By Mac Bellingham
***Spoiler warning for Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is a beloved book series, captivating the minds of children and adults alike, with its clever inclusions of Greek mythology, humorous tone, and interesting worldbuilding. The movies, on the other hand, are infamous for being one of the worst book-to-movie adaptations, drastically changing the story, and the characters, and creating many different plot holes. Rick Riordan, the author of the series has criticised this adaptation many times, particularly how they shut him out of the creative process. So when Riordan announced that he would work with Disney to create a Percy Jackson TV series, fans were excited at the chance of a successful live-action adaptation of the series. Although feelings were somewhat mixed, I was personally excited, as I felt that with Riordan now in the producer’s seat, this series would have the potential to be good, and more book-accurate.
To begin, I would like to note that as of writing this, only six out of eight of the episodes have been released, so there is a chance that the last two episodes have turned out to meet my expectations. One of the first issues I noticed with the series is how it fails to regard one of the most fundamental storytelling rules: show don’t tell. There are so many clunky exposition dumps, as well as moments when characters tell Percy about events and relationships that the audience really should be seeing themselves, such as when people repeatedly tell Percy that “Luke and Annabeth are such siblings!” but we only see them interact once, and they don’t even have much of a sibling dynamic! I understand that it is difficult to manage pacing in a book with so much worldbuilding and plot, narrowed down to only ten 40-minute episodes, but it fails to suspend your disbelief while watching it. This happens many times throughout the episodes so far, and it’s one of the biggest issues with the show in my personal opinion.
However, I also realised how the show has awful pacing. This is a problem most adaptations of books struggle with, so it doesn’t feel as egregious, as books can contain far more details and subplots in a far shorter time, compared to TV shows and movies where the pacing needs to be tighter. When the first two episodes came out, I felt as though it completely skims over the period where Percy was told he imagined Mrs Dodds, which was in my opinion, a major part of this book. However, as the series progressed, this issue improved, as there were no longer many awkward scene progressions, where it seemed like they had to rush through the events to keep the 45-minute average. Following this issue, the show also removes any tension created to rush through the plot. This issue is prevalent in the very first episode. When Mrs Dodds attacks Percy, he gets pinned, then stabs her, and it’s over in 20 seconds! At least the movie created tension within that scene! This issue happens repeatedly throughout the show. One iconic scene that the fanbase was excited for, the Lotus Casino scene, fell extremely short of people’s expectations, as they figured out the secret of the hotel almost instantly! This ties into one of the biggest issues I have noticed with the show.
It pointlessly changes so many things from the books, and for what? This show really fails to understand the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. There are so many changes made that don’t make the plot tighter nor improve it, so why are they changing these things? A few minor changes were made that I felt improved the show, as they come from plot holes in the book. As an example, instead of falling directly into the water from the St Louis Arch, the water pulls Percy down, as the Arch is actually beside the water, not directly above it, as Riordan thought it was when he wrote the book, so this is a change I actually enjoy. But in the very same scene, there is another minor change that I think makes this scene a bit worse. Instead of purposely falling down the Arch, in a strategic move that shows how skilled Percy is, he just falls! Other than that, most of the changes made are so pointless, although there are exceptions that I enjoyed, such as the more sympathetic view they gave Medusa, but overall it has disappointed me and many other fans of the books. Although I have seen people claim that this is Riordan trying to rewrite the series after twenty years or so, based on his knowledge now, that doesn’t make sense, as this is an adaptation, not a rewrite, and was advertised and claimed to be one by Riordan himself. Additionally, changing all these plot points really makes it so this series fails to capture the tone of the series, one of the things I personally really enjoyed from the original!
Overall, I wish that the series managed my expectations better. One thing I would like to be clear on, however, is that on its own, it’s decently enjoyable and entertaining! As a fan of the books, I am quite biased towards them, so it’s no wonder something that isn’t book-accurate isn’t amazing for me. Despite that, I have seen so many non-reader fans of this TV show, and I can understand why. Ignoring some pacing and exposition issues, this show has great acting, production design, decent writing, and I enjoy all those aspects of this series! Although I really wish the writing would be tighter and more accurate, but I still relatively enjoy this show.