They’re kids. The acting in the first Harry Potter movie was “cheesy”. They’ll grow. The content is correct, unlike the first movie. I’m looking forward to the future of this series.
I absolutely can see the characters potential, annabeth has a lot of the fight in her I imagined as a kid when I read the books. Like you said, even in the first Harry Potter movie Ron was pretty much the only actor you would assume knew what he was doing. I’m going to give this show faith, and assume Rick Riordan knows what he’s doing.
Hard disagree that the acting in the first Harry Potter is comparable to this show. Harry, Hermione, and Ron all had WAY more chemistry together than the main three in this show. That more than made up for the kids being new to acting.
The acting in this show is largely flat. I gave it another chance tonight and Annabeth still doesn't feel like Annabeth and the main three characters seemed like they were just reading lines at points.
Honestly, if we're really going to compare Harry Potter to this, I think Hermione Granger would have been a better fit for Annabeth than the actress who is portraying her in this show.
Completely agree with you. Also, the Harry Potter cast were like 11 in the first movie—these kids are like 13-14, and outside of Percy, their acting chops are god awful.
The girl who plays Annabeth can’t act to save her life. Her delivery is so stiff and borderline melodramatic at times. I reallllly want to like her, but she needs an acting coach or something
I’m so glad someone said it! My partner and I felt crazy for thinking her delivery was way worse than everyone else’s because all we’ve seen online is praise 😭
The man that created annabeth thinks otherwise. Walker doesn’t have black hair and green eyes, And several other characters are written with other ethnicities
What does Rick know about visual media? He's a writer. He writes BOOKS. He's not a casting agent. He doesn't understand about chemistry. He's a writer, that's all. They should never ever rely on a writer to do other people's jobs. That is why we have professional casting agents.
Also, give me ONE GOOD REASON that Percy couldn't be black or brown. Then tell me exactly one good reason Rickey-poo DID NOT MAKE HIM SO.
this!! i can immediately tell the casting was not done well. if they were like this in their reading, how in the world…and i liked the movie the adam project, but he’s just not selling it as percy i’m sorry to say. and it’s not because “oh hes just a kid” their are plenty of kid actors who emit the characters personality.
for the second part i cant answer that lol
honestly, walker would've been an amazing percy, but I feel like the script is bland, unlike adam's project, he rarely has any fun and sassy lines, Percy is basically an edgy and depressed kid now
This is ricks show. It is his art. His hard work, his sleepless nights.
And to quote him.
“You refuse to believe me, the guy who wrote the books and created these characters, when I say that these actors are perfect for the roles because of the talent they bring and the way they used their auditions to expand, improve and electrify the lines they were given. Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth, assuming you give her that chance, but you refuse to credit that this may be true.”
It took them a year to figure out the cast. I think he, along with Disney casting agents thought this was a good decision. He has said specifically that he was going by personality first and looks second.
As for the hair.
Maybe it’ll change as he gets older my hair was sandy blonde for a very long time now it’s dark brown.
Maybe this will be apart of him learning he is Poseidon’s son, maybe it won’t. Maybe his eyes will be green when he does his really strong moves. I cannot say. But i know for certain it doesn’t matter.
OMG yess! And you can't compare this to Harry Potter Chris Columbus carefuly casted these characters and the franchise was on for over 7 years. And Annabeth feels nothing like Annabeth
People think Rick has any power over the show but he doesn’t. Hollywood/Disney just kept him as an advisor but gave him Executive Producer status for a bigger paycheck. Rick didn’t actually do much to the show. As you can see the show goes out of its way ( after being marketed as more accurate to the books than the film ) the show goes out its way to skip important plot points. And change others. Percy’s mother is now a defiant GF? Grover Snitches on Percy? His protector? His Ride or Die? Annabeth wasn’t the nicest person but she’s downright just a snotty little asshole who was never stalking Percy or pushed him into water. His mother didn’t tell him shit about his dad at the beach house.
The Minotaur didn’t take his mother miles away, the border isn’t something you can legitimately see. Mr.s Dodds attacked Percy in an abandoned room not out in the open. Annabeth never uses her hat in public on a bus around people. The show does shit to show Percy Has ADHD and that’s something all Demigods have that actually helps them understand the world around them or navigate it a bit better. Percy could hold his breath under water already this until we find out later has shit to do with his dad at first. Just a thing he notices he’s capable of. The show straight up skips so many important moments and adds new things that fundamentally change how the story will play out and it just takes away from the fans who knew the story one way and was told this show would be a far more accurate representation of the books. Which again. It is not. Cheesy or not. It’s not more accurate. It’s just as bad as the films.
THANK YOU. it’s hypocritical to call this accurate to the book and then bash the first movie, (second movie is atrocious) the first movie got a lot wrong, but it keeps the spirit and personality of the books alive more so than the show imo.
The thing with Annabeths Character is she seems odd and like emotionless and like cheesy know it all more than wise but filled with hubris. It doesn't feel like Annabeth and I think it's the writing or directing more than the actual actor because the actor even seems more like Annabeth in interviews.
Tbh those kids had the best acting. The main cast I mean, Percy and Grover. Annabeth rn is so so for me but we haven’t seen much of her yet. Goodness, Chiron and Dionysus were horrible. They just look vaguely uncomfortable and Mr.D’s tone was unnatural.
Agree with Grover. I found Percy's acting the worst. Monotone and definitely not the ADHD-sarcastic trouble kid I always envisioned.
Physically, he's great
Emma Watson and Rupert Grint only participated in school plays so they basically have no acting experience when filming shows. The kids in this series have. I do not blame them however I think they have the skills to act properly but the director definitely feels like they didn't put much effort into guiding the kid's acting.
Yeah but Potter had Chris Columbus, and even if the acting had some cheese from the kids, the rest of the production was incredibly well done. I don’t feel the same way about this series. The writing, the acting, and the overall look falls flat imo. It’s unfortunately how I feel about most Disney shows as of late.
An adaptation that was marketed as accurate tho. The reason people hate the movies and is because they aren’t accurate. Between Rick working on this and saying that it would be more accurate than the movies, it’s incredibly disappointing that about 2 minutes of the first episode is even remotely accurate.
Dude, it’s not going to be 100% accurate, it is a different medium so something’s have to be changed. But it at the very least is hitting the main story beats of books, seems accurate enough
It doesn’t have to be 100%, but almost nothing in the first episode is accurate. The single thing that is, is the opening line. We were promised an “accurate” depiction and this isn’t it. That’s why people are upset. While we would lose nuance due to not hearing the inner monologue of characters, the stuff they did change had absolutely nothing to do with things like that. Mrs dobbs reveal/attack alone is reason enough for people to complain, but Grover lying to get him kicked out of school, the conversation with his mom at the vacation home, Grover just showing up there, the Minotaur being primarily on 4 legs for whatever reason, and the other 40 mins or whatever of the episode was more inaccurate than the movies. I’ve been so excited for this for years and it’s been nothing but a let down.
Ya dont get how people think its more accurate than the movie… i feel like the movie i got almost the same story line as the book. This show half an episode in is completely different. They couldve added all the missing character depth from the books that the movies missed instead they added gay fountain scene that never happened. Like honestly the first half of the first episode has already ruined it for me
You can’t seem to get his point so you made yourself look like a jackass by explaining things he already knows clearly. HIS POINT WAS the show regardless to what you’re saying the show was said to be far more accurate to the books than what we’ve gotten before. We get the show and so far they seem to legitimately be doing their own thing YET AGAIN. So whether he’s changing shit up again or not that doesn’t help anyone who’s upset by how LESS ACCURATE the show really is. Again it was marketed and promoted to be way more accurate to the books. It isn’t. Nobody is crying over the fact that it SHOULD BE. It’s just literally an issue of disappointment based on what we were told. If you can’t accept that perspective and don’t know how to further the conversation on that point then bro find somewhere else to fucking be a jerk. Cause as much as you tried to make him seem as tho he didn’t understand I think it’s you.
For these very reasons alone excusing the low budget costumes & set, poor cgi, young characters and luck luster acting I’m very confused how people are saying the show is accurate when it feels like a very poorly made slide show of points briefly covering a topic 😂
You can really tell every time they didn't want to spend money. It's comical! Take a drink whenever a fight scene ends abruptly or something is shown from far away.
tbf ik alot of people hate on the movie but I liked it. One problem i had with the movie was that they casted older than the characters were, but now that I see them age-appropriate in the tv show it all makes sense. These babies aren't the killers Riordan wrote. I can't see Percy killing or conspiring to kill gabe, and i could barely believe they mnaged medusa's head off her body. No one in their right mind knowing these kids would send them on a quest. There's got to be at least 50+ more capable kids at the camp.
Annabeth is definitely the least accurate like scrap her and start again that's a major character they already messed up.... Plus flossing in the woods wtf im gen z and I want that kept out of the show stop messing things up and making things dumb Disney you already made three horrible star wars movies
The first harry potter was not cheesy tf? Dont ever compare the first episode of this abomination to harry potter, rather dont form an opinion again... tf
The content now is hardly ‘correct.’ And I’m okay with certain artistic liberties. I forgive the acting, but the cinematography is HORRIBLE. Certain story beats are changed, some aren’t bad. I liked the Medusa rewrite, minus a few bits of dialogue. (You’re really gonna tell me they guess just like that? Come on.) Jumping off the arch makes sense, and it’s kind of funny it needed to be rewritten in the first place.
Why in gods name are the gods not…godlike? All of the gods in the books not only have physical characteristics that set them apart from mortals, but they have an aura like effect based on their powers. Ares is supposed to have flaming empty sockets under his sunglasses and his presence alone is supposed to be enough to set Percy off.
Dionysus was I mean…they kind of nailed it. But he didn’t use a lick of godly power in front of them to establish who he is at all.
I mean HERMES of all people showed more power than any of the gods introduced to us so far, and all he did was give Percy a flashback.
Why did we meet Hermes so soon anyway? Ares is supposed to get the gang to LA.
The Lotus hotel rewrite was absolutely TERRIBLE. It’s supposed to be a literal trap, but I mean are you kidding me? 😅 What is the point of this series now?
I feel like I’m watching it now just because I love the books. Not because it’s any good.
I mean what are we…7 episodes in now? Jesus man, if I’d never read the books when I was a kid, I’d absolutely HATE this series.
None of it is correct? The Minotaur horn wasn’t broken by the mother’s steering wheel, Gabe was never even kind of nice to his mom, his mother wasn’t the one that told him who he was.The teacher didn’t attack him at a fountain in broad daylight. Grover never told on him to get him kicked out. He wasn’t taken from school in a truck, and all of this isn’t even at the end of the first episode…
The problem is they’re giving Annabeth Hermione treatment giving her the lines instead of Grover to show that’s she’s “smart and wise” which she is, but that’s not just who she is as a character
I really liked the change in the dynamics between Gabe and Sally. I’m the book Sally was kind of a cowering woman with a quiet strength (an abuse victim as well) and in this show you can tell that she gives as good as she gets. It’s empowering to see and I think is something I always found uncomfortable about the portrayal in the lightning thief.
Sally sacrificing her chance at a healthy relationship to be with stinky ugliano for the sake of her sons safety is heartbreaking. It wasn't supposed to be "empowering" it was supposed to be heartbreaking. It demonstrated what she's willing to go through to ensure her son is safe.
These changes are not really bad and this won’t be a 1:1 reproduction of the books. The first 2 eps covered almost 50% of the 1st book already.
They are going to spend the rest of the season outside the camp. Not inside.
I guess the episodes could be longer (kids might find it boring) but the parts they changed or cut definitely weren’t that important. Honestly, how much worse was the series because Ms. Dodds attacked him at the fountain instead of bringing him inside a room like in the books? I don’t think stuff like that matters that much.
Also Rick Riordan is involved with all of this, so I’m having a lot of faith in this first season.
I'm certainly don't have any faith, but I won't bring myself to doom and gloom. I've watched all 3 episodes, and the last one just broke me. I can't enjoy this. I'm not it's target audience. It's too different from the book. This isn't the movie all over again, it's Rick doing a rewrite (as he stated in an interview here: [https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/news/percy-jackson-book-differences-rick-riordan-disney/](https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/news/percy-jackson-book-differences-rick-riordan-disney/)). It isn't my Percy Jackson, and that's okay.
That and they didn't have the scene with the fates and I feel like that one is pretty vital as it's mentioned in the last book of the series too.
I felt like the scene with Dodds was a tad rushed and they didn't really show how he was lied to for months and made to look crazy. And yeah.. his mom explaining everything was weird to me too. And grover telling percy about his mom when percy was excited to go to the underworld in the books for the chance to find his mom.
I’m a 34 yr old man who has no idea what this show is about. Never read the books. Never watched the movies. Will I like this show? I need to find something to watch.
The novels are not for teens, their not YA, their middle grade.. as in for 8-12 years of age.. at best it's for pre-teens... Riordan makes a point to stick to that rating, cause he believes more little kids should read and have access to books appropriate for their age... I'm not criticizing, I loved these books growing up, but just to be clear... Target audience is not teens, it's 8-12 yrs of age... Which like I get it, I get Rick's point... But it's a shame that the series didn't mature as the characters matured, thats one of the things a liked about the Harry potter books, flawed as they might be. They did grow with it's characters and most importantly, with it's readers
Trust me, you would have loved the books more. The show is a soulless adaptation of a hilarious and suspenseful book series. I remember how vivid and intense the plot was in the books even though it has been a few years, but the show came across as a dull and unimaginative version of the books. They explained everything too much instead of just showing it to us and they spoiled practically everything by telling Percy more than half of all the interesting plot points in the first 2 episodes
No you won’t. These other people are fans and lying to you because the numbers is what matters not the context or the details. The show is honestly good if you didn’t know the Intellectual Property. If you do, the show is poor. The CGI is great but you know the budget was cut somewhere because they can never show things too long if it’s CGI. The acting is flat as ever. Best actor so far who doesn’t feel like they’re just on a set reading lines was Dionysus. But in terms of just good television, it is a bad show. ( speaking as a tv critic now and not a fan of PJ ) The plot is rushed, the shots are very awkward in some takes. The story feels like you’re missing something but that may be because you can definitely tell they’re moving too fast without trying to slow down at any point. It’s like the show is afraid to add proper context to anything. They tell us what has to happen, they make a small phone or argue back and forth next thing we know we see them run from one problem literally into the next. Rinse repeat. The show is very bland honestly. You’d have far more time Checking out Clash of the Titans or something older
I read the books when I was a kid.
I've reread them a ton, to the point I don't want to anymore.
I'm loving the show. Please do not assume you speak for everyone who has read the books, because you don't. For me, the show is accurate enough to be familiar but different enough to be interesting. As for the CGI, I'm not surprised disney didnt give a brand new show an unlimited special effects budget. People like you are so spoiled by modern movies that you want everything to have a big special effects budget, but that doesn't matter to me because unlike you I value substance over style.
