June 22, 2024 • 19 mins
Join Jordan and Kit as they review and reflect on the first episode in Disney's Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV show!
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>> Jordan (00:16):
Hi, I'm Jordan.
>> Kit (00:17):
And I'm Kit.
>> Jordan (00:18):
Welcome to Starry Time
>> Kit (00:20):
Asterisms Edition.
>> Jordan (00:22):
Where stars plus lines equal
stories
>> Kit (00:26):
With an asterisk.
>> Jordan (00:28):
In these episodes, we'll explore ideas,
concepts, or people that didn't make it into the main
show.
>> Kit (00:34):
Yeah, so we had talked about watching the
show that's the topic for our episode for
today, before our Perseus episodes,
but we hadn't gotten around to it. And so,
since I brought this series up on our pop culture
episode, we decided that now is the exact right
time to dive into the world of
Disney's version of Percy Jackson
(00:57):
and the Olympians.
>> Jordan (00:58):
And we've done a couple of these pilot episodes
this season, including Gene Rodberry's
Andromeda, as well as Hercules
the animated series.
>> Kit (01:09):
Do not sleep on Hercules the animated
series. Uh, we all loved it.
It was delightful. It was on Disney Plus.
Yeah, you want to watch that one, for
sure.
>> Jordan (01:21):
We went from having no idea it existed
to demanding more,
like those episodes. We'll start out with the background on
the show. We'll recap some of the major plot
points and end with our reactions and
thoughts. It should probably go without saying, but
there are spoilers ahead for the first
(01:41):
episode of Disney's Percy Jackson and the
Olympians. And Kit might throw
in a first book spoiler or two,
so be warned.
>> Kit (01:51):
So this show is based on a series
of middle grade slash young adult books written by Rick
Riordan which I gave a little bit of background on in our last
episode on the pop culture of
Perseus.
>> Jordan (02:03):
Yes, Kit, you brought that up last week, of course. So,
everybody get into our back catalog, starting
with pop culture, Perseus.
>> Kit (02:10):
So today we're going to be talking
specifically about, as I said, Disney's version
of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the
television show, a television series. It
premiered in December
2023 on DisneyPlus,
and the first season has now ended, and all eight
episodes are, uh, available for streaming.
>> Jordan (02:30):
The season has a 92% on Rotten
Tomatoes. Pretty, pretty good. And the
consensus was mostly about how faithful this
representation was to the first book of the Percy
Jackson series.
>> Kit (02:42):
This is particularly notable because before this current
television show, there was a film named after the first book
released in 2010, as well as a second
film named after the second book released in
2013. And this should tell you something, there was a
third film that was in development but was
never made, and the Rotten Tomatoes score for the
first movie in 2010 was a
(03:05):
brutal 49%. And
the script was publicly critiqued
by Rick Riordan, the author of the book.
>> Jordan (03:13):
Yeah, it's not great when the author of the book
pretty much completely disowns it.
>> Kit (03:18):
Mhm.
>> Jordan (03:19):
I mean, in fact, I read that Riordan
didn't even want to promote the movie, currently doesn't even list it
on his website, so
49% probably reflects about how he
felt about the adaptation as well.
>> Kit (03:33):
Meanwhile, Rick Riordan is an executive
producer on this DisneyPlus show. Um, and there
are some other adaptions of this first book in the
Percy Jackson and the Olympian series, which is called the
Lightning Thief. And, uh, it includes a video
game and also a musical.
>> Jordan (03:50):
Yes, there is lots more Percy content out there
if you are interested. And Disney has already
renewed a second season of Percy Jackson and the
Olympians, which will
shockingly be focused on the second
book of the series.
>> Kit (04:05):
Great. Let's talk about the plot of this
first episode, which was titled
"I Accidentally Vaporized my Pre-Algebra
Teacher," teacher,
>> Jordan (04:15):
Kit, who hasn't, right?
>> Kit (04:17):
So we start with a voiceover
from our main character, Perseus,
aka Percy Jackson.
>> Jordan (04:25):
Who is portrayed by a 15 year old
actor named Walker Scobell, who you may
know from a movie called the Adam Project.
>> Kit (04:33):
Percy, unlike Walker, is only twelve.
Um, and in this voiceover, we sort of get a
snapshot of his life. You know, his quote
unquote before life.
