Olympus: Season One

Another ancient Greek legend hits the small screen in this Syfy original fantasy series produced in Canada with a largely British cast. Tom York is our hero (named Hero), a young mercenary who seeks out the Oracle (Sonya Cassidy) in order to find his father, who turns out to be King Aegeus of Athens. Olympus begins with a promising situation—Hero wakes up in the cave of the Minotaur and does battle to rescue the Oracle—but the execution here is clumsy and bland. The remaining episodes follow the intertwined odysseys of Hero as he seeks to discover his legacy (he has inherited the gift of seeing the future from his father) and the Oracle, who has her own agenda. The pair cross paths with the inventor Daedalus (Matt Frewer), get tangled up in the Athenian war with King Minos, and challenge the gods of Olympus, who treat humans as playthings. Created by Nick Willing, Olympus is mostly shot in a studio with CGI backdrops rather than costly sets, and it features bland actors in underwritten roles. In a TV landscape full of high quality supernatural and fantasy shows, this one fails to distinguish itself creatively, dramatically, or visually. Presenting all 13 episodes from the 2015 debut season, extras include behind-the-scenes featurettes. Not recommended. (S. Axmaker)