The Fantasy Review’s Spoiler-Free Review of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, episodes 1 and 2 from Disney+.
I grew up reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books by Rick Riordan. They were the perfect replacement for Harry Potter and I went on to reread Percy Jackson so many times. The characters and world were magical and epic; my young, imaginative mind adored learning about Greek mythology and following Percy and his friends on their quests.
You can imagine how excited I was when the movie adaptations came out, and I was young enough just to be excited that my favourite books were on the screen. However, they had no rewatchability, especially as I got older. They lack the soul of the books, so when it was announced Rick Riordan had gotten the rights back and was creating a show for Disney+, I was ecstatic.
I have to say, I have not been disappointed by these first two episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and I am deeply excited to see how the rest of this first season goes.
Firstly, the show seems to have a great budget. The set designs are fantastic, with Camp Half-Blood looking exactly how I had imagined it when reading the books growing up. You have the open green spaces, with campers milling about, training with bows and swords, or Hephaestus’ kids crafting tools and weapons.
The cabins look brilliant, stocked full of bunks for the campers and all designed specifically to suit their respective deities from the 12 main Olympian Gods. These locations made me feel like a kid again, imagining what it would be like to be one of these demigods on the best summer camp trip ever!
Walker Scobel is a brilliant young actor, playing the title role of Percy Jackson. He embodies our favourite little demigod upstart, whether he is talking back to Mr D. or standing up to bullies or monsters. The rest of the cast looks good so far, but we have not seen enough of them for any judgements to be made yet. However, the casting for Grover (Aryan Simhadri) also seems perfect. I look forward to seeing more of Leah Jeffries as Annabeth Chase as they go on their quest!
Finally, the writing in this show is tight with little to no fluff or filler. We are quickly introduced to Percy, then learn along with him more about the world of Gods and monsters. The dialogue is perfect, with lines actually sounding like something young people would say, rather than being either embarrassingly cringy or too grown-up.
Overall, I am delighted to say I loved the first two episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I’m excited to see the rest of season 1 over the next few weeks. I won’t be reviewing every episode as it comes out, and instead will write a review of the full season once it has all come out.
You can watch Percy Jackson and the Olympians, episodes 1 and 2 on Disney+.