>> Jordan (04:43):
Yes. Before the action really picks up,
Percy always seems to have been a bit
different. He sees all kind of
hidden myths or hidden mythies
throughout the world that other people just can't seem to
see. Uh, we get a brief shot of Pegasus
as an example of this sort of these visions that
(05:03):
he would have consistently through his past.
>> Kit (05:05):
And lest we forget that Pegasus is the child of
Medusa, somehow.
>> Jordan (05:10):
Well, yeah, one of two that she had, but
only one of them was a horse.
>> Kit (05:15):
Horse, yeah, right
>> Jordan (05:17):
All right. No doubt. So Perseus is picked
on. He's bullied in part because he seems
a bit different. He's able to see things that other people
can't, but also because he seems to have a lot of
difficulty reading and focusing.
>> Kit (05:31):
Yeah, and so we mentioned this last week, but canonically, Percy has
dyslexia and ADHD.
But lucky for Perseus, at
some point along the way and through his childhood,
he makes a best friend. He has a best
friend who likes the same stuff that he likes
and who just, like, really gets him.
>> Jordan (05:50):
He even mentions in the show, yes, his life changed once
he meets Grover, his new BFF,
who introduces him to these really cool
mythological Magic Cards. And Grover
is portrayed by Aryan Simhadri, who
has also been in a few Netflix and DisneyPlus
shows.
>> Kit (06:08):
So with all that backstory in place, with our introduction to
Percy, we are on a school field trip at the
Met museum, in New York
City. And Perseus and the class are looking
at the ancient Greek statues, and he's
given a worksheet that he has to complete.
>> Jordan (06:24):
Yeah. And they had a really great scene here where they do
a nice visualization of Percy's
dyslexia as he's looking on the worksheet and the letters
are sort of blurry and all moving around.
>> Kit (06:35):
Yeah, I liked that. Like, there's no point in
the first episode where they're like,
I have dyslexia or I have ADHD. It's
just this way of sort of showing instead of telling and also
making it sort of part, just like, part of who he is.
Okay, so Percy is looking up
at the statue of Perseus holding the head of
Medusa. And he conveniently just has a little
(06:57):
flashback to being
at the Met Museum with his mom, who
basically just gives us a rundown of the
Danae myth. So remembering that Danae is
the mother of Perseus and telling Perseus what
that myth was about.
>> Jordan (07:13):
Yeah, I thought this was also a very effective scene,
a quick flashback. And they set up the mom to ask some
important questions of younger Perseus.
Like, how does he know Medusa is the monster
and Perseus is the hero? And
how is he able to tell which is which and to not always be so
certain that he can tell. And she gives him some
(07:33):
pushback about not judging based on appearances.
And we're able to see that there's a very close relationship
between Percy and his mom.
>> Kit (07:41):
Yeah. So I think part of the reason she's telling this story about
Danae and Perseus is about this sort of, like, bond that
they have. Um, yeah, we get this sense that
Perseus and his mom are sort of a unit. It's
them versus everyone else, but also this
feeling that he has a lot of responsibility. Maybe
he's taken care of his mom, um, which I
think is more present in the book
(08:04):
than we see here. So I might be projecting a little
bit onto the first episode, but
there's certainly that, um, that idea of closeness about
their relationship, for sure.
>> Jordan (08:14):
Moving forward with the plot, Percy's little
flashback gets him teased by
the school bully, Nancy
Boba Fett? Bob--bo
>> Kit (08:25):
It did sound like Boba Fett, but I can't remember what it is.
>> Jordan (08:28):
Nancy. I had the CC on and it is
Bobafit but, uh, b o b a f
i t t. But in my head, I was calling her Nancy
Boba Fett the whole episode. And we see
Percy and Grover talking about how Nancy is a bully. And
Grover does a very self referential sort of
meta commentary on why bullies are bullies, and
(08:49):
somehow Percy magics
Nancy into a fountain
>> Kit (08:53):
So he doesn't touch her, and that's important. But the
moment he magics Nancy into the fountain,
his pre algebra teacher, presumably,
Mrs. Dobbs, who's portrayed by Megan
Mullaly, whose name we both struggled
to come up with, her last name and how it was spelled as we were
watching.
>> Jordan (09:10):
Yep.
>> Kit (09:11):
She turns into a very scary
fury, uh, which looked more like a harpy,
but I believe is a fury from ancient Greek
mythology and attacks Percy.
