In 2005, an author by the name of Rick Riordan released Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lighting Thief, the first installment of a five-book series based around Greek mythology in the modern world. The saga ended up becoming incredibly popular and spawning a long line of continuing books. Since then, the beloved adolescent book series has been adapted into multiple different mediums including a few infamous movies in the early 2010’s. More recently, the books have been made into a TV series. The first season was based on the Lightning Thief and was released in late 2023 to early 2024. The show released to mild fanfare on the Disney+ streaming service and received generally good reviews from audiences. Now, the second season is previewing and tells the story of the second book: the Sea of Monsters. As of when this was written, the third episode of the season is the most recent.

In the Sea of Monsters, Percy Jackson returns to Camp Half-Blood for his second summer. However, there are some mysterious changes to camp, and a dream shows him that his best friend Grover is in danger. After learning that the tree that protects the camp is poisoned and threatening everybody’s lives, he embarks on an illegal quest with Annabeth and his newfound brother, Tyson. Similarly to the first season, the plot and certain key events are different from the books, perhaps to fit the television medium and ten-episode pace better. Though, these changes don’t fundamentally alter the original story in any huge ways. The show opts to thrust the story right into the thick of the plot, skipping over the exposition in favor to have the main quest take up the majority of its airtime.

The overall “energy” of the TV series is more intense than the books, which liberally cracks jokes and lighthearted situations in the midst of a complicated plot and mythological world. The central characters Percy, Annabeth, and Grover are played fantastically by Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri. A few highlights of this season so far have been the characters of Clarisse and Tyson, played by Dior Goodjohn and Daniel Diemer respectively. Additionally, the production quality of the show is stunning, with visual effects that clearly lend themselves to building the fantastical elements of the series, as well as great costumes, backgrounds, and sets. 

Overall, I am excited to see what the rest of this season offers, and how well future seasons respect the original novels.