Gone are the days when shows were allowed to run for at least 4-5 seasons, with each season having somewhere between 13-20 episodes, thereby giving the writers and directors a chance to improve and prove their worth. Shows coming out today get maybe 8 episodes, 10 if they’re lucky. And as soon as it’s aired, all at once or on a weekly basis, the cast and crew are told if they have been cancelled (which is very common), if they’ll be allowed to come back for one final season (it’s becoming common), or if they’ll get to stretch their premise until the audience loses interest (that’s rare). Of course, that last option is great because everyone stays employed. However, I don’t know which of the first 2 options is better. When you don’t get to go out on your own terms, like with Mindhunter or Iron Fist, your product’s reputation isn’t tarnished. When you are asked to come back only to wrap things up hastily, like The Umbrella Academy or Arcane, you leave a bad taste in the mouth of your core fan base. I am not sure which one has happened with Blood of Zeus, but I am leaning towards the latter. Does that mean that Season 3 is unwatchable? Well, let’s find out.
Charley and Vlas Parlapanides’ Blood of Zeus Season 3, with the episodes being directed by Jae H. Kim, Joshua Covey, and Jae Woo Kim, picks up right where the previous season left off, with Heron nearly dying after being stabbed by Hades. He manages to summon his supernatural powers and pulls out the dagger. But that doesn’t solve anything, because Gaia has summoned the Titan known as Typhon, and he is in the mood to wreak absolute havoc. A lot of warriors are killed by the gigantic creature. The gods try to save as many lives as they can. However, they are no match for Typhon. Once the Titan is done announcing his return, he proceeds to free Cronus from his confines so that he can kill Zeus once and for all. Seeing how there’s no way to stop the Titans from turning the world into a blighted hellscape, Seraphim embarks on a journey to get a spot for Gorgo (her soul, to be specific) in the Elysian Fields, since that’s the safest place on Earth. Heron knows that Seraphim won’t be able to pull off this task on his own. So, he joins him on his mission too. Whether or not the paths of Cronus and the demigods will cross again is what forms the crux of the narrative.
On a thematic level, Blood of Zeus Season 3 works because on one hand you have Cronus trying to destroy a soul, and on the other hand you have Seraphim striving to save a soul from eternal damnation. And the switching between these two characters’ journeys seems fine because finding MacGuffins, solving riddles, fighting sketchy creatures, and making friends along the way are the staples of the fantastical sword-and-sandal subgenre. But right after the show reaches its halfway mark, you kind of begin to realize that there’s no logical way for these two subplots to collide and lead to a satisfying conclusion to this series. I won’t give out any details just in case you end up enjoying the writing more than I did, but the more I think about the last few episodes of the show, the more infuriated I get, because it makes no goddamn sense. Sacrifices are made, motives are flipped on their heads, and so many plot threads are left unresolved that it makes me wonder what must’ve happened behind the scenes for the quality to drop so hard, especially after the amazingly crafted second season. Don’t get me wrong, Season 1 was great, but Season 2 was spectacular.
While I can complain about the writing of Blood of Zeus Season 3 all I want, I genuinely have no complaints about the animation. This is one of the best-looking shows out there. Everything from the character designs to the action sequences is perfect. The music is so operatic. The world-building is so engrossing. And as a fan of this subgenre of fantasy, this really makes me happy. Look, many people say that all those spandex-wearing superhero movies and shows have replaced storytelling based on myths and fables, but I disagree with them. Stuff like Ramayana (the Japanese one), Excalibur, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Clash of the Titans (the one from 1981), Conan the Barbarian, Willow, Hercules (the animated one), and more like it are the real deal. Sure, Wrath of the Titans and Gods of Egypt kind of killed the subgenre’s audience-pulling capability, and maybe it’ll be resuscitated by Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. However, ever since the success of Game of Thrones, these relatively traditional takes on tales about gods and monsters have been thriving, and this popularity will hopefully be furthered by the topic of today’s discussion. Also, since the animation industry is so vulnerable to exploitation, I am going to pray that all the people who have worked on this show have been compensated appropriately for all the mind-blowing work they have done.
The entire cast of Blood of Zeus Season 3 is brilliant. Derek Phillips is splendid. Elias Toufexis is fantastic as always. Jessica Henwick is really good. Claudia Christian, Fred Tatasciore, Jason O’Mara, Chris Diamantopoulos, Adetokumboh M’Cormack, Cissy Jones, Lara Pulver, and the rest of the insanely stacked supporting cast make the most of the screen time that their respective characters have, and all of them are exquisite. But when you have Alfred Molina on your team, you kind of know that everyone is going to get overshadowed by him because the man is a living legend. Look, I am probably biased towards Molina because I have grown up watching his work in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Species, Identity, and, of course, Spider-Man 2. But I think my bias is justified because Molina is the G.O.A.T. when it comes to voice-acting, face-acting, and just acting in general. Yes, everyone in the cast is hamming it up because this is a subgenre where you have to do so in order to nail the vibe of the story. And then there’s Molina, who is slipping in such subtleties between all the louder moments that it’s exhilarating to witness. So, please, feel free to chuck all my criticisms about the writing of the show to the side and watch it for my man, Alfred Molina.
Based on my very basic observational skills, Blood of Zeus seems to have concluded prematurely. Unless the showrunners intend to sever their ties with Netflix completely, I don’t think they are going to give any concrete info on this. Maybe they are going to say that they always planned to bring things to a close with the third season. But just by looking at how haphazardly the main plot and all the major subplots have been treated, I am unwilling to take such claims at face value. Or maybe I am wrong and the creators have simply made an underwhelming third and final season. And that brings me back to the question that I asked before: is it better to be cancelled and leave things incomplete or be asked to go on one half-baked last ride? To be honest, the second option is better because, even though you risk facing the ire of the fans and the critics, you are securing the bag. You are generating employment for a lot of people. And you can use your earnings to finance some other passion project of yours. So, yeah, I thank the cast and crew of Blood of Zeus for entertaining us for three seasons, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