>> Jordan (09:22):
Percy stabs her with his magic
pen, and she, like, disappears or turns into
this dust thing. And no one seems to believe
once Percy returns back to the present or
once this incident is over, that she's ever even
existed in the first place, which
confuses Percy, leaves him second guessing
himself and what just happened.
>> Kit (09:44):
Yeah, absolutely. So he gets called into
the principal's office with Grover for pushing Nancy into
a fountain. And again, nobody remembers. Mrs.
Dobbs. She never existed. And
basically, Grover throws Percy under
the bus. He's like, I saw
Percy push her in, which, of course,
technically, he didn't push her
(10:05):
in.
>> Jordan (10:06):
But he definitely did
force project her or magic her to get
into the fountain. So anyways, Percy's pretty
mad. Grover lied, threw him under the
bus. But maybe he didn't
really, really lie, did he?
>> Kit (10:22):
Yeah, definitely a technicality. But one way or
another, one push into the fountain and
Percy is expelled from what appears to be a
very fancy, like, private school called
Yancy. And he goes back home
to New York City, where he lives.
And we meet his stepdad,
Gabe. I believe it's his stepdad. It's either his stepdad or his
(10:44):
mother's boyfriend, Gabe.
>> Jordan (10:46):
And right off the bat,
we don't like Gabe. We are pretty, pretty out
on Gabe. He's pretty
bossy, extremely annoying, doesn't have a job,
really seems inconsiderate and, um,
inebriated and angry. And right off
the bat, we're pretty out on
stepdad/ Mom's boyfriend, Gabe.
>> Kit (11:08):
Yeah. In the book, he I remember him being a
lot scarier and, like, more overtly abusive,
but they really dialed that back in this episode,
which I liked in terms of just making it a little bit of an
easier thing to watch. But it
does make Percy's adultification a little
harder to understand because Percy does not
(11:28):
really act like a twelve year old in a lot of ways.
And part of that, I think, in the book,
makes more sense since it seems like he's sort of in the role
of protector for his mother. And he's sort of a person that's
lived under, um, somebody who's been abusive.
And so it's a little harder to understand in this
context. But I liked how they portrayed Gabe. But we're
(11:49):
still out on Gabe without it having to be necessarily explicit.
>> Jordan (11:52):
Percy tries to avoid a confrontation here
with Gabe, though he talks back a little bit, but he's
mostly interested in figuring out what's going on with his mom,
who is hanging out on the fire
escape in a downpour. And
Percy's adultification does seem to come in,
in this scene a little bit where he seems to be taking care
(12:12):
of her. She seems a little bit lost or far
away, but she tells Percy that she will be taking
him to Montauk. And
they leave Gabe, they go on this long car
ride, and Percy has a very scary
dream vision. And after finally arriving at
Montauk, they're in this very cozy cabin,
and mom decides it is the time
(12:35):
to give Percy his
dramatic backstory after not telling
him anything, seemingly his whole life.
>> Kit (12:43):
Yeah, this scene is a lot of information.
Information one, Percy is a demigod.
Information two, his dad was a god.
>> Jordan (12:52):
But not God or Jesus, which is
probably the funniest line in this episode. Uh, I wouldn't
say humor was really its strong selling point.
>> Kit (13:00):
Yeah, humor's not the strong point
here. Um, so his mom describes
his dad as wise, brave,
kind and noble. So we know it's not Zeus,
but she doesn't say who the dad is either. So that's sort
of left up in the air. And as Percy
is trying to sort of dispel this
idea and sort of tell his mom that this doesn't really make
(13:23):
sense, Grover shows up at the cabin.
>> Jordan (13:26):
Except something is a little bit
different about Grover. He
has goat legs. Cause guess what? Grover's been
a satyr this whole time. Mom
really left a lot on the table,
uh, in terms of disclosing to Percy, um,
pretty much anything.
>> Kit (13:45):
Right. So then we are into the darkest ten to
15 minutes of television I've seen in quite
some time. Percy, mom, Grover,
all in the car. Uh, they're being chased by
a minotaur, maybe. I don't know. My
eyes were not young enough for this scene.