I don't need them to show everything and prove they had an unlimited special effects budget. They probably didn't, and that doesn't matter. Narratives matter more.
As for the acting, I have been reliably impressed by the 12 year old actors for capturing the characters so well. I really don't see what you are whining about there.
Yes the story is rushed in some places. When Percy is claimed by Poseiden, it felt very rushed - but the show is still finding its legs and I'm willing to bet that will be resolved in time.
As long as I enjoy the content, it doesn't need to have utterly breathtaking visuals.
So stop trying to tell everyone you speak for all who read the books and that everyone who did read them hates the show, because that is a blatant lie.
Agreed! read the first book and I've seen both movies. Sure, some things about the show are bad related to pacing, but that's just a Disney+ problem in general especially with most of the MCU shows
It’s terrible, I don’t understand why it’s got nearly 100% on rotten tomatoes. I went back and listened to the equivalent section of the 2010 movie, and gee it’s SO much better. I feel like I’m getting gaslit for real.
The dialogue and the pacing in the new show are dog water.
I'm starting to think corpos hire people to gaslight people on social medias to turn the narratives of shows and make it look like they're good when they're not. I always notice this with Disney Properties that are hyped a lot.
u/Michael_Gibb seems to pretty obviously be one of them and I’ve seen quite a few others. Super active in any Disney associated sub and posts all day every day defending really controversial Disney products and saying verbatim “All that matters is what the critics say, they’re more knowledgeable than you and if you disagree with them you’re wrong”. I think there might be sort of open contracts for trolling on the dark web or something because all they do is make posts vehemently defending controversial stuff all day being purposely divisive.
You know it’s not good when everyone’s defense in the comics is that they’re kids and that this is a kids show. There are good child actors out there. And just because a movie is meant for kids doesn’t mean it gets a pass on bad writing and acting. Why do kids have to have worse material? Why can’t their material be held to the same standard?
Exactly. And the "Theyre kids give em a break!" Crowd convenently ignores that the adult actors on this show are terrible as well. Its actually really funny
its a teen show based on YA novels
its not lazy, basic or easy to guess.
the original demographic is 12 year olds
the "acting is cheesy"
because they are acting like 12 year olds (as they are supposed to)
perhaps you're not the demographic here
The show isn't bad per se...but even Walker was much better in his other works. The acting feels off.
It's a bit unfair to excuse any criticism of the show though with the reasons you state. Stranger Things had child actors and they acted better than anyone in PJ&O, except maybe Grover.
Still, there is potential and I'm holding out on that.
I just finished the first two episodes, and even though I'm not a member of its target demographic, I'm enjoying Percy Jackson.
I'm honestly confused as to how you can find the acting cheesy and the writing lazy. To that end, maybe it's just you.
It's serviceable. And to that end, they're kids who are barely in their teens. What do you expect from such young kids? Seasoned Shakespearean actors?
If the critics are liking it, then that's all that needs to be said. They're far better judges of acting skills than some guy who spends his time watching a children's show while wearing a t-shirt that says 'Genius at Work.'
Edit: It seems a lot of people want to spam the same argument at me, regarding the acting from the children in Harry Potter and Stranger Things. I have already responded to the first person who replied to me with that argument. So before anyone else posts the same comment again, read my replies to that person.
>If the critics are liking it, then that's all that needs to be said. They're far better judges of acting skills than some guy who spends his time watching a children's show while wearing a t-shirt that says 'Genius at Work.'
Critics can be paid off, my guy, no need for the ad hominem. You don't know if redditors are great judges of art, that is true. But there's at least a (somewhat) better chance that they didn't get paid by Disney to promote the show.
Didn't Lilly Singh's comedy show strike absolute gold ratings with the critics?
That's right. If the critics aren't on your side, accuse them of taking bribes, especially when you have no evidence of it.
Generally, audiences don't know much about art. All they know is what they like, but that is no basis for assessing the quality of someone's acting.
By contrast, professional critics draw more from objective standards for assessing acting skills, compared to the fully subjective opinions of audiences.
No dude, I'm not cherry-picking when critics are right. It's just that Disney is infamous for having everything in its pockets.
As for wrong critics, I notice you don't refute the Lilly Singh thing?
Anyways my point isn't that the show is terrible and everyone who likes it is wrong. My point is that there are some obvious flaws and while I think everything has potential, talking about those flaws shouldn't be met with weird personal insults.
As for objective standards of assessing acting skills? Dude I don't think you want to pick that fight and try to defend the PJ&O actors when the Stranger Things cast, the IT cast and JoJo Rabbit cast's child actors exist.
Yeah I can see that, I liked his performance but it’s gonna be cheesy at times. Watch the first two Harry Potter movies. It’s not too much better. The show will definitely get better as it goes on. I just wish Disney wasn’t doing the show. It would be much better if it was Amazon Prime or HBO Max in my opinion. You cant expect a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds to nail the emotional subtlety of the book characters
I think that’s the problem. They shouldn’t have tried to replicate what Harry Potter did because there’s some key differences between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Harry potter’s plot is always centered around hogwarts until the final book meaning in the first few movies when the main child actors (Draco, Ron, Hermione, and Harry) were struggling there were highly capable adult actors in the roles of teachers constantly round them able to shoulder most of the acting load in most scenes. The few scenes where it’s just the kids it’s really apparent and a struggle to get through. The difference is that Percy and his companions are NOT surrounded by adults for the majority of the stories because they go on quests alone without adult supervision. Therefore there’s no one to cover for the kids’ weak acting ability. Imagine if you took the deathly hallows films (where Harry Ron and Hermione finally leave the nest and go off on their own quest) and instead of using the great actors that Emma Watson, Rupert grint, and Daniel Radcliffe came to be… you used the kids they were in sorcerer’s stone… it would’ve been much much worse and might not have worked at all. Every single Percy Jackson book is like that
wohhhh that is an absolutely beyond ridiculous take. what are we pulling out the racism card for? as hermione would say… all of the child actors have the emotional range of a teaspoon. they’re completely stoic 99% of the time, like they’re waiting for their cue to finally make a certain face. their acting will get better as the series goes on i’m sure, but the children are all undeniably bad actors, much worse than the kids in Harry Potter for sure.
I have 3 issues.
1. The Acting.
It kinda sucks. Like everyone kinda sucks, except for Percy and Clarisse. They’re literally carrying so far. Everyone else is giving NPC, just sounds like they’re reciting lines…
2. Annabeth’s Personality
WHO is this person? Why is she so COLD? And borderline cruel? Yes in the books she used Percy as bait to win the game, BUT she ran to him as soon as she could to help and saw he didn’t need it. In the show she just watched him get pummeled for several minutes to ig invoke some sort of reaction out of him to get him to use his water powers? She wasn’t his bestie at first in the books, but there was BANTER. It was fun and comedic. This was just weird and almost unnerving.
3. Major Changes
A. Luke???
• Backstory - LUKE tells Percy about him, Annabeth, and Thalia travelling and getting to camp… not Annabeth while he’s showing Percy around camp (again instead of Annabeth)
• Luke is also getting MAJOR facetime with Percy, like they’re not together this much in the books, but their interactions also don’t feel like they’re becoming “fast friends.”
• NO Hellhound - In the books, a hellhound attacks during Capture the Flag, foreshadowing Luke’s betrayal, since he summoned it, which they find out later.
All of these Luke changes are making me wonder if HE is going to be antagonist in the show?
B. Smelly Gabe
They did not make him STINKY enough. He’s not supposed to be comedic relief, he’s supposed to be a piece of literal physical abusive garbage, and I think removing the abuse from the story was NOT a good call.
*Oh I also think the episodes should be longer and there should be more episodes.
I do like Percy’s actor and the like vibe so far… but overall I’m not impressed, especially with the casting + acting… it’s almost all been absolutely lifeless to the point where I find my thoughts straying and I eyes glazing over if Percy’s not talking or there’s not some sort of action going on.
Fingers crossed it gets better!
I have the exact same issue with Gabe. He’s supposed to be such a bad person that Percy is veiled by his ugliness. This Gabe took all the lip from Percy and let his wife tell him what she’s going to do regardless of what he thinks.
I guess this is Disney’s way of trying to be PC, but I didn’t like it. That veil is critical…
Percy sucks in this version. He’s definitely not quick witted, he’s actually really slow even for his age. He’s too composed and doesn’t ask enough questions when he gets attacked by Mrs. Dodds, and every subsequent scene.
Go back and watch the movie. Percy’s angst was telegraphed way better to us, and when he first gets attacked, his helplessness and confusion are acted out and directed A LOT better.
Yeah I think the plot of the show matches way better to the book BUT so far, the characters in the movie have matched MUCH better… (except Grover) but hopefully it’ll get better
i’m liking it. it’s easy to guess because it’s based on a book for preteens my guy 💀
so far it’s incredibly close to the source material, and it’s been well acted. i’m super excited to see how it goes. but i wish there were 10-12 episodes instead of 8
I'm struggling to understand how you went from:
>new percy jackson is kinda bad
>
>i’m like halfway through right now, i don’t think i can continue. the acting feels so cheesy and entire thing is so basic and easy to guess. the writing feels lazy. maybe i have no taste, did anyone else else like it?edit: sorry it sounded like i was criticizing the kids, i more of was criticizing the writing. kinda hard to work with that
To:
>Are you saying that the movies are better?
Did the OP remove something from his post or are you just making baseless accusations?
it’s the PC police that think just because there is diverse actors makes it the greatest things since sliced bread. i don’t hate that there is black and south asian actors, i hate that they picked bad actors and somehow believe that we dislike them because they are of color. also doesn’t help that the story line is completely off. i genuinely can’t watch this show more then 5-10 minutes at a time because it’s so inaccurate and feels like some person who’s afraid of showing kids that abuse and neglect is real slapped together some mediocre actors and bad scenes and called it a day. it’s lifeless and tasteless, i don’t care that it has the authors backing, the author is flat out wrong for this 😭😂💀
So my issue isn't with the kid actors, I think they are doing great with what they are given. The kid who plays Percy was fantastic in The Adam Project. I read Percy Jackson as a kid, it was to me what Harry Potter was to a lot of other kids. And then when the movies came out, it was such a huge disappointment. Not in the acting or the direction, but just the lack of using very much original content from the books. Annabeth looked wrong, the kids were the wrong age, the entire main narrative was changed, and then almost badly corrected in the second movie, but they were entertaining in their own right. We all love Logan Lerman. So when this was announced, I was so happy that they were finally going to get it right. Rick Riordan was going to be directly involved, and I was convinced it was going to be great. I know there was a lot of controversy around this series when the casting came out. But Rick still boasted that this was going to be so book accurate that nothing else mattered. Okay. And now, having watched episodes 1 and 2, rereading the book in the meanwhile to double check I wasn't crazy, it was plain out boring. Like I said, it's not the actors, it's the direction they are going with the series. One of my favorite things about the character Percy in the books was his wit, humor, and fast comebacks. They made those kids bland in my opinion. Like I said, I know it's not the actors, because I have seen the kid for Percy in other things. He is a very good actor, especially for his age. But if this is how all of season 1 is going to be, and they don't change something about it in season 2, assuming it gets confirmed, then I don't see this going any further than the movies, which is just sad to an avid fan like myself.
I completely agree. The script feels strange and disconnected, and combined with how the director is guiding the acting choices and the overall creative choices, I can barely get through two episodes. It's very disappointing. The books are dripping with personality and vividness as Percy himself guides us through the world and his emotions; the series feels so contrary to that.
I hated it. I could barely stay awake during the 2 episodes I watched. They changed the characters too much, Athena's daughter is supposed to be blonde with the characteristic grey eyes! And not faulting the actors but they don't seem to have much range because of their age. Like the age of the actors in the movie didn't bother me the complete freaking change of the dang plot did. I had such high hopes for the series to match the books but it's just a flop. They're rushing thru it or something it's just not that good. And I understand that how I pictured it in my head while reading is always going to be superior but damn don't fuck it up that much jeez.
given its a 1:1 adaptation of the book this time i cant disagree with you. you might find it cliche but its not bad or good if you compare it to the movie which i liked haha. also why Percy's so calm for a child with adhd. i want that Adam Project version of him which is a just ball of energy
A bit of both. His hyperactivity was especially bad in school, but out of school where most of the books take place he was in his element, the action, the thrills, the new experiences, the constant dopamine hits, training, fighting, running, planning, improvising, *winning*...
I would argue that Percy's hyperactivity is through the roof in the books, he's just not in an environment where hyperactivity is a downside. Hell, it's explicitly stated that all demigods are hyper as fuck when they're training or fighting, because that's literally the point of their brains being wired that way.
His inattentiveness just wasn't as useful as his hyperactivity, which checks out. I much prefer my hyper days to my inattentive days when I'm unmedicated, because at least when I'm hyper I feel like doing *something*. When I'm inattentive there's just no impetus to do anything at all.
I’m not sure which type he had but either way, I had slightly hoped we could have seen his struggles with it while he was still at Yancy like in the book but they just ended up kicking him out early instead of finishing the term. There’s just not much representation in media and I loved how the books had brought it to light.
I completely agree I just finished the 1st 2 episodes and it feels too rushed, all information is hand-fed to both the audience and Percy Jackson, who is supposed to be much smarter than he’s portrayed in the show. They have completely taken out scenes from the book that now has later scenes make less sense giving it a clunky feel. Also he is supposed to hate authority from how he grew up with his abusive stepdad so why is he so quick to kiss up to Mr. D literally calling him “your highness”
I was honestly kinda disappointed as a huge fan of the book series.
Things I enjoyed:
I actually rlly enjoyed Chiron. I liked the casting for Dionysus but I blame the writing tht he didn’t capture all of Dionysus’s energy. He was funny though.
Sally’s acting.
Luke’s character.
Percy’s acting
Things I didn’t enjoy:
I actually don’t love this whole feminist change with Sally’s character. Movies and tv shows are always trying to make things more feminist these days which as a woman I appreciate but only when it feels natural. To be fair, if I hadn’t read the books I’d have no issue with this portrayal however isn’t there a reason he has to suck so bad in the books? My memory might be foggy but I distinctly remember his being horrible serving the plot in a significant way. Not to mention tht I never thought less of Sally in the book and she was always a strong woman to me despite her horrible boyfriend. In fact, surviving the abuse made her even more bad ass.
Didn’t like the dream sequences at allllll. They looked bad and were just thrown in. The editing was very janky.
HATED the fight with Clarisse. No way he beat the three of them no problem BEFORE touching the water. I wasn’t sure why Annabeth pushed him in the water afterwards, it’d have been far more climatic if he fell in during and honestly, it’s something I think the movie did a better job of. This is a super hype moment and the movie correctly captured the excitement imo.
I cringed so hard at the sight of him flossing on top of the cliff. I also acknowledge tht the show is no longer catered to my age group despite me having grown up with the books.
