Series Saturday: PERCY JACKSON AND THE OLYMPIANS Season One

This is a blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics.

 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season One television series (2023 - 2024)

Starred: Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri

Produced by 20th Television, Co-Lab 21, Gotham Group, Moorish Dignity Productions, Quaker Moving Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios

Originally aired on Disney+

Count me in as one of the many viewers who are far more satisfied with this television adaptation of Book One of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians series than with the previous movie attempts. (To be honest: I am also one of those folks who liked the movies fine for what they were, but faithful to the novels they were not.) Disney’s eight-episode season allowed for a much more faithful (but not slavishly so) adaptation. Is it perfect? No, of course not. No adaptation from one form of media to another ever is. But it’s a damn fine eight hours of television, in this viewer’s eyes. I’m not going to spend time talking about the changes. Rick Riordan himself has commented on most of them on his social media, and while I love the books it has been over a decade since I last read The Lightning Thief. I’ll stick to my thoughts on the show we got rather than lamenting (or lambasting) the things we didn’t.

First and foremost: kudos to the casting department, especially on the three leads. I may be one of the few people on Earth who still have not seen The Adam Project, so my only awareness of Walker Scobell was when clips from that movie started to show up on social media, but what I saw in those clips definitely fit my perception of Percy. Scobell’s excellent use of snark is not the only reason he’s a great Percy, of course. He really gets the character’s struggles to fit in, to control his anger at his absentee father, to manage his ADHD; he also embodies Percy’s loyalty to those he calls friends (and his pain when those friends betray, or seem to betray, him). Leah Sava Jeffries is pretty much his perfect match as Annabeth – she too can bring the snark, but the best moments were watching her struggle with being the smartest person in the room. Aryan Simhadri brings a loveable goofiness to Grover that never tips over into broad caricature (which it could easily have done); his sense of comic timing is spot on. (Bonus points for the casting director who found Azriel Dalman to play young Percy; I believed he and Walker were playing the same kid.)

The adults are also perfectly cast. Virginia Kull is heartbreaking as Sally Jackson while also being a bastion of parental support (however imperfect at times). The gods and monsters (Lin Manuel Miranda, Toby Stephens, Megan Mulally, Timothy Omundson, Glynn Turman, Jay Duplass, Jason Mantzoukas, Jessica Parker Kennedy, Suzanne Cryer) are all excellent in their turns, but full credit especially to Adam Copeland as Ares. I do wish the late, great Lance Reddick had had more screen time as Zeus. I am also glad that on screen and even in the credits and despite their overwhelming star power, all these wonderful adults were not allowed to overshadow the three leads. They were supporting characters or antagonists (or both) but never stole focus.

My one major complaint with the season is that it should have been one episode longer. The time Percy spends at Camp Half-Blood is given only one episode and I think the Percy/Luke dynamic suffers for it. When episode two aired, I commented that I wasn’t particularly impressed with Charlie Bushnell as Luke in comparison to the other kids (including Dior Goodjohn as Clarissa). Watching the final episode, I realized I felt that way because Bushnell just wasn’t given much to work with in the earlier episode. All of his good stuff came at the end, and half of that in flashback to stuff we should have seen earlier. It was a stylistic choice on the part of Riordan and the rest of the production team and in my opinion one of the few missteps.

My only other complaint, and it is minor, is that the nighttime and Underworld scenes were all so dark I sometime couldn’t see details that I would have liked to see and I’m sure were there (because in all the other stuff shot on the Volume stage, the FX work is stunning and immersive). Yes, I’m aware that maybe it’s my television and not the production at fault.

When I originally drafted this post, I ended with a simple “So, Disney: get on with greenlighting season two already!”  And lo and behold, just a few days before this post will go live, Disney did exactly that. I hope production on season 2, adapted from The Sea of Monsters, starts up quickly and runs smoothly and that it appears on our screens sooner rather than later.


If you enjoyed this post, check out some of my previous fantasy/superhero television-related Series Saturday posts:

2024 Reading and Viewing Challenges

New Year, New Challenges!

