Tag: Percy Jackson

Season two of Percy Jackson on Disney+ (The Sea ofMonsters) has been confirmed! 🥳 Read more over at The Mary Sue.

8 short episodes later, we’ve reached the end of the line for the first season of Percy Jackson on Disney+. While I loved it, both how it faithfully rendered the books but also evolved them in great ways, I do agree with El Kuiper on The Mary Sue that it demonstrates how limiting current streaming-season lengths are: 

Disney+’s Percy Jackson series boasts a fantastic cast, impressive special effects, and an undeniably gripping emotional narrative. As a long-time fan of Riordan’s books, this series has been a dream come true.

And yet, the finale made it abundantly clear that Percy Jackson, like so many of its peers, has been restricted by its meager episode count. Eight episodes of varying length may seem like a lot to tell this story, but as is so succinctly pointed out in the Percy Jackson making-of documentary that is now available on Disney+, the narrative takes this heroic trio from one end of the U.S. to the other, including a trip down to the Underworld and a brief sojourn to the top of the Empire State building. There is a lot of ground to cover.

As always, ***Spoilers ahead***

Let’s start with the confusing as that’s how the episode opened. Apparently the pearls don’t just return them to the Pacific Ocean off Los Angeles (where they’d entered the Underworld), but to the Atlantic off Montauk beach, where Percy and his mother had stayed in a cabin in the opening episode. They return to the cabin where they heard all flights are grounded. This is a big change from the books, where Percy & Co. actually dare to take a flight home from LA. I guess the audience is supposed to get it from recognizing the cabin from the first episode, but it took me (an adult, observant viewer) quite a bit of time to get it. At first, I just thought they’d glossed over the flights home. I was confused. Then it clicked when later in the episode when he returned to the cabin to look for his mother. But if they were going to do this to help with the compacting of the series, some verbal utterings by the heroes would have helped. Like having Percy say, when he spotted the cabin, “Hey, that’s the cabin Mom and I stayed at. We’re back on Montauk/in NY.” He does hear a mysterious whispering, seemingly from his mother, that draws him to the cabin and calls for her when he enters, but really, it was just confusing at the time.

The good: I really like how they handled Luke. Unlike in the book (where his anger is in part directed at Percy and he tries to kill him outright), he tries to recruit him to Kronos’ side. He declares his friendship. Thus the downplaying of the shoe-betrayal throughout the episodes makes more sense. And I like the more sympathetic Luke. Annabeth observes it all with her invisibility cap and when she reveals herself, we see Luke’s love for her (even if as a sister) which better sets up the much, much later (last book) turning to her as a last resort of fleeing Kronos and the gods. 

Both Percy and Annabeth end up leaving camp early (which is weird – and no bead ceremony) and Grover heads off on his searcher’s quest, indicating he is off to the seas.  Which brings us to the bad: the stupid plug for Walt Disney World. The series has decided to make the smartest human character in the book horribly naive about the world at large and especially pop-culture. Annabeth tells Percy that her father is taking her to Walt Disney World, which she says sounds like Water World only less determined to kill you. Percy laughs and Annabeth asks if she missed something and Percy tells her to just go be a kid, leaving me thinking “Thanks for the advertisement, Disney Channel.”

A few other notes:

The scenes of Percy reunited with his mom were great. The blue pancakes with blueberries were fun, as was Sally telling Percy not to refer to Kronos as granddad. But that brings us back to Stinky Gabe – or rather doesn’t in the episode. Gabe is saved for a mid-credits scene.

I get why they down play this subplot. Having Sally marry a man she despises to help Percy was always a bit uncomfortable. Having her suffer domestic violence was also uncomfortable, especially in a middle grade fiction book. Having her not only kill Gabe in the book, but also sell his petrified corpse as a statue to fund her return to school had its discomforts.

But in the Disney+ series, she is a woman who not only doesn’t need saving, but doesn’t even need to save herself. She is never the victim of Gabe. His obnoxious, but she can quickly put him in his place. I had wondered when they first changed their relationship what they’d do with the Medusa-head killing of him, but as the episode drew to a close, I felt like he didn’t even exist, like an oversight. Until the mid-credits scene, when Gabe kills himself by opening mail addressed to Percy (the Medusa head, returned to sender by the gods). No explanation of what’s done with his petrified corpse.

But this is problematic for the prophecy Percy got. He’s supposed to “fail to save what matters most in the end,” because he recognizes that Sally needs to make the choice to save herself. But there’s no saving of Sally because she doesn’t need to be saved. So what does that mean for the prophecy (explored more here at the Mary Sue)?