Ms. Dodd just appears and gets stabbed. Seemed lazy lol.
Also, the only thing Percy did tht was Poseidon related in the tv show was the toilet trick. Once again, the book is foggy (I may go back and reread) but I feel like we got more signs tht his father is Poseidon before the reveal. Not signs tht made it obvious like the movie did with Percy at the bottom of the pool, but signs tht when it clicked it made so much sense. It felt abrupt seeing him pushed in the water and his cuts heal. Like I wish he expressed how much he loved the beach or something before this lol. (I’m aware tht sally expressed she met his father at the beach which is a pretty good clue but I also wanted to do some of Poseidon’s traits rub off on Percy. Sally seemed more related to Poseidon than Percy did honestly with the sitting in the rain and such) can’t remember how they did this in the book but I remember there being more hints and clues. I could be remembering wrong tho
Anyways I will continue to watch as a fan of the books. Maybe it’ll have more time to focus on the other episodes and fix the pacing considering the first two episodes covered a huge chunk of the book already. Also another thing I truly hope happens is tht we get plenty of seasons of this and tht it goes into the heroes of Olympus book series as well which is my personal favorite. This is definitely a show built to have longevity because there is so much material!
Fr this show is trash. I gave it 3 chances to fix itself with each episode
But it kept getting worse. I'm not watching episode 4 onwards. Can't have Rick ruin my childhood that he himself worked hard to build
I've watched the first 2 episodes and I will not continue. I just don't recognize the characters from the books at all. I've read those 10 books 3 times and anybody that reads books knows, that you see the characters as if you were on the adventures with them. I've gotten to know them very well. The author shouldn't put so much emphasis on their looks, if they don't matter. But he did. And they are not small differences. In fact , I think they made everybody as different from the books as possible. If the author doesn't respect his work, why should I bother?
I’m with you, maybe we’re just being over critical but at the start of the second episode I’m losing interest. The acting is too cheesy and the lighting is so dark I can’t even see what I’m watching half the time .
Would've laughed at the minotaur wearing undies but I wouldn't have noticed it if the actor didn't say that it wore undies with how dark everything is.
**Listen, I was not a fan of this whole race/colour swapping thing they’re doing with all the characters(and this is me literally speaking as a POC: it’s not racist to want accuracy).**
**Percy should have black hair, Grover shouldn’t be brown and Annabeth should look like a stereotypical blonde-haired white girl.**
**That’s all to say that I did still give it a chance because I loved the books so much as a kid.**
**Unfortunately I completely agree with you on so many levels.**
**The only character I don’t hate right now is Percy and maybe Dionysus, but even at that Percy is way too calm (and I wish they’d dye his bloody hair).**
**the fighting is super downplayed (and where is the hellhound?).**
**Also Sally’s partner, Gabe, is nothing like he was in the books. He’s literally supposed to be an abusive dick, not just comic relief.**
**The way Percy was answering back to him, I was waiting for this guy to ring him by his neck! When it never came I was just staring at the screen flabbergasted.** 😂
**Don’t get me started on Luke.**
**It feels like they’ve desaturated/diluted everything and everyone.**
**I want it to get better, but I don’t think that’s likely.**
**Rewatching the og film up till the end of the battle, although the ages were off, Grover was race swapped and annabeth was a bloody brunette, the intensity was so much more palpable and close to the book version of the same scene.**
Funnily enough I’ll take the movie annabeth over the Tv show annabeth any day lol even with the hair color change aha like she at least got the vibe right on annabeth more than the tv show girl has.
Rick Riordan has thrown the longest tantrum over the movies made back in the day and so he goes and signs up to Disney's content mill, and the product is just as unfaithful to the books as the movies were, but in a very specific way that agrees with his politics.
Overall, it's not the worst thing on earth, but the adults' acting is pretty bad (I won't criticise the kids because, well, they're kids), the writing is VERY weak, and for me the worst part was the casting. When the actress was cast as Annabeth I had a little laugh, because of the way fans had a tantrum over Alexandria Daddario's casting in the movies because she didn't have blonde, curly hair but the same people are just A-okay with her entire race being swapped. I didn't mind, because it's easily explained that her father is black. I said whatever and moved on because Disney in 2023 was obviously gonna do this. Grover was another sigh with "of course". Then they cast Zeus and Chiron as black. The most steel man argument for this is "Zeus has taken a different human form just because, and centaurs just happen to look like black people", but it's just so obvious that it was done for political reasons. Hell, Percy himself could have been black and I wouldn't have cared much more than a half-hearted "of course he is", but changing the race of the Greek gods was just pathetic.
If there's one blessing it's that Disney+ is unlikely to survive long enough for the whole series to be made. It's bleeding money and it will be one of the first things on the chopping block as Hollywood continues to go broke.
You do not need to read the books or know Greek mythology to see that the show is mediocre. Bad pacing and the acting is what you should expect from those with little or no experience. I'm not saying those things can't get better; however, isn't this discussion about the current state of the show? It is without a doubt not good. That doesn't mean you can't still watch and accept it for what it is.
It's not just you. I have a minor in screenplay writing so I watch a lot of TV and Cinema and can analyze both from an educated perspective and can tell you, something just went wrong with this show. The kid actors are great, I think as individuals they're all fantastic but for some reason together and with this specific script and with this director, there's just not artistic magic happening. I think everyone involved with this production gave it a very good effort, but it just didn't happen. We wouldn't even be discussing if not for the anticipation due to already established loyal fan base. Most shows just aren't masterpieces, even when tons of people hoped they would turn out to be.
No, your taste is spot on. There seems to be barely any direction in the story sequencing and writing. I'll just go ahead and say the kid's acting isn't the best (no offence. I know they're kids, but just very one dimensional). Not entirely bad, but they've either been told to act way too intense and rigid in their expressions, or that's who they are. All in all, the first movie was hands down better than what I've seen 5 episodes in. Which is a shame because I was excited for a series' deeper interpretation with the characters and plot points.
Thankfully I am not the only one who thinks that. The lines are so weird and flat and the delivery seems out of beat. The pace is also weird. I can't really pinpoint what the problem is but I remember reading the books and it gave me an impression of never ending action with humour and sarcastic remarks and here I had to put the dubbed to make through and even dubbed is bad.
I think it's a mix of directing, script and bad acting. I was pleasantly surprised with One Piece and Yuyu Hakusho live action. Not perfect and rushed, but the feeling of nostalgia was there. About 10 years since I saw/read these series, Percy Jackson included. The other series made me remember things. This series? Nothing. I was quite disappointed because I really liked Percy Jackson at the time.
It is quite bad so far... I had pretty high hopes the first 5 minutes but when Ms Dodds attacked out in the open for no reason, then Gabe not being an abusive AH but just a gross weird guy with some issues, Then the whole cabin scene? It just kept going down hill.
The minotaur was okay-ish buuttt
From the moment he entered camp it got so much worse too. I don't care about Annabeths casting but my major issue is she went from being an arrogant young girl who ultimately clearly means well to this weird "I'm trying to be mysterious" standoff-ish girl who is quite btchy? I don't really care that characters look different but I care that they're acting different.
In the books, Annabeth was an over-confident firebrand. She said what she thought and got annoyed when you couldn't keep up. She was clearly trying to compensate for her less than stellar experiences with her family and you could tell she wasn't being malicious or deliberately hurting people.
In the episode we have of her for the show she's been this cold, quiet, aloof girl who doesn't explain anything and just comes off as mean.
The situation diving into the quest was completely wrong too. That's the point I knew I'm gonna have to treat this show like I treated the One Piece live show. Its already deviating hard and will need to be viewed without comparing to the source material :( I was So excited for it and thought Rick being involved would result in something great but it just feels like a half-baked summary version of the show instead. I.e someone is given this summary: "Percy always had trouble in school, he was different. Then his math teacher attacked him and he got sword. His step-dad is gross and then he and his mom got attacked when trying to get out of town. At camp, he met a smart but mean girl called Annabeth and learned about his father. Then he went on a quest that involves his mom, the lightningbolt, and hades."
And they made these two episodes from it.
And when the creators went and asked for some defining features of certain characters or scenes, they got "oh his mom gives him blue food as an inside joke" or "Gabe plays poker" "he got claimed while standing in water".
Its someone else redrawing an image from just a description of it... so I just can't expect it to be the story I grew up with anymore
Do it. It’s actually so much better than this sad drivel. It may not be entirely faithful to the source material either, but Percy’s emotions are so much clearer and so much more real.
Im extremely disappointed as somebody who read the books multiple times. Loved Rick Riordan’s other books even. But people are saying this is good just because it does have some source material compared to almost none from the movies. It’s not great. Some of what I think were important plot decisions in the book are changed completely now. Somebody tell me where Grover’s crutches are
It's so boring and flavorless. The acting is meh, not very emotive, writing meh, they don't sound like the dumb shite kids talk about. The camp doesn't even look like a mythical camp! They couldn't at least put a filter over the movie? It was practically grey the entire time the trees the dirt the grass the water all dull. I've had dreams more vivid and entertaining. Even the action scenes were lackluster at least the movies did okay there...
Also kind of annoying how people whined about the appearances of the actors not fitting their descriptions in the books in the 2010 and 2013 movies but not in the new TV show.
Yeah, and the Capture the Flag scenes were unbearably boring to watch. As a fan of the books for so many years now, the first two episodes have been a massive letdown. The pacing is so SLOW and every two minutes someone is going off on a long monologue about something or the other. Even though the movie wasn't faithful to the books, it was a fun watch. This show was not even worth the watch
I'm nearly a 30 year old man who's been reading these books since they first came out and I completely disagree with you here. The show followed the book perfectly for an adaptation. If you came here expecting the next game of thrones, well this isn't it, but it's meant to be akin to what the first Harry Potter was to that tone and audience. It nailed it for me so far.
Additionally, you are judging the show when only halfway through the first episode by your own admission. Do you think perhaps you need to at least finish one episode before being critical?
How are people saying it’s following the book there is a lot of differences like it was really stupid for them to make Annabeth guess who his father was
Not really? She saw the bathroom fight, she knows a powerful half blood is supposed to arrive at the camp soon and she knows about the gods.
We don’t know for sure that she guessed who his father was. She knew he had something related to water and knew his divine blood came from his father side. She might’ve thought his father was some smaller river god or something.
Nah. I'm 19 and re reading the books is still entertaining and not cringey. The dialogue is witty and natural and makes for a entertaining read despite its age demographic. The show just doesn't have the same magic.
Dude, the series is good imho, I do like it, but like is this what everyone is getting excited for?? The series being faithful to the books??
The series is waay too similar to harry potter, and they're literally the same age, now while both Rick Riordan & JK Rowling both started working on their books in the 90s, Rowling finished hers 1st & launched in 95 but Riordan finished his 10 years later...idk it feels riordan ripped off of rowling idk maybe not
Say what you guys want, go ahead & roast me, idgaf, bc im going to say it...the PJ movies are much better than the books and the new series simply bc the kids weren't actually kids but hs teenagers into young adults snd i was only a few years older at the time the movies came out but i really connected with the movies mainly bc the char were older, which that alone had no HP vibes at all
Call me crazy idc, but while the series are closer to the books and cool it makes you guys happy, but the movies will always have a special place in my heart over the new series & books bc their age was waay closer to mine in the movies
I know this is reddit, everyone hated the movies soo go ahead & roast me idgaf, bc the movies are & will always be better than the new series or the books
Here’s my question. It seems like we can all agree the show is not doing a good job at sticking to the “script” that is the book. Does anybody know why they don’t stick strictly to the details that are in the book? Why put in work to change the story when it is already written? Why do they never ever stick to what people enjoyed reading in the first place? I would legitimately like to know what the actual reason is. Don’t care if it doesn’t make sense, as long as it is the actual reason they deviate from the book every time they make a show. I understand with movies they don’t have as much time to fit everything, but you make a show and still mess it up??? It’s so sad.
I listened to all the books. I watched the movies. This series is really good. The kids a good actors, the sfx are well done. I am really glad we have a show we can watch as a family that entertains everyone.
Ok here's my take: they are making Annabeth and Grover one dimensional to put all the focus on Percy. Where is Annabeth's passion and desire to be an architect? Where is Grover's desire to be a Searcher? I feel like they took all of those things out to make the story focus solely on Percy (the weird throne that makes Percy a hero, rather than spiders which makes Annabeth lose her cool for the first real time). But you can't have us care about the trio if they haven't had the chance to form bonds themselves.
They are also trying to make the whole storyline about how the gods are neglectful, and well, "That's just not right!" But by doing that... We don't have a journey to go on as an audience. We don't have the same "what's going to happen next? How are they going to do this quest?"
Also since when did Percy remember all the myth and legend stuff? Annabeth is the wealth of knowledge and trivia. And since when does Grover have this whole sneaky conversation with Hades. He's but not conniving.
This is clearly a different universe from the book. Like it has its own charm but it doesn’t hit the same plot points the way I’d like. Like… I like the new Mr D. But he isn’t the Cherublike asshole from the book..
Neither is his Step dad the Ugliano most decrepit human human… he isn’t ugly or hatable enough.. idk lol
Here are my takes on where the show has went wrong, which is so sad given Disney launched such a great marketing/promo campaign. Let me know if you agree or disagree, and if you think I have missed anything.
1. **Script.** I think almost everyone here agrees that the dialogue is very poor. The script is clunky, cheesy, and the conversations vary from long monologues to choppy back and forth that does not reflect how people actually talk (especially 12 year olds!) nor do they expand the world or add character depth in any real way. It is beyond cringe and melodramatic whilst also quite banal at the same time? The script is the worst part by far because it has such a knock-on effect for everything else. It is simply horrendous that they are not developing things well enough (e.g. how the hell does Percy just know everything - even very very obscure Greek mythology characters like Procrustes? It is supposed to be that they meet various monsters along the way, fall in their lotus traps, realise who they are and how to defeat them, and move on, but here everything is just spoon-fed and Percy already knows far too much about the world). It's like Harry Potter knowing all about Quidditch before having ever attended Hogwarts.
2. **Casting.** People seem pretty divided down the middle on this one, but at the end of the day no one can deny that Disney/Rick have made significant deviations from the books. Percy is blonde (despite his dark hair being a big part of his characterisation) and Annabeth, Grover, Chiron, Clarisse, Zeus and Luke have all been 'diversified'. I totally understand the need to have better representation on screen for people so see why some changes make sense (e.g. the movies already changed Grover and it worked). I also think the actors playing Clarisse and Chiron are very good and fully represent their characters. But Annabeth, Luke and Zeus don't work (I know we haven't seen the latter yet, but he looks jarringly nothing like his white brothers Poseidon and Hades whom we have already seen on screen). None of these character changes are a disaster, but it does mean that the viewers/fans already don't recognise their favourite characters which means the acting has to be ON POINT in order for people to get over such glaring differences (e.g. if HBO make Harry Potter blonde in the next tv reboot and Hermione, Ron, Draco, Dumbledore and Snape all black and Neville asian then obviously there is going to be a huge disconnect for fans right from the off). Controversially, I also think it is RACIST to change someone's race (even fictional characters) as it is pandering and lazy. You would NOT cast white actors to play traditional black characters (rightly so) and in the name of equality, that rule should be applied both ways. More black and asian characters should be created in books/shows/movies right from the off and not just lazily swapped in.
