Steve G

Percy Jackson is a young boy out on his own for the first time. He’s been let loose in the world with no one except two of his peers to guide him. Percy has incredible power, and without any guidance it’s up to him to decide how to use that power, when not to use it, and make his own decisions about what he thinks is right or wrong. The changes that were made from book to screen perfectly compliment, complicate, and when necessary challenge the themes of the original series. It deftly handles the time constraints of an 8 episode season and lays the foundation for the impact of the last half of the series— which I can’t imagine won’t land perfectly. This adaptation also solves a lot of issues with the original series without being too contrived (like many other of Disney’s live action projects). The casting is perfect, especially for our beloved main trio. I can feel the passion and care that went into this adaption even if I have to watch the episodes twice to drop my preconceived notions about how I imagined this story would be told. I can’t wait to see the latter half of this series and I hope that it gets 4 more seasons and several spin-offs. A collection of highlights: The changes to Grover make him so much more interesting and compelling as a character. I love Percy and Annabeth being mean the way that 12 year olds are just so so mean— it makes me laugh so much. The changes to Sally give her so much more agency and I love that the narrative no longer justifies her martyring herself to “protect” Percy. I also love that the writer’s room is digging into the book’s themes about what is essentially manifest destiny but is never explored fully in any meaningful way.