Percy Jackson and the Olympians, also known as PJO, was one of my favorites as a young fantasy reader. A new spin on old myths centered in the US, it had all the right beats for young me: kids going on life-threatening adventures, a subtle yet important magic system, and monsters galore. I held this series and the other of Rick Riordan’s mythos series dear to my heart so when I heard the first book was getting a TV adaptation on Disney+, I had to check it out. And with Papa Rick on board for the show, I was sure I would have to deal with rushed plotlines and unfamiliar characters like in the unfortunate movie adaptations.
For the most part, there weren’t any issues with the plot. The first season only has 8 episodes compared to the 22 chapters of PJO’s first book, but it still follows the overall plot of the book rather faithfully. Instead of rushing through or forgetting details, the show changes certain scenes to fit the context of its own narrative, and often for the better. My main praise will have to be deepening Percy’s relationship with his mom, Sally Jackson. She has a much larger influence on Percy’s development as a character and growing into his new status as a demigod, shown in flashbacks that are interspersed throughout the show.
Unfortunately, some changes were less than thrilling. I was initially very disappointed in the casting for Percy and Annabeth. In the books, Percy is described to have Mediterranean features and takes heavily after his father, Poseidon, with his black hair and, most importantly, his “sea green eyes”. But Percy’s appearance is mostly a nitpick; it isn’t integral to his character, unlike Annabeth, who was originally white in the book and black in the show. While Annabeth’s struggle with being seen as a “dumb blonde” and trying to prove herself as a worthy daughter of Athena only comes up in later books, I’m very concerned as to how the show is going to handle it. For one, that stereotype is definitely not a one to one translation to the ongoing issues faced by black girls and women across the US. And considering every other odd character is race-swapped, I don’t believe the show will do its due diligence in actually handling a black Annabeth dealing with being seen as less than her white counterparts. However, this part of Annabeth’s lore comes later in the books, so there’s a chance things won’t be as dire as the show progresses.
Fortunately, even if the casting choices were offbeat, the show’s acting and dialogue made up for it. Scobell may not have Percy’s looks, but he certainly portrays him to a T, with his witty lines and somewhat impulsive nature. Grover is his nervous and jumpy sidekick, and Annabeth is the too-smart frenemy that gets the boys out of all the trouble they get themselves into. It does seem that the show might be hurrying the eventual romance between Percy and Annabeth, and some moments Grover felt like a third wheel, but depending on how they handle the relationship in future seasons, it’s not likely to be catastrophic considering they were a great pairing in the books.
One thing that was certainly not lacking in the show was its graphics department. Every single monster looked real, the way they breathed, moved, and sounded. The show brought the terrifying monsters from the books into the real world. I wasn’t terribly impressed by the fight choreography–some cuts made it feel a bit forced–but the realness of the monsters gave every battle that life or death feeling to it. Even more impressive were the display of Percy’s powers, from the healing scenes to when he accidentally uses his powers for the first time–the supernatural way the water moves looks so realistic it could come off the screen. Whatever they paid the graphics department, they need to keep up the budget for the rest of the show.
All in all, the show was a good watch. As an old PJO fan, I found that even with the changes, they didn’t detract my enjoyment of the show. You could watch and like it even if you’ve never read the books because the show doesn’t rely on you having prior knowledge to enjoy. Every bit of it was a well-made and enjoyable production, and it’s well worth the time spent if you have a Disney+ account already.
By Jaiden Johnson, ’27
