Fan art of characters Annabelle Chase as depicted in Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Jocelyn Saunders
When the new Percy Jackson series was announced, I almost cried. Why must they do this to me again? In the last few years, the movie industry seems to be solely dedicated to ruining media that’s incredibly important to my sense of self. Looking at you, the Artemis Fowl movie, Heathers TV show, Winx live action, Star Wars sequel movies, Doctor Who…. I honestly think that movie executives had an all staff meeting in 2019, pinned a picture of me on their joint whiteboard and said, “let's ruin this person’s day”.
In all seriousness, I believe every fan of Percy Jackson was nervous about a TV show adaptation of the books. Especially with the previous movie adaptations which, if you haven’t heard of them, do not, I repeat, do not watch them. Their sins are numerous, from casting twenty-year-olds to play children to defeating the main villain with an iPod touch. They’re not even bad in a ‘so bad it’s good’ way (ie. Sharknado), they’re just bad. Outside of the fandom, I know people were sceptical about the show as well, due to Disney’s not-so-spectacular history with adaptations. However, I really believe the show did justice to the books this time. There are some issues, but while I adore them, the books themselves aren’t literary masterpieces either.
If you’ve managed to get through the past two paragraphs while having absolutely no idea what Percy Jackson and the Olympians is, thanks for sticking around! I’ll give you a quick overview of the story: are you twelve, have ADHD and dyslexia, and have never really fit in? Do you have a habit of seeing things that aren’t there, which doesn’t help? Are you also hilarious? Congratulations! You’re our protagonist Percy Jackson. To make things worse, you’ve been attacked by the imaginary creatures in your head and now you’re convinced that you’re insane. Good news—you’re actually a demigod! And those creatures are real and are hunting you. Yay! Your best friend is a satyr, but you have bigger problems, being that you need to get to Camp Half-Blood, which is filled with demigods like you. How? Don’t worry about it: I’m sure no pivotal characters will die along the way that will cause you to go on a quest to revive them or anything. You’ll be fine.
I can’t really talk about the Percy Jackson series without talking about the casting. As I mentioned, the movies casted literal adults as twelve-year-old children. The TV show raised this incredibly low bar by casting actors that, at most, were fourteen instead of twelve. Overall, people have been very happy with the casting, and I would agree. Though it would be dishonest not to mention the casting of the wonderful Leah Jeffries, an African American actress, as Annabeth, the female lead who was written as a blonde white girl. Certain people have been racist about it, and Leah Jeffries has received a disgusting amount of hate mail for her role. Because when a fictional character isn’t cast how you want, cyber-bullying a minor is clearly the reasonable response.
Shockingly, no one has been mad about the actor for Percy Jackson, Walker Scobell, who also doesn’t fit Percy’s description in the books. Percy is said to be white with black hair and sea green eyes in the books, while Scobell is white with blonde hair and blue eyes. It’s almost like the appearance of the actors doesn’t matter as long as they’re the right age and resemble their on-screen parents. Which, you’ll be delighted to know, they do. Annabeth’s mother has yet to appear on screen but her grandfather, Zeus, was also played by an African American actor, the unfortunately now deceased Lance Reddick—who did a superb job being a terrifying king of the gods, by the way.
Moving on to the characters, one of the main critiques I have is that they’re not nearly as dark in the show as they are in the books. You can see this as either a good or bad thing depending on what sort of experience you wanted to have watching Percy Jackson and the Olympians. For example, in the books the gods have this aura about them: whenever Percy meets them, he feels this bone-deep fear. While watching the TV series, my sister, who has never read Percy Jackson, watched the first scene with Ares (the god of war) and said, “he seems like a whiny douche.” Admittedly, Ares is a whiny douche, but he’s also supposed to be terrifying. Furthermore, Percy’s abuse from his step-father in the books informs a large proportion of the plot and Percy’s character in general, but this is glossed over and underplayed in the show. While I imagine this is because the series can become more serious as Percy ages, much like the Harry Potter movies, it does make a few of the character’s decisions confusing (like why everyone is so scared of the gods when they just seem like people).
Being, as I am, neurodiverse as fuck, I must talk about the representation of ADHD in the show. If you watched the show but didn’t read the books, you may be quite confused by me dedicating a paragraph to this, given it just disappears after episode one. But, believe it or not, Percy learning to accept his ADHD and dyslexia is a large message of the books, especially as everyone at Camp Half-Blood is supposed to also have ADHD and dyslexia. You can understand why I am a little irritated with the TV show’s depiction of neurodiversity then, given that Percy is the only character who is depicted with ADHD traits despite it being a main theme of the books.
This said, I feel I must mention Annabeth. As an ‘autism-coded’ female growing up Annabeth was very important to me. Though she was never explicitly stated as autistic (characters rarely are, there’s a reason ‘autism-coded’ is such a common phrase) she was incredibly autism-coded, and her realisation that she doesn’t need to earn affection hit me just as hard when I watched the TV show as it did a decade ago when I read the books. I’m very excited about how the TV show portrayed her, particularly as adaptations have a tendency to ‘Hermione-fy’ autism-coded females. What does ‘Hermione-fy’ mean? I’m glad you asked!
Hermione-fy
verb
To adapt a female character who meets the following criteria:
- Intelligent.
- Control-freak.
- No emotional intelligence.
- Empathy issues.
- Arrogant
Into a character who is perfect and fixes everyone’s flaws. Because apparently empathy issues are only for men?
I am thrilled they didn’t do this to another character and, on a side note, I would like to advocate for the abolishment of this practice. I am here for emotional constipation for all genders. Yay for gender equality!
I’m not particular about visual effects, but something was very very wrong with the lighting in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It reminded me of when Buffy the Vampire Slayer was uploaded to Disney Plus and they somehow removed all of the colour grading and light editing so it was just dull. To illustrate my point I’ve included a scene below from what is supposed to be one of the scariest moments of the show. You may notice the absolute lack of dramatic lighting. Can you tell that this is supposed to be Ares threatening to kill Percy? Because it kinda just looks like he’s taking a leisurely stroll to me.
I know I’ve ended up insulting the show quite a lot, but that is honestly because I love it so much. While it doesn’t have some of the darkness in its characters, it does have very loveable character dynamics and some hilarious interactions between a control freak, someone who hates being controlled, and a satyr scared of confrontation. You can imagine the chaos. The pacing of the show is absolutely delightful, and Percy does end up realising he’s not terrible just because he’s different, a little bit of validation which I hope will reach the neurodiverse people who need it. It also discusses relevant themes like parental issues, finding value in yourself, and presents a nuanced discussion of how much authority figures suck and are ruining the world. Also, Lin Manuel Miranda is in it, playing essentially Lin Manuel Miranda, which makes any story so much better. It’s one of those shows you finish and then watch ten more times until you suck all the serotonin out of it. It’s not just me who does that, right? If you feel like having a genuinely good time, and restoring your hope in TV adaptations after the absolute garbage fire that was the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series, I completely recommend Percy Jackson and the Olympians!