Disney+ picked a strange time to revitalise Percy Jackson – that is, more than 20 years after the books were published. Most of its fans (myself included) are pushing 30, their days of reading children’s literature well behind them. The unloved film series starring Logan Lerman bombed. And here we are, a decade after that, with a brand-new TV show.
But there’s still magic here. For the uninitiated, Percy Jackson is an American tween just like any other, except, of course, he’s not. As he finds out (in a rather traumatic set of circumstances), he’s actually the demi-god son of Poseidon, and the Greek gods all happen to be real, and they walk among us.
Soon enough, Percy is sent on a quest to retrieve Zeus’ stolen lightning bolt (which Poseidon has been accused of doing), in a bid to avert a looming war between the gods – a quest that’ll send him into the depths of Hades, to grapple with titans and also try and save his mortal mother’s life.
It’s pure wish fulfilment, of course, which is what makes it so fun – and the show's design is gorgeous. Camp Half Blood, the place demigods hang out, looks suitably lived-in, all the magic weapons look plausibly deadly (where can I buy a pair of those flying shoes?) and the monsters are a step up from your garden variety Doctor Who baddie.
Percy Jackson also takes great pleasure in twisting the Greek myths to suit a modern-day narrative. Think you know the Minotaur, it asks? Well, these days it wears Fruit of the Looms and has a penchant for chasing down cars.
And what about the mythical Furies? They moonlight as algebra teachers. And as for the dated Noughties references from the book – well, most of them have been brought firmly into the present day.
That said, it’s also impossible to ignore the show’s literary roots – and from there, its target audience. Is it for the new fans, who are kids, or the older ones, who aren’t? Sometimes, it’s hard to tell.
If the films played fast and loose with the plot of the books, the series (which was co-written by author Rick Riordan) sometimes feels too enslaved to it, lifting entire lines or scenes for its characters to recite verbatim – at times it just comes across as clunky. Telling somebody “Hail, Perseus Jackson, son of the sea god,” all looks very epic on the page; seen on screen, it’s significantly dorkier.
That it works at all is mostly down to the performances of its three young leads. Walker Scobell, so good as Ryan Reynolds’ mini-me in The Adam Project, is great here too, managing to infuse Percy with real personality and warmth.
A test of any actor is how they handle exposition (there is a lot of exposition here), and he manages to look plausibly horrified when being told the Greek god equivalent of “You’re a wizard, Harry.” That said, the crown has to go to Leah Sava Jeffries, who plays Percy’s friend Annabeth with a kind of steely self-possession it’s quite scary to see in somebody who’s not yet hit 15.
The plot romps along, the monsters are inventive and the leads are (thankfully) engaging and likeable. It’s clear Disney+ is expecting big things from the show, and on that metric, it delivers: and I'm looking forward to seeing where it will go.
