Olympus

The analytics on this are fascinating. This pathetic clunker of an immediately cancelled series is perhaps the most shilled up on IMDB

I was SO looking forward to the premiere of OLYMPUS. I was disappointed at the weak initial character development and production value/cinematography and scene setting. It looked like I was watching a Lost in Space or I Dream of Jeannie (both good in their day) 40 years ago. You could clearly tell the actors were placed over footage from somewhere else. If it's CGI, it's bad CGI. Not even CLOSE to 300! I've seen cable channels like The 100 on CW do MUCH better with their backdrops and action sequences. The acting of the lead actor and the Oracle was OK but a lot of the other actors came off as hokey and artificial. A lot of that might have been due to the script and directing. I want to give this another chance but if this is the best you can do with the production of the show it's not going to make it.

The production value on this is low, not gonna lie. I wish the creators had had more money to work with, because there are some interesting ideas. They collapse time in order to deal with multiple issues - the ruins reflect us looking back from today, the Magi reflect a time when Christians would destroy the earlier polytheism - and the concept of how we experience time eventually comes into the plot. I'm a couple of episodes from the end and our Hero is in a downward spiral towards anti-Hero status which is painful and real feeling.

My one hugh issue is that once again Anglo writers felt the need to make the bad guys in a fantasy story vaguely Arabic. That really needs to stop.

I rarely expect to see every unusual show with a $200M budget these days, especially TV fare, so my expectations were not high. I find the production engaging and particularly love the sets of an ancient Hellenic period with heads of giant statues half buried in the Earth and the stands of even trees. They have an otherworldly feeling that adds substance and context to this unusual production.

My experience in production design, directing and writing helps me to come to an objective view of this show. What also helps is the mere fact that someone is attempting to bring unusual fare to the screen. It is not easy and yes, it does take an ungodly amount of money to bring a show like Game of Thrones to the tube. This is not a G.O.T. production but that is fine as far as I am concerned. They all do not have to match G.O.T.

There has been a good bit of criticism regarding the production budget of this series. I don't have the numbers right at hand, but clearly the great majority--if not all--of the shooting is done on a sound stage. This saves money, of course, but I think there is more to it. The world of Olympus is set in ancient Greece; but it is a world in which the gods are real, and supernatural powers are part of ordinary existence. I think that the oddly-crafted set pieces are deliberately intended to evoke a world that is similar to our own, but not quite ours. Perhaps this world is a psychological state of mind; the series synopsis tells us that the gods will eventually be consigned to the world of the unconscious, what they call the Underworld, or Hades. When this happens, the entire world will change...is this not perception? Watching this series brings to mind the German Expressionist movement in film. They both share the use of stylized set pieces, and the plots and stories of both often deal with madness, hallucination, and betrayal. And let's not forget that film noir arose out of expressionism; the eerie, atmospheric lighting, somewhat hapless protagonist, and the irrepressible femme fatale elements of noir can be readily by seen in Olympus. If you examine this series through that lens I think you will gain a better appreciation of it.

UPDATE: It is Aug 26 2015, and I wrote the above approximately a week before. I had not viewed the entire series by then, but I have now. If you have already made up your mind about this series, and decided that you hate it, nothing I say here will effect your opinion. But if you like the series, or are still undecided, I encourage you--nay, I entreat you--to watch it to the end. The final three episodes are spell-binding, and the season (perhaps series) conclusion is quite surprising and satisfying. This series has cemented its position on my short list of best series ever. It went by so fast I could hardly believe it was over. You owe it to yourself to give this show a chance.