Percy Us

The new TV series Percy Jackson and the Olympians really had to win over a lot of its audience. From what I understand, fans of the books were looking for a more faithful (and less aggressively "meh") adaptation of the story than the films from a decade ago.

I'd never seen those movies, nor read any of the books. (I see there are a staggering number of them.) But I was skeptical too. Simply put, I'm growing a bit tired of this type of story. It might be a temporary thing, but I've reached a saturation point for "the unsuspecting youngster suddenly pulled into a magical world that exists right under everyone's noses." Bonus fatigue for "and they are the chosen one, the only person who can prevent catastrophe in this magic world."

So when my husband (who has read some Percy Jackson books) said we should watch this show together -- this was just going to be one of those spousal trades. I've "made" him watch some show he doesn't like as much as I do; he "makes" me do the reverse.

Make no mistake -- Percy Jackson and the Olympians is exactly the kind of story I'm feeling worn out on right now. But it's also an entertaining version of that story, and it did win me over. In part, this was through fun use of the core conceit of "modernizing the Greek gods." Whether presenting Ares as a scary "biker dude" or Hermes as a literal package courier, the story always had amusing ways to recontextualize the classic gods of myth in the present day.

Even better was the acting. A surprisingly long list of recognizable faces lined up even for quite small roles in this television show, including the late Lance Reddick, Megan Mullally, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Jason Mantzoukas, among others. More crucially to raising the "quality bar" overall, the three young actors in the three key roles are all quite good. Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth, Aryan Simhadri as Grover, and Walker Scobell as Percy -- all of them feel perfectly cast for their roles. Each brings a decidedly different on-screen energy, and all three play well off one another. It's hard enough to cast one strong child actor; this is probably the best trio that's been assembled since the "lightning in a bottle" that was discovering Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint.

The show kept me engaged for most of its eight-episode season. The last episode felt a bit rushed to me, with a bunch of loose logic and too much setup for future story. ("Come back next season for any of this to make sense," seemed to be the subtext.) But they have received the green light for that next season. And if readers have enjoyed that story enough to support as many books as there are, I have some faith that the continuing story of that next season will be one worth watching. I'd rate Percy Jackson and the Olympians a solid B.