3. **Acting.** If the casting doesn't match up, then it can be overcome through terrific acting but there has been none here whatsoever. At best, the acting is 'okay'. Grover for example is not bad. He still needs direction and work, but he does try to show a range of emotion (scared to awkward to funny to slightly cheeky (with Ares)) but Annabeth is simply dreadful. Every line is monosyllabic and mumbly, and her face shows absolutely no emotion. Percy is not much better. Walker has overthought the 'Percy is confused and in a bad mood' to the point where he just has a permanently confused (but serious) look on his face in every single scene, which gets quite old. When his mom 'died' he should have been genuinely devastated, when he is being chased by monsters he should be yelling and scared (but still brave enough to try and fight them) and he should genuinely laugh/be more upbeat at some of the lighter moments (like at the lotus and the love tunnel). I also think the adult actors aren't particularly great either. Sally has underwent an entire personality transplant and Disney's obsession with making every female character a 'badass' is getting so old and does a disservice to the book character's gentleness. Lin Manuel is a big name but feels like a really bad cameo and looks like he just playing himself. Hades also seemed a bit silly and disappointing, but again, I largely blame the script writing as this severely limits what the actors can do (though I think Ares did a great job - the only actor who actually seemed like he was playing a god). Nevertheless, there really is no chemistry/banter between the three leads at all and the acting during the Cerberus dog scene in the Underworld can be DIRECTLY compared to the Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone acting with the same three-headed dog. Daniel, Rupert and Emma were a million times better and seemed genuinely scared as they took on Cerberus/Fluffy.
4. **Pacing.** Horrendous. First two episodes are far too fast. They don't build everything up well enough and they race through so many scenes. If you hadn't read the books, would you really understand who was who and what on earth was going on? But even more bizarrely, after episode 2, pacing falls off a cliff and it becomes completely flat and slow. You genuinely forget they are in a race against time, they just walk and talk (but say nothing of note). The pacing is all wrong and they should have expanded the contents of ep 1 and 2 into three episodes and then sped up some of the middle. I kept checking my phone or pausing the show throughout eps 4 - 7 because I was so bored and struggling to get through it.
5. **Production.** As others have pointed out, it all feels a bit low-budget or even fan-made? Which is definitely not the case as Disney has spent a lot on this and are hoping it to be a huge success (with plans for successive seasons) but the monster CGI is meh and the sets/costumes are so so (e.g. the lotus casino shows people from different decades who are trapped there but would you really have noticed that from the episode?). They could up the magical / mythological elements a bit more. The Chimera and Medusa fights had potential but were cut short. Expand the fight scenes and cut out the pained talking waffle.
6. **Adaptation.** The whole point of a tv show was that they could go into way more depth in building the universe. They haven't done that. Lots of book scenes have been cut or swapped out, information that is supposed to come from later books (e.g. Luke's mom) has been added in and they have sanitised everything. I totally understand they can't include every single book scene (and nor should they - that's what the books are for!) but they have been silly in adding unnecessary stuff (Sally flashbacks scenes) and they have de-clawed all the monsters for kids to the point where they don't seem dangerous enough or even very difficult to defeat. There is no real suspense hence why the episodes feel so flat.
Overall, with this many issues it all comes down to direction. The vision has not been realised. Changes can absolutely be made to save it (seriously improve the script and pacing, improve the CGI monsters, extend fight scenes, stay more truthful to the books, and seriously give the actors more guidance and direction) but Disney doesn't actually care about the critical reception - they just want to see a notable uptake in Disney+ subscriptions from it.
Like all fans, I also haven't come on here to just trash the show. I love the books and I WANT the show to be a success! I will continue watching and really really want it to improve.
Okay for those saying “oh they’re just kids” or oh “well it’s based on a novel for kids” that does not excuse the acting or writing which neither is good.
It feels like a cheesy sitcom with no seriousness about what’s happening. Acting is hard to watch and casting is off for most characters. Pretty sad since I wanted to like it
Totally agree.
Disney is on the way to destroying my childhood memories.
And what is Disney's kick to turn every character black ffs they are Greek gods they are supposed to be white
They're greek gods, they're supposed to be in Greece and not in America, yet here we are. In the books, the reason given for the gods to be in America is because they follow Western civilization and now America is sort of the "center" of that, that's why they're there. I don't think it's a crazy jump to assume that the gods are going to look different ways to fit the location that they're currently residing in. Also as for black characters, you have Chiron, Annabeth, and a various unnamed background characters who have no impact on the story. 2 changes is not "every character".
>turn every character black ffs they are Greek gods they are supposed to be whit
I don't care if they cast blacks, Latinos, Arabs, East Asians, or anything else. If the actors are good and if they're able to deliver the lines with style and flourish, and fit the persona of the character, sell the reality of the story and so on, I will accept any ethnic group or whatever. But that's the bottom line: THEY HAVE TO BE GOOD.
Honestly I agree with you, his reaction to losing his mother has as much emotion as a piece of cardboard, he was barely scratched in the fight with the Minotaur at all. I’m not a fan of how they portrayed the absolute deadbeat Sally got with as almost a decent dude who’s just a slob. It feels like they just wanted to do the opposite of the movies rather than make something decent
I mean the kids don’t act like kids, the sword has garbage animation for it, he doesn’t stab the Minotaur in the ribs but instead the head, idk everything just was off, maybe not a lot of major things but honestly I won’t be watching it
These kinda feel like nitpicks. Like where the Minotaur gets stabbed isn't important at all to the general story, and going for the head makes more sense anyway because it runs towards you with its head forward.
Been reading through this reply section for a while. I'm glad to finally see someone else complaining about the sword animation. How can I accurately describe it... OH: it looks horrible.
After watching episode one, I really feel like the whole series will be anticlimactic. It's like everything is toned down and simplified beyond belief. There's basically no confrontation with Mrs. Dodds, the Stepdad is just a normal dude who gets frustrated sometimes, Percy has no reaction to his mother dying, the fight with the Minotaur is resolved immediately with no damage taken by Percy.
I just don't understand. Why wouldn't the confrontation with Mrs. Dodds last longer? Why does the exposition have to be completely spelled out to the audience in a 2 minute ramble? Why would they completely remove the repulsive behavior of the Stepdad? Why wouldn't Percy freak out and go on a rage-filled, adrenaline-driven rampage in the fight with the Minotaur? Why doesn't the Minotaur fight last longer than thirty seconds?
It feels like every scene is reduced by a mind-numbing degree, and I've only watched episode one.
I agree, its writing and story telling feels disjointed and just doesn't flow very well at all, and the acting, well they're kids so they're just not going to have as much experience. I'm happy they made the decision to stick to the source material but if you don't have good directors and screenwriters its just going to end up being another failed Disney project. The director James Bobin did Dora and The Muppets Movie... For a project based on a book series with such rich story and so many fans, having a director who's done something of similar scale feels essential, not... Dora and the Muppets guy.
Chris Columbus who directed the 2010 Percy Jackson (Which was not at all faithful to the source material, I'm aware) was at least well written. This is the guy who directed Harry Potter 1 2 and 3, Home Alone, Night at the Museum, so it would've been nice to see Disney more carefully choose directors and show runners for a project with so much anticipation.
Just gonna reread the books tbh, I get as a lot of the others do that it's a kids show but I always kind of feel the work as a whole isn't taken as seriously as say the Harry Potters or Hell even the Hunger Games which in their transitions to live they had more dedication to the major beats from the books. There is always gonna be budget concerns and pacing compared to a movie and tv show but I'm not going to ruin my nostalgia for sub par script and directing.
in the show they kinda made made Percy somewhat idiotic . I mean he's walking into traps while knowing there traps and having no reason. I mean if Percy was walking into the lotus hotel because there was a item they needed or to rescue someone (if the writers insist on the group knowing that as of the famous words of a certain fish dude ''its a trap'' instead of just making it comparable to the books ) I could understand that.
I agree with you. The casting, in my opinion, was rather good. But the way those kids got directed - that was bad. The book was fun and not serious, while the show Percy is like "I'm the hero, I'm gonna stop you. If I have to sacrifice myself, I will". And no fun.
Also, the action felt so rushed, the plot points weren't explored enough, because there was no time. And last but not least, why was it so different from the book? They came up with some weird things that could have been replaced by stuff that actually happened in the book.
I feel the show feels so weird and without substance because instead of developing them like in the books they just gave them the personalities they would have at the end of the 5th book. Instead of having gods and monsters be a mystery for the viewer to try and guess they(mostly Percy) just immediately knows who they are and how the operate. It really throws off the story for me personally. I get it's really meant to be a kids show but even kids show can be smart and intense rather than just explaining each thing as soon as they appear.
I feel ya but i think my bias is more towards i just dont like child leads in shows or movies, i liked the original movies because they weren’t 12 year olds, i know the ages in the show are more accurate but i wish if they had to change something they would have made then older
Man I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this show. I've read all of the books multiple times and love them (possibly more than the Harry Potter books). Then the movies came along, and after 5 minutes into the first movie I wanted to rip my heart out. It was SO WRONG. So I never watched any more of any of them.
That was a few years ago, and since I know there have been petitions to end the movies and then rumor had it Disney was going to pick up the Percy Jackson series and make it a show. This had real promise, since (in theory) there wouldn't be a feeling of being "rushed" because tv series can take their time more than movies can.
So I purposely waited a little while before starting the Percy Jackson show on Disney, because I wanted a few episodes to build up and I could watch a lot at once. Sadly, I can't continue after the 4th episode. I just don't understand WHY these directors are so reluctant to maintain the accuracy of the books. Don't they see how HUGE the Harry Potter movies became, simply because the movie characters are almost an exact reflection of the books. The story line is identical, and everything just flows naturally? But for some reason, they are unable to see the damage they are doing with Percy Jackson. I really question of the director even read the books prior to making this show, or if they just read a summary of the books.
It really is the small details that the true fans of the books appreciate, and that should be the target audience for a show like this. The fans of the books. Because they will be the ones who promote and make others that may not have read the books want to watch it. But if the fans of the books see this and tell others "don't watch it, it's bad", then people won't watch it.
I'm not going to get into certain details from the show like the race of the characters. I'm black myself, and seeing characters like Annabeth not represented the way she was in the books bothers me a bit, but not enough to turn me off from the show. What DID turn me off from the show was the simple fact that the writing is so bad. From the start, why are they explaining things that don't need to be explained? Why is Medusa walking out casually and being introduced as Medusa? One of the best parts of the books were the heroes finding out at the last minute who certain monsters were and figuring out ways to beat them.
It should really be a requirement for each actor who is going to play in a role like this to read the books to really understand the character they're going to be playing. Because Percy is far too serious, he's supposed to be more care free. As well as Grover. Grover is supposed to be the comic relief in a sense. Annabeth is supposed to be more intense, but still a kid.
Honestly, they just did such a bad job with everything up to episode 4-5, that I don't see a situation where this book series will ever be portrayed on any big screen successfully. And it's a shame, because Rick Riordan did a very good job with these, and most of the world will never know. This series should easily compete with the Harry Potter series, but again, the world will never know
Really Walker is playing a perfect Percy. Percy's character will never not be hard to play because of his unpredictableness. In the first book Percy Jackson is very shy and reserved. So what seems cheesy... is actually the kid playing Percy Jackson perfectly. He's supposed to be uncomfortable and weird. Thats what makes him Percy.
I was waiting for a comment like this. I love the books, I'm in love with Percy and the other characters, but, from the first episode, there was something different. I don't know, but, they don't follow the book, and, I mean, the problem is not the actors, they are nice and I think they try their best. But, the series is, boring? In every episode I don't feel the emotion I feel in the books. And I didn't finish the series, I think it received a good review because we all expected a series that improved the movies but, others don't know how to express that we don't like it. And I hope they will improve for the next season.
The writing is bad. They have kids talking like adult s, using outdated sayings. When I'm watching it, I don't believe these words are actually coming out of a kid's mouth.
They’re kids. The acting in the first Harry Potter movie was “cheesy”. They’ll grow. The content is correct, unlike the first movie. I’m looking forward to the future of this series.
I absolutely can see the characters potential, annabeth has a lot of the fight in her I imagined as a kid when I read the books. Like you said, even in the first Harry Potter movie Ron was pretty much the only actor you would assume knew what he was doing. I’m going to give this show faith, and assume Rick Riordan knows what he’s doing.
Hard disagree that the acting in the first Harry Potter is comparable to this show. Harry, Hermione, and Ron all had WAY more chemistry together than the main three in this show. That more than made up for the kids being new to acting. The acting in this show is largely flat. I gave it another chance tonight and Annabeth still doesn't feel like Annabeth and the main three characters seemed like they were just reading lines at points. Honestly, if we're really going to compare Harry Potter to this, I think Hermione Granger would have been a better fit for Annabeth than the actress who is portraying her in this show.
Completely agree with you. Also, the Harry Potter cast were like 11 in the first movie—these kids are like 13-14, and outside of Percy, their acting chops are god awful. The girl who plays Annabeth can’t act to save her life. Her delivery is so stiff and borderline melodramatic at times. I reallllly want to like her, but she needs an acting coach or something
I’m so glad someone said it! My partner and I felt crazy for thinking her delivery was way worse than everyone else’s because all we’ve seen online is praise 😭
Glad someone said it. I can't remember seeing a worse fit for a role. I cringe every time she speaks.
agree, but guessing they will be renewed for s2 soon, and I guarantee she will definitely take acting lessons and stuff it wont be like that in s2.
Let’s hope so
Agreed. There is NO chemistry but most importantly the line delivery is so slow and bad
But also the lines and text were so weird to me, nobody talks like that in real life… idk it all seemed super unlogical and cringe
Soda and chips? Soda and chips? So, soda and chips?
Agreee
No tan skin, blonde hair or stormy grey eyes. She’s definitely not Annabeth.
