Olympus

I rarely expect to see every unusual show with a $200M budget these days, especially TV fare, so my expectations were not high. I find the production engaging and particularly love the sets of an ancient Hellenic period with heads of giant statues half buried in the Earth and the stands of even trees. They have an otherworldly feeling that adds substance and context to this unusual production.

My experience in production design, directing and writing helps me to come to an objective view of this show. What also helps is the mere fact that someone is attempting to bring unusual fare to the screen. It is not easy and yes, it does take an ungodly amount of money to bring a show like Game of Thrones to the tube. This is not a G.O.T. production but that is fine as far as I am concerned. They all do not have to match G.O.T.

If you love watching TV Series, just forget about this one and move on to the next that you have in mind.

Some low budget TV shows deserve to be watched because of the quality of the stories, of the Actors , of the director's vision, of the visual effects,etc. None of the above is OLYMPUS case. There is nothing interesting about this Show. The storyline is (guess what) as far as possible from any decent Mythology plot that you could hope for. The Actors seem to be clueless about everything going on, in general: when you watch it, you have the constant impression to be watching a bunch of weird dressed mad people wondering around a TV Set with awful visual effects.

Do not be fooled by any misleading hope of finding any interesting character to rely to.

This is possibly one of the WORST TV Shows ever created. It wont survive to this 1st Season, so do yourself a big favor and move on to the next. We have plenty of good choices to enjoy.

There has been a good bit of criticism regarding the production budget of this series. I don't have the numbers right at hand, but clearly the great majority--if not all--of the shooting is done on a sound stage. This saves money, of course, but I think there is more to it. The world of Olympus is set in ancient Greece; but it is a world in which the gods are real, and supernatural powers are part of ordinary existence. I think that the oddly-crafted set pieces are deliberately intended to evoke a world that is similar to our own, but not quite ours. Perhaps this world is a psychological state of mind; the series synopsis tells us that the gods will eventually be consigned to the world of the unconscious, what they call the Underworld, or Hades. When this happens, the entire world will change...is this not perception? Watching this series brings to mind the German Expressionist movement in film. They both share the use of stylized set pieces, and the plots and stories of both often deal with madness, hallucination, and betrayal. And let's not forget that film noir arose out of expressionism; the eerie, atmospheric lighting, somewhat hapless protagonist, and the irrepressible femme fatale elements of noir can be readily by seen in Olympus. If you examine this series through that lens I think you will gain a better appreciation of it.

UPDATE: It is Aug 26 2015, and I wrote the above approximately a week before. I had not viewed the entire series by then, but I have now. If you have already made up your mind about this series, and decided that you hate it, nothing I say here will effect your opinion. But if you like the series, or are still undecided, I encourage you--nay, I entreat you--to watch it to the end. The final three episodes are spell-binding, and the season (perhaps series) conclusion is quite surprising and satisfying. This series has cemented its position on my short list of best series ever. It went by so fast I could hardly believe it was over. You owe it to yourself to give this show a chance.

The production value on this is low, not gonna lie. I wish the creators had had more money to work with, because there are some interesting ideas. They collapse time in order to deal with multiple issues - the ruins reflect us looking back from today, the Magi reflect a time when Christians would destroy the earlier polytheism - and the concept of how we experience time eventually comes into the plot. I'm a couple of episodes from the end and our Hero is in a downward spiral towards anti-Hero status which is painful and real feeling.

My one hugh issue is that once again Anglo writers felt the need to make the bad guys in a fantasy story vaguely Arabic. That really needs to stop.

I'm something of a fan of Greek mythology so I was enthusiastic about a new series cast in the classical genre.

Sadly Olympus is amateurish in every regard. The acting feels forced and awkward, the story line is more or less missing, whilst the sets and special effects look like they were designed by a group of bored college students.

Are there any plus's here? I'd really like to be generous but I'm struggling to find anything positive to say. Nothing I have seen so far looks like it could in any way be redeemed.

I rarely give a series, especially a new one, a rating of one out of ten but Olympus is truly a Greek tragedy in every sense.