#Which is so unfortunate because walker and Leah are doing the best with what they were given!!!!

[solmorye]

gonna be honest with you guys the pjo tv show is really bad

[allurasrealm]

PJO TV DEBRIEF (S1)

First of all I would like to say that episode 8 was my favorite of the season ends down. The pacing was good, the storytelling was good, there was tension, suspense, the fight scenes weren't anticlimactic etc. it gives me hope that maybe these writers aren't totally incompetent. I tried to be brief but this post will be long I fear.

THE TRIO

Overall I like the dynamic between the trio, they really picked the right actors. they bounce off of each other well and I can't get enough of them together. Individually their characterization is close enough to what we get in the books however I feel that Annabeth and Grover got nerfed this season (especially Grover).

Percy: I don't think I have much to say. Walker really nails the character. the action, the humor, the line delivery etc. My only issue is that they made him too knowledgeable for my liking and i feel that it was done at the expense of his quest mates.

Annabeth: Same thing as before, Leah really understands the character well. She IS Annabeth. But as others have mentioned before I wish she could express a wider range of emotions throughout the show. I like her a lot more in scenes where she was allowed to be more than a standoffish tactician and was expressing fear and worry either for herself or her friends. however I was disappointed at her reaction at the reveal in the woods with Luke. I mean this is her brother (or so we are told in the show) so I expected her to be more devastated by it. this is as much of a betrayal for Percy as it is for her.

Grover: this Grover feels slightly different than the one in the book but I don't mind at all. Aryan is crushing it! Unfortunately I can't help but feel that this Grover was severely underwritten and underdeveloped. I wish they properly represented how much the Pan quest means to him and how important it was for him to be on this quest to obtain his Searcher's License, that way the finale could've felt that much more satisfying to watch. Overall I feel that he was sidelined a lot more because the kids are apparently too smart to fall into trap, be sidetracked or be tricked by the Mist so that means that Grover's ability to sense monsters was gone and therefore made him a lot less useful to the team. I've noticed as well that the three were often separate to keep Percabeth together while he was by himself and like... why? and even when he made some efforts to contribute to the quest in a meaningful way, those efforts didn't amount to much.

I also take this opportunity to add this because I was discussing it with friends earlier. this might be a reach but I wanted to share our perspective on this anyway:

We were especially annoyed at how they took out some defining traits and ability from Grover and Annabeth or straight up took said abilities to give them to Percy knowing it would leave the two with not much to show for this quest because:

Percy is already the main character so what is the need for it? Percy in the books was never dumb but he was fairly ignorant about the mythical world which led to Annabeth and Grover being the ones to explain things to him (and therefore the audience/readers) but now he's pretty much the knowledgeable member of this team on top of being the one to get most of the action during fights and confrontation (again the others aren't nearly as active as he is here).

I think it's odd that they chose to add more diversity in the cast for this trio but unfortunately fall into the trap of giving their non-white characters the "besties who are there to prop up the main character but don't seem to get to stand on their own" treatment POC often get in media.

I could go on and on about this but it would be best to save that for another post. For future seasons my main hope for these characters is that they explore Annabeth and Grover's interiority with as much care and effort as they do Percy's. I mean seeing as this is a tv show format, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to do this and dive deeper into their respective arc since it's not a first person POV like in the book and yet not much was done.

Bonus (Sally): While I didn't dislike this portrayal of Sally and like that they made her more active and have more agency since the beginning, I'm still disappointed to not see her go through her original arc in the first book that is precisely about how she grows to be that Sally. ever since Percy's birth, he was her priority (understandingly so) and every decision she made was to protect him even at her own expense. I thought there was something beautiful about how she heard of her son's first quest and how it inspired her to take matters into her own hands to regain her agency and freedom. Though I'm fine with this version of Sally, it still doesn't hit the same way as the original story.

Olympus

I loved the way Mount of Olympus and the Underworld were designed and although I had my own preferences and expectations about the Underworld I still like the show version of it. Mount Olympus looks way bigger and grand than I ever imagined it in my head so I loved that about it. no notes.

I also liked most of the gods but mostly because they stuck with the book's descriptions of them. Dionysus was spot on and well cast. I like Ares too and Poseidon. Hermes and Hades felt too much like some guys™ to me and while I can accept it for Hermes, it's difficult to get over it with Hades. and before anyone starts, I'm not asking for a mustache twirling villain because Hades was never that but you'd think the lord of the Underworld would have more gravita than that.

Now Zeus! I was kinda worried at first for the reasons mentioned above but now I don't even know why, I mean they cast Lance Reddick for the role so I should've known this would turn out great. He actually brought the charisma, gravita and authority I was expecting from some of these gods. He gave such a masterful performance in the finale and is the reason why I will be rewatching it. Lance was such a great talent and phenomenal person, he will be deeply missed </3

THE BETRAYAL

I was worried for this part as well because I didn't think they built up for it well enough but considering how Annabeth reacted to the whole thing, I guess it doesn't matter that they didn't show us how close her and Luke were supposed to be I guess. let's take away how truly meaningful that relationship was to Annabeth that way we don't have to worry about it for the final reveal right?

They finally showed us the training session between Luke and Percy and I'm glad because I honestly thought they scrapped that entirely. Even though I still wish it was included way before that, I'm still content about it being included and used as flashback to create a parallel between Percy and Luke.

Generally this Luke is a bit different from the one in the book and that's why I like this Luke better so far.

From what I remember the character in the book seems friendly at first but definitely comes off as a bit sly later so you know there's something up with the guy. Whereas in this show Luke is genuine from the beginning to the end of season 1. You get the sense that Luke actually sees Percy as a friend. He also sees his greatness and potential which make Percy that good of a potential ally and recruit and on top of that we were shown in the flashbacks that both see eye to eye when it comes to the gods. These changes in the story make the character foils that much better and interesting to me.

Finally I want to add that Charlie gave an incredible performance at the end and I am excited to see more of him and what else they have in store for this character!

NEXT SEASONS

For future seasons, they need to give this show more episodes per season so we don't ever get a bad pacing. It was definitely impacting the quality of the writing as well. I didn't dislike all the changes they made. Some of the elements added or changed I ended up enjoying because it fits well in the overall story and add more depth to it. Meanwhile there were events that happened in the book that I didn't like because of the storytelling and writing decisions they made that in my opinion took away the meaning behind them. A lot of the tension and struggles that make this adventure so thrilling were gone as well and I wish the writers could reevaluate that. as mentioned prior I also want the other characters to be more developed and better written.