The other thing that doesn’t get any play is the great prophecy. Unlike the book, Percy & Co. missed the deadline for getting the bolt back to Zeus. This sets up a very different scene on Mt. Olympus and gives Poseidon an even better chance to play the good god protecting him (by surrendering to Zeus to end a war that was avoided in the books when they make it back by the deadline). But without the great prophecy mentioned, we lack the sense of why Zeus might want to kill a “forbidden child” of the Big Three.

I’ve got to pause here for a shout out. Lance Reddick was fabulous as Zeus. He brought great auctoritas to the role, a perfect King of the Gods (more than the character in the book, where Zeus at times has a bit of a buffoonish aspect).  It’s heartbreaking that we won’t get to see more of this excellent actor’s work after his passing this past March. The whole episode is dedicated to his memory.💔

Back to the Great Prophecy and “Forbidden Children” of the Big Three: Hades, when we met him in the previous episode, had zero resentment over Percy being a forbidden child and both Zeus and Poseidon breaking their oaths after trying to kill his own already existing children (Bianca and Nico) and killing their beloved mother in the attempt. Hades even offers Percy sanctuary when he learns Kronos is back and decides to try and keep the master bolt. 

The only hint of the Great Prophecy is when Kronos, in Percy’s final dream, says, “You are the key to my rise.” Sally asks Percy about his dream, but he changes the subject and then it’s just gone. They repressed that foreshadowing for the future books/episodes.  

I certainly hope that we get more seasons/episodes of the other books. Overall, despite the compacting of material, it was very well done. But season 2 is not yet confirmed (that I’ve seen). 

At last we reach the Underworld. ***Major Spoilers Ahead*** because the episode sort of peeved me. I feel as grouchy as a three-headed guard dog, although the episode definitely had its pluses as well.

Two big things that leap out at me are the flying shoes and the pearls.

First the shoes. Perhaps I’ve overlooked something, but as far as I remember (or can tell by glancing back through critical moments of the episodes) Luke gave Percy the shoes and then that was it for them. When Percy learns about the dangers of him taking to the air (the perfect moment to hand them over to Grover to use – and the moment when he did so in the book), nothing arises (so to speak) about the flying shoes. He never, as far as I can tell, gives them to Grover in the Disney+ series. Grover – before this episode – has never used them, even in places where he did in the book (which worked well as establishing them with Grover and underscoring Luke’s betrayal). But now that they are needed for the major plot point of that betrayal, Grover uses them early in the episode as the only groundwork for the later crucial scene. I assume something in an earlier episode that would have set this up hit the cutting room floor, but still it feels sloppy to me. 

Speaking of Grover and sloppy (or should I say slobbery), Percy distributes the pearls right away in the episode and Grover loses his when briefly eaten by Cerberus (or at least caught in his mouth before emerging covered in slobber). Not Grover’s fault, as Percy assures him when he hands over another pearl to Grover, but still I hated they made Grover the heavy for Percy’s later mom-dilemma. Given how they’ve set up the uncaringness of the gods, this felt at first unnecessary. But then Poseidon showed up in the episode (more on that below). Nevertheless, thus the problem of the fourth pearl was solved. 

So if the stomach acids of Cerberus dissolve the pearl, will he find himself suddenly in the ocean? 

I loved the grove of Asphodel and the soul-trees of regret (very Vergilian Field of Mourning with its myrtle grove), but was sorry to have Annabeth pulled out of the Underground before the big action at Tartarus got going. Actually, I hated it. Having her there for the pit and a witness for what is really going on felt important. Plus she is a fun and central character. And nothing arose that would benefit from her absence. Why?? I’m sort of miffed. 

And having Percy find the master bolt not in the palace of Hades also cut out some great moments from the books when Hades knows it’s there and Percy doesn’t. But in this episode Hades doesn’t want the bolt (at least not until he hears about Kronos and feels the need for a defense).

On the other hand, I love Hades the character in this episode. Very different than in the books, but as with Ares, a real upgrade in personality. And I’ve never liked the whole Hades must be unhappy with his lot bit (and thinking in the book that he wants a war to increase his kingdom never made any sense – 100% of the mortal population will end up down there with or without war). I like a Hades who likes his kingdom. The H gods (Hermes, Hephaestus, and Hades) are really the best of the lot in this series in terms of humaneness. 

Poseidon also gets a H for human-feeling.  The whole flashbacks to Sally taking Percy to a boarding school (fabulous job by Azriel Dalman as young Percy) set up a drawing in of Poseidon as a good guy (good god). How Sally knows so much about the gods’ family is still a question.

