An adaptation worthy of Olympus itself: Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 1 Review

With news dropping this week that Disney+ is renewing Percy Jackson and the Olympians for season 2, now seems like a good time to look back at season 1 of the show: the good, the bad (spoiler alert: there's little bad), and the way Disney+ finally provided an adaptation which feels deeply authentic to the Percy Jackson books by Rick Riordan. After the film adaptations of The Lightning Thief and The Sea of Monsters in 2010 and 2013 failed to impress, book fans couldn't help wondering whether we would ever see an adaptation of these stories which measured up to the beloved novels.

Not only did Disney+ finally answer that question, it went above and beyond. The answer is 'yes', and 'you will walk away questioning why you ever doubted this would be a success.'

A trio to root for

The casting is absolutely perfect for the main trio of Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri). Without the three mains being right, nothing else would have worked. Scobell balances Percy's sarcasm and fierce loyalty, Jeffries balances Annabeth's forthrightness and vulnerability, and Simhadri balances Grover's kindness and humour. The result is three characters who feel three-dimensional and who's relationship with each other is one you can believe in.

At times, it could have been so easy to fall into lazy tropes with these characters: Percy could have been the hot-headed slightly forgetful leader of the trio, Annabeth the brains of the operation at the expense of any other personality, and Grover the comic relief. Dare I say that's sort of what the original film adaptations did, and it's a key reason why those films did not resonate with viewers. It offers far too simplistic a view of the characters, and of their place in this world.

Thankfully, the show did not fall into these lazy tropes at any point. Percy is portrayed as being highly intelligent but his absent mindedness is simply due to his ADHD and dyslexia - which, again, it's made clear is due to him being a demigod. He is loyal, he is caring, he is hot-headed at times, but that's not shown as a fault; simply shown as part of his broad personality. Similarly, Grover could so easily fall into being the dotty, comic relief character; but whilst he absolutely has some top tier humorous lines in there, his intelligence and caring nature (and passion shown for finding Pan, over and over again) show there is far more to Grover than just the funny best friend.

Jeffries arguably has one of the hardest tasks with portraying Annabeth, as she is a character who both quietly watches from the sidelines and lets her views be known extremely clearly. When we first meet Annabeth, she is silently watching Percy, and she keeps that distance while keeping an eye on him; very soon after, she pushes him into the lake to test whether he is a son of Poseidon. Annabeth is silent and smart but also forthright; she is forward, she has anxiety about being abandoned, and when she decides she cares about someone, her loyalty runs extremely deep. None of this is easy to portray, but Jeffries does it perfectly.

Finding Scobell, Jeffries and Simhadri was a huge win for the show. These three needed to be a trio we could root for and Disney got them completely right.

The gods and Olympus

One of the best parts of the books is how chaotic all of the gods are, and how different they are from each other. From Zeus' majestic power to Dionysus calling Percy 'Peter' at Camp to Hermes gambling away at the Lotus to Poseidon having the strong-but-silent power of the sea to Ares' brashness to Hades' jokey humor, the gods are portrayed in the show as multi-faceted and deeply complicated.

We spend time with quite a lot of the gods; the ongoing fight with Ares, the god of war, is a highlight, with his battle against Percy in the final episode being a personal favorite moment of mine. The gods all feel distinct, yet share a sense of awe-inspiring presence. There are details that book fans will love, such as Ares bleeding gold ichor (the godly version of blood); that shows that these are gods, not humans. It also shows the respect the series has for the source material it's based on.

The word 'awe' comes up again and again when thinking about the gods and their home of Olympus, which is vast and majestic setting, with architecture reminiscent of Ancient Greece. While Zeus isn't loud like Ares, he has presence precisely because he's calm and collected. The moment he is insulted by Percy and moves to strike him with the Master Lightning Bolt is the moment you truly see in his eyes that he is an ancient, all-powerful being; and you feel the same with Poseidon when he prevents Zeus from striking his son. Holding back the bolt is clearly painful for Poseidon, but he is a god, so he can do it.

In these quiet moments, you feel how much power these ancient beings have. For me, the moment that truly stands out is when Zeus and Poseidon slip seamlessly into speaking Ancient Greek to one another. With lesser actors, and a weaker script, this moment could have come across as cheesy, but here it doesn't in the slightest. It is a moment which holds tremendous weight. The age of these gods, the things they have seen, the languages they can speak...this was an excellent touch by the showrunners.

This attention to detail is a running theme throughout the show, from seeing the satyrs at Camp picking strawberries (book fans are aware that the Camp sells strawberries under the name of Delphi Strawberry Service in order to maintain itself) to Chiron being shown to wear a leg brace (hinting at the myth of Hercules, where Hercules lets loose an arrow which pierces Chiron's knee, giving him an incurable wound), to newspapers showing hurricane warnings (which suggests the lightning bolt being stolen and the war between gods brewing), the show is extremely true to the source material, to Greek mythology, and to its own sense of internal consistency.

Setting up for the future...?

With season 2 now confirmed, little easter eggs throughout season 1 can be appreciated even more. Percy Jackson and the Olympians could have simply told the story of Percy's quest and fans still would have been happy. But spending so much extra time with Grover and his goal of finding Pan, for example, shows a foresight which must be applauded.

Other instances of foreshadowing involve Percy and Grover playing with Mythomagic cards (book fans will be aware of a yet-to-be-introduced character who loves that game), the focus on Thalia being the tree who guards Camp, and a certain pegasus who appears to a younger Percy, seemingly watching over him...we will have to wait for these seeds to sprout into storylines, but the fact they are already being planted in season 1 shows how fiercely loyal the showrunners are to the books. It's paid off with a quick renewal and lots of praise.

A show Olympus itself would be proud of

While the Greek gods may not be pleased with how Rick Riordan is determined to show them in a less-than-flattering light, they'd still have to admit that the show gets them right. The show's only flaw is that the pacing can be on the slower side; but at least this gives us more time with the characters, and balances out the more highly charged moments.

Disney+ has a gem with this show. Long may it shine.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians is available to stream now on Disney+.

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