‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season 2 Premiere Review: Freedom Of Adaptation Inhibits Quality

The first two episodes for Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 were released last week and having seen next to no marketing for the season, decided to jump in head first. What I was met with was a dull, lifeless, and at times cringe, first two episodes.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians follows teenage demigods who train to fight monsters and forced to go on quests to save the world from supernatural forces from Greek mythology. Season 2 follows Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) and Annabeth Chase (Leah Sava Jeffries), as they team up with Percy’s newfound half-brother, the cyclops Tyson (Daniel Diemer), to chase after Luke Castellan (Charlie Bushnell) and put a stop to his plan to unleash the titan Kronos, as well as saving their friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri) from the cyclops Polyphemus.

Now, as bad as I thought these premiere episodes were, not all of it is on fault of the TV creatives, but a lot of it is due to the novel they’re adapting, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Sea of Monsters, being the worst of the books. Since childhood, I’d always found the concept dull and uninteresting, largely serving as a blockade before you can get into the good books. This series seems to follow suit, but also leaves out some necessary parts.

I’m all for freedom of adaptation, but when the source material is ignored for something worse, that makes it unneccessary. A lot is changed here and I’d argue that none of it is for the better. The entire “I Play Dodgeball With Cannibals,” which is the title of the first chapter of the book, but also the title of the first episode, just outlines how much of a misguided adaptation this is. There is no dodgeball game in this series, and Percy doesn’t even make it to school. They completely changed how Percy meets Tyson, disregarding that part of his arc where Percy sticks up for Tyson from bullies in the book, but completely omit it in the series. I ask why flaunt the book like this if you cannot tell what is good about it?

In the second episode, they do adapt Tantalus as he is in the book, but that is one of the worst things about the book, and in turn one of the most grating things about the second season of the series. The actor behind the character, Timothy Simons, gives an extremely infuriating performance worthy of the Disney Channel. This is probably the low point of the premier eepisodes.

It’s not all bad though, as the main cast seems to do what they can with the source material, giving decent performances, and the CGI is solid too. A moment at the end of episode two involving Walker Scobell and Lin-Manuel Miranda provides a nuanced discussion on parental love and betrayal by a child. But it all pales in comparison to the bad of the season.

By now, it’s very clear that Percy Jackson and the Olympians is far past its prime, being further dragged down by incompetent writers, and bad source material. The actors will likely make it out unscathed, but if these first two episodes are anything to judge by, we are in for a very bumpy ride.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 stars Walker Scobell as Percy Jackson, Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, Aryan Simhadri as Grover Underwood, Timothy Simons as Tantalus, Charlie Bushnell as Luke Castellan, Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse La Rue, Daniel Diemer as Tyson, Virginia Kull as Sally Jackson, Glynn Turman as Chiron, Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysus, and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hermes.

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