Our heroes reach Las Vegas and the Lotus Casino. I continue to enjoy this adaptation. In many ways, it’s a delight that they change things up from the books. The social-emotional aspects gain some nuance over the books. And the heroes continue to be smarter than in the books. ***Usual Spoiler Warning***

When the heroes reach the Lotus Casino, they immediately think of Odysseus and the Lotus Eaters, so are no lured into the complacency they had in the books. They simply make the mistake of thinking if they don’t eat anything they’ll be fine. That doesn’t work out for them.

There are a number of other differences, beginning with the fact that Ares sent them to the Lotus Casino specifically to meet with Hermes. But I’ll leave most aside here. The big change takes place off the coast of Santa Monica. I’ll also leave aside that Poseidon supposedly came to meet Percy there, but could wait for him since they were held up in the Casino, and that Poseidon leaves the message that he should just give up.

The pearls were my WTF moment. Percy is given four pearls instead of three! And is explicitly told their use is “Each will provide one of you safe passage back from the Underworld… Save the world and then go save your mother.” Percy’s whole dilemma in the books was leaving his mother behind while getting the lightning bolt back to Olympus on time. And, as the prophecy foretold, failing to save what matters most in the end.” I’ll be intrigued to see how this plays out.

I continue to enjoy the series and the departures it chooses to make, but as with the earlier appearance of Stinky Gabe, I wonder how they will resolve some of the consequences of the changes. ***Spoilers ahead, of course***

Annabeth continues to delight. Some of Percy’s attitude with Ares seems shifted over to her. And Ares himself is great. Grover stays behind with Ares as a hostage, rather than going with the other two, and does a good job of discreetly pumping the god for info. In the process, we get a bigger look at the god and his insecurities. Some wonderful lines are exchanged. My favorite is when Grover asks if Athena has always made “things more complicated than they need to be so that people will think she’s smarter than you.” Ares responds, “Thank you! I can’t be the only one who sees it, right?”

The series also again avoids the kids being slow on the uptake. Rather than seeing all the Greek capital Etas and only belatedly realizing they stand for Hephaestus (Ἥφαιστος), they know the park is his domain immediately (but the park being actually his domain – rather than just a place that he laid a trap in -does raise the issue of a god trespassing on another god’s domain without permission, something the PJ world building says is not allowed [although it matches Hephaestus catching Ares and Aphrodite in bed in The Odyssey], but perhaps Aphrodite as H’s wife can bring Ares into H’s domain??). I actually loved that the resolution relies not on conflict/action, but on emotional growth. It also gave a chance for a surprise early appearance of Hepheestus himself and makes him out to be one of the more likable Greek gods so far.

Which brings me to the big change that I’m interested in where it’s going. While Luke gave Percy the flying high top’s, Percy didn’t yet know about his not being able to fly/go into Zeus’ realm and that reason for he himself has not been discussed (that I recall). In the book, Grover thus wears them and uses them to help Percy and Annabeth both at Medusa’s place and in the water park. Neither of those things has happened. So the shoes have played almost no role. Which seems like a minor change, except they are the core of Luke’s betrayal of friendship – something big enough to merit a line in the prophecy and the foundation for a central conflict throughout the first five books. To relegate the shoes to the background, to having almost no role… Well, it leaves me wondering how this will play out in terms of the Luke-Percy betrayal of friendship. But onwards!

Another good episode. I won’t mention much, ***MILD SPOILERS AHEAD ALERT*** but I do want to highlight Percy’s speech to Annabeth on unconditional love (shout out to Sally Jackson who, in this universe, raised Percy with a healthy understanding of what parental love should look like) and how what the gods are asking for (very conditional “love”) is wrong. Great SEL moment for the young viewers.

I also appreciated the observation by Echidna,

Monster. It’s an odd word, considering my grandmother is your great-grandmother, and this has always been a family story.

It’s not only all one big family feud, but clearly the winners get to define who’s a monster and who’s not. Echnida goes on to say that

To my eye, the demigod is the more dangerous creature. Disruptive. Violent. If I exist for anything, it is to stand in the way of monsters like you.

Along the same lines, the parallels between Medusa in the last episode and Annabeth’s situation in this episode were downright poetic.

Okay, I guess I did have a few things I wanted to highlight.

Happy New Year! 🥳 Tomorrow, back to a writing post, but today is just for fun (not that writing isn’t fun). I am quite enjoying the Disney+ Percy Jackson series and where they choose to stay faithful to the books and where they choose to change it up. ***Standard Spoiler Warning: spoilers for episode and book hereafter***

Annabeth has a little more feistiness to her. She and Percy start off a little more antagonistic. Percy even confesses the rest of the oracle to them (something he keeps secret in the book) and says he chose Annabeth because he could never see her calling him friend, therefore she’d not betray him (as the oracle predicts that he’ll be betrayed by one who calls him friend). And their friendship forms more naturally. Not Annabeth looking for “The One” as in the books, nor through Grover’s attempt at a consensus song (ha!), but through shared hardships and choices, through recognizing shared values in one another.

