J. Shruti
Humour might be scant in the Disney+ adaptation of Rick Riordan’s bestselling series and the fans of the book are feverishly unsure about the choices where it patently departs from the books, but in the last episode it more or less arrives at the same place.
In the eight-part series, Riordan has donned the cap of writer as well as executive producer in a bid to make this adaptation more faithful to his book than the flashy but disappointing movie adaptation.
The show is bolstered by a supporting cast that can range from roguishly charming to forgettable. On a scale of Medusa (Jessica Parker Kennedy) to Hades (Jay Duplass), most of the acting performances in Percy Jackson hover in an unremarkable middle.
Early on in the series, when the Oracle delivers a cryptic prophecy for Percy, it becomes obvious that there’s going to be a twist in the tale. Unfortunately, there’s so little tension in the show, when the show delivers its final reveal, it feels mostly like an anticlimax.
it does adequately communicate the risks that Percy, Grover and Annabeth undertake to avoid the catastrophic consequences of a fight between the Olympians and the threat posed by Kronos. However, for the purposes of the show’s narrative, that’s a very basic requirement.
The tone of Percy Jackson is simply gentler and graver than its novel counterpart. Evidently crafted to be a kids’ show, there’s little darkness or threat posed to Percy and his friends who engineer predictable escapes from threats that rarely pack any genuine menace.