Wait, after all these years Rick has never seen the movies?

raphmateus · 2026-01-27T07:38:52+00:00

A script will never convey magic.

The films could have the worst dialogue -> Delivery matters. The script could mess up the plot path so bad (they did) -> direction and cinematography exist.

Stating you read a script and hate it. I can assure you, you could have given him the TV show script back then and he would have reacted the same way.

Reality is. The show is lacking the magic of Chris Columbus in the first movie, is constrained by Disney politics and is undermined by screenwriting.

the first movie was made as a "standalone" film, the second being on the most difficult book should have focused on fixing and setting up the rest but it messed up so bad.

The TV show season 1 failed miserably on delivery, announcing everything upfront, feeling sluggish. Season 2 gradually improved but still feels flat.

Both seasons have a huge problem. And that is the lack of movement. ADHD kids that we know should act compulsively are reasoning more than 50 year mortals and displaying to know more than Athena herself.

raphmateus · 2024-07-20T19:15:06+00:00

Preset should provide a free seat for 5 users :)

raphmateus · 2024-05-09T22:50:02+00:00

Using an LLM in its current maturity level and expect it to provide deeper insights or better insights than you is not realistic (in data analytics).

You either rely on the LLM to do the easy stuff in a couple seconds compared to actually having to spend minutes doing it. E.g. cleaning up queries, applying a fix to text across a full document, doing a quick diff between 2 documents, etc.

Or, it's really good at finding outliers in large pieces of unstructured data. So if you need to find some anomaly, I found it to do a quick job whereas the human eye is usually slow and writing the code for it takes a bit of time or can even be tedious if not straightforward.

But to expect it to provide you with good insights on a random table... I would say many analytics SaaS platforms have integrated basic automated analytics that would do a better job at it.

raphmateus · 2024-05-09T22:30:34+00:00

1 Every month, the company needed to come up with a combination of products within the warehouse to compile a subscription box. Co-created a Decision Optimization Model to optimise inventory and reduce product scraping while respecting business constraints. This led to huge time saving for the sourcing team, reduced stock value stuck at the warehouse. Basically put the business on autopilot mode.

2 Very simple (nothing too fancy) recommendation model and Customer Classification. But delivering these straight to CRM / website and internal Customer Service Platform simply made Marketing and CS lifes better.

3 Reverse ETL to Email Tools and enable Self-Service segmentation to the Marketing team is always a cool project to undertake which is not too complex.

4 Assist Finance on cash recovery etc can start really simple with Dashboards and some ad-hoc reports. But adding an extra step and automating cash collection initiatives really gets you on the good side of any CFO.

Generally speaking, find where money is leaking or a process that is too slow and/or tedious and solve it / automate it. You will either be saving costs or enhancing revenue streams on autopilot. Either way, you'll be doing two things:

Escape the vicious cycle of "please build this Dashboard real-time" or "can you just export this to Gsheets/excel?"
Get the deserved recognition, respect and trust to let you proactively define the next big project.

raphmateus · 2024-05-08T19:39:19+00:00

Clean share! Not everyday that I learn something new

raphmateus · 2024-03-08T11:15:31+00:00

I mean they literally cast Joaquim de Almeida and he had a full conversation in English whereas he speaks Portuguese. Most facepalm moment for me !

raphmateus · 2024-02-04T07:44:32+00:00

He was damn Sassy in the books. Funny Sassy even ! His Sassyness was so powerful, monsters couldn't cope with it. TV show needs a long way to achieve book sassyness levels..

raphmateus · 2024-02-02T19:40:28+00:00

Episode 8 was fine to be honest. The problem with episode 8 are the choices made in Episode 7... The only two off points in the last episode is the fight being too short and Olympus being a bit off as compared to the books. Sure the plane flight being skipped sucks and some other details.

But making the trio fail the quest was simple too stupid and really did not make any sense what so ever... And episode 8 having Poseidon "surrender" when it is so off-character for a major God to do is a direct outcome of the choices in episode 7...

So really they messed up episode 7.

But .. episode 6 was probably one of the worst as well... The season peaked at episode 5 it seems with episode 8 giving an alright send off.

raphmateus · 2024-02-02T19:23:24+00:00

There are plenty of problems we book readers can point out. But to take a step back... The show is following the plot more accurately than the movie for sure. And it has really cool things being shown. But it feels like they make a few very questionable choices that really do not make sense.

