Percy Jackson and The Olympians: Episode 1 Review

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Before we jump into episode 1, if you are looking for a broader look at the first season as a whole, this article will serve you a bit better than each individual review.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians was released last week and I am happy to review the first episode.  If you have been with us for a while then you might know that the first review we released was a review of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief which was one of our favourite books that we read in elementary school.  

Now I have seen both of the Percy Jackson movies multiple times. As movies on their own I find they are fun adventure movies but as adaptations, let’s just say it was a swing and a miss.  So in preparation for this new adaptation, I decided to reread the original five Percy Jackson books and the sixth one released this year to be fully prepared for this season.  After all that backstory let’s discuss how does this first episode hold up?

Firstly, let’s discuss adaptation.  To be a good adaptation does not mean that you must not make any changes whatsoever. An adaptation means you are presenting the story in a new medium and some of these will require the changing of details. The important part when it comes to adapting is to remain truthful to the story and the characters.

Changes can be made if they fit the story, characters, and the universe.  This was the failure of the Percy Jackson movies which chose to radically change most of the important elements of the story and characters to fit its narrative. Some of my favourite adaptations of books and movies have changes and as long as it fits the world of the story, I am fine with it. 

Now this TV series through the first episode is nearly perfect in accuracy from the characters to the atmosphere.  The first thing that you can identify as a good decision is the choice to make the characters’ ages book accurate.  The movies made them 16 but here we see Percy is 12 which is a big part of the story.  He is supposed to be a kid who is still insecure and unsure. 

I quite enjoyed the interactions between Percy and Grover who feel exactly like their book counterparts.  The scene at the museum with Mrs. Dodds was right out of the book.  The silliness was also right out of the books with the minotaur wearing underwear while he was attacking the car. 

In terms of the things they added, I noticed a couple of inclusions that set things up for later like seeing Blackjack the Pegasus as well as the game Mythomagic which is a setup for the character of Nico later on.  They also showed scenes from Percy’s childhood which was a cool glimpse at things only hinted at in the books.  I enjoyed seeing Rick Riordan in the background of the one scene as well. 

I thought that the concept of Sally telling Percy Greek myths was a good addition as it makes sense she would try and prepare him for things to come.   The one change that I didn’t like was the characterization of Gabe.  I felt that Gabe was too silly and not mean enough. He didn’t feel like the abusive character from the books but maybe that will be developed more as the series goes on.

 I liked this episode and thought that it was a good representation of what Percy Jackson is.  The acting is top notch and Walker Scobell as Percy is perfect casting with Aryan Simhadri as Grover nailed the nervous energy of the character!  My only other critique is that the fades to black are a bit weird considering this is on streaming. Otherwise, this is exactly what I hoped for and I can’t wait for what’s next!