Ancient Greece Done Right?

Back in my junior year of college, I was stuck in a conundrum. I had less than 2 years left before graduation and I was a history major. My college counselor told me that nobody hires history majors, and that I had better start trying to find another angle. Two years after graduation, I’m still working to break that mentality, so I’m always on the lookout for projects that prove otherwise. Any entertainment that shows that ancient history has a wealth of fascinating, hilarious, and deeply-human stories just waiting to be noticed – centuries after they were put to papyrus. And this past weekend, I found something that I think is going to be both really special and really awesome – especially if you’re fan of all things from ancient Greece (like me). I discovered a TV series coming up on SyFy called Olympus.

Sword and Sandals in 2015? Nostalgia activate!

Before I get started: a little bit of context about my taste in entertainment – what I like and what I don’t like. I love real world pieces; shows that take their cues from historical events, and breathe life into the realities and imaginations of ancient people that would otherwise only exist in textbooks. Vikings, Deadwood, and House of Cards are all awesome shows that make history and political science lessons leap off the page. And as you might have noticed by my inclusion of House of Cards, my shows don’t have to be completely historical. Game of Thrones is obviously fantasy, but that hasn’t stopped me from marathoning it over a weekend. Those kinds of politics were all drawn from real world events and sources – most of which were too crazy for GoT or HoC (case and point). 

Conversely, I hate pieces that misuse and disregard the material. Movies that think of their source as a façade for an asinine action flick - completely missing the point of what made that story so powerful in the first place. I mean movies like Clash of the Titans. Stay away. Stay very far away. 

I’m going say this cautiously, but Olympus is looking to be more of the former rather than the latter, and that’s making me excited - very excited. And that excitement starts with the talent that’s been attached. You see, the whole thing was created by Nick Willing, who you might remember as the mind behind Tin Man. Compare that to Louis Leterrier, the guy behind Clash of Titans… and The Transporter. Out of the two, Willing is definitely the one I’d expect to treat the content with grace and dignity as he gives it his own spin. And I have a feeling that that prediction might be spot on – mainly because of this interview, where Willing has this to say:

In the case of Olympus, I was trying to express the world the ancient Greeks imagined – that Homer and Aristotle wrote about – but with modern tools. But the other common thread running through all my adaptations is that they’re psychological – they all explore our dreams.

According to the article, the show is modern myth – an attempt to bring the characters and tropes that define the Homerian epic to life in a new and interesting way. To start, the main character is named “Hero” – an allusion to his trope. "Hero" is on a quest to unlock the power of the gods and discover his past, a task which will require as much trickery and savvy as it does strength and skill. Yes, he’ll probably battle monsters, but he’ll also have to solve a riddle. Whatever that riddle is, that kind of challenge is perfectly reminiscent of the typical Greek hero. Both of the most famous Homerian epics center on puzzles - obstacles that require far more wit than strength to overcome. The Troy of the Iliad didn’t fall to an overwhelming attack, it fell to a sneaky trick involving a wooden horse. Similarly, Odysseus didn’t defeat the Cyclopes with brute force, but with clever wordplay.

It's concept art like this that gets me excited. Also a gratuitous metaphor...

The more I read, the more I’m starting to think that Willing gets it. He gets the source material. He understands that this isn’t necessarily supposed to be hyper-realistic ancient history or an excuse for a stupid action movie. He’s capturing the imagination of a people just like us who just happened to live a very long time ago, and connecting that experience with the audience of today. Also, it doesn’t hurt that he has a stellar cast to back him up. They’ve got relative newcomers like Sonya Cassidy of Fifth Estate fame, Tom York leading the way alongside more experienced folks like Cas Anvar (and you know how much I like him).

If Willing and team manage to do what I think they’re trying to do, then this show deserves all the views that it can get. There are too many stories that stretch back thousands of years, and yet remain completely unplumbed and unexplored in our modern day. I refuse to believe that ancient history and mythology are as useless as my college counselor claimed. I refuse to believe that the ancient Greeks don’t have anything to offer us today, and that my chosen major was somehow "worthless." I’m thrilled to hear that someone out there is trying to shift the paradigm.

If you want to check out Olympus for yourself, you can find the official trailer here. The show premieres on April 2^nd (this Thursday) on SyFy. So if you’re wondering what I’ll be doing then, I’ll be on my couch, crossing my fingers, and daring to assume that I shouldn’t be afraid of this Greek bearing gifts.