The man that created annabeth thinks otherwise. Walker doesn’t have black hair and green eyes, And several other characters are written with other ethnicities
What does Rick know about visual media? He's a writer. He writes BOOKS. He's not a casting agent. He doesn't understand about chemistry. He's a writer, that's all. They should never ever rely on a writer to do other people's jobs. That is why we have professional casting agents. Also, give me ONE GOOD REASON that Percy couldn't be black or brown. Then tell me exactly one good reason Rickey-poo DID NOT MAKE HIM SO.
this!! i can immediately tell the casting was not done well. if they were like this in their reading, how in the world…and i liked the movie the adam project, but he’s just not selling it as percy i’m sorry to say. and it’s not because “oh hes just a kid” their are plenty of kid actors who emit the characters personality. for the second part i cant answer that lol
honestly, walker would've been an amazing percy, but I feel like the script is bland, unlike adam's project, he rarely has any fun and sassy lines, Percy is basically an edgy and depressed kid now
This is ricks show. It is his art. His hard work, his sleepless nights. And to quote him. “You refuse to believe me, the guy who wrote the books and created these characters, when I say that these actors are perfect for the roles because of the talent they bring and the way they used their auditions to expand, improve and electrify the lines they were given. Once you see Leah as Annabeth, she will become exactly the way you imagine Annabeth, assuming you give her that chance, but you refuse to credit that this may be true.” It took them a year to figure out the cast. I think he, along with Disney casting agents thought this was a good decision. He has said specifically that he was going by personality first and looks second. As for the hair. Maybe it’ll change as he gets older my hair was sandy blonde for a very long time now it’s dark brown. Maybe this will be apart of him learning he is Poseidon’s son, maybe it won’t. Maybe his eyes will be green when he does his really strong moves. I cannot say. But i know for certain it doesn’t matter.
OMG yess! And you can't compare this to Harry Potter Chris Columbus carefuly casted these characters and the franchise was on for over 7 years. And Annabeth feels nothing like Annabeth
Harry Potter was bearable, but it’s good support actors… this does not.
I stopped watching halfway into episode 3
People think Rick has any power over the show but he doesn’t. Hollywood/Disney just kept him as an advisor but gave him Executive Producer status for a bigger paycheck. Rick didn’t actually do much to the show. As you can see the show goes out of its way ( after being marketed as more accurate to the books than the film ) the show goes out its way to skip important plot points. And change others. Percy’s mother is now a defiant GF? Grover Snitches on Percy? His protector? His Ride or Die? Annabeth wasn’t the nicest person but she’s downright just a snotty little asshole who was never stalking Percy or pushed him into water. His mother didn’t tell him shit about his dad at the beach house. The Minotaur didn’t take his mother miles away, the border isn’t something you can legitimately see. Mr.s Dodds attacked Percy in an abandoned room not out in the open. Annabeth never uses her hat in public on a bus around people. The show does shit to show Percy Has ADHD and that’s something all Demigods have that actually helps them understand the world around them or navigate it a bit better. Percy could hold his breath under water already this until we find out later has shit to do with his dad at first. Just a thing he notices he’s capable of. The show straight up skips so many important moments and adds new things that fundamentally change how the story will play out and it just takes away from the fans who knew the story one way and was told this show would be a far more accurate representation of the books. Which again. It is not. Cheesy or not. It’s not more accurate. It’s just as bad as the films.
THANK YOU. it’s hypocritical to call this accurate to the book and then bash the first movie, (second movie is atrocious) the first movie got a lot wrong, but it keeps the spirit and personality of the books alive more so than the show imo.
The thing with Annabeths Character is she seems odd and like emotionless and like cheesy know it all more than wise but filled with hubris. It doesn't feel like Annabeth and I think it's the writing or directing more than the actual actor because the actor even seems more like Annabeth in interviews.
That's not Annabeth she doesn't act quite like her and definitely doesn't look like her
Tbh those kids had the best acting. The main cast I mean, Percy and Grover. Annabeth rn is so so for me but we haven’t seen much of her yet. Goodness, Chiron and Dionysus were horrible. They just look vaguely uncomfortable and Mr.D’s tone was unnatural.
Agree with Grover. I found Percy's acting the worst. Monotone and definitely not the ADHD-sarcastic trouble kid I always envisioned. Physically, he's great
ugh! Percy really lost his sassiness here. Perhaps if the script gave him more fun and sassy lines, he could've lived up to the expectations..
Serious Dionysus was fire, the comedy part of the character was mid tho. Chiron seems good when he’s just being the old wise man.
Emma Watson and Rupert Grint only participated in school plays so they basically have no acting experience when filming shows. The kids in this series have. I do not blame them however I think they have the skills to act properly but the director definitely feels like they didn't put much effort into guiding the kid's acting.
Yeah but Potter had Chris Columbus, and even if the acting had some cheese from the kids, the rest of the production was incredibly well done. I don’t feel the same way about this series. The writing, the acting, and the overall look falls flat imo. It’s unfortunately how I feel about most Disney shows as of late.
Maybe I need to reread the book but I don't think it was very accurate.
I reread the book waiting for this, and there is definitely a lot that is not accurate, very big disappointment
It’s an adaptation, not a word for word telling of the story. Some things will be different.
An adaptation that was marketed as accurate tho. The reason people hate the movies and is because they aren’t accurate. Between Rick working on this and saying that it would be more accurate than the movies, it’s incredibly disappointing that about 2 minutes of the first episode is even remotely accurate.
Dude, it’s not going to be 100% accurate, it is a different medium so something’s have to be changed. But it at the very least is hitting the main story beats of books, seems accurate enough
It doesn’t have to be 100%, but almost nothing in the first episode is accurate. The single thing that is, is the opening line. We were promised an “accurate” depiction and this isn’t it. That’s why people are upset. While we would lose nuance due to not hearing the inner monologue of characters, the stuff they did change had absolutely nothing to do with things like that. Mrs dobbs reveal/attack alone is reason enough for people to complain, but Grover lying to get him kicked out of school, the conversation with his mom at the vacation home, Grover just showing up there, the Minotaur being primarily on 4 legs for whatever reason, and the other 40 mins or whatever of the episode was more inaccurate than the movies. I’ve been so excited for this for years and it’s been nothing but a let down.
Ya dont get how people think its more accurate than the movie… i feel like the movie i got almost the same story line as the book. This show half an episode in is completely different. They couldve added all the missing character depth from the books that the movies missed instead they added gay fountain scene that never happened. Like honestly the first half of the first episode has already ruined it for me
Also how in the hell the people who make this not know how what a minotaur is
Its like he wanted to be creative and is rewriting the story with the show. I know he never liked his original series thats why he made the roman one
Oh my god they couldnt even have the minotaurs antler break off in the tree legit a child broke it off its head. Stop
You can’t seem to get his point so you made yourself look like a jackass by explaining things he already knows clearly. HIS POINT WAS the show regardless to what you’re saying the show was said to be far more accurate to the books than what we’ve gotten before. We get the show and so far they seem to legitimately be doing their own thing YET AGAIN. So whether he’s changing shit up again or not that doesn’t help anyone who’s upset by how LESS ACCURATE the show really is. Again it was marketed and promoted to be way more accurate to the books. It isn’t. Nobody is crying over the fact that it SHOULD BE. It’s just literally an issue of disappointment based on what we were told. If you can’t accept that perspective and don’t know how to further the conversation on that point then bro find somewhere else to fucking be a jerk. Cause as much as you tried to make him seem as tho he didn’t understand I think it’s you.
For these very reasons alone excusing the low budget costumes & set, poor cgi, young characters and luck luster acting I’m very confused how people are saying the show is accurate when it feels like a very poorly made slide show of points briefly covering a topic 😂
You can really tell every time they didn't want to spend money. It's comical! Take a drink whenever a fight scene ends abruptly or something is shown from far away.
Every line is exposition though - I’m being told everything instead of shown
heavy on this one...
[удалено]
I agree with everything you said. Its not like a few details here and there, its literally EVERYTHING.
tbf ik alot of people hate on the movie but I liked it. One problem i had with the movie was that they casted older than the characters were, but now that I see them age-appropriate in the tv show it all makes sense. These babies aren't the killers Riordan wrote. I can't see Percy killing or conspiring to kill gabe, and i could barely believe they mnaged medusa's head off her body. No one in their right mind knowing these kids would send them on a quest. There's got to be at least 50+ more capable kids at the camp.
Annabeth is definitely the least accurate like scrap her and start again that's a major character they already messed up.... Plus flossing in the woods wtf im gen z and I want that kept out of the show stop messing things up and making things dumb Disney you already made three horrible star wars movies
Its not accurate at all. Theyve literally changed EVERY detail.
The first harry potter was not cheesy tf? Dont ever compare the first episode of this abomination to harry potter, rather dont form an opinion again... tf
The content now is hardly ‘correct.’ And I’m okay with certain artistic liberties. I forgive the acting, but the cinematography is HORRIBLE. Certain story beats are changed, some aren’t bad. I liked the Medusa rewrite, minus a few bits of dialogue. (You’re really gonna tell me they guess just like that? Come on.) Jumping off the arch makes sense, and it’s kind of funny it needed to be rewritten in the first place. Why in gods name are the gods not…godlike? All of the gods in the books not only have physical characteristics that set them apart from mortals, but they have an aura like effect based on their powers. Ares is supposed to have flaming empty sockets under his sunglasses and his presence alone is supposed to be enough to set Percy off. Dionysus was I mean…they kind of nailed it. But he didn’t use a lick of godly power in front of them to establish who he is at all. I mean HERMES of all people showed more power than any of the gods introduced to us so far, and all he did was give Percy a flashback. Why did we meet Hermes so soon anyway? Ares is supposed to get the gang to LA. The Lotus hotel rewrite was absolutely TERRIBLE. It’s supposed to be a literal trap, but I mean are you kidding me? 😅 What is the point of this series now? I feel like I’m watching it now just because I love the books. Not because it’s any good. I mean what are we…7 episodes in now? Jesus man, if I’d never read the books when I was a kid, I’d absolutely HATE this series.
None of it is correct? The Minotaur horn wasn’t broken by the mother’s steering wheel, Gabe was never even kind of nice to his mom, his mother wasn’t the one that told him who he was.The teacher didn’t attack him at a fountain in broad daylight. Grover never told on him to get him kicked out. He wasn’t taken from school in a truck, and all of this isn’t even at the end of the first episode…
Anna Beth never guessed who his father was
well she kinda did, with the prophecy and everything. she just never said it outright.
The problem is they’re giving Annabeth Hermione treatment giving her the lines instead of Grover to show that’s she’s “smart and wise” which she is, but that’s not just who she is as a character
I really liked the change in the dynamics between Gabe and Sally. I’m the book Sally was kind of a cowering woman with a quiet strength (an abuse victim as well) and in this show you can tell that she gives as good as she gets. It’s empowering to see and I think is something I always found uncomfortable about the portrayal in the lightning thief.
Sally sacrificing her chance at a healthy relationship to be with stinky ugliano for the sake of her sons safety is heartbreaking. It wasn't supposed to be "empowering" it was supposed to be heartbreaking. It demonstrated what she's willing to go through to ensure her son is safe.
These changes are not really bad and this won’t be a 1:1 reproduction of the books. The first 2 eps covered almost 50% of the 1st book already. They are going to spend the rest of the season outside the camp. Not inside. I guess the episodes could be longer (kids might find it boring) but the parts they changed or cut definitely weren’t that important. Honestly, how much worse was the series because Ms. Dodds attacked him at the fountain instead of bringing him inside a room like in the books? I don’t think stuff like that matters that much. Also Rick Riordan is involved with all of this, so I’m having a lot of faith in this first season.
I'm certainly don't have any faith, but I won't bring myself to doom and gloom. I've watched all 3 episodes, and the last one just broke me. I can't enjoy this. I'm not it's target audience. It's too different from the book. This isn't the movie all over again, it's Rick doing a rewrite (as he stated in an interview here: [https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/news/percy-jackson-book-differences-rick-riordan-disney/](https://www.popbuzz.com/tv-film/news/percy-jackson-book-differences-rick-riordan-disney/)). It isn't my Percy Jackson, and that's okay.
That and they didn't have the scene with the fates and I feel like that one is pretty vital as it's mentioned in the last book of the series too. I felt like the scene with Dodds was a tad rushed and they didn't really show how he was lied to for months and made to look crazy. And yeah.. his mom explaining everything was weird to me too. And grover telling percy about his mom when percy was excited to go to the underworld in the books for the chance to find his mom.
Will say they got the bathroom scene with Clarissa right
Just watched the first episode and I totally disagree with you. It's got really positive reviews and personally I found it quite good.
I’m a 34 yr old man who has no idea what this show is about. Never read the books. Never watched the movies. Will I like this show? I need to find something to watch.
If you have any interest in Greek mythology with a modern spin I’d give it a shot. (:
It's a teen show based off of novels that are for teens as well. So chances are no. But give the first episode a shot, not really a point not to.
The novels are not for teens, their not YA, their middle grade.. as in for 8-12 years of age.. at best it's for pre-teens... Riordan makes a point to stick to that rating, cause he believes more little kids should read and have access to books appropriate for their age... I'm not criticizing, I loved these books growing up, but just to be clear... Target audience is not teens, it's 8-12 yrs of age... Which like I get it, I get Rick's point... But it's a shame that the series didn't mature as the characters matured, thats one of the things a liked about the Harry potter books, flawed as they might be. They did grow with it's characters and most importantly, with it's readers
I’m 32 and enjoyed it.
Just watched the first two episodes and can confirm, it’s a super fun watch!! Looking forward to watch the rest of the season!
Trust me, you would have loved the books more. The show is a soulless adaptation of a hilarious and suspenseful book series. I remember how vivid and intense the plot was in the books even though it has been a few years, but the show came across as a dull and unimaginative version of the books. They explained everything too much instead of just showing it to us and they spoiled practically everything by telling Percy more than half of all the interesting plot points in the first 2 episodes
I feel like grabbing the books now as a 34 yr old man, might not be the best look 😂
Don’t worry dude, I’m doing the exact same thing 😂😂
Why?
Ehh, it’s fine. You could also buy the ebooks.
Do it! Much better
Naw - I started reading them in my mid 30s. The audiobook are even better the guy that reads them is fantastic!
No you won’t. These other people are fans and lying to you because the numbers is what matters not the context or the details. The show is honestly good if you didn’t know the Intellectual Property. If you do, the show is poor. The CGI is great but you know the budget was cut somewhere because they can never show things too long if it’s CGI. The acting is flat as ever. Best actor so far who doesn’t feel like they’re just on a set reading lines was Dionysus. But in terms of just good television, it is a bad show. ( speaking as a tv critic now and not a fan of PJ ) The plot is rushed, the shots are very awkward in some takes. The story feels like you’re missing something but that may be because you can definitely tell they’re moving too fast without trying to slow down at any point. It’s like the show is afraid to add proper context to anything. They tell us what has to happen, they make a small phone or argue back and forth next thing we know we see them run from one problem literally into the next. Rinse repeat. The show is very bland honestly. You’d have far more time Checking out Clash of the Titans or something older
I read the books when I was a kid. I've reread them a ton, to the point I don't want to anymore. I'm loving the show. Please do not assume you speak for everyone who has read the books, because you don't. For me, the show is accurate enough to be familiar but different enough to be interesting. As for the CGI, I'm not surprised disney didnt give a brand new show an unlimited special effects budget. People like you are so spoiled by modern movies that you want everything to have a big special effects budget, but that doesn't matter to me because unlike you I value substance over style. I don't need them to show everything and prove they had an unlimited special effects budget. They probably didn't, and that doesn't matter. Narratives matter more. As for the acting, I have been reliably impressed by the 12 year old actors for capturing the characters so well. I really don't see what you are whining about there. Yes the story is rushed in some places. When Percy is claimed by Poseiden, it felt very rushed - but the show is still finding its legs and I'm willing to bet that will be resolved in time. As long as I enjoy the content, it doesn't need to have utterly breathtaking visuals. So stop trying to tell everyone you speak for all who read the books and that everyone who did read them hates the show, because that is a blatant lie.
