Hii first of all I like your review but I would like to express my opinion on a few of your points: 1) I believe they made the deadline change so that the first time Percy sees his father, it would be him giving up ‘glory’ to protect his son. They had to give us reasons to like Poseidon because a lot of the times that we saw the gods in this series like Athena and Ares, it was in a negative light. Both of them were ready to give up their kids for glory (i.e. the Arch scene and Ares saying he doesn’t even like his own kids). So showing that Poseidon (and Hermes for that matter) cared was necessary to show to Percy that Luke isn’t doing the right thing (not entirely at least). It was also a great way of showing Zeus’s hubris, since Zeus was ready to fight his brother, weakening the gods at a time when Kronos was not only plotting to regain power but had come very close to getting the most powerful weapon in the world (thus showing that Luke wasn’t wrong in his motivations either). 2)When Percy is talking to Hades in Ep 7, he says something tried to pull them into Tartarus the moment the bolt appeared in the bag. That combined with the shock on Percy and Grover’s face when they hear the thunk of the bolt and take it out of the bag tells us that the bolt wasn’t there the entire time. 3) Ya I agree with both your points in Ep3. I don’t know why they didn’t just let Grover hit Medusa and then have Annabeth put the cap on her when she’s down. Why not just show them vandalise the bus and build up the ‘Gabe being Pathetic in interviews’ narrative? In fact I have no idea why show Sally married Gabe. It wasn’t to protect Percy with his smell cause they didn’t mention that at all. Also in the show, to protect Percy, she sent him away from New York (where the camp is and I assume would be a major monster haunt in general). So why is Gabe anyways? Also did the mortals forget about Percy and gang destroying the Arch altogether? 4) About the Luke thing, I believe Kronos must have told him that Percy wouldn’t die in Tartarus as he needed to recruit Percy (it might actually be true, who knows Kronos might be able to save Percy by controlling the flying shoes at the bottom). Also I don’t think he was trying to kill Percy in the end, cause he did raise his sword but it didn’t feel like he was going to strike Percy, as he had ample time to do that. It felt like he was trying to intimidate Percy. Basically recruit him by hook or by crook (they should have made this clearer though). If Annabeth hadn’t shown up he would probably have forced Percy to leave with him to convince him later. But once Annabeth arrived, he knew he would have to fight her to take Percy and he didn’t have it in himself to do that. To add on to that, I think Charlie did an amazing job of portraying the shame Luke must have felt when Annabeth found him, because even though feels justified in what he is doing, he knows Annabeth wouldn’t look at it that way cause she adores her mother. He wouldn’t have known what happened during their quest so he wouldn’t know what Athena and Poseidon did. In his mind, Percy would hate Poseidon just like he did before and should therefore be easy to recruit and Annabeth would adore Athena and wouldn’t understand why Luke would side with Kronos. The thing I didn’t like about that scene personally was why Annabeth followed Luke and Percy anyways. In hindsight she might see why Luke did what he did, but upfront she wouldn’t even think that her brother could be a traitor. So like you said, it would have been better had she just come across the scene instead of being there the entire time secretly. 5) While Grover was wrong about Clarisse being the lightening thief, he did figure out that Ares knew who it was and was probably working with whoever had stolen the bolt (which at that time they thought was Hades) 6) I think Sally just got overwhelmed at the cafe, like she couldn’t speak to Percy because it hurt too much, so she just kissed him to show she did care. She needed to speak with Poseidon because he was the only one she could talk to about the real reason Percy was being sent away and seek some comfort. I assume she would have reassured him later but they decided to end on Poseidon’s dialogue cause it was more epic. Parenting is hard and our parents are only human. And what they do in their most vulnerable moments doesn’t define them. I also don’t know why they didn’t include the poodle scene to show that Grover can talk to animals or the Zebra talking to Percy (literally the name of the episode!) or mention Poseidon and Athena’s rivalry or show us the cabins (like hello, you made the effort of designing them). There are actually a lot of examples I could mention here. The ‘show don’t tell’ thing did bother me too. I did like the show though, a solid 7.5 (maybe 8, will decide on a rewatch though). There are surprisingly things that I liked more than the books which helped. Sally Jackson was simply amazing. All of her scenes showing how she prepared Percy to be who he is now were *chef’s kiss*. In the books I did not really get that invested into her, so didn’t care much about her “dying” but the show changed that. I love her. Secondly, Luke. Not to say that book Luke wasn’t great, he is to this day one of the best villains I’ve read about. The problem with him is just that. He is too good a villain, so at the end of the fifth book I couldn’t understand people (even Percy) labelling him a hero. Like yes, gods aren’t good parents (also something the show did a better job of portraying ) but you still caused so much death and destruction. You were ready to kill Percy since the beginning. I think show Luke fits the vibe of a ‘corrupted hero but still isn’t horrible enough that he couldn’t have a redemption’ much better. I do have a lot more to say but I think this comment is way too long already… so here I stop :)
I wanted to love it so badly, but It feels rushed, like they didn’t plan it well, the writing was bad. They had ONE SINGLE decent transition in the whole serie, then they kept using the ugly black transition. Annabeth had the weakest acting, probably because she is so young, but the writers didn’t help her at all. Even Walker being the best out of the three felt dull. There was no reason for me to care about their friendship since there was no chemestry between any of them. The directing and writing was probably the worst part. If they don’t improve for the second season i doubt i’ll keep watching. But I wanna be hopeful since the books are so good.
Just wanted to add that I do have faith that the kids would be good actors once they get experience with better directing. It’s not 100% their fault at all. Even actors that are known to be great couldn’t shine in this series.
Oh boy the fact that it feels like we watched two different shows is so wild to me. I had never seen a video where i disageeed with every single point someone makes, yet be intrigued to keep listening to them. Props to you!
Lol, that's fine. I knew I was gonna have someone who greatly disagrees with me but that's honestly pretty cool that I was able to keep you entertained. Thanks :)
The betrayal scene to me kind of illustrates what the best and worst parts of the show are. It's good but it lacks an internal logic. I actually noticed the first time I watched the betrayal scene, how weird it is that Annabeth stands there the whole time while Luke beats up Percy. It caught my attention because it happens a lot throughout the show, something is stablished as really important or that works in a very particular way and then it's executed in an awkward way for no specific reason. Annabeth, using the betrayal scene example, is supposedly someone that is way ahead of everyone, she's unbelievably smart, she's really brave and she's been shown to be really sensitive and proactive when what she cares about is being threatened. That's her characterization. It doesn't seem like a logical choice for her to not prevent or do something about Percy and Luke fighting each other. She loves them both and she's a 12 year old girl with magical powers, why would she stand there and watch while her big brother tries to kill her best friend just, for the sake of what? Information? To show us her sad reaction when Luke suddenly isn't who he was supposed to be? To illustrate more quickly how evil luke is instead of building it up? I wouldn't say is the actor's fault the scene doesn't work like, the guy that plays Luke for example does a great job in general by not being unnecessarily nonchalant and kind of detached of it all and genuinely makes you grow fond of Luke in the span of like 20 minutes. His reactions and his demeanor make sense in my head, context wise and you very quickly understand who he is. But a lot of times in the show the characters simply don't react the way a kid in that situation would, specially ones with their set of skills and pitfalls. I think is just a problem with the writing and the directing that doesn't seem to be able to work the casual quality of the material with the emotional weight of it. If you're working with such a young cast it's needed for the script and the directing to do lots of the heavy lifting so you can get actual rounded out performances from the actors without them having to bend over backwards. Otherwise what doesn't work in a scene can be very easily attributed to the performances when the problem is actually about the structure of it and it's internal logic.
