In collaboration with Rick Riordan and the Percy Jackson & the Olympians book series, Disney Plus has finally dropped the highly anticipated Percy Jackson and the Olympians television show. The show stars Walker Scobell, who debuted in The Adam Project. It depicts a lore-accurate illustration of the Percy Jackson book series.
The first few episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians are drama-filled and action-packed. Scobell plays 12-year-old Percy Jackson. The show is deeply rooted in Greek mythology as the main characters are all children of Greek Gods who attend a demigod camp known as Camp Half-Blood.
In just the first moments of the show, it is evident that the show will be heavily influenced by the books as the first lines of dialogue are direct lines from the novel Percy and the Lightning Thief. However, many superfans are upset about the depiction of certain characters in comparison to the book and movie series. Senior and Percy Jackson buff, Ava Cotta, discusses, “I really think that the casting for the movies was much better. Maybe it’s because the movies came out first or I already have those characters in my mind. But still, why is Percy’s hair blonde in the show? Everyone knows Percy Jackson’s hair is brown.”
Something that has particularly stood out to me while watching the first five episodes of the show is the meticulous set design and attention to detail on the monsters. In the first two episodes, Percy fights two monsters called the Furies and the Minotaur. Specifically in the fight with the minotaur, fans can see the correlation between the show and the book series. As I watched the show with my sister, a superfan since childhood, she called out many noticeable details in accordance with the books that the movie from 2010 had gotten wrong. For example, the show accurately illustrates the ballpoint pen in contrast to the movie showing a click pen.
One major detail that has had critics rambling is the lighting within the show. This is something that I noticed while watching the first few episodes and is a key detail for the future of the series. Specifically in episode three, “We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium,” as Percy and his friends fight the monster Medusa and travel underground, it is hard to make out what exactly is going on in the fight due to the dim lighting of the scene. This has happened in many instances in the show and hopefully will not be a common theme in future episodes.
So far, I would recommend this show to anyone interested in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series because it is an amazing adaptation of Riordan’s book. Still, I would not recommend it to people who have not read the books and do not have an interest in Greek mythology.