>> Jordan (14:02):
So I personally would love to know the CGI
budget for this episode, because, yes, it
is very, very, very
dark. Maybe that was a choice. In the car, we get
more information while the Minotaur is chasing them, by the
way, that Percy needs to get to Camp Halfblood
behind the mist, which is a supernatural
(14:23):
element that shields the mythological realm from the
rest of us. But if he gets to Camp Half Blood,
that will keep him safe. As a demigod, he will
be attacked by monsters here in our realm, and
a battle ensues under the cloak of near,
um, darkness.
>> Kit (14:38):
It is so dark.
>> Jordan (14:39):
And we're led to believe, as far as I can
tell, mom is killed and
Perseus kills the Minotaur. But
again, not really. It's pretty dark. Kind of
hard to tell.
>> Kit (14:52):
It was so hard to tell. Um, and so
the episode ends with Percy seeing the shadow of
a centaur and waking up with
sort of people around him, presumably at
Camp Halfblood.
>> Jordan (15:05):
Then the end credits roll, and we have one of
my favorite parts of the whole episode, which is a very
beautiful animation of Greek
mythology and elements thereof.
And, yeah, I kept watching it all the way to the end.
>> Kit (15:19):
Yeah, the end animations were really
beautiful. And we do get a little cutscene showing us
some scenes from camp, sort of like, uh, on this season
of, um. And then that's the end.
>> Jordan (15:41):
All right, Kit. That's the pilot. What do you think
about this one?
>> Kit (15:45):
So, first episodes are just generally hard.
This is one where there is a
lot of exposition and
background building. I think that the
beginning of the episode had some really good showing with the
hidden mythies, but there's a lot of talk,
which, since I read the book, wasn't
upsetting. Right. I was like, well, I know what's going on, and,
(16:08):
like, this is not new information to me. I don't need to be taking it
in, but I'll be curious to hear your thoughts.
Um, I was sort of surprised that we
didn't make it to camp or meet any of the other characters, except for
Grover, that end up being sort of central to the
plot. So, yeah, so, for me, I'm like, I
would definitely watch the next episode because I want to see those other
(16:28):
characters that I know. Um, but I wonder
if it maybe would have been better off as combining the
first two episodes. I know they were released on the same
date, but maybe it would have better to just roll you right
in. But I don't know. I overall liked it. It did feel
very faithful to the book in many ways. But
I wonder what you think of somebody who hasn't read the book. How
(16:49):
did you take this all in and what did you think about the show in general?
>> Jordan (16:52):
Like you said, I don't really have any idea what's
going on. I'm pretty unfamiliar with this franchise, and
I've never read any of the books. Um, pilots
are hard, like you said. I definitely agree with you there. We're
being introduced to the main characters and
the world that the story will take place in. But again,
I think the target audience is for families and for people a
(17:12):
little bit younger than me. So maybe it helps just to get everything
out there laid out plainly. And then that's all the
pilot can really do.
>> Kit (17:19):
BoP did watch this one with us, so I'll offer
up, um, his opinions. He didn't abandon
it, which he did about 20 minutes into Andromeda, as
some of you may remember. Um, however, he
did say that he preferred the Hercules animated
series. He was, like, weirdly
taken by the working at the mall
premise of the first Hercules. Like literally
(17:42):
was like, oh, I love that episode of them in the mall,
which, you know, okay. Um, but he did
say he'd be willing to watch another of these episodes, and so
we'll probably keep watching. Um, which I think is a
good review.
>> Jordan (17:54):
I think I'd love to watch another episode, for sure,
and I'd rather have them just err to the side of
heavy exposition than sheer
incoherence. And as we saw at
Andromeda, where the first 20 minutes of the plot had
basically nothing to do with the next 20 minutes,
uh, sometimes shorter is better, but I was
definitely intrigued. I'm ready to watch more.
(18:16):
I hope the CGI budget is increased,
um, as well as the lighting for future
episodes. Kit, do you have any other final thoughts
on this adaptation before we wrap it up?
>> Kit (18:27):
Certainly willing to watch another. And if this
is a series that you enjoy or
a genre you enjoy, then you might like this.
>> Jordan (18:42):
Thank you for joining us today for our asterism
on the pilot episode of Disney's Percy
Jackson and the Olympians.
>> Kit (18:50):
This has been Kit
>> Jordan (18:52):
And Jordan.
>> Kit (18:53):
Sisters, lovers of stars and stories.