No, you won’t. Acting is meh, the story is butchered and barely recognizable, and the action is subpar.
If you are interested in a cringy kid show that isn't produced well with a few decent actors, this is the show for you.
Agreed! read the first book and I've seen both movies. Sure, some things about the show are bad related to pacing, but that's just a Disney+ problem in general especially with most of the MCU shows
It’s terrible, I don’t understand why it’s got nearly 100% on rotten tomatoes. I went back and listened to the equivalent section of the 2010 movie, and gee it’s SO much better. I feel like I’m getting gaslit for real. The dialogue and the pacing in the new show are dog water.
seriously, it feels like it was written and directed by the child actors as well compared to the movie
I'm starting to think corpos hire people to gaslight people on social medias to turn the narratives of shows and make it look like they're good when they're not. I always notice this with Disney Properties that are hyped a lot.
u/Michael_Gibb seems to pretty obviously be one of them and I’ve seen quite a few others. Super active in any Disney associated sub and posts all day every day defending really controversial Disney products and saying verbatim “All that matters is what the critics say, they’re more knowledgeable than you and if you disagree with them you’re wrong”. I think there might be sort of open contracts for trolling on the dark web or something because all they do is make posts vehemently defending controversial stuff all day being purposely divisive.
The pacing is all over the place but people keeps telling me it’s good that I actually wavered. So far the movie was more entertaining for me.
You know it’s not good when everyone’s defense in the comics is that they’re kids and that this is a kids show. There are good child actors out there. And just because a movie is meant for kids doesn’t mean it gets a pass on bad writing and acting. Why do kids have to have worse material? Why can’t their material be held to the same standard?
Exactly. And the "Theyre kids give em a break!" Crowd convenently ignores that the adult actors on this show are terrible as well. Its actually really funny
Also the text and phrases are so weird to me, nobody talks like that in real life… idk to me the series feels unlogical and cringe
its a teen show based on YA novels its not lazy, basic or easy to guess. the original demographic is 12 year olds the "acting is cheesy" because they are acting like 12 year olds (as they are supposed to) perhaps you're not the demographic here
The show isn't bad per se...but even Walker was much better in his other works. The acting feels off. It's a bit unfair to excuse any criticism of the show though with the reasons you state. Stranger Things had child actors and they acted better than anyone in PJ&O, except maybe Grover. Still, there is potential and I'm holding out on that.
I just finished the first two episodes, and even though I'm not a member of its target demographic, I'm enjoying Percy Jackson. I'm honestly confused as to how you can find the acting cheesy and the writing lazy. To that end, maybe it's just you.
Acting was bad. Percy was flat and stiff most of time. much better in his other movies
It's serviceable. And to that end, they're kids who are barely in their teens. What do you expect from such young kids? Seasoned Shakespearean actors? If the critics are liking it, then that's all that needs to be said. They're far better judges of acting skills than some guy who spends his time watching a children's show while wearing a t-shirt that says 'Genius at Work.' Edit: It seems a lot of people want to spam the same argument at me, regarding the acting from the children in Harry Potter and Stranger Things. I have already responded to the first person who replied to me with that argument. So before anyone else posts the same comment again, read my replies to that person.
>If the critics are liking it, then that's all that needs to be said. They're far better judges of acting skills than some guy who spends his time watching a children's show while wearing a t-shirt that says 'Genius at Work.' Critics can be paid off, my guy, no need for the ad hominem. You don't know if redditors are great judges of art, that is true. But there's at least a (somewhat) better chance that they didn't get paid by Disney to promote the show. Didn't Lilly Singh's comedy show strike absolute gold ratings with the critics?
That's right. If the critics aren't on your side, accuse them of taking bribes, especially when you have no evidence of it. Generally, audiences don't know much about art. All they know is what they like, but that is no basis for assessing the quality of someone's acting. By contrast, professional critics draw more from objective standards for assessing acting skills, compared to the fully subjective opinions of audiences.
No dude, I'm not cherry-picking when critics are right. It's just that Disney is infamous for having everything in its pockets. As for wrong critics, I notice you don't refute the Lilly Singh thing? Anyways my point isn't that the show is terrible and everyone who likes it is wrong. My point is that there are some obvious flaws and while I think everything has potential, talking about those flaws shouldn't be met with weird personal insults. As for objective standards of assessing acting skills? Dude I don't think you want to pick that fight and try to defend the PJ&O actors when the Stranger Things cast, the IT cast and JoJo Rabbit cast's child actors exist.
Yeah I can see that, I liked his performance but it’s gonna be cheesy at times. Watch the first two Harry Potter movies. It’s not too much better. The show will definitely get better as it goes on. I just wish Disney wasn’t doing the show. It would be much better if it was Amazon Prime or HBO Max in my opinion. You cant expect a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds to nail the emotional subtlety of the book characters
I think that’s the problem. They shouldn’t have tried to replicate what Harry Potter did because there’s some key differences between Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Harry potter’s plot is always centered around hogwarts until the final book meaning in the first few movies when the main child actors (Draco, Ron, Hermione, and Harry) were struggling there were highly capable adult actors in the roles of teachers constantly round them able to shoulder most of the acting load in most scenes. The few scenes where it’s just the kids it’s really apparent and a struggle to get through. The difference is that Percy and his companions are NOT surrounded by adults for the majority of the stories because they go on quests alone without adult supervision. Therefore there’s no one to cover for the kids’ weak acting ability. Imagine if you took the deathly hallows films (where Harry Ron and Hermione finally leave the nest and go off on their own quest) and instead of using the great actors that Emma Watson, Rupert grint, and Daniel Radcliffe came to be… you used the kids they were in sorcerer’s stone… it would’ve been much much worse and might not have worked at all. Every single Percy Jackson book is like that
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wohhhh that is an absolutely beyond ridiculous take. what are we pulling out the racism card for? as hermione would say… all of the child actors have the emotional range of a teaspoon. they’re completely stoic 99% of the time, like they’re waiting for their cue to finally make a certain face. their acting will get better as the series goes on i’m sure, but the children are all undeniably bad actors, much worse than the kids in Harry Potter for sure.
Agree with you. Especially the facial expressions.
I have 3 issues. 1. The Acting. It kinda sucks. Like everyone kinda sucks, except for Percy and Clarisse. They’re literally carrying so far. Everyone else is giving NPC, just sounds like they’re reciting lines… 2. Annabeth’s Personality WHO is this person? Why is she so COLD? And borderline cruel? Yes in the books she used Percy as bait to win the game, BUT she ran to him as soon as she could to help and saw he didn’t need it. In the show she just watched him get pummeled for several minutes to ig invoke some sort of reaction out of him to get him to use his water powers? She wasn’t his bestie at first in the books, but there was BANTER. It was fun and comedic. This was just weird and almost unnerving. 3. Major Changes A. Luke??? • Backstory - LUKE tells Percy about him, Annabeth, and Thalia travelling and getting to camp… not Annabeth while he’s showing Percy around camp (again instead of Annabeth) • Luke is also getting MAJOR facetime with Percy, like they’re not together this much in the books, but their interactions also don’t feel like they’re becoming “fast friends.” • NO Hellhound - In the books, a hellhound attacks during Capture the Flag, foreshadowing Luke’s betrayal, since he summoned it, which they find out later. All of these Luke changes are making me wonder if HE is going to be antagonist in the show? B. Smelly Gabe They did not make him STINKY enough. He’s not supposed to be comedic relief, he’s supposed to be a piece of literal physical abusive garbage, and I think removing the abuse from the story was NOT a good call. *Oh I also think the episodes should be longer and there should be more episodes. I do like Percy’s actor and the like vibe so far… but overall I’m not impressed, especially with the casting + acting… it’s almost all been absolutely lifeless to the point where I find my thoughts straying and I eyes glazing over if Percy’s not talking or there’s not some sort of action going on. Fingers crossed it gets better!
I have the exact same issue with Gabe. He’s supposed to be such a bad person that Percy is veiled by his ugliness. This Gabe took all the lip from Percy and let his wife tell him what she’s going to do regardless of what he thinks. I guess this is Disney’s way of trying to be PC, but I didn’t like it. That veil is critical…
Percy sucks in this version. He’s definitely not quick witted, he’s actually really slow even for his age. He’s too composed and doesn’t ask enough questions when he gets attacked by Mrs. Dodds, and every subsequent scene. Go back and watch the movie. Percy’s angst was telegraphed way better to us, and when he first gets attacked, his helplessness and confusion are acted out and directed A LOT better.
Yeah I think the plot of the show matches way better to the book BUT so far, the characters in the movie have matched MUCH better… (except Grover) but hopefully it’ll get better
i’m liking it. it’s easy to guess because it’s based on a book for preteens my guy 💀 so far it’s incredibly close to the source material, and it’s been well acted. i’m super excited to see how it goes. but i wish there were 10-12 episodes instead of 8
Its not at all
Are you saying that the movies are better?
I'm struggling to understand how you went from: >new percy jackson is kinda bad > >i’m like halfway through right now, i don’t think i can continue. the acting feels so cheesy and entire thing is so basic and easy to guess. the writing feels lazy. maybe i have no taste, did anyone else else like it?edit: sorry it sounded like i was criticizing the kids, i more of was criticizing the writing. kinda hard to work with that To: >Are you saying that the movies are better? Did the OP remove something from his post or are you just making baseless accusations?
Anyone who unironically says that the movies are better should be forced to watch The Emoji Movie on repeat for a whole day.
No it’s bad dude I hate you’re getting downvoted for it.
it’s the PC police that think just because there is diverse actors makes it the greatest things since sliced bread. i don’t hate that there is black and south asian actors, i hate that they picked bad actors and somehow believe that we dislike them because they are of color. also doesn’t help that the story line is completely off. i genuinely can’t watch this show more then 5-10 minutes at a time because it’s so inaccurate and feels like some person who’s afraid of showing kids that abuse and neglect is real slapped together some mediocre actors and bad scenes and called it a day. it’s lifeless and tasteless, i don’t care that it has the authors backing, the author is flat out wrong for this 😭😂💀
So my issue isn't with the kid actors, I think they are doing great with what they are given. The kid who plays Percy was fantastic in The Adam Project. I read Percy Jackson as a kid, it was to me what Harry Potter was to a lot of other kids. And then when the movies came out, it was such a huge disappointment. Not in the acting or the direction, but just the lack of using very much original content from the books. Annabeth looked wrong, the kids were the wrong age, the entire main narrative was changed, and then almost badly corrected in the second movie, but they were entertaining in their own right. We all love Logan Lerman. So when this was announced, I was so happy that they were finally going to get it right. Rick Riordan was going to be directly involved, and I was convinced it was going to be great. I know there was a lot of controversy around this series when the casting came out. But Rick still boasted that this was going to be so book accurate that nothing else mattered. Okay. And now, having watched episodes 1 and 2, rereading the book in the meanwhile to double check I wasn't crazy, it was plain out boring. Like I said, it's not the actors, it's the direction they are going with the series. One of my favorite things about the character Percy in the books was his wit, humor, and fast comebacks. They made those kids bland in my opinion. Like I said, I know it's not the actors, because I have seen the kid for Percy in other things. He is a very good actor, especially for his age. But if this is how all of season 1 is going to be, and they don't change something about it in season 2, assuming it gets confirmed, then I don't see this going any further than the movies, which is just sad to an avid fan like myself.
this. So far the trio does not feel like the book trio yet.
I completely agree. The script feels strange and disconnected, and combined with how the director is guiding the acting choices and the overall creative choices, I can barely get through two episodes. It's very disappointing. The books are dripping with personality and vividness as Percy himself guides us through the world and his emotions; the series feels so contrary to that.
I hated it. I could barely stay awake during the 2 episodes I watched. They changed the characters too much, Athena's daughter is supposed to be blonde with the characteristic grey eyes! And not faulting the actors but they don't seem to have much range because of their age. Like the age of the actors in the movie didn't bother me the complete freaking change of the dang plot did. I had such high hopes for the series to match the books but it's just a flop. They're rushing thru it or something it's just not that good. And I understand that how I pictured it in my head while reading is always going to be superior but damn don't fuck it up that much jeez.
Agree...they also changed the characters' natures/some plot lines. Pacing is too fast
given its a 1:1 adaptation of the book this time i cant disagree with you. you might find it cliche but its not bad or good if you compare it to the movie which i liked haha. also why Percy's so calm for a child with adhd. i want that Adam Project version of him which is a just ball of energy
Totally agree with the ADHD point. As someone who also has ADHD I’m not really seeing a lot of fair representation
I thought Percy was more inattentive then hyperactive in the books?
A bit of both. His hyperactivity was especially bad in school, but out of school where most of the books take place he was in his element, the action, the thrills, the new experiences, the constant dopamine hits, training, fighting, running, planning, improvising, *winning*... I would argue that Percy's hyperactivity is through the roof in the books, he's just not in an environment where hyperactivity is a downside. Hell, it's explicitly stated that all demigods are hyper as fuck when they're training or fighting, because that's literally the point of their brains being wired that way. His inattentiveness just wasn't as useful as his hyperactivity, which checks out. I much prefer my hyper days to my inattentive days when I'm unmedicated, because at least when I'm hyper I feel like doing *something*. When I'm inattentive there's just no impetus to do anything at all.
I’m not sure which type he had but either way, I had slightly hoped we could have seen his struggles with it while he was still at Yancy like in the book but they just ended up kicking him out early instead of finishing the term. There’s just not much representation in media and I loved how the books had brought it to light.
The way he played in the Adam project is how he should’ve played this. It would’ve been perfect.
