March 2024 Review

Keeping with my 2024 trend of reviewing television, this time I checked out the Disney Plus adaptation of the Percy Jackson and The Olympians books. As a kid I was pretty big into Greek mythology, and really enjoyed these. I was too young to really know that the movies were ahem, kind of bad, but I did know there was something off when I was watching them. Still, I think I enjoyed them at some points.

Rick Riordan obviously and vocally did not share any of my joy when it came to the originals, and he has been quite clear on that since their release, justifiably so. However, I found that this creator-approved attempt at PJO is not necessarily without fault, either. In fact, I felt there were quite a few of them. Faults, I mean. Ones that were consistently coming up, in fact. Again and again it felt like this series was plagued with the same story issues week after week, and it really started to eat away at me after a few episodes. I talk about what I think makes this yet another weak adaptation of a great and captivating series of books. For the most part, it feels almost...required?

Like this season was obligatory, and there wasn’t a whole lot of heart or sincerity woven into what could have been iconic moments adapted to the screen. An air of artificiality and cheapness seem to undermine the script, which seems to need all the help it can get at points. Anyway, this is one of my harsher reviews, and I am a bit cynical in it as I feel its justified. If Rick can dish it, he can take it.

A lot was going for this adaption. The creator was on board, the young cast was gifted and had great chemistry, and they even had an opportunity to leverage the movies (good and bad) to iteratively improve on an amazing foundation. But it seems they just kinda...didn’t. At least, it felt like that to me, anyway.