Believe it or not, it has been nearly two years since Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiered on Disney+, and now, Season 2 is here.
Sure, the kids may be a little older, and the story has changed, but stars Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri are back in the saddle for an adaptation of Rick Riordan's Sea of Monsters book.
As with any multi-season series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians benefits from already having a previous season, which adapted The Lightning Thief.
Previously, there were movie adaptations of The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters, but the latter was wholly unremarkable. It's clear why a third movie wasn't made, not to mention the actors' advanced ages for their roles. Now, Disney+ has the chance to right those wrongs with this take on Sea of Monsters.
This time around, it's a much more faithful adaptation of Riordan's novel, and the first two episodes start stronger than the first two of the last season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The first two episodes provide a tease of the wild things to come. Buckle in, folks.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 review: What are the premiere episodes about?
A year after the events of Season 1, Season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians begins right before Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) are set to return to Camp Half Blood. Percy is having nightmares that Grover has been captured, and he has to save him.
It all hits them fast, as Percy and his new friend, Tyson (Daniel Diemer), are picked up by a speeding New York taxi (along with Annabeth) to go to camp. They are immediately attacked within steps of the camp's boundaries, and they discover that Thalia's tree — which protects Camp Half Blood's borders — has been poisoned. So, they need to retrieve the vaunted Golden Fleece. Some old faces reemerge as well during the quest.
Season 2 gets off the ground running
Now that the characters are established, Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 is able to get off to a quicker start than the last season.
Granted, there is still some exposition to fill in the blanks. In the Disney+ series, Sally (Virginia Kull), Percy's mom, has taken in Tyson, whereas in the novel, Percy befriended him.
This doesn't affect the series on a macro level, at least two episodes in. It remains to be seen if the filmmakers made even more drastic changes to the source material.
Tyson does end up getting the short end of the stick early on in Season 2. Diemer plays the role with a much-needed sense of sympathy. With more screentime, he should only get better. It has to be an extremely hard role to play, given the restrictions being a cyclops has, and Diemer will prove any doubters wrong.
The cast still shines
The cast of the Disney+ Percy Jackson series is still great. Ironically, despite going with younger actors than the movies, the Percy Jackson leads have grown. They're teenagers, and they still look younger than Logan Lerman (who was 18 when The Lightning Thief came out) and Co. in the movies.
Scobell embodies the spirit of Percy to a T, and hopefully, he is able to see the adaptations out over the next few years. Watching him grow in the role is fun. He properly strikes the character's balance of inquisitive and heroic.
Due to Grover's story, Simhadri isn't able to bounce off his co-stars as much in the second season, thus far. It will be great once he is reunited with Scobell and Jeffries.
Jeffries excels in places that Alexandra Daddario didn't as Annabeth. However, Percy Jackson and the Olympians lacks a feminine voice in the scripts.
Sarah Watson did write the script of the second episode of this season, but the conflict in Percy and Annabeth's relationship feels tacky in the first two episodes, especially in the first (which was co-written by Rick Riordan and Craig Silverstein).
There is a wrinkle added to the quest to find Grover and the Golden Fleece. It adds a wedge between Percy and Annabeth, and this change feels contrived, more than anything. In the book, they have a rift, but it feels juvenile (yes, they are teenagers) in its execution.
Some of Jeffries' lines make Annabeth seem petty and unjustified in her actions. That's to no fault of the actors, but rather, the writers.
Should you watch Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2?
The first two episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 set up the crew's journey. There are still six episodes to go, so expect the action to ramp up in the coming weeks.
To its credit, the second season is able to get off the ground running. The characters are mostly established, and the stakes are made clear early.
It's a relatively safe base hit from James Bobin, who directed the first two episodes. A promising start only gets you so far, and there is still a lot of story to tell.
While there are changes made to the book's story, there's nothing as egregious as the Sea of Monsters movie. Percy Jackson was always meant to be adapted as a show, not a series of movies, as a two-hour runtime can't do the stories justice.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians is bound to go bigger in Season 2 after the inconsistent visuals were one of the biggest negatives from Season 1. In fairness, there aren't a lot of CGI-heavy sequences in the first two episodes. However, given how mystical the Sea of Monsters gets, you'd have to imagine Disney+ stepped up its game since the last season.
Grade: B
The first two episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 are streaming on Disney+.