>> Jordan (18:56):
And we'll see you next time
>> Kit (18:58):
On Starry Time.
Hi, I'm Jordan.
>> Kit (00:17):
And I'm Kit.
>> Jordan (00:18):
Welcome to Starry Time
>> Kit (00:20):
Asterisms Edition.
>> Jordan (00:22):
Where stars plus lines equal
stories
>> Kit (00:26):
With an asterisk.
>> Jordan (00:28):
In these episodes, we'll explore ideas,
concepts, or people that didn't make it into the main
show.
>> Kit (00:34):
Yeah, so we had talked about watching the
show that's the topic for our episode for
today, before our Perseus episodes,
but we hadn't gotten around to it. And so,
since I brought this series up on our pop culture
episode, we decided that now is the exact right
time to dive into the world of
Disney's version of Percy Jackson
(00:57):
and the Olympians.
>> Jordan (00:58):
And we've done a couple of these pilot episodes
this season, including Gene Rodberry's
Andromeda, as well as Hercules
the animated series.
>> Kit (01:09):
Do not sleep on Hercules the animated
series. Uh, we all loved it.
It was delightful. It was on Disney Plus.
Yeah, you want to watch that one, for
sure.
>> Jordan (01:21):
We went from having no idea it existed
to demanding more,
like those episodes. We'll start out with the background on
the show. We'll recap some of the major plot
points and end with our reactions and
thoughts. It should probably go without saying, but
there are spoilers ahead for the first
(01:41):
episode of Disney's Percy Jackson and the
Olympians. And Kit might throw
in a first book spoiler or two,
so be warned.
>> Kit (01:51):
So this show is based on a series
of middle grade slash young adult books written by Rick
Riordan which I gave a little bit of background on in our last
episode on the pop culture of
Perseus.
>> Jordan (02:03):
Yes, Kit, you brought that up last week, of course. So,
everybody get into our back catalog, starting
with pop culture, Perseus.
>> Kit (02:10):
So today we're going to be talking
specifically about, as I said, Disney's version
of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the
television show, a television series. It
premiered in December
2023 on DisneyPlus,
and the first season has now ended, and all eight
episodes are, uh, available for streaming.
>> Jordan (02:30):
The season has a 92% on Rotten
Tomatoes. Pretty, pretty good. And the
consensus was mostly about how faithful this
representation was to the first book of the Percy
Jackson series.
>> Kit (02:42):
This is particularly notable because before this current
television show, there was a film named after the first book
released in 2010, as well as a second
film named after the second book released in
2013. And this should tell you something, there was a
third film that was in development but was
never made, and the Rotten Tomatoes score for the
first movie in 2010 was a
(03:05):
brutal 49%. And
the script was publicly critiqued
by Rick Riordan, the author of the book.
>> Jordan (03:13):
Yeah, it's not great when the author of the book
pretty much completely disowns it.
>> Kit (03:18):
Mhm.
>> Jordan (03:19):
I mean, in fact, I read that Riordan
didn't even want to promote the movie, currently doesn't even list it
on his website, so
49% probably reflects about how he
felt about the adaptation as well.
>> Kit (03:33):
Meanwhile, Rick Riordan is an executive
producer on this DisneyPlus show. Um, and there
are some other adaptions of this first book in the
Percy Jackson and the Olympian series, which is called the
Lightning Thief. And, uh, it includes a video
game and also a musical.
>> Jordan (03:50):
Yes, there is lots more Percy content out there
if you are interested. And Disney has already
renewed a second season of Percy Jackson and the
Olympians, which will
shockingly be focused on the second
book of the series.
>> Kit (04:05):
Great. Let's talk about the plot of this
first episode, which was titled
"I Accidentally Vaporized my Pre-Algebra
Teacher," teacher,
>> Jordan (04:15):
Kit, who hasn't, right?
>> Kit (04:17):
So we start with a voiceover
from our main character, Perseus,
aka Percy Jackson.
>> Jordan (04:25):
Who is portrayed by a 15 year old
actor named Walker Scobell, who you may
know from a movie called the Adam Project.
>> Kit (04:33):
Percy, unlike Walker, is only twelve.
Um, and in this voiceover, we sort of get a
snapshot of his life. You know, his quote
unquote before life.