Hii first of all I like your review but I would like to express my opinion on a few of your points:
1) I believe they made the deadline change so that the first time Percy sees his father, it would be him giving up ‘glory’ to protect his son. They had to give us reasons to like Poseidon because a lot of the times that we saw the gods in this series like Athena and Ares, it was in a negative light. Both of them were ready to give up their kids for glory (i.e. the Arch scene and Ares saying he doesn’t even like his own kids). So showing that Poseidon (and Hermes for that matter) cared was necessary to show to Percy that Luke isn’t doing the right thing (not entirely at least). It was also a great way of showing Zeus’s hubris, since Zeus was ready to fight his brother, weakening the gods at a time when Kronos was not only plotting to regain power but had come very close to getting the most powerful weapon in the world (thus showing that Luke wasn’t wrong in his motivations either).
2)When Percy is talking to Hades in Ep 7, he says something tried to pull them into Tartarus the moment the bolt appeared in the bag. That combined with the shock on Percy and Grover’s face when they hear the thunk of the bolt and take it out of the bag tells us that the bolt wasn’t there the entire time.
3) Ya I agree with both your points in Ep3. I don’t know why they didn’t just let Grover hit Medusa and then have Annabeth put the cap on her when she’s down. Why not just show them vandalise the bus and build up the ‘Gabe being Pathetic in interviews’ narrative? In fact I have no idea why show Sally married Gabe. It wasn’t to protect Percy with his smell cause they didn’t mention that at all. Also in the show, to protect Percy, she sent him away from New York (where the camp is and I assume would be a major monster haunt in general). So why is Gabe anyways? Also did the mortals forget about Percy and gang destroying the Arch altogether?
4) About the Luke thing, I believe Kronos must have told him that Percy wouldn’t die in Tartarus as he needed to recruit Percy (it might actually be true, who knows Kronos might be able to save Percy by controlling the flying shoes at the bottom). Also I don’t think he was trying to kill Percy in the end, cause he did raise his sword but it didn’t feel like he was going to strike Percy, as he had ample time to do that. It felt like he was trying to intimidate Percy. Basically recruit him by hook or by crook (they should have made this clearer though). If Annabeth hadn’t shown up he would probably have forced Percy to leave with him to convince him later. But once Annabeth arrived, he knew he would have to fight her to take Percy and he didn’t have it in himself to do that.
To add on to that, I think Charlie did an amazing job of portraying the shame Luke must have felt when Annabeth found him, because even though feels justified in what he is doing, he knows Annabeth wouldn’t look at it that way cause she adores her mother. He wouldn’t have known what happened during their quest so he wouldn’t know what Athena and Poseidon did. In his mind, Percy would hate Poseidon just like he did before and should therefore be easy to recruit and Annabeth would adore Athena and wouldn’t understand why Luke would side with Kronos.
The thing I didn’t like about that scene personally was why Annabeth followed Luke and Percy anyways. In hindsight she might see why Luke did what he did, but upfront she wouldn’t even think that her brother could be a traitor. So like you said, it would have been better had she just come across the scene instead of being there the entire time secretly.
5) While Grover was wrong about Clarisse being the lightening thief, he did figure out that Ares knew who it was and was probably working with whoever had stolen the bolt (which at that time they thought was Hades)
6) I think Sally just got overwhelmed at the cafe, like she couldn’t speak to Percy because it hurt too much, so she just kissed him to show she did care. She needed to speak with Poseidon because he was the only one she could talk to about the real reason Percy was being sent away and seek some comfort. I assume she would have reassured him later but they decided to end on Poseidon’s dialogue cause it was more epic. Parenting is hard and our parents are only human. And what they do in their most vulnerable moments doesn’t define them.
I also don’t know why they didn’t include the poodle scene to show that Grover can talk to animals or the Zebra talking to Percy (literally the name of the episode!) or mention Poseidon and Athena’s rivalry or show us the cabins (like hello, you made the effort of designing them). There are actually a lot of examples I could mention here. The ‘show don’t tell’ thing did bother me too.
