Percy Jackson and the Olympians

The personalities for characters Percy and Annabeth are so far off it hurts. I thought the big deal on this was that these actors were supposed to embody the characters so well, that looks didn't matter! Three episodes in and I'm not impressed. They made some weird changes to the story to shoehorn this snarky and combative new Percy in.

Percy starts off as whiney and clueless. No one is explaining things to him until he sounds like an idiot, and has stuck his foot in his mouth. He's rude, and not at all funny or caring about other people. Annabeth isn't supposed to be his best friend yet - but she is so hostile.

Whoever wrote the screenplays for these episodes needs to reread the source material.

The Aunty Em's storyline changes was a complete wasted disaster. I hope Disney would do better.

Heavily expository dialog, slow pacing, odd framing of scenes--why so many shots from behind when characters are speaking?--and clumsy fight choreography are just some of the factors that prevented me from enjoying the first two episodes of a show I was eagerly anticipating. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I prefer the admittedly flawed film. Even the SFX in the film seemed better, and to check my memory, I rewatched the film after struggling to stay awake during the Disney+ series, and yes, those effects from 2010 survive the comparison. The early encounter with the minotaur, for example, feels more kinetic and dangerous in the film, while the TV version fails to convince that the adolescent Percy could in any way survive the encounter.

I knew this was gonna be mid. The comics are the best adaptation I've seen so far and they've convinced me that motion picture adaptations of Rick's stories need to be animated. They blew through ~120 million to make a boring show with boring fights when they could've spent a fraction of that to deliver a show as entertaining as Avatar The Last Airbender, Young Justice, Invincible, etc.

I'm baffled by the people who imagined things in live-action when reading the books, some of the scenes sounded so goofy and outlandish that I couldn't imagine anything but a comic book come to life. I understand Rick felt pressure to match series like Harry Potter and Hunger Games and I think Walker Scobell has the kind of charisma to compete with the main actors from those franchises, but PJO was obviously never going to be like those books. They should've taken a risk and paved their own path.

I waited a long time for this series. I watched the entire thing and didn't really feel it. I mean the story line is a lot closer to the book that the attempted movie adaptation. But I think the cast is not ready or not directed well. Though the movie lost the original story, the actors and actress did a better job. But I have to put in consideration that the ages of the three protagonists are accurate, I'm afraid they didn't capture the essence of the characters. I didn't feel them. Of course they were very young so I guess I better put that into consideration. I hope they'll do a better job with the Sea of Monsters or the show might not last another season.

My husband, son, and I read the Percy Jackson books together during those long months home at the start of Covid. So we were excited to watch this series together now, which promised to be an improvement over the movies. We came in with open minds but have been disappointed week after week.

I personally don't mind that the actors don't look the way they're described in the books. If they capture the characters' essence/ personality, I'm open to differences in appearance. Unfortunately, I think the child actors were at the mercy of poor screen writing, poor directing, and really strange choices in editing. As others have mentioned, the writing is stilted and the pacing of the show is uneven and choppy. Boring scenes are dragged out for too long, and what could have been interesting scenes are glossed over too superficially.

I also don't know what to make of the choice to cut to a dark screen whenever there's a significant transition. It reminds me of the jarring way TV shows used to cut to commercial breaks in the 80's. It's hard to understand why professionals at Disney couldn't come up with more sophisticated or creative options.

Finally, for a show that's supposedly sticking to the book (with input from the author), there are some very odd scenes that were either not in the book at all or which deviate drastically for no apparent good reason. Again, I am not a purist and am open to being surprised. But those scenes do very little (or nothing) to enhance the story. Watching a twelve year old struggle to drive a taxi while lurching through a parking lot for what felt like twenty minutes made the Fields of Asphodel seem stimulating. And, speaking of the underworld, how is it possible to make Hades less menacing than a cup of weak tea?!

We still really want to like the show, so we'll keep coming back for a few more weeks. But, at this point, we don't expect much. Sadly, the movies are looking better in comparison.