>> Jordan (04:43):
Yes. Before the action really picks up,
Percy always seems to have been a bit
different. He sees all kind of
hidden myths or hidden mythies
throughout the world that other people just can't seem to
see. Uh, we get a brief shot of Pegasus
as an example of this sort of these visions that
(05:03):
he would have consistently through his past.
>> Kit (05:05):
And lest we forget that Pegasus is the child of
Medusa, somehow.
>> Jordan (05:10):
Well, yeah, one of two that she had, but
only one of them was a horse.
>> Kit (05:15):
Horse, yeah, right
>> Jordan (05:17):
All right. No doubt. So Perseus is picked
on. He's bullied in part because he seems
a bit different. He's able to see things that other people
can't, but also because he seems to have a lot of
difficulty reading and focusing.
>> Kit (05:31):
Yeah, and so we mentioned this last week, but canonically, Percy has
dyslexia and ADHD.
But lucky for Perseus, at
some point along the way and through his childhood,
he makes a best friend. He has a best
friend who likes the same stuff that he likes
and who just, like, really gets him.
>> Jordan (05:50):
He even mentions in the show, yes, his life changed once
he meets Grover, his new BFF,
who introduces him to these really cool
mythological Magic Cards. And Grover
is portrayed by Aryan Simhadri, who
has also been in a few Netflix and DisneyPlus
shows.
>> Kit (06:08):
So with all that backstory in place, with our introduction to
Percy, we are on a school field trip at the
Met museum, in New York
City. And Perseus and the class are looking
at the ancient Greek statues, and he's
given a worksheet that he has to complete.
>> Jordan (06:24):
Yeah. And they had a really great scene here where they do
a nice visualization of Percy's
dyslexia as he's looking on the worksheet and the letters
are sort of blurry and all moving around.
>> Kit (06:35):
Yeah, I liked that. Like, there's no point in
the first episode where they're like,
I have dyslexia or I have ADHD. It's
just this way of sort of showing instead of telling and also
making it sort of part, just like, part of who he is.
Okay, so Percy is looking up
at the statue of Perseus holding the head of
Medusa. And he conveniently just has a little
(06:57):
flashback to being
at the Met Museum with his mom, who
basically just gives us a rundown of the
Danae myth. So remembering that Danae is
the mother of Perseus and telling Perseus what
that myth was about.
>> Jordan (07:13):
Yeah, I thought this was also a very effective scene,
a quick flashback. And they set up the mom to ask some
important questions of younger Perseus.
Like, how does he know Medusa is the monster
and Perseus is the hero? And
how is he able to tell which is which and to not always be so
certain that he can tell. And she gives him some
(07:33):
pushback about not judging based on appearances.
And we're able to see that there's a very close relationship
between Percy and his mom.
>> Kit (07:41):
Yeah. So I think part of the reason she's telling this story about
Danae and Perseus is about this sort of, like, bond that
they have. Um, yeah, we get this sense that
Perseus and his mom are sort of a unit. It's
them versus everyone else, but also this
feeling that he has a lot of responsibility. Maybe
he's taken care of his mom, um, which I
think is more present in the book
(08:04):
than we see here. So I might be projecting a little
bit onto the first episode, but
there's certainly that, um, that idea of closeness about
their relationship, for sure.
>> Jordan (08:14):
Moving forward with the plot, Percy's little
flashback gets him teased by
the school bully, Nancy
Boba Fett? Bob--bo
>> Kit (08:25):
It did sound like Boba Fett, but I can't remember what it is.
>> Jordan (08:28):
Nancy. I had the CC on and it is
Bobafit but, uh, b o b a f
i t t. But in my head, I was calling her Nancy
Boba Fett the whole episode. And we see
Percy and Grover talking about how Nancy is a bully. And
Grover does a very self referential sort of
meta commentary on why bullies are bullies, and
(08:49):
somehow Percy magics
Nancy into a fountain
>> Kit (08:53):
So he doesn't touch her, and that's important. But the
moment he magics Nancy into the fountain,
his pre algebra teacher, presumably,
Mrs. Dobbs, who's portrayed by Megan
Mullaly, whose name we both struggled
to come up with, her last name and how it was spelled as we were
watching.
>> Jordan (09:10):
Yep.
>> Kit (09:11):
She turns into a very scary
fury, uh, which looked more like a harpy,
but I believe is a fury from ancient Greek
mythology and attacks Percy.
