Author Rick Riordan adapts his own books for TV, and the first episodes promise an empowering tale – here’s our review of Percy Jackson And The Olympians episodes 1 and 2.
For young people who possess an equal love of books, magic and mythology, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & The Olympians series is perfect reading material. It follows the story of a young boy, the titular Percy, who’s incredibly relatable in that he struggles to fit in at that difficult age where no one knows quite where they belong. But he finds that sense of belonging, and other unexpected powers, when he finds out he’s the child of a Greek god and goes to Camp Half-Blood to meet others like himself.
This isn’t the first time Riordan’s books have been adapted for the screen. You may remember the Logan Lerman-led films of the early 2010s, which adapted the source material rather loosely – most notably in casting the main character as much older than he is in the books. For this new Disney+ series, though, Riordan himself has adapted his work, and it instantly becomes more magical as a result.
As we meet 12-year-old Percy, played with a great deal of earnestness by Walker Scobell, we’re given a brief introduction to his existence as a perpetual misfit. His mind is constantly elsewhere, dreaming of mythical creatures that he draws in his schoolbooks. He sees things that other people can’t see, and is often the subject of the class bullies’ attention. In a very short but well-utilised amount of time, we get to know Percy and his sense of wonder at all things magical, and identify with his feelings of not knowing where he fits in.
The entire first episode breezes through Percy’s backstory, but the performances of Scobell, as well as Virginia Kull as Percy’s mum and Aryan Simhadri as his only friend, Grover, give it a real emotional resonance. As Percy is largely picked on by others, his relationships with the few people who care for him are especially important, and the actors convey their closeness well.
When Percy is attacked by a mythical creature at school – and no one else notices – his life is turned completely upside-down. His mother informs him that he’s a Demigod, and she and Grover must take him to Camp Half-Blood for his own safety, as various (very well designed and rendered) monsters will continue to seek him out.
There’s a tendency with similar fantasy tales for the main character to accept rather quickly the mystical world they’ve been thrown into. Here, Percy’s reaction is more believable. There’s a sense of doubt about him that Scobell conveys well, a worry that perhaps his wandering mind and interest in myth belies a more serious, mental health related problem. Of course, he’s eventually forced to believe his eyes when he’s surrounded by living proof of fantastical creatures existing.
The overall arc of the first two episodes is watching a young boy come to grips with who he is and what he’s capable of. That’s both empowering and incredibly satisfying. Percy begins to discover his magical powers and learns to stand up to bullies. He also, as an overtly neurodivergent character, finds somewhere he belongs among other neurodiverse people who accept him. Riordan’s books, written for his neurodivergent son, always embraced character’s differences and treated them as a positive thing. The series is very much the same.
Among the characters Percy meets at the camp are Luke, son of Hermes (Charlie Bushnell) and Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), the daughter of Athena. Jeffries doesn’t get much to do in these early episodes, and the character is so far rather quiet, but it’s hinted that she’s been promised to go on a grand quest with one of the Demigods at the camp, and so I hope that she gets a chance to shine as the series continues.
Aside from the young Demigods residing at Camp Half-Blood, there are the adults in charge. These are Jason Mantzoukas’ self-absorbed Dionysus (or ‘Mr D.’) and Glynn Turman’s centaur Chiron. The latter seems kind enough, but there’s also an air of mystery to him, and a question as to exactly what his motives are.
As the second episode comes to a close, an important piece of information regarding Percy’s past is revealed that sets the main events of the series in motion. It may seem slow for the hero to be sent on a journey at the end of episode two, but Percy Jackson And The Olympians really benefits from allowing time for us to get to know its young hero and watch him grow.
Episodes one and two of Percy Jackson And The Olympians are streaming on Disney+ on 20th December, with future episodes streaming weekly.
