By Marina Halbert and Mia Hanuska
Warning: Spoilers ahead!!!
Percy Jackson—we all love it. Especially now that it’s being made accessible to a whole new generation of fans—and we don’t just mean children. Even our own parents have become so obsessed with the TV show, we can’t watch it unless they’re home to sit with us. But truly, how good of an adaptation is the new Percy Jackson show on Disney? Let’s take a look at the highs and lows of the series so far, and see how it compares to the original story for Perseus Jackson.
To start off, when the demigods first meet Medusa in the novel, it’s meant to be Percy’s first time truly realizing that there are monsters in the world, hell-bent on destroying him. Not only that, but the original scene plays on their naivete, reminding readers that the heroes are just children. In the show, much of this effect was lost when they came right out and said it was Medusa. There was no mystery, no fear, and no drama. Although we’ve really enjoyed the way Percy and Annabeth continue to sneak away from monologuing villains and leave them looking rather silly, we wish Percy had a heartfelt opportunity to relate to a potential mother figure, only to realize that she, too, was on a mission of destruction.
There were a couple of other changes we felt didn’t quite do the original story justice. For instance, the Luis Arch scenes were only decently similar to the books, although we think the changes made were definitely for the better. For example, as the demigods arrive at the Arch, we discover it’s a safe place for Athena’s children where monsters cannot attack. However, after Percy sent Medusa’s head to Olympus, Athena allowed Echidna’s child into the haven because she felt insulted by Annabeth’s involvement in Percy’s actions. We’re truly not sure how we feel about this, as we feel like it’ll change the episodes for Mark of Athena, and we’re torn since Mark of Athena is the best book in all the series. It fosters a resentment for Athena from Annabeth, which is untrue to the books—Annabeth in the books believes her mother is flawless and can do no wrong. However, we’re huuuge fans of how Percy does a little switch-a-roo with Annabeth at the top of the arch, despite being injured. Leah does an amazing job with Annabeth’s anger and worry about Percy and the change was similar enough to the books that it doesn’t impact much.
Continuing on, we think episode 6 was…not it. The show did the casino scene so dirty with their changes, and most of them were not executed well. Not only did the demigods meet Hermes for some reason, the show completely missed where they got distracted and forgot the time. We really missed Annabeth’s architecture and Grover’s hunter games, Percy’s waterslides, and the Lotus Cards they were supposed to be given when they entered. The Lotus Cards are supposed to mimic the lotus flowers of the original myths, yet it seems the show opted to say the lotus is “pumped into the air.” Removing the kids’ distractions also means they somewhat glaze over why they actually get stuck in the hotel and makes the reveal that they’ve been in there for multiple days anti-climatic. Also, at the time of writing this, the demigods are told they’ve missed the deadline, something completely different from the book and something we strongly dislike. The whole point is that they prevent the war, even in the later books they risk everything in order to meet their deadlines.
But that’s enough with the negative—there is so much the show not only does justice to, but also goes above and beyond what was portrayed in the book. Take, for example, the scene in the love tunnel. Percy and Annabeth watch Hephestauses’ tragic life play out on the walls before them, and the show reminds viewers once again of why it was so popular in the first place: children want to learn. Half the fun of Percy Jackson was learning the myths, the gods, and the lore, and we’re so relieved that they are retaining that message in the show. This new addition makes up for the fact they removed the spider and Aphrodite’s scarf from the scene, although we do feel that it not introducing the spiders here is quite sad—it shows one of Annabeth’s few flaws and allows for Percy to save her rather than the show’s adaptation of her saving him.
Beyond action sequences and set design, casting is a key feature of every show. In Percy Jackson, they did an amazing job. Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson is honestly perfection—watching his interviews shows us he really is Percy Jackson, even off-screen. He has the perfect sass and he delivers each line just as Seaweed Brain would. Leah Sava’ Jefferies is perfect as Annabeth; her facial expressions are immersive and her lines are delivered in the most Annabeth-like fashion possible. Beyond these two, there is not a single actor we would want to replace (except Lin Manuel Miranda as Hermes), with a few other favorites being Luke and Grover.
There is so much that the show does well, and our complaints are truly far and few between. As die-hard Percy Jackson fans, it has been so exciting to see our favorite characters and scenes brought to life. In the end, no matter what changes they make, this show is already 100 times better than the movies and has us anticipating all that the future has in store.