The character’s are also less stupid – they recognize who Auntie Em is immediately. And Grover has no difficulty in recognizing his now-petrified Uncle Ferdinand. I love that they find Medusa in the Pine Barrens – and Percy’s comment that he didn’t expect a forest in NJ (another ha!).  If you don’t know the 1.1 million acre Pinelands National Reserve that stretches across 7 counties in NJ, it’s worth checking out!

But I digress. Medusa was always a difficult character for the book to handle. In the book, Medusa discusses Poseidon as her “boyfriend.” The book for middle schoolers could have hardly discussed rape, let alone Poseidon, the father of our protagonist, as a violent serial rapist (as he is in myth). The Disney series makes a number of changes. Besides moving away from her as a “Middle Eastern” woman in what seems to be a burqa in the books, she is given a sort of 1930s hat with a veil that covers her eyes. In the show, Medusa had been an ardent worshipper of Athena, who received no response, not even an omen (perhaps even a daughter of Athena, given how she says to Annabeth “I was you”). Poseidon came along and appeared to her and declared his love. Athena said this embarrassed her, so punished Medusa (which Medusa calls out as victim blaming). Medusa doesn’t simply love Percy as the son of Poseidon and hate Annabeth as the daughter of Athena. She takes the more complex attitude that we aren’t our parents, unless we choose to be. Medusa also parallels herself to Percy’s mother – another beloved of Poseidon who has suffered for it. She may have had him there, if she hadn’t suggested that he sacrifice Grover and Annabeth.

The show again and again focuses on the choices each character is making. And it nicely develops the tension around the relationship between mortal heroes and gods through the mortals/humans choices vs. being puppets of the gods.  Looking forward to episode 4.

The new Percy Jackson series is off to an excellent start. I love the move from movie adaptations of books to series, where there is the time and space to do a book justice. They’ve done a nice job of balancing fidelity to the series with letting it be its own story in a new medium.***Spoilers Warning for the book/tv series*** Read no farther if you have read/watched and don’t want any spoilers.

One departure that I’m curious as to where it is going is with Smelly Gabe. There’s been no mention of his smelliness that I’ve caught (though Sally uses the demi-god smells on Percy’s coat to lure the Minotaur away from him, so odors still important). Gabe in the streaming series is more isolated – instead of playing poker with friends, he is playing on-line; Eddie the building supervisor doesn’t like him; he is unemployed (I guess there will be no Percy offering on TV discounts at Gabe’s appliance store). Sally Jackson, Percy’s mom, is an even stronger character than in the books, but that also changes the power dynamics in their relationship. Gabe had been physically abusive in the books. In the streaming series, Sally forces him to say please in a nice way by threatening to leave peppers off a sandwich and not come home to watch the Knicks with him. He seems pleady, not abusive. Given this change, I’m wondering how they will end their marriage. Having Sally (not to mince words) kill him with the Medusa head (or if you prefer, change him into a valuable artistic statue with the Medusa head) as she did in the books seems like it would move from a morally grey area (given his violence towards her, we could understand it as self-defense) straight into wrongness.

Another change is that Percy has been seeing through the mist all his life and been told it was just his imagination. Thus, Sally’ not telling him about his demi-god identity until now feels more gaslighty than it did in the books (where it was just an omission, not a denial of his own senses).

In general, the casting is great. Jason Mantzoukas as Dionysos is fantastic! I loved him as Derek in The Good Place. He has the comic chops to carry off the fine line Mr. D. walks being self-centered dick and actually a good guy.  Glynn Turman as Chrion/Mr. Bremmer, I’ll admit, left me with feeling of the Magical Black Man trope – a trope so pervasive that it has it’s own movie now. His character has always been the wise, old advisor to heroes fulfilling their destinies, a special civilized centaur among his wild, savage brethren, so the character had the potential to fit a little too smoothly into the trope with this casting.

But Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), Percy (Walker Scobell), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) are all superb and I am really enjoying Charlie Bushnell’s portrayal of Luke and Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse. Annabeth’s introduction is slower – Luke and Chiron take over much of her camp tour duties. But I like what I’ve seen of her. And I like the view we get of her as well as her and Luke’s relationship through Luke’s eyes. Annabeth seems to figure out faster (than in the books) who Percy’s father is  (and unlike in the book) smiles when it is confirmed (rather than worrying about the rivalry between Athena – her mother – and Poseidon – Percy’s father).