>> Jordan (09:22):
Percy stabs her with his magic
pen, and she, like, disappears or turns into
this dust thing. And no one seems to believe
once Percy returns back to the present or
once this incident is over, that she's ever even
existed in the first place, which
confuses Percy, leaves him second guessing
himself and what just happened.
>> Kit (09:44):
Yeah, absolutely. So he gets called into
the principal's office with Grover for pushing Nancy into
a fountain. And again, nobody remembers. Mrs.
Dobbs. She never existed. And
basically, Grover throws Percy under
the bus. He's like, I saw
Percy push her in, which, of course,
technically, he didn't push her
(10:05):
in.
>> Jordan (10:06):
But he definitely did
force project her or magic her to get
into the fountain. So anyways, Percy's pretty
mad. Grover lied, threw him under the
bus. But maybe he didn't
really, really lie, did he?
>> Kit (10:22):
Yeah, definitely a technicality. But one way or
another, one push into the fountain and
Percy is expelled from what appears to be a
very fancy, like, private school called
Yancy. And he goes back home
to New York City, where he lives.
And we meet his stepdad,
Gabe. I believe it's his stepdad. It's either his stepdad or his
(10:44):
mother's boyfriend, Gabe.
>> Jordan (10:46):
And right off the bat,
we don't like Gabe. We are pretty, pretty out
on Gabe. He's pretty
bossy, extremely annoying, doesn't have a job,
really seems inconsiderate and, um,
inebriated and angry. And right off
the bat, we're pretty out on
stepdad/ Mom's boyfriend, Gabe.
>> Kit (11:08):
Yeah. In the book, he I remember him being a
lot scarier and, like, more overtly abusive,
but they really dialed that back in this episode,
which I liked in terms of just making it a little bit of an
easier thing to watch. But it
does make Percy's adultification a little
harder to understand because Percy does not
(11:28):
really act like a twelve year old in a lot of ways.
And part of that, I think, in the book,
makes more sense since it seems like he's sort of in the role
of protector for his mother. And he's sort of a person that's
lived under, um, somebody who's been abusive.
And so it's a little harder to understand in this
context. But I liked how they portrayed Gabe. But we're
(11:49):
still out on Gabe without it having to be necessarily explicit.
>> Jordan (11:52):
Percy tries to avoid a confrontation here
with Gabe, though he talks back a little bit, but he's
mostly interested in figuring out what's going on with his mom,
who is hanging out on the fire
escape in a downpour. And
Percy's adultification does seem to come in,
in this scene a little bit where he seems to be taking care
(12:12):
of her. She seems a little bit lost or far
away, but she tells Percy that she will be taking
him to Montauk. And
they leave Gabe, they go on this long car
ride, and Percy has a very scary
dream vision. And after finally arriving at
Montauk, they're in this very cozy cabin,
and mom decides it is the time
(12:35):
to give Percy his
dramatic backstory after not telling
him anything, seemingly his whole life.
>> Kit (12:43):
Yeah, this scene is a lot of information.
Information one, Percy is a demigod.
Information two, his dad was a god.
>> Jordan (12:52):
But not God or Jesus, which is
probably the funniest line in this episode. Uh, I wouldn't
say humor was really its strong selling point.
>> Kit (13:00):
Yeah, humor's not the strong point
here. Um, so his mom describes
his dad as wise, brave,
kind and noble. So we know it's not Zeus,
but she doesn't say who the dad is either. So that's sort
of left up in the air. And as Percy
is trying to sort of dispel this
idea and sort of tell his mom that this doesn't really make
(13:23):
sense, Grover shows up at the cabin.
>> Jordan (13:26):
Except something is a little bit
different about Grover. He
has goat legs. Cause guess what? Grover's been
a satyr this whole time. Mom
really left a lot on the table,
uh, in terms of disclosing to Percy, um,
pretty much anything.
>> Kit (13:45):
Right. So then we are into the darkest ten to
15 minutes of television I've seen in quite
some time. Percy, mom, Grover,
all in the car. Uh, they're being chased by
a minotaur, maybe. I don't know. My
eyes were not young enough for this scene.
