Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Season 2 Review (EP 1+2)
If you’re old enough, you remember the Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters movie, which wasn’t all too great and featured a cast that was already ageing out of their characters. An issue when adapting a book series which features kids into a film/television show. The first season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians proved that Rick Riordan was ready to provide fans with a more faithful adaptation of his beloved book series of the same name.
The first season delivered a cast that was loveable and had great chemistry amongst each other. The fifth episode of that first season is one that tested Walker Scobell and Leah Sava Jeffries and highlighted that they were the best casting of Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase that we could’ve asked for. Two years have passed in real life, while one year has passed since we last left our characters. Walker seems to be ageing rapidly compared to his co-stars, but thankfully, from these first two episodes, it hasn’t become a Stranger Things situation where it feels weird watching these actors still portray kids.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 is adapting the second book in the series, Sea of Monsters, and takes place a year after the last season. Percy has been back at school with his new housemate, Tyson (Daniel Diemer), a homeless cyclops that Sally (Virginia Kull) had decided to take in. Annabeth spent the last year trying to live Percy’s life compared to the demigod life she’s used to, and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) has been on the search for Pan.
This review will only focus on the first two episodes, which, unfortunately, while still decent episodes to start off the season, ultimately felt underwhelming. From the start, if you’re a reader of the book series, you’ll be able to quickly notice some small differences, with entire scenes being cut out and reconstructed for the pacing of the season. Instead of dodgeball with Laestrygonians at a school, we get this scene outside of Camp Half-Blood, replacing the Colchis Bulls attack.
The strange decisions for pacing continue as the entire Thalia’s (Tamara Smart) tree-being-poisoned sequence is played out differently, Tantalus (Timothy Simons) has already been camp counsellor for a while, and Chiron… is on holiday? It’s all confusing with the changes, but with Rick Riordan working closely on the show, all these changes must be for a reason. A reason that’s likely to do with fitting the Sea of Monsters into an eight-episode series, where not every episode will be 40+ minutes.
These first two episodes provide audiences with everything they need to know regarding Percy and Annabeth’s next quest, which involves them going after the Golden Fleece, which will save Thalia’s tree and repair the barrier. With Grover out for the count and dealing with his own problems that involve a cyclops of his own (don’t worry, there are still some hilarious moments between him and Percy), Tyson has joined the team, which is bound to cause problems later down the line with Annabeth’s distaste for cyclops, which is yet to be explained.
There isn’t much screentime with Aryan Simhadri as Grover, but every time he’s on the screen, there’s a charm that Simhadri brings to the role despite him being stuck in a life-or-death situation. The biggest improvements so far are with Walker Scobell and Leah Sava Jeffries; they’ve grown with their characters, grasping a better footing of their dynamics individually and with each other.
The last six minutes of the second episode, “Demon Pigeons Attack”, already gives audiences one of Percy and Annabeth’s best scenes, preparing them for what comes later between the two. There wasn’t much getting between them last season, but these first two episodes prove that Annabeth’s secrets, their differences and Tyson’s involvement will only put their relationship further to the test, and Scobell and Sava Jeffries have already showcased that they’re ready for that level of commitment with their acting.
Aside from the book changes, which don’t make too much sense as of now, pre-teen dialogue and the slightly dodgy visuals, specifically with Tyson’s eye, Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 is off to a steady start. The first two episodes might feel like a complete repeat of the first season, with it preparing the characters for their quest and providing audiences with exposition, but overall, it sets up a season that feels darker with higher stakes than before. Whether they’ll be able to keep this up for the remainder of the season and if they’ll be able to differentiate themselves more from the first season, we’ll have to wait and see.
★★★ 1/2
Streaming on Disney+ from December 10th / Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, Aryan Simhadri, Daniel Diemer, Charlie Bushnell, Dior Goodjohn, Tamara Smart / Creator: Rick Riordan, Jon Steinberg, Dan Shotz / 12