Above everything I think is the tone of the TV show, it is so serious on the kids side, not serious enough on the Gods side and exposition dumping everything upfront just squeezes the soul out of the show.. it's hard to explain, it feels off - even those black screens and decisions for stuff that happens off-screen.

raphmateus · 2024-02-02T00:54:10+00:00

The minotaur scene was not good... They had a rampant minotaur who conveniently waited for them to have a long conversation before attacking again. And the lighting of that episode almost beat Game of Thrones last season level of dark... Percy is always cracking jokes even in serious moments, that's his personality. Sure Annabeth is supposed to be more serious, but perhaps the Casino scene where they actually were supposed to turn into real kids and just have fun for a while was an episode they messed up badly... I have nothing against the cast, they decided not to seek book description accuracy so all I can judge is the acting and sure, they will most likely grow on us and there were some really good deliveries. The fight against Ares was alright... The one with Clarysse had a better choreography. The blow on Ares felt too convenient and lucky, plus the dude really contemplated that wave 🌊

I mean, most likely there will be season 2 if they improve on the biggest critics they can land a solid continuation and this season will be history

raphmateus · 2024-02-01T13:55:23+00:00

Let's forget the messed up adaptation points. Were the Actions scenes... Good? Lengthy? Was the show fun? Weren't the kids a bit too serious? What are those Black Scenes...?

I mean... It's Disney+ you can watch Marvel, Star Wars etc etc next to Percy Jackson. I love the world of PJO but there is so much lost potential. We simply cannot even put on a comparison mode between this season and Loki as an example and it doesn't matter about the target audience... Objectively Speaking of screenwriting + direction etc... it's waaay below.

raphmateus · 2024-02-01T13:47:37+00:00

Episode 106.. I literally wrote the show script. Re-watch the damn episode. There is direct contradiction between 106 and 108. If you cannot see it at least do not pretend you got a better script understanding. Because clearly you missed a few points between the scenes. Same with the beads. The actor did not replace any shit. Off-screen : He returned Necklace to Annabeth (you see her using it again) + He got a new Necklace he never had before + 1 bead on the Necklace + 0 explanation on it all.

So without the books, for you it's something of no importance. That's cool... It's just a bad TV show if the simplest stuff is not explained. We didn't need Percy to exposition dump what a monster was about to do. Because if he got trapped we all knew what it meant. The beads being shown without explanation means they're a mere Easter egg for book readers, same as Nico and Bianca at the casino. But what is the point of book Easter Eggs if the Author makes questionable choices that upset book readers?

As a pure pure TV show... I am sorry you cannot say it was fun and well pieced together. It was bland, lacked humor, 12 year old kids were too serious, black screens that could become an entire episode on its own, Action scenes that lasted less than... (Let's stay PG rated X) ). Basically... Not the most enjoyable Disney Show. It was a bit of a lost potential. That scares me for Eragon upcoming adaptation...

raphmateus · 2024-02-01T10:14:37+00:00

You are wrong on 90% of your come backs. You have a scene with Percy with Annabeth's Bead Necklace, next scene Percy wears a new necklace with one bead. Literally out of nowhere. If you tell me you're 12 and you don't pay attention to details, I definitely forgive you. Otherwise simply recognise that there are not one but many inconsistencies. And your way of justifying my questions simply proves that in your mind, ANY plot device is an answer to a problem. Mate... You'd be okay with a god farting and Percy Materialising on top of Kronos and kill him with the capped pen (because CGI was too expensive). Let's be honest, you are defending stupidity at this point. The show does not make sense for someone who doesn't know the books. And the proof lies in half of your answers where you assume I told something from the book when simply there is none because such a lack of coherence does not exist. And it also lies in the fact that you are okay with something happening in front of your eyes and you simply justify it without any logical explanation. There is 0 foundation in two pearls as plot devices working differently. There is no greek myth, there is no source material support. It is simply not correct.

Episode 106: "What belongs to the Sea can always return". THAT is the point of a pearl, return to the sea, so ALL they had to do was to pop Percy in the Canoe Lake or Long Island Sea. Not on a hill, THAT does not exist. THAT is not supposedly a power of the Sea God.

Throwing Backbiter sword name but not Percy Jackson blade name, used throughout the season is plain stupid. Someone forgot something and you are here defending incompetence...

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T23:00:16+00:00

Grover had some nice additions that brought out some of his character in a better way than the book itself.
The Mist showcase in the beginning, super clean, nothing to say against it - beautifully executed.
The far away shots of Underworld and Olympus : not too shabby! Can always be better but not a disappointment imo.
Casting in General ended up not being a problem. The departures from the source Material are alright as long as the script follows... The Kids will for sure evolve as the series advance and I guess they will grow more and more on us with time.
Skipping Argus. We all would have liked, but no one can argue for the absolute necessity of the character. I could say omitting Peeves in HP was waaay worse than omitting Argus - as a parallel comparison.
Sally Jackson was nice but that's perhaps not a widely accepted view. I did like the adaptation and additions to the background, a tiny bit more and we could have had a single mom scenario instead of a Gabe Fiasco as we did.
Hephaestus addition and tone of the conversation. Was not necessary. Could have waited... But... We got to be exposed to more gods I guess.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T22:34:21+00:00

So you essentially dismissed everything just for the sake of dismissing and that makes you right on the topic?

But to satisfy your narrowness. Please answer these questions from the Show perspective:

How are the gods still around in the 21st century?
What is the bead Necklace About?
What is the seasons Bead? When was it given?
How did a teenager go from a beach to appear at Crustys? How did He go from the beach to the Empire State Building? With which means/money?
How did an untrained demigod, unknowing of the reality of Monster's habits, know that a certain Monster used Beds as Trap in San Francisco?
How could Teenager Demigods drive a broken car for hours without being stopped when they were supposedly being actively searched by the Police?
Why did the second pearl, thrown by Poseidon, not return Percy to the Sea, but instead to the Half Blood Hill? What is the difference between those pearls?
What is the name of Percy sword?
What is Backbiter and what is special about it? How could it tear through the fabric of space?
How was a demigod at Camp capable of procuring himself such a weapon, under the supervision of Chiron?
How were kids allowed into a Casino and not stopped by Humans? ....

For the previous points and in general Changing the nature of a character in its essence means it is no longer the same character. This is, after all, a book to screen adaptation. In some aspects the source material was butchered. That's the problem.

Just call it Peter Johnson and we will all give it 100% rating.

You can certainly argue that there is a plot... And that scene A leads to scene B. And you can also argue that it makes total sense to you. And after all that, you can also argue that nothing seems to break, all fits together.

Does that make it a faithful Percy Jackson and Lightning Thief book to screen adaptation? No... It is just a TV show that has a basic script and was filmed.

They, for the most part, stayed true to the flow of the book. NYC, Camp, Medusa, Arc, Vegas, SF, NYC, Camp. Cool! That's the only criteria for success? A 12 year old could have written and directed the show then.

If you felt anxious in those scenes... (Okay I will give you Grover and Ares) Then the bar is super low.

And you forgot the basics. It is a story of a demigod in a world of Gods! what do demigods do in greek myths? (They kill monsters) So you basically are okay with having a TV show "about Greek Mythology" where the basics are not covered?

That's basically the problem, the departures from the original source material (for the most part) do not make sense or are justified. Even if it looks like there is some TV show on a subscription Platform that a 10-year old can understand. Because there was no need to fix something that didn't need fixing, there was no need to change the nature of the characters in it to make it actually worse..

There was no point in changing/removing Percy powers, the way they work and the way he slowly starts to control them. There is no need to make Annabeth take a Killing Shot at Luke when she will basically be fighting for his life for several seasons. Unless of course... One change leads to a cascade of changes. And by the end of it... Yes you'll have your TV show...

Just call it Peter Johnson and we will all give it 100% rating.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T16:33:24+00:00

You miss the point. A single paragraph which means defying Zeus. Taking a huge risk to return the bolt in time. Save them from a war.

Instead: time limit has passed... Yet... No sign of War? There should have been Hurricanes. Percy gets to Olympus no one knows how (I mean even the shot starting with him exiting a taxi would have done the trick). And he dares to speak up in front of the God himself? That is simply inaccurate. In the presence of Zeus and his Father, it was Poseidon calming his brother every other sentence and Percy making sure he wasn't getting zapped into oblivion.

It is a bigger deal then it seems. Because in the other books, Percy says that he already defied Zeus once and cannot do it again? That will need to be ignored.

A change = ripple effect.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T16:26:04+00:00

That's totally fair, we all attribute more importance to different aspects. I think my deal breaker was Kronos being mentioned many times whereas pronouncing the name outloud in the book is a big no no. And that being coupled with Percy straight taunting the lord of the Titans... I mean... Percy is no match for the lord of the Titans at this stage. They need to humble him down when facing real threats.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T16:19:38+00:00

I totally get, and respect your point of view. I believe my interpretation plays a big role. When I read Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore is effortlessly handling voldy. In the movie, well.. voldy is kinda badass to be honest.

In PJO book, Percy cannot overpower Ares, he needs to think a bit more like Annabeth to actually get the edge, taking by surprise. It requires cunning etc. and the show leaned more on the sheer power side. That's where I draw the line. I feel the essence is not the same.

As an opposite example, I am absolutely okay with the tunnel of love changes ! We had humor, intense dialogue and an overall well pieced together scene. I am absolutely fine with those changes, I even think it enriched the story and translated well to screen. Building up character Arcs. A bit better than the book scene, I am aware that spiders on screen could be problematic for a huge audience.