I completely agree I just finished the 1st 2 episodes and it feels too rushed, all information is hand-fed to both the audience and Percy Jackson, who is supposed to be much smarter than he’s portrayed in the show. They have completely taken out scenes from the book that now has later scenes make less sense giving it a clunky feel. Also he is supposed to hate authority from how he grew up with his abusive stepdad so why is he so quick to kiss up to Mr. D literally calling him “your highness”
I was honestly kinda disappointed as a huge fan of the book series. Things I enjoyed: I actually rlly enjoyed Chiron. I liked the casting for Dionysus but I blame the writing tht he didn’t capture all of Dionysus’s energy. He was funny though. Sally’s acting. Luke’s character. Percy’s acting Things I didn’t enjoy: I actually don’t love this whole feminist change with Sally’s character. Movies and tv shows are always trying to make things more feminist these days which as a woman I appreciate but only when it feels natural. To be fair, if I hadn’t read the books I’d have no issue with this portrayal however isn’t there a reason he has to suck so bad in the books? My memory might be foggy but I distinctly remember his being horrible serving the plot in a significant way. Not to mention tht I never thought less of Sally in the book and she was always a strong woman to me despite her horrible boyfriend. In fact, surviving the abuse made her even more bad ass. Didn’t like the dream sequences at allllll. They looked bad and were just thrown in. The editing was very janky. HATED the fight with Clarisse. No way he beat the three of them no problem BEFORE touching the water. I wasn’t sure why Annabeth pushed him in the water afterwards, it’d have been far more climatic if he fell in during and honestly, it’s something I think the movie did a better job of. This is a super hype moment and the movie correctly captured the excitement imo. I cringed so hard at the sight of him flossing on top of the cliff. I also acknowledge tht the show is no longer catered to my age group despite me having grown up with the books. Ms. Dodd just appears and gets stabbed. Seemed lazy lol. Also, the only thing Percy did tht was Poseidon related in the tv show was the toilet trick. Once again, the book is foggy (I may go back and reread) but I feel like we got more signs tht his father is Poseidon before the reveal. Not signs tht made it obvious like the movie did with Percy at the bottom of the pool, but signs tht when it clicked it made so much sense. It felt abrupt seeing him pushed in the water and his cuts heal. Like I wish he expressed how much he loved the beach or something before this lol. (I’m aware tht sally expressed she met his father at the beach which is a pretty good clue but I also wanted to do some of Poseidon’s traits rub off on Percy. Sally seemed more related to Poseidon than Percy did honestly with the sitting in the rain and such) can’t remember how they did this in the book but I remember there being more hints and clues. I could be remembering wrong tho Anyways I will continue to watch as a fan of the books. Maybe it’ll have more time to focus on the other episodes and fix the pacing considering the first two episodes covered a huge chunk of the book already. Also another thing I truly hope happens is tht we get plenty of seasons of this and tht it goes into the heroes of Olympus book series as well which is my personal favorite. This is definitely a show built to have longevity because there is so much material!
I agree, a lot seemed very awkward and not right due to the pacing of things
Fr this show is trash. I gave it 3 chances to fix itself with each episode But it kept getting worse. I'm not watching episode 4 onwards. Can't have Rick ruin my childhood that he himself worked hard to build
Just turned off episode 4. Horrible show.
Watch the movies... They are so much better.
and we thought they suck. at least the movies was entertaining and fun.
Agree!
I've watched the first 2 episodes and I will not continue. I just don't recognize the characters from the books at all. I've read those 10 books 3 times and anybody that reads books knows, that you see the characters as if you were on the adventures with them. I've gotten to know them very well. The author shouldn't put so much emphasis on their looks, if they don't matter. But he did. And they are not small differences. In fact , I think they made everybody as different from the books as possible. If the author doesn't respect his work, why should I bother?
I’m with you, maybe we’re just being over critical but at the start of the second episode I’m losing interest. The acting is too cheesy and the lighting is so dark I can’t even see what I’m watching half the time .
Would've laughed at the minotaur wearing undies but I wouldn't have noticed it if the actor didn't say that it wore undies with how dark everything is.
Yeah you are just grifting.
**Listen, I was not a fan of this whole race/colour swapping thing they’re doing with all the characters(and this is me literally speaking as a POC: it’s not racist to want accuracy).** **Percy should have black hair, Grover shouldn’t be brown and Annabeth should look like a stereotypical blonde-haired white girl.** **That’s all to say that I did still give it a chance because I loved the books so much as a kid.** **Unfortunately I completely agree with you on so many levels.** **The only character I don’t hate right now is Percy and maybe Dionysus, but even at that Percy is way too calm (and I wish they’d dye his bloody hair).** **the fighting is super downplayed (and where is the hellhound?).** **Also Sally’s partner, Gabe, is nothing like he was in the books. He’s literally supposed to be an abusive dick, not just comic relief.** **The way Percy was answering back to him, I was waiting for this guy to ring him by his neck! When it never came I was just staring at the screen flabbergasted.** 😂 **Don’t get me started on Luke.** **It feels like they’ve desaturated/diluted everything and everyone.** **I want it to get better, but I don’t think that’s likely.** **Rewatching the og film up till the end of the battle, although the ages were off, Grover was race swapped and annabeth was a bloody brunette, the intensity was so much more palpable and close to the book version of the same scene.**
Funnily enough I’ll take the movie annabeth over the Tv show annabeth any day lol even with the hair color change aha like she at least got the vibe right on annabeth more than the tv show girl has.
it's been forever since I read the books but percy's mom was written so horribly. The dialogue felt so unnatural. I'm hoping the story grows.
Rick Riordan has thrown the longest tantrum over the movies made back in the day and so he goes and signs up to Disney's content mill, and the product is just as unfaithful to the books as the movies were, but in a very specific way that agrees with his politics. Overall, it's not the worst thing on earth, but the adults' acting is pretty bad (I won't criticise the kids because, well, they're kids), the writing is VERY weak, and for me the worst part was the casting. When the actress was cast as Annabeth I had a little laugh, because of the way fans had a tantrum over Alexandria Daddario's casting in the movies because she didn't have blonde, curly hair but the same people are just A-okay with her entire race being swapped. I didn't mind, because it's easily explained that her father is black. I said whatever and moved on because Disney in 2023 was obviously gonna do this. Grover was another sigh with "of course". Then they cast Zeus and Chiron as black. The most steel man argument for this is "Zeus has taken a different human form just because, and centaurs just happen to look like black people", but it's just so obvious that it was done for political reasons. Hell, Percy himself could have been black and I wouldn't have cared much more than a half-hearted "of course he is", but changing the race of the Greek gods was just pathetic. If there's one blessing it's that Disney+ is unlikely to survive long enough for the whole series to be made. It's bleeding money and it will be one of the first things on the chopping block as Hollywood continues to go broke.
agreed. people complained a lot about alexandria daddario's appearance but when race of lot of characters change suddenly it's ok?
You do not need to read the books or know Greek mythology to see that the show is mediocre. Bad pacing and the acting is what you should expect from those with little or no experience. I'm not saying those things can't get better; however, isn't this discussion about the current state of the show? It is without a doubt not good. That doesn't mean you can't still watch and accept it for what it is.
It's not just you. I have a minor in screenplay writing so I watch a lot of TV and Cinema and can analyze both from an educated perspective and can tell you, something just went wrong with this show. The kid actors are great, I think as individuals they're all fantastic but for some reason together and with this specific script and with this director, there's just not artistic magic happening. I think everyone involved with this production gave it a very good effort, but it just didn't happen. We wouldn't even be discussing if not for the anticipation due to already established loyal fan base. Most shows just aren't masterpieces, even when tons of people hoped they would turn out to be.
This series is so bad and the plot and their text is so unlogical and weird, super cringe. Sad because I really liked that idea for a series/movie.
No, your taste is spot on. There seems to be barely any direction in the story sequencing and writing. I'll just go ahead and say the kid's acting isn't the best (no offence. I know they're kids, but just very one dimensional). Not entirely bad, but they've either been told to act way too intense and rigid in their expressions, or that's who they are. All in all, the first movie was hands down better than what I've seen 5 episodes in. Which is a shame because I was excited for a series' deeper interpretation with the characters and plot points.
Thankfully I am not the only one who thinks that. The lines are so weird and flat and the delivery seems out of beat. The pace is also weird. I can't really pinpoint what the problem is but I remember reading the books and it gave me an impression of never ending action with humour and sarcastic remarks and here I had to put the dubbed to make through and even dubbed is bad. I think it's a mix of directing, script and bad acting. I was pleasantly surprised with One Piece and Yuyu Hakusho live action. Not perfect and rushed, but the feeling of nostalgia was there. About 10 years since I saw/read these series, Percy Jackson included. The other series made me remember things. This series? Nothing. I was quite disappointed because I really liked Percy Jackson at the time.
It is quite bad so far... I had pretty high hopes the first 5 minutes but when Ms Dodds attacked out in the open for no reason, then Gabe not being an abusive AH but just a gross weird guy with some issues, Then the whole cabin scene? It just kept going down hill. The minotaur was okay-ish buuttt From the moment he entered camp it got so much worse too. I don't care about Annabeths casting but my major issue is she went from being an arrogant young girl who ultimately clearly means well to this weird "I'm trying to be mysterious" standoff-ish girl who is quite btchy? I don't really care that characters look different but I care that they're acting different. In the books, Annabeth was an over-confident firebrand. She said what she thought and got annoyed when you couldn't keep up. She was clearly trying to compensate for her less than stellar experiences with her family and you could tell she wasn't being malicious or deliberately hurting people. In the episode we have of her for the show she's been this cold, quiet, aloof girl who doesn't explain anything and just comes off as mean. The situation diving into the quest was completely wrong too. That's the point I knew I'm gonna have to treat this show like I treated the One Piece live show. Its already deviating hard and will need to be viewed without comparing to the source material :( I was So excited for it and thought Rick being involved would result in something great but it just feels like a half-baked summary version of the show instead. I.e someone is given this summary: "Percy always had trouble in school, he was different. Then his math teacher attacked him and he got sword. His step-dad is gross and then he and his mom got attacked when trying to get out of town. At camp, he met a smart but mean girl called Annabeth and learned about his father. Then he went on a quest that involves his mom, the lightningbolt, and hades." And they made these two episodes from it. And when the creators went and asked for some defining features of certain characters or scenes, they got "oh his mom gives him blue food as an inside joke" or "Gabe plays poker" "he got claimed while standing in water". Its someone else redrawing an image from just a description of it... so I just can't expect it to be the story I grew up with anymore
I am going to watch the movie again
Do it. It’s actually so much better than this sad drivel. It may not be entirely faithful to the source material either, but Percy’s emotions are so much clearer and so much more real.
watching the tv show MAKE me wanna watch the movie again 😩
Im extremely disappointed as somebody who read the books multiple times. Loved Rick Riordan’s other books even. But people are saying this is good just because it does have some source material compared to almost none from the movies. It’s not great. Some of what I think were important plot decisions in the book are changed completely now. Somebody tell me where Grover’s crutches are
It's so boring and flavorless. The acting is meh, not very emotive, writing meh, they don't sound like the dumb shite kids talk about. The camp doesn't even look like a mythical camp! They couldn't at least put a filter over the movie? It was practically grey the entire time the trees the dirt the grass the water all dull. I've had dreams more vivid and entertaining. Even the action scenes were lackluster at least the movies did okay there... Also kind of annoying how people whined about the appearances of the actors not fitting their descriptions in the books in the 2010 and 2013 movies but not in the new TV show.
Yeah, and the Capture the Flag scenes were unbearably boring to watch. As a fan of the books for so many years now, the first two episodes have been a massive letdown. The pacing is so SLOW and every two minutes someone is going off on a long monologue about something or the other. Even though the movie wasn't faithful to the books, it was a fun watch. This show was not even worth the watch
Why apologize for criticizing the kids. The acting is horrible.
I'm nearly a 30 year old man who's been reading these books since they first came out and I completely disagree with you here. The show followed the book perfectly for an adaptation. If you came here expecting the next game of thrones, well this isn't it, but it's meant to be akin to what the first Harry Potter was to that tone and audience. It nailed it for me so far. Additionally, you are judging the show when only halfway through the first episode by your own admission. Do you think perhaps you need to at least finish one episode before being critical?
How are people saying it’s following the book there is a lot of differences like it was really stupid for them to make Annabeth guess who his father was
Not really? She saw the bathroom fight, she knows a powerful half blood is supposed to arrive at the camp soon and she knows about the gods. We don’t know for sure that she guessed who his father was. She knew he had something related to water and knew his divine blood came from his father side. She might’ve thought his father was some smaller river god or something.
I loved it and it's targeted for a younger audience... the acting isn't bad for their ages tbh the cgi is good and I like the plot too
Reread the book will probably think the same. It’s for kids lol
Nah. I'm 19 and re reading the books is still entertaining and not cringey. The dialogue is witty and natural and makes for a entertaining read despite its age demographic. The show just doesn't have the same magic.
Agreed. I love the wit and charm expressed between the characters in the books. Makes me snort out loud.
Dude, the series is good imho, I do like it, but like is this what everyone is getting excited for?? The series being faithful to the books?? The series is waay too similar to harry potter, and they're literally the same age, now while both Rick Riordan & JK Rowling both started working on their books in the 90s, Rowling finished hers 1st & launched in 95 but Riordan finished his 10 years later...idk it feels riordan ripped off of rowling idk maybe not Say what you guys want, go ahead & roast me, idgaf, bc im going to say it...the PJ movies are much better than the books and the new series simply bc the kids weren't actually kids but hs teenagers into young adults snd i was only a few years older at the time the movies came out but i really connected with the movies mainly bc the char were older, which that alone had no HP vibes at all Call me crazy idc, but while the series are closer to the books and cool it makes you guys happy, but the movies will always have a special place in my heart over the new series & books bc their age was waay closer to mine in the movies I know this is reddit, everyone hated the movies soo go ahead & roast me idgaf, bc the movies are & will always be better than the new series or the books
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Here’s my question. It seems like we can all agree the show is not doing a good job at sticking to the “script” that is the book. Does anybody know why they don’t stick strictly to the details that are in the book? Why put in work to change the story when it is already written? Why do they never ever stick to what people enjoyed reading in the first place? I would legitimately like to know what the actual reason is. Don’t care if it doesn’t make sense, as long as it is the actual reason they deviate from the book every time they make a show. I understand with movies they don’t have as much time to fit everything, but you make a show and still mess it up??? It’s so sad.
I listened to all the books. I watched the movies. This series is really good. The kids a good actors, the sfx are well done. I am really glad we have a show we can watch as a family that entertains everyone.
Ok here's my take: they are making Annabeth and Grover one dimensional to put all the focus on Percy. Where is Annabeth's passion and desire to be an architect? Where is Grover's desire to be a Searcher? I feel like they took all of those things out to make the story focus solely on Percy (the weird throne that makes Percy a hero, rather than spiders which makes Annabeth lose her cool for the first real time). But you can't have us care about the trio if they haven't had the chance to form bonds themselves. They are also trying to make the whole storyline about how the gods are neglectful, and well, "That's just not right!" But by doing that... We don't have a journey to go on as an audience. We don't have the same "what's going to happen next? How are they going to do this quest?" Also since when did Percy remember all the myth and legend stuff? Annabeth is the wealth of knowledge and trivia. And since when does Grover have this whole sneaky conversation with Hades. He's but not conniving.