Perhaps I am a glutton for punishment. I always set myself more than one reading challenge per year. Some carry over from year to year, and some are new. Some are broad and some are themed. And in many cases, books read will help me meet more than one challenge. But still: in the past few years, I set myself perhaps too many challenges that were difficult to overlap. So this year, I’ve cut a couple that I’ve totally blown in the past few years, and decreased the number of books for others.

Of course, I’m also making some formal movie, television, and live theatre viewing challenges this year because why the heck not? (Although at least one of them is simply formalizing a goal I have every year: more live theatre!)

 So, in order from “most expansive” to “least expansive,” here are my 2024 Challenges. I’ll start with the reading, then move on to the viewing.

 

TO BE READ CHALLENGE

The idea (formulated by RoofBeamReader at his blog several years ago) is to pick 12 books (plus 2 alternates in case you find yourself unable to finish a couple of your main choices) that have sat unread on your bookshelf for a year or more. Books published in 2023 wouldn’t be eligible, nor would re-reads. This year, I’ve decided to include audiobooks and e-books in the challenge (in the past it’s been mostly, if not all, print books), and so I’m listing three alternates (one for each format) instead of two. I did not do well on this challenge in the past three years, but here’s hoping 2024 will break that streak. Titles are not listed in any intended reading order. Books title followed by an asterisk are books that were on my 2023 list, but which went unread. Here’s the list:

1.       Ice Land, by Betsy Tobin (2008) *

2.       Let Me In, by John Ajvide Lindqvist (2004) *

3.       The Mystery of the Sea, by Bram Stoker (1902, reissued in 1997) *

4.       The Book of Lost Saints, by Daniel José Older (2019) *

5.       Dune, by Frank Herbert (1965/2014) *

6.       Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (2019) *

7.       The Mythology of Salt and Other Stories, by Octavia Cade (2020) *

8.       Cemetery Boys, by Aiden Thomas (2020) *

9.       Pangs, by Jerry L. Wheeler (2021) * (2023 alternate title, moved to main list)

10.   Becoming by Michelle Obama (2018)

11.   Never Have Your Dog Stuffed by Alan Alda (2005)

12.   The Unwanted by Jeffrey Ricker (2014)

ALTERNATES:

1.       All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business, by Mel Brooks (2021) (audio alternate)

2.       Golden Boy: A Novel, by Abigail Tarttelin (2013) (e-book alternate)

3.       Merlin’s Booke by Jane Yolen (1986) (print book alternate)

 

I plan to come back to this post and add “date completed” for each book, and a link to a review if I post one.

 

366 SHORT STORIES CHALLENGE

Every year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. Some years I keep the pace pretty well, and some years I fall behind and then scramble to catch up (and some years, I catch up and fall behind again, and some years I blow past the goal handily). 2024 is a Leap Year, so the goal is 366 short stories. I used to post thoughts on each individual story over on my now-defunct LiveJournal. This year I plan to revive my “Sunday Shorts” feature and review a story or two in-depth each Sunday. I’m defining “short story” as anything from flash fiction to novella-length.

 

GOODREADS CHALLENGE

Goodreads allows members to set a challenge. In previous years, I’ve set goals ranging from 125 to 150 books. For 2024, I’m setting a goal of 120 to start with (10 books per month), and we’ll see what happens. Of course, any book read for the TBR Challenge, or the other challenges mentioned in this post count towards this one.

 

GRAPHIC NOVEL CHALLENGE

I own far more graphic novels and trade paperback collections of classic comics than I’ve read. In 2017 I started trying to turn that around, and I’m again setting a goal in 2024 of reading one graphic novel per week, so 52 for the year.

 

NON-FICTION CHALLENGE

As with graphic novels, I tend to get intrigued by and purchase far more non-fiction books than I end up reading. In an effort to clear some shelf-space, justify the money spent, and increase my knowledge a bit, I’m going to challenge myself to read at least 12 non-fiction books, but I’m not going to make a list. There are already 3 non-fiction books (all memoirs) on the TBR Challenge which will count towards this.

 

READ THE BOOK / WATCH THE MOVIE CHALLENGE

I have so many books in my collection that are the basis for classic (and sometimes not-so-classic) movies that I thought it would be fun to read some of them and then see how the movies compare. In previous years I didn’t do so well on this challenge, but I’m game to try again. I intend to write reviews/comparison posts as I’ve done previously, under the Page-to-Screen feature title and tag. I’ve never set a numeric goal for this challenge, but let’s aim for 12 “Page-to-Screen” posts this year.