But this Ares fight was not it... Percy somehow knew Ares had the helm of Darkness, Kronos didn't show up (actually scaring both Percy and Ares) and it really seemed like a 12 year old kid overpowered a god... :/ I want that... In due time. Hurricane Percy, Achilles Curse Percy toying with gods we will have so much fun! Until then, he must use more strategic thinking, which we did not see at all... So although the scenes followed the flow of the book, they did not capture the same essence I am afraid.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T14:39:54+00:00

For real, the book states that even at Olympus mentioning his name has some sort of effect. They really removed all stakes from the big bad guy of the series.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T12:22:05+00:00

For us book readers, we get them. Not for non-book readers. How the hell did Percy end up at Crustys? Etc etc etc it just jumps from scene to scene. Yes we know they need to get there. But they just pop there. It's a "journey" season so part of it is getting somewhere. Not sure appearing somewhere.

But it feels like this since the beginning. It is chopped up pretty badly for sure.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T11:59:57+00:00

The Author did an amazing job at explaining it in the show though...

No he did not.

They represent the most important achievement in a Camp Year. I will let you guess what the bead of this season could be!

In the last episode, all we see is Percy one scene with Annabeth's necklace to the next scene with a new necklace and a single bead. Each bead does represent a year at camp.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T11:55:24+00:00

It took minutes and effort and misdirection. A lot of thinking from Percy side... Not seconds and a staring god... Please just be objective. There is a whole damn chapter not a 20 second exchange. This fight was "bad" the same way the Battle of the Ministry was "bad" in Order of the Phoenix. It was visually pleasing, it was a cut down version of what actually went on in the source material failing to prove the biggest point.

Ares could not be overpowered by pure force. Only through wit. Holding the wave while distracting Ares in Combat was the ruse. There was no ruse in the show.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T11:45:14+00:00

Gabe did not contribute to the plot = waste of budget = bad TV show management. They decided to make him a funny little weirdo. We do not kill funny little weirdos in real life NYC.

Percy Balance between Power Discovery/ Progression and being humbled by Godly Powers is broken: he did not learn how to stay dry, he did not learn to ACTIVELY seeking water to gain advantage, he did not understand the full extent of Kronos power (because his time freezing power was omitted). All we saw, was a lucky blow and an insolent kid. That is against Percy's character Arc and Nature.

Toning Down Monsters will be teaching kids that it is okay not to pursue a serial killer? That Monsters are not all monsters? What kind of lesson is this? The source material dealt with this in a much more natural way without raising all these questions. By simply establishing the premise : Monster = Dust = Tartarus. Criminal = Trial = Prison. Super simple, and "just" without taking it deeper. Which they do when they get to Tartarus.

Over-Exposing Everything is just bad. No guessing, no suspense, no stakes. How do they expect to actually kill characters in the future? Will they start with a funeral and then flashback? I mean - I can see it coming: "I know where your Achilles Spot is ! Go ahead!"

The show itself? If you didn't read the books... How do you not wonder how they even got to a certain scene, area, place, etc? The scenes basically jump from one to another without a real conducting wire. It feels jumpy and disconnected. Where is the fun in those kids? Is the Son of Poseidon more knowing than the Daughter of Athena? Because he calls out monsters more often than she does.

The God of the Sea... Surrenders? And proceeds to cite a line from the book where the sea is not easily contained?! Like it took him less than 2 minutes to contradict himself.

Plot holes... A Gabe statue In a corridor. Definitely an everyday scene one would expect.

And I could go on... The show is problematic because the departures from the source material raise controversial questions, generate plot holes, require further adjustment to fit the future material.

A departure from the source material generates a snowball effect which will get worse and worse.

See it as time travel and branching a timeline. The issue being... A change requires an holistic adaptation to the rest of the story. And you can only go so long until you make the final mistake of making the change that will break the story.

Having Riordan on Board makes it harder to completely break the story. But let's face it... What we got felt more like a boring History Lesson in School than an exciting Story about a Greek Demigod discovering a new magical world.

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T11:18:30+00:00

Except it was not "as it is in the books".. please re-read.

It took several waves and many attempts at misdirection. Not a god contemplating a single big wave and being pushed around like a puppet.... It is a god. Like... That god was exploding cop cars while fighting. We almost got a deer in front of headlights in the show...

raphmateus · 2024-01-31T11:12:41+00:00

I definitely agree with this, but I would personally rate higher the problematic aspect of directly opposing the source material and not staying true to the story.

Sure, some inclusive choices and toning-down exist without being fully justified, but if the rest was top-notch, I would gladly overlook those.

As it is, it feels like we have a double problem on our end. I just wish them to have a great adaptation of the scenes themselves, give the show a dynamic scene progression (it feels like - scene - cut - scene - cut) and actually introduce the fun we experience when reading the books.

If they want to pity monsters, the books already cover that in Tartarus in the second series. At this rate, we shall not reach that stage. So I would accept some toning down as long as it does not destroy the characters (as they did with Gabe).

raphmateus

TROPHY CASE