As the school year wraps up for Percy Jackson, played by Walker Scobell, things are far from normal. Following the chaotic events of the initial season, he finds himself distanced from his close friends: Grover the satyr, portrayed by Aryan Simhadri, and Annabeth Chase, a daughter of Athena, played by Leah Sava Jeffries. Communication between them is tricky since monsters can track cell phones, a convenient plot device. During the school year, Percy’s unpredictable mother has taken in Tyson, a cyclops played by Daniel Diemer, leaving Percy to care for the well-meaning but clumsy giant. Meanwhile, Hermes’ son Luke, portrayed by Charlie Bushnell, continues to cause havoc. With Camp Half-Blood under threat, Percy embarks on a quest to recover the Golden Fleece and locate the missing Grover, all while navigating the complexities of his friendship with Annabeth.

The season is packed with events, reflecting the complexity of the narrative. Though the television format provides more room for development than a movie, it still feels hurried, with limited time for character development. Action sequences dominate, leaving little space to delve into character-driven moments, which is unfortunate as these characters are central to the series’ appeal. Although the actors have grown and improved, the script doesn’t give them many chances to showcase their talents.

The series also struggles with tone. While the young protagonists face life-threatening situations, broken friendships, and threats to their sanctuary, the adults are portrayed as comical figures. This approach, a staple in children’s programming to highlight the competence of younger characters, feels misplaced here. Performances by Jason Mantzoukas and Timothy Simons, though entertaining, clash with the serious themes, hinting at an attempt to appeal to older audiences, but the execution falls flat.

And this leads to another problem that faces “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” We give it a lot of credit for its creative world-building, and how it gives viewers this fully realized universe where the Greek gods, monsters, and demi-gods are all walking around on Earth. But this is a television show, after all, and there are limitations to what they accomplish with CGI on a TV budget. The fact that this is such a special effects-laden series means that it’s really tough to avoid that a lot of it unfortunately looks pretty cheap. Sometimes this has the result of taking you out of the story, while other times it just prevents viewers from engaging as deeply with some of the action sequences.

“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” also has tonal weirdness going on. The kids in the show are dealing with life or death situations, the destruction of their friendships, genuine threats to the only place in the world they’ve ever felt safe. The adults, on the other hand, are just a bunch of goofballs. There’s a long tradition of kids’ shows treating their adult characters like fools, to emphasize that the younger characters are capable and smart in their own right, but here it just feels strange to have Jason Mantzoukas and Timothy Simons hamming it up during such dire situations. Maybe this is just an effort to make “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” appeal to older audiences, but it doesn’t quite work.

Together, all of these issues make “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” the kind of show that will appeal to the people it was always going to appeal to. The fans who are just thrilled to get more of one of their favorite franchises with largely book-accurate casting will find a lot to like here. But it’s hard to imagine the show winning over audiences who aren’t already familiar with the series, especially since it strips the narrative of so much of its personality in its efforts to fit everything in. It’s not a disaster, but it lacks the charm that made the original books so popular in the first place.

“Percy Jackson and the Olympians” premieres on Disney+ on December 10.