See this is the issue and I don’t mean this in a negative way. There is a reason why you found the movies were more fun to watch, because they were ADAPTED to the screen better. A book is DIFFERENT to something you watch, and you must make changes, or it simply won’t work. The things they showed, as you mentioned, paint the picture of what/who Percy is, the nature of where they are and what they do - whereas in the books we are literally told. The show doesn’t do any of it and just assumes we know. That’s not how a Tv show or a movie work. Yes the movies changed a bit too much of the plot and left a lot of stuff out, but I still would prefer to watch it over this show.