>> Jordan (14:02):
So I personally would love to know the CGI
budget for this episode, because, yes, it
is very, very, very
dark. Maybe that was a choice. In the car, we get
more information while the Minotaur is chasing them, by the
way, that Percy needs to get to Camp Halfblood
behind the mist, which is a supernatural
(14:23):
element that shields the mythological realm from the
rest of us. But if he gets to Camp Half Blood,
that will keep him safe. As a demigod, he will
be attacked by monsters here in our realm, and
a battle ensues under the cloak of near,
um, darkness.
>> Kit (14:38):
It is so dark.
>> Jordan (14:39):
And we're led to believe, as far as I can
tell, mom is killed and
Perseus kills the Minotaur. But
again, not really. It's pretty dark. Kind of
hard to tell.
>> Kit (14:52):
It was so hard to tell. Um, and so
the episode ends with Percy seeing the shadow of
a centaur and waking up with
sort of people around him, presumably at
Camp Halfblood.
>> Jordan (15:05):
Then the end credits roll, and we have one of
my favorite parts of the whole episode, which is a very
beautiful animation of Greek
mythology and elements thereof.
And, yeah, I kept watching it all the way to the end.
>> Kit (15:19):
Yeah, the end animations were really
beautiful. And we do get a little cutscene showing us
some scenes from camp, sort of like, uh, on this season
of, um. And then that's the end.
>> Jordan (15:41):
All right, Kit. That's the pilot. What do you think
about this one?
>> Kit (15:45):
So, first episodes are just generally hard.
This is one where there is a
lot of exposition and
background building. I think that the
beginning of the episode had some really good showing with the
hidden mythies, but there's a lot of talk,
which, since I read the book, wasn't
upsetting. Right. I was like, well, I know what's going on, and,
(16:08):
like, this is not new information to me. I don't need to be taking it
in, but I'll be curious to hear your thoughts.
Um, I was sort of surprised that we
didn't make it to camp or meet any of the other characters, except for
Grover, that end up being sort of central to the
plot. So, yeah, so, for me, I'm like, I
would definitely watch the next episode because I want to see those other
(16:28):
characters that I know. Um, but I wonder
if it maybe would have been better off as combining the
first two episodes. I know they were released on the same
date, but maybe it would have better to just roll you right
in. But I don't know. I overall liked it. It did feel
very faithful to the book in many ways. But
I wonder what you think of somebody who hasn't read the book. How
(16:49):
did you take this all in and what did you think about the show in general?
>> Jordan (16:52):
Like you said, I don't really have any idea what's
going on. I'm pretty unfamiliar with this franchise, and
I've never read any of the books. Um, pilots
are hard, like you said. I definitely agree with you there. We're
being introduced to the main characters and
the world that the story will take place in. But again,
I think the target audience is for families and for people a
(17:12):
little bit younger than me. So maybe it helps just to get everything
out there laid out plainly. And then that's all the
pilot can really do.
>> Kit (17:19):
BoP did watch this one with us, so I'll offer
up, um, his opinions. He didn't abandon
it, which he did about 20 minutes into Andromeda, as
some of you may remember. Um, however, he
did say that he preferred the Hercules animated
series. He was, like, weirdly
taken by the working at the mall
premise of the first Hercules. Like literally
(17:42):
was like, oh, I love that episode of them in the mall,
which, you know, okay. Um, but he did
say he'd be willing to watch another of these episodes, and so
we'll probably keep watching. Um, which I think is a
good review.
>> Jordan (17:54):
I think I'd love to watch another episode, for sure,
and I'd rather have them just err to the side of
heavy exposition than sheer
incoherence. And as we saw at
Andromeda, where the first 20 minutes of the plot had
basically nothing to do with the next 20 minutes,
uh, sometimes shorter is better, but I was
definitely intrigued. I'm ready to watch more.
(18:16):
I hope the CGI budget is increased,
um, as well as the lighting for future
episodes. Kit, do you have any other final thoughts
on this adaptation before we wrap it up?
>> Kit (18:27):
Certainly willing to watch another. And if this
is a series that you enjoy or
a genre you enjoy, then you might like this.
>> Jordan (18:42):
Thank you for joining us today for our asterism
on the pilot episode of Disney's Percy
Jackson and the Olympians.
>> Kit (18:50):
This has been Kit
>> Jordan (18:52):
And Jordan.
>> Kit (18:53):
Sisters, lovers of stars and stories.
>> Jordan (18:56):
And we'll see you next time
>> Kit (18:58):
On Starry Time.
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