The movie, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, spawned a sequel but not the long-running series creators had hoped for. Fans of the book series by Rick Riordan got a new hope, however, when Disney picked up a new television series based on the same books.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians has only had a single season so far, based on the same novel as the film: The Lightning Thief. Comparisons are, of course, inevitable.

My daughter, who loves the book series, disliked the movie so much that she refused to watch the second. On the other hand, the first season of the series, which covers roughly the same territory, has definitely won her favor.

No criticism here of the movie cast, who did a fine job with what they were given, but the TV cast comes much closer to the author's intention, even to the point of being close to the right age for the parts. With more time allotted through eight 45-minute episodes, rather than one two-hour movie, the series is able to explore the book much more thoroughly and include many more of its parts.

The series stars Walker Scobell as the eponymous Percy, bastard son of Poseidon, who is just now learning about his mythic roots. His mother Sally (Virginia Kull) had protected him from exposure for the first decade of his life, even as she filled his head with esoteric knowledge of the mythology that spawned him. Now that he's been discovered by forces who wish to do him harm, however, he's sent to Camp Half-Blood, where demigods are trained to fight and use their abilities, so they can undertake quests.

Percy doesn't stick around the camp for long before he takes on the challenge of finding out who really stole Zeus's lighting bolt, since he's the primary suspect. Accompanying him on the cross-country adventure are Grover (Aryan Simhardi), a satyr who posed as his pal at school to protect him, and Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), a taciturn daughter of Athena who brings certain skills (and a cap of invisibility) along for the journey, while Luke (Charlie Bushnell), a son of Hermes, loans Percy a pair of winged sneakers, and the centaur Chiron (Glynn Turman), who had posed as Percy's teacher, offers sage advice.

Their adventures bring them into contact with a range of legendary figures, including Dionysus (Jason Mantzoukas), Ares (Adam Copeland), Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda), Hephaestus (Timothy Omundson), Medusa (Jessica Parker Kennedy), Procrustes (Julian Richings), Hades (Jay Duplass), the Fates (Joyce Robbins, La Nein Harrison and Cindy Piper), Charon (Travis Woloshyn) and, eventually, Poseidon (Toby Stephens) and Zeus (Lance Reddick).

The series is a lot of fun, with plenty of adventure and Personal Growth for its main characters. The special effects are well handled, without overwhelming the action.

Dang, though, some scenes are filmed so darkly that it's quite impossible to see what's happening on the screen. It's one thing to set a mood, it's quite another to render some of the action completely unwatchable.

One definite difference, however: while my daughter didn't want to watch the second Percy Jackson film, she is desperate for news of a second season of the series. Let's hope they produce it soon!