. The movie made a lot of changes to the original story, but they did not enhance the story whatsoever. Most of the changes in the show, however, went over very well. The writers made the characters even more lovable and at times made connections to later plot lines that happen within Riordan’s books.
The rewriting of the show also came with some downsides. One aspect of the series that stood out was the scenes where the main characters fight scary mythological monsters. The three characters almost always knew what was coming right away, taking out the mysterious, anxiety-ridden scenes that the books often gave. When the heroes of the story immediately knew what was coming next, it took away a lot of the suspense that such an action-packed television series should have.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians did a wonderful job portraying beloved characters and plot lines within an already existing story, but the action scenes fell short. All eight episodes of the show are available to stream on Disney+ and a second season of the series was confirmed by Disney+, although the release date is still unknown. The second season will be based on Riordan’s second book, The Sea of Monsters. Hopefully, more of the suspense will be added back into the story in the episodes to come.
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