 

MOVIE CHALLENGE

I own a lot of DVDs. (I know, you’re shocked. Shocked!) Every year I say, “This is the year I’m going to make an effort to watch them!” And then, somehow, I … don’t. One year, I did a list of 12 and two alternates as I do for the TBR Challenge, called it the TBW Challenge … and failed it miserably. So this year, I’m setting myself a challenge akin to my graphic novel challenge: one movie per week, 52 for the year. This includes movies on DVD, streaming services, and any trips to an actual movie theater (which have become rare for me).

 

TELEVISION CHALLENGE

Did I mention I own a lot of DVDs? And that I’m subscribed to a lot of streaming services? I did? Well, you won’t be shocked to know that it’s not all about the movies. So I’m setting myself a “TV Series Watch” challenge akin to my Short Story Challenge: an average of one full episode of a television series (regardless of length) for each day in the year, which (again) this being a Leap Year means 366 episodes.

 

LIVE THEATRE CHALLENGE

I did pretty well with this one in 2023, even though I never posted about it (because I posted extraordinarily little here in 2023, but that’s a subject for another post), so I’m making it official for 2024: I want to see at least 1 live theatrical performance per month. Most of them will be in New York City, but I’ll count any play, musical, opera, ballet, or staged reading I see anywhere, regardless of whether it’s fully professional productions, college, community theatre, whatever. (Music concerts, author signings, and conferences/conventions do not count towards this.)

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

So how am I going to hold myself accountable? I’m planning to bring back my monthly Reading RoundUps. I’m not going to rename/rebrand because I like the alliterative title (which falls well in line with Series Saturday, Sunday Shorts, and a few other blog series I’m hoping to make regular features in 2024), but those posts will also track the Viewing challenges.

 

I would love to hear what YOUR Reading, Writing, or Viewing Challenges are for 2024. Let me know in the comments!

First Annual ToBeWatched Challenge!

In preparing my lists for this year’s “To Be Read” Challenge, I got to thinking about how many DVDs/Blu-rays I own that I haven’t watched, which got me to thinking about how many of them are movies I’ve actually never seen, in a theatre or on television, but which I bought because I thought I’d want to see them, and then never got around to watching them. Which then got me to thinking about movies I’ve wanted to see but also have never bought in physical or digital format…

My mind does wonderful things when I’m procrastinating, doesn’t it?

So I put the idea out on Facebook and Twitter about a 2022 “To Be Watched” Challenge: twelve movies you’ve always intended to see but have never gotten around to it, plus two alternate titles in case one or two of your main choices turn out to be “unwatchable”. The only catch: the movies must be at least one full year old, meaning nothing originally released in 2021 or 2022. There are no restrictions on genre or length or what form you’re going to watch it in (DVD, streaming, etc.), and no judgements on what you choose.

Feel free to post your list as a comment on this site or post it on your own blog and share a link in the comments. I would like to offer some kind of raffle-prize for those who finish the challenge, the way Adam does on his RoofbeamReader “To Be Read” Challenge, but I’m not sure quite how to make that work just yet.

I’d love other people to participate, but this is all for fun, and to motivate myself into finally seeing some of the movies on my “I should watch that eventually” list.

This list could easily be two or three times as long, but here are my twelve, with their original release dates in parentheses:

1.       My Boy Jack (2007)

2.       The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947)

3.       Alice Adams (1935)

4.       Macbeth (Orson Welles version) (1948)

5.       The Producers (Nathan Lane/Matthew Broderick version) (2005)

6.       The Last Picture Show (1971)

7.       In Cold Blood (1967)

8.       Mr. Holmes (2015)

9.       The Night of the Hunter (1955)

10.   Angels With Dirty Faces (1938)

11.   The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Lon Chaney Sr. version) (1923)

12.   Logan (2017)

And my “alternates:”

A.      Twelve Angry Men (1957)

B.      Seven Samurai (1954)

 

I’ll come back to this post as I watch each film and change that movie’s text to italics, followed by the date I watched the movie.