I did like the show though, a solid 7.5 (maybe 8, will decide on a rewatch though). There are surprisingly things that I liked more than the books which helped. Sally Jackson was simply amazing. All of her scenes showing how she prepared Percy to be who he is now were *chef’s kiss*. In the books I did not really get that invested into her, so didn’t care much about her “dying” but the show changed that. I love her. Secondly, Luke. Not to say that book Luke wasn’t great, he is to this day one of the best villains I’ve read about. The problem with him is just that. He is too good a villain, so at the end of the fifth book I couldn’t understand people (even Percy) labelling him a hero. Like yes, gods aren’t good parents (also something the show did a better job of portraying ) but you still caused so much death and destruction. You were ready to kill Percy since the beginning. I think show Luke fits the vibe of a ‘corrupted hero but still isn’t horrible enough that he couldn’t have a redemption’ much better.
I do have a lot more to say but I think this comment is way too long already… so here I stop :)
I wanted to love it so badly, but It feels rushed, like they didn’t plan it well, the writing was bad. They had ONE SINGLE decent transition in the whole serie, then they kept using the ugly black transition. Annabeth had the weakest acting, probably because she is so young, but the writers didn’t help her at all. Even Walker being the best out of the three felt dull. There was no reason for me to care about their friendship since there was no chemestry between any of them. The directing and writing was probably the worst part. If they don’t improve for the second season i doubt i’ll keep watching. But I wanna be hopeful since the books are so good.
I feel the same way.
Higly disagree
Just wanted to add that I do have faith that the kids would be good actors once they get experience with better directing. It’s not 100% their fault at all. Even actors that are known to be great couldn’t shine in this series.
Oh boy the fact that it feels like we watched two different shows is so wild to me. I had never seen a video where i disageeed with every single point someone makes, yet be intrigued to keep listening to them. Props to you!
Lol, that's fine. I knew I was gonna have someone who greatly disagrees with me but that's honestly pretty cool that I was able to keep you entertained. Thanks :)
The betrayal scene to me kind of illustrates what the best and worst parts of the show are.
It's good but it lacks an internal logic.
I actually noticed the first time I watched the betrayal scene, how weird it is that Annabeth stands there the whole time while Luke beats up Percy.
It caught my attention because it happens a lot throughout the show, something is stablished as really important or that works in a very particular way and then it's executed in an awkward way for no specific reason.
Annabeth, using the betrayal scene example, is supposedly someone that is way ahead of everyone, she's unbelievably smart, she's really brave and she's been shown to be really sensitive and proactive when what she cares about is being threatened. That's her characterization.
It doesn't seem like a logical choice for her to not prevent or do something about Percy and Luke fighting each other.
She loves them both and she's a 12 year old girl with magical powers, why would she stand there and watch while her big brother tries to kill her best friend just, for the sake of what? Information? To show us her sad reaction when Luke suddenly isn't who he was supposed to be? To illustrate more quickly how evil luke is instead of building it up?
I wouldn't say is the actor's fault the scene doesn't work like, the guy that plays Luke for example does a great job in general by not being unnecessarily nonchalant and kind of detached of it all and genuinely makes you grow fond of Luke in the span of like 20 minutes. His reactions and his demeanor make sense in my head, context wise and you very quickly understand who he is.
But a lot of times in the show the characters simply don't react the way a kid in that situation would, specially ones with their set of skills and pitfalls.
I think is just a problem with the writing and the directing that doesn't seem to be able to work the casual quality of the material with the emotional weight of it.
If you're working with such a young cast it's needed for the script and the directing to do lots of the heavy lifting so you can get actual rounded out performances from the actors without them having to bend over backwards. Otherwise what doesn't work in a scene can be very easily attributed to the performances when the problem is actually about the structure of it and it's internal logic.
P r o m o s m 😴