Percy Jackson and the Olympians

I was 11 when I first read Percy Jackson and the lighting thief. I was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, and my mother gave me this book because some neighbor said it was good for kids like myself. To this day, one of the most influential books I've read.

I've been waiting for this series for a long time, and man it was worth the wait. 2 episodes in and you can already see the attention to detail they put into this show. The casting choices are so far great, the dialogue is excellent, and the kids they chose for Grover, Annabeth, and Percy have so far nailed their characters. It's obvious they are setting this up to do the entire series (which would be phenomenal) and the pacing is so far pretty good.

If I had a Time Machine, I'd take this show back to 11 year old me to just see the excitement on my face as my favorite character gets an amazing series like this. I'm excited to see where they take the show, and how they introduce new characters through the series like Thalia and Nico. I can only hope that this gets even a quarter of the hype as Harry Potter, but I'm just glad Percy Jackson's finally getting the screen adaptation he deserves.

Having read and loved all the books (and even enjoying the films to some extent), I had high expectations for the new series adaptation.

However, upon finishing the first season, I couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed. There seemed to be so much potential for exciting scenes, thrilling moments, and epic action sequences, yet the entire first season fell short in delivering them. Many fans, myself included, found ourselves eagerly anticipating major developments in several episodes, only to be met with a lack of significant action.

Even the most memorable scenes from the books felt watered down, lacking the challenge and excitement they originally possessed. There were no spectacular moves or thrilling fights to be found.

While I understand that this adaptation is geared towards a younger audience, I still believe there is room for more action and excitement. I urge the creators to follow the books more closely and inject more energy into the series.

As a suggestion, I recommend looking at the new Airbender series, which targets a similar audience but manages to pack more action into its opening scene than the entire first season of Percy Jackson.

I'm hopeful that future episodes and seasons will explore these themes more deeply and deliver the excitement that fans of the books are craving.

So very far from the mark. I had hope that the film adaptations could redeem themselves, since this was a huge part of many of our childhoods. The script is bad enough, but it is further ruined by pointless story changes, and boring scenes that leave you just wanting it to be over already.

Disney yet again runs out of ideas, even when the source material is right in front of them. Sincerely hoping that the series drops, same as what happened to the movies, to leave room for a possible, successful reboot in the future.

Watching is a waste of time. Read the books and preserve your view of the characters since this isn't them.

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.

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.