Percy Jackson and the hopefully good TV adaptation!

I have been trying really hard not to read too many of the reviews coming out about the Percy Jackson TV series, but as someone that has been a fan of the books for his whole life, it's becoming really difficult as the release date gets closer.

I am incredibly excited about Percy Jackson and the Olympians coming out on Disney+ and I don't use that term lightly. Those who know me know that I don't tend to use the term 'excited' about many things, especially when it comes to television. We are living in an era of media where a lot of it is, unfortunately, incredibly over saturated and that impacts all audiences across the board. If you're a casual watcher, perhaps you don't quite watch tv shows as they're released anymore because so many that you have have been cancelled for seemingly no reason, or if you're more hardcore, perhaps you aren't committing to the same amount of rewatches because they don't just hit in the same way as they used too.

Sadly, this has happened to me quite a few times recently. I was really enjoying 'How I Met Your Father' (HIMYF), the soft reboot attempt of 'How I Met Your Mother' (2005 to 2014). It had a really strong core cast - Hilary Duff in particular was fantastic in the lead role. It had lovely well done callbacks to the original with the occasional cameos and subtle references. In general, it was really starting to find its feet in its second season and then it got cancelled. I was also really optimistic about the long term nature of 'National Treasure: Edge of History', another really fun continuation of beloved piece of media. This show being a continuation of the titular 'National Treasure' film franchise and like HIMYF, had a really strong core cast. This time led by Lisette Olivera, with Catherine Zeta Jones being the villain. There were even rumours that in a second season that Nicholas Cage might return as Ben Gates, the lead character of the films, so again when it was cancelled, I was gutted. This doesn't even take into account over shows I've really enjoyed that got cancelled too soon this year; Big Shot, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers and Snowpiercer.

There are many reasons that shows get cancelled, and the reasons behind them most likely belong in a different blog post, but the increased nature of these shows being cancelled paints a really interesting picture for the TV landscape in it's current form. There are still some major shows in the TV world that were released in 2023 that I can personally recommend, such as Only Murders in the Buildings, Good Omens, Gen V and Upload, plus major new shows like The Last Of Us and The Bear or continuations of old ones like House of Dragon and Doctor Who are still going strong. In general, however other than that, we just don't have many major TV franchises on air at the moment. At least none that warrant the same level of water cooler talk, or socials buzz that programmes like Ted Lasso, Game of Thrones or perhaps Breaking Bad did in their prime.

This brings me back nicely to Percy Jackson and The Olympians. If Disney+ do nail the show (which I think they will), I really do believe they have a major franchise on their hands, especially when you consider there are 6 Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, and two (!!!) follow up sequel series. With the book series even being in the top 20 best selling book series of all time including above franchises like Twilight, The Hunger Games AND Game of Thrones, which is an extraordinary stat. So far though, everything looks really positive for the show. All the reviews that I've seen are extremely complimentary with 96% on Rotten Tomatoes (a small increase from 46% for the first film adaptation that we don't talk about (although love you logan lerman)). Rick Riordan, the creator of the franchise, has heavily been involved which is normally a pretty good sign for adaptations. The cast, led by Walker Scobell (Percy), Leah Jeffries (Annabeth) and Aryan Simhadri (Grover) all look perfectly suited for the roles. I thought Scobell was fantastic in both The Adam Project and Secret Headquarters and looks like he truly embodies Percy Jackson. I love that he's a proper fan of the books too!

I remember reading the books growing up and thinking how much I would love to be in an adaptation if they ever did one, which I'll admit is looking a bit unlikely given I am now 25 and they are 12 in the first book.. but you never know!

Until next time,

DH xx