Percy Jackson

The first season of the Disney+ Percy Jackson series is now over and I have many thoughts. Now these are thoughts completely untainted by nostalgia or even knowledge of the book. I wanted to wait until the end of the season to read the first book so there will be another article comparing the two. However I firmly believe that the series stands on its own and the complaints from book readers are nitpicky and irrelevant.

From the beginning I thought it was great that the show casted actual children. Now the only rough spot here is that they casted kids right on the verge of puberty growth spurts so by the end of the season they all looked a lot more grown then they did at the beginning of their quest. Now I suppose the good news about that is that it gives the appearance that this quest was long and arduous.

The characterizations were clear and distinct. Percy is a little oblivious sass master. He is actually hilarious and he is smart and he loves his mom (truly a great relationship) but he’s also a boy so very obvious things go over his head occasionally. Grover is the adorably goofy best friend who has a different perspective on this quest and everything because he isn't a demigod. Having him around as kind of a protector but more of a god was really cool and it was a better way to kind of help Percy through what he has to do. And of course we have Annabeth, who I fell in love with instantly. She is so badass, she’s brilliant and strong and I love her. Leah also played her so so well and anyone hating on this casting can personally fight me.

The quest itself; the way the kids got from one point to another was very well paced, there was some action in every episode which is expected if these kids are literal targets. There were a lot of complaints about the action sequences either being too short or not involved enough and I beg the audience to remember that these are CHILDREN and it's a show FOR CHILDREN. They aren’t going to show kids getting ripped apart and they also aren’t going to choreograph super complicated action sequences for under trained children.

I think we were introduced to the world, its rules, and the roles of the characters very well. The other complaint I heard a lot was that it was too expositional but then when Percy knows how to speak ancient Greek and he knows what to expect from certain gods or monsters BECAUSE THEY SHOWED US SALLY LITERALLY TRAINING HIM it's a fucking problem. There is a lot of exposition because apparently media literacy is dead and the general audience is so stupid they need the story on a spoon and shoved in their dumbass little mouths.

The show stands very well on its own. The book readers had a lot of complaints and for those who can keep in their heads that the book and the show are separate entities; the show is good. The book accuracy is irrelevant and has absolutely no bearing on the quality of the show. The show has been renewed for a second season and I will once again be waiting to read the book until the end of the second season. I like going in blind completely untainted by what the show “should be”. Overall I think the cast did an incredible job and the writing was fantastic and highlighted the skills of the kids.