The show only had 3 episodes so far, but this one was by far the one I liked the most, better direction, better writing and better pacing. I thought the first 2 felt a little bit rushed, something I didn't felt here.
Angels Egström gives a very nice direction to this episode, I thought he was very good with shaky cams, a lot of directors aren't, so, I can appreciate that.
Jonathan E. Steinberg and Monica Owusu-Breen writing was very good, there were some changes from the book that may annoy some diehard fans of Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, but a change is only bad when it's done poorly, I thought these were actually good changes, that helped move the plot and develop the characters well.
I loved the dynamic of the 3 main characters, Aryan Simhadri is funny as Grover Underwood and I can totally see why Walker Scobell was cast as Percy Jackson, he has the essence of the character, but the one of these 3 who had the best acting in the episode was for sure Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, now that she had more time to shine, I can see Annabeth in her and anyone can see she understands the character, but more importantly, the girl can act!
Even tho the main trio was good, the best actress in this episode was for sure Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa, I don't remember watching anything with her besides, I don't know, few episodes of The Flash CW TV show, but here she was great, in most of the scenes, you can't see her eyes, but you can still feel the emotion in her face, the pain, the sadness, it's all there, it takes a lot of talent and good acting for someone to pull this off without being able to use your eyes. She (with the help of the writers and directors), were able to give Medusa more layers as a character, here she's not just a angry generic villain with ready-made sentences like in the 2010 movie or just an obstacle in the hero's journey like in the book from 2005, she serves a purpose bigger than that in this iteration.
I know there are some stuff that will make some diehard fans raise an eyebrow, like Percy cutting Medusa's hair while she's invisible and not showing it explicitly, but you gotta keep in mind that this is a PG show, so, there are some things limited to the rating, anyway, I thought the way they got to do that with the PG rating very creative, they couldn't show it, yes, but they found a creative way to avoid doing that instead of going in the lazy way.
And to end this reviews I think it's worth saying, don't get too attached to every single detail from the book, some things were changed? Yes, but that doesn't mean it's bad, neither that it's not a faithful adaptation, it is. This episode is the proof you can do something good even when you deviate a little bit from the source material, the problem is when you deviate too much, getting to the point where the story and the characters become unrecognizable, which is the case of the 2010 movie, but not the case of this show.
I am looking forward to the remaining 5 episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I hope they keep improving the quality of this show like they did with this episode compared to the first 2.
Angels Egström gives a very nice direction to this episode, I thought he was very good with shaky cams, a lot of directors aren't, so, I can appreciate that.
Jonathan E. Steinberg and Monica Owusu-Breen writing was very good, there were some changes from the book that may annoy some diehard fans of Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, but a change is only bad when it's done poorly, I thought these were actually good changes, that helped move the plot and develop the characters well.
I loved the dynamic of the 3 main characters, Aryan Simhadri is funny as Grover Underwood and I can totally see why Walker Scobell was cast as Percy Jackson, he has the essence of the character, but the one of these 3 who had the best acting in the episode was for sure Leah Sava Jeffries as Annabeth Chase, now that she had more time to shine, I can see Annabeth in her and anyone can see she understands the character, but more importantly, the girl can act!
Even tho the main trio was good, the best actress in this episode was for sure Jessica Parker Kennedy as Medusa, I don't remember watching anything with her besides, I don't know, few episodes of The Flash CW TV show, but here she was great, in most of the scenes, you can't see her eyes, but you can still feel the emotion in her face, the pain, the sadness, it's all there, it takes a lot of talent and good acting for someone to pull this off without being able to use your eyes. She (with the help of the writers and directors), were able to give Medusa more layers as a character, here she's not just a angry generic villain with ready-made sentences like in the 2010 movie or just an obstacle in the hero's journey like in the book from 2005, she serves a purpose bigger than that in this iteration.
I know there are some stuff that will make some diehard fans raise an eyebrow, like Percy cutting Medusa's hair while she's invisible and not showing it explicitly, but you gotta keep in mind that this is a PG show, so, there are some things limited to the rating, anyway, I thought the way they got to do that with the PG rating very creative, they couldn't show it, yes, but they found a creative way to avoid doing that instead of going in the lazy way.
And to end this reviews I think it's worth saying, don't get too attached to every single detail from the book, some things were changed? Yes, but that doesn't mean it's bad, neither that it's not a faithful adaptation, it is. This episode is the proof you can do something good even when you deviate a little bit from the source material, the problem is when you deviate too much, getting to the point where the story and the characters become unrecognizable, which is the case of the 2010 movie, but not the case of this show.
I am looking forward to the remaining 5 episodes of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and I hope they keep improving the quality of this show like they did with this episode compared to the first 2.
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