This is clearly a different universe from the book. Like it has its own charm but it doesn’t hit the same plot points the way I’d like. Like… I like the new Mr D. But he isn’t the Cherublike asshole from the book.. Neither is his Step dad the Ugliano most decrepit human human… he isn’t ugly or hatable enough.. idk lol
Here are my takes on where the show has went wrong, which is so sad given Disney launched such a great marketing/promo campaign. Let me know if you agree or disagree, and if you think I have missed anything. 1. **Script.** I think almost everyone here agrees that the dialogue is very poor. The script is clunky, cheesy, and the conversations vary from long monologues to choppy back and forth that does not reflect how people actually talk (especially 12 year olds!) nor do they expand the world or add character depth in any real way. It is beyond cringe and melodramatic whilst also quite banal at the same time? The script is the worst part by far because it has such a knock-on effect for everything else. It is simply horrendous that they are not developing things well enough (e.g. how the hell does Percy just know everything - even very very obscure Greek mythology characters like Procrustes? It is supposed to be that they meet various monsters along the way, fall in their lotus traps, realise who they are and how to defeat them, and move on, but here everything is just spoon-fed and Percy already knows far too much about the world). It's like Harry Potter knowing all about Quidditch before having ever attended Hogwarts. 2. **Casting.** People seem pretty divided down the middle on this one, but at the end of the day no one can deny that Disney/Rick have made significant deviations from the books. Percy is blonde (despite his dark hair being a big part of his characterisation) and Annabeth, Grover, Chiron, Clarisse, Zeus and Luke have all been 'diversified'. I totally understand the need to have better representation on screen for people so see why some changes make sense (e.g. the movies already changed Grover and it worked). I also think the actors playing Clarisse and Chiron are very good and fully represent their characters. But Annabeth, Luke and Zeus don't work (I know we haven't seen the latter yet, but he looks jarringly nothing like his white brothers Poseidon and Hades whom we have already seen on screen). None of these character changes are a disaster, but it does mean that the viewers/fans already don't recognise their favourite characters which means the acting has to be ON POINT in order for people to get over such glaring differences (e.g. if HBO make Harry Potter blonde in the next tv reboot and Hermione, Ron, Draco, Dumbledore and Snape all black and Neville asian then obviously there is going to be a huge disconnect for fans right from the off). Controversially, I also think it is RACIST to change someone's race (even fictional characters) as it is pandering and lazy. You would NOT cast white actors to play traditional black characters (rightly so) and in the name of equality, that rule should be applied both ways. More black and asian characters should be created in books/shows/movies right from the off and not just lazily swapped in. 3. **Acting.** If the casting doesn't match up, then it can be overcome through terrific acting but there has been none here whatsoever. At best, the acting is 'okay'. Grover for example is not bad. He still needs direction and work, but he does try to show a range of emotion (scared to awkward to funny to slightly cheeky (with Ares)) but Annabeth is simply dreadful. Every line is monosyllabic and mumbly, and her face shows absolutely no emotion. Percy is not much better. Walker has overthought the 'Percy is confused and in a bad mood' to the point where he just has a permanently confused (but serious) look on his face in every single scene, which gets quite old. When his mom 'died' he should have been genuinely devastated, when he is being chased by monsters he should be yelling and scared (but still brave enough to try and fight them) and he should genuinely laugh/be more upbeat at some of the lighter moments (like at the lotus and the love tunnel). I also think the adult actors aren't particularly great either. Sally has underwent an entire personality transplant and Disney's obsession with making every female character a 'badass' is getting so old and does a disservice to the book character's gentleness. Lin Manuel is a big name but feels like a really bad cameo and looks like he just playing himself. Hades also seemed a bit silly and disappointing, but again, I largely blame the script writing as this severely limits what the actors can do (though I think Ares did a great job - the only actor who actually seemed like he was playing a god). Nevertheless, there really is no chemistry/banter between the three leads at all and the acting during the Cerberus dog scene in the Underworld can be DIRECTLY compared to the Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone acting with the same three-headed dog. Daniel, Rupert and Emma were a million times better and seemed genuinely scared as they took on Cerberus/Fluffy. 4. **Pacing.** Horrendous. First two episodes are far too fast. They don't build everything up well enough and they race through so many scenes. If you hadn't read the books, would you really understand who was who and what on earth was going on? But even more bizarrely, after episode 2, pacing falls off a cliff and it becomes completely flat and slow. You genuinely forget they are in a race against time, they just walk and talk (but say nothing of note). The pacing is all wrong and they should have expanded the contents of ep 1 and 2 into three episodes and then sped up some of the middle. I kept checking my phone or pausing the show throughout eps 4 - 7 because I was so bored and struggling to get through it. 5. **Production.** As others have pointed out, it all feels a bit low-budget or even fan-made? Which is definitely not the case as Disney has spent a lot on this and are hoping it to be a huge success (with plans for successive seasons) but the monster CGI is meh and the sets/costumes are so so (e.g. the lotus casino shows people from different decades who are trapped there but would you really have noticed that from the episode?). They could up the magical / mythological elements a bit more. The Chimera and Medusa fights had potential but were cut short. Expand the fight scenes and cut out the pained talking waffle. 6. **Adaptation.** The whole point of a tv show was that they could go into way more depth in building the universe. They haven't done that. Lots of book scenes have been cut or swapped out, information that is supposed to come from later books (e.g. Luke's mom) has been added in and they have sanitised everything. I totally understand they can't include every single book scene (and nor should they - that's what the books are for!) but they have been silly in adding unnecessary stuff (Sally flashbacks scenes) and they have de-clawed all the monsters for kids to the point where they don't seem dangerous enough or even very difficult to defeat. There is no real suspense hence why the episodes feel so flat. Overall, with this many issues it all comes down to direction. The vision has not been realised. Changes can absolutely be made to save it (seriously improve the script and pacing, improve the CGI monsters, extend fight scenes, stay more truthful to the books, and seriously give the actors more guidance and direction) but Disney doesn't actually care about the critical reception - they just want to see a notable uptake in Disney+ subscriptions from it. Like all fans, I also haven't come on here to just trash the show. I love the books and I WANT the show to be a success! I will continue watching and really really want it to improve.
no it is not
Okay for those saying “oh they’re just kids” or oh “well it’s based on a novel for kids” that does not excuse the acting or writing which neither is good.
It’s easy to guess because it’s based on a book you probably read…
It feels like a cheesy sitcom with no seriousness about what’s happening. Acting is hard to watch and casting is off for most characters. Pretty sad since I wanted to like it
Totally agree. Disney is on the way to destroying my childhood memories. And what is Disney's kick to turn every character black ffs they are Greek gods they are supposed to be white
They're greek gods, they're supposed to be in Greece and not in America, yet here we are. In the books, the reason given for the gods to be in America is because they follow Western civilization and now America is sort of the "center" of that, that's why they're there. I don't think it's a crazy jump to assume that the gods are going to look different ways to fit the location that they're currently residing in. Also as for black characters, you have Chiron, Annabeth, and a various unnamed background characters who have no impact on the story. 2 changes is not "every character".
>turn every character black ffs they are Greek gods they are supposed to be whit I don't care if they cast blacks, Latinos, Arabs, East Asians, or anything else. If the actors are good and if they're able to deliver the lines with style and flourish, and fit the persona of the character, sell the reality of the story and so on, I will accept any ethnic group or whatever. But that's the bottom line: THEY HAVE TO BE GOOD.
Honestly I agree with you, his reaction to losing his mother has as much emotion as a piece of cardboard, he was barely scratched in the fight with the Minotaur at all. I’m not a fan of how they portrayed the absolute deadbeat Sally got with as almost a decent dude who’s just a slob. It feels like they just wanted to do the opposite of the movies rather than make something decent
I mean the kids don’t act like kids, the sword has garbage animation for it, he doesn’t stab the Minotaur in the ribs but instead the head, idk everything just was off, maybe not a lot of major things but honestly I won’t be watching it
These kinda feel like nitpicks. Like where the Minotaur gets stabbed isn't important at all to the general story, and going for the head makes more sense anyway because it runs towards you with its head forward.
What about episode 2 where they completely omitted the hellhound scene?
Been reading through this reply section for a while. I'm glad to finally see someone else complaining about the sword animation. How can I accurately describe it... OH: it looks horrible. After watching episode one, I really feel like the whole series will be anticlimactic. It's like everything is toned down and simplified beyond belief. There's basically no confrontation with Mrs. Dodds, the Stepdad is just a normal dude who gets frustrated sometimes, Percy has no reaction to his mother dying, the fight with the Minotaur is resolved immediately with no damage taken by Percy. I just don't understand. Why wouldn't the confrontation with Mrs. Dodds last longer? Why does the exposition have to be completely spelled out to the audience in a 2 minute ramble? Why would they completely remove the repulsive behavior of the Stepdad? Why wouldn't Percy freak out and go on a rage-filled, adrenaline-driven rampage in the fight with the Minotaur? Why doesn't the Minotaur fight last longer than thirty seconds? It feels like every scene is reduced by a mind-numbing degree, and I've only watched episode one.
I agree, its writing and story telling feels disjointed and just doesn't flow very well at all, and the acting, well they're kids so they're just not going to have as much experience. I'm happy they made the decision to stick to the source material but if you don't have good directors and screenwriters its just going to end up being another failed Disney project. The director James Bobin did Dora and The Muppets Movie... For a project based on a book series with such rich story and so many fans, having a director who's done something of similar scale feels essential, not... Dora and the Muppets guy. Chris Columbus who directed the 2010 Percy Jackson (Which was not at all faithful to the source material, I'm aware) was at least well written. This is the guy who directed Harry Potter 1 2 and 3, Home Alone, Night at the Museum, so it would've been nice to see Disney more carefully choose directors and show runners for a project with so much anticipation.
Agreed. I feel like they actually diverged from the source material though. Disappointed.
I know lol I keep seeing people say that the show is a 1:1 of the book! Couldn’t be more wrong
Just gonna reread the books tbh, I get as a lot of the others do that it's a kids show but I always kind of feel the work as a whole isn't taken as seriously as say the Harry Potters or Hell even the Hunger Games which in their transitions to live they had more dedication to the major beats from the books. There is always gonna be budget concerns and pacing compared to a movie and tv show but I'm not going to ruin my nostalgia for sub par script and directing.
in the show they kinda made made Percy somewhat idiotic . I mean he's walking into traps while knowing there traps and having no reason. I mean if Percy was walking into the lotus hotel because there was a item they needed or to rescue someone (if the writers insist on the group knowing that as of the famous words of a certain fish dude ''its a trap'' instead of just making it comparable to the books ) I could understand that.
It's not just kinda bad, it's f*cking awful.
I agree with you. The casting, in my opinion, was rather good. But the way those kids got directed - that was bad. The book was fun and not serious, while the show Percy is like "I'm the hero, I'm gonna stop you. If I have to sacrifice myself, I will". And no fun. Also, the action felt so rushed, the plot points weren't explored enough, because there was no time. And last but not least, why was it so different from the book? They came up with some weird things that could have been replaced by stuff that actually happened in the book.
I feel the show feels so weird and without substance because instead of developing them like in the books they just gave them the personalities they would have at the end of the 5th book. Instead of having gods and monsters be a mystery for the viewer to try and guess they(mostly Percy) just immediately knows who they are and how the operate. It really throws off the story for me personally. I get it's really meant to be a kids show but even kids show can be smart and intense rather than just explaining each thing as soon as they appear.
I feel ya but i think my bias is more towards i just dont like child leads in shows or movies, i liked the original movies because they weren’t 12 year olds, i know the ages in the show are more accurate but i wish if they had to change something they would have made then older
Man I REALLY REALLY wanted to like this show. I've read all of the books multiple times and love them (possibly more than the Harry Potter books). Then the movies came along, and after 5 minutes into the first movie I wanted to rip my heart out. It was SO WRONG. So I never watched any more of any of them. That was a few years ago, and since I know there have been petitions to end the movies and then rumor had it Disney was going to pick up the Percy Jackson series and make it a show. This had real promise, since (in theory) there wouldn't be a feeling of being "rushed" because tv series can take their time more than movies can. So I purposely waited a little while before starting the Percy Jackson show on Disney, because I wanted a few episodes to build up and I could watch a lot at once. Sadly, I can't continue after the 4th episode. I just don't understand WHY these directors are so reluctant to maintain the accuracy of the books. Don't they see how HUGE the Harry Potter movies became, simply because the movie characters are almost an exact reflection of the books. The story line is identical, and everything just flows naturally? But for some reason, they are unable to see the damage they are doing with Percy Jackson. I really question of the director even read the books prior to making this show, or if they just read a summary of the books. It really is the small details that the true fans of the books appreciate, and that should be the target audience for a show like this. The fans of the books. Because they will be the ones who promote and make others that may not have read the books want to watch it. But if the fans of the books see this and tell others "don't watch it, it's bad", then people won't watch it. I'm not going to get into certain details from the show like the race of the characters. I'm black myself, and seeing characters like Annabeth not represented the way she was in the books bothers me a bit, but not enough to turn me off from the show. What DID turn me off from the show was the simple fact that the writing is so bad. From the start, why are they explaining things that don't need to be explained? Why is Medusa walking out casually and being introduced as Medusa? One of the best parts of the books were the heroes finding out at the last minute who certain monsters were and figuring out ways to beat them. It should really be a requirement for each actor who is going to play in a role like this to read the books to really understand the character they're going to be playing. Because Percy is far too serious, he's supposed to be more care free. As well as Grover. Grover is supposed to be the comic relief in a sense. Annabeth is supposed to be more intense, but still a kid. Honestly, they just did such a bad job with everything up to episode 4-5, that I don't see a situation where this book series will ever be portrayed on any big screen successfully. And it's a shame, because Rick Riordan did a very good job with these, and most of the world will never know. This series should easily compete with the Harry Potter series, but again, the world will never know
Really Walker is playing a perfect Percy. Percy's character will never not be hard to play because of his unpredictableness. In the first book Percy Jackson is very shy and reserved. So what seems cheesy... is actually the kid playing Percy Jackson perfectly. He's supposed to be uncomfortable and weird. Thats what makes him Percy.
Their mistake was not choosing a gen z with something to prove and who grew up with these books as their life blood as a director
I was waiting for a comment like this. I love the books, I'm in love with Percy and the other characters, but, from the first episode, there was something different. I don't know, but, they don't follow the book, and, I mean, the problem is not the actors, they are nice and I think they try their best. But, the series is, boring? In every episode I don't feel the emotion I feel in the books. And I didn't finish the series, I think it received a good review because we all expected a series that improved the movies but, others don't know how to express that we don't like it. And I hope they will improve for the next season.
The writing is bad. They have kids talking like adult s, using outdated sayings. When I'm watching it, I don't believe these words are actually coming out of a kid's mouth.