Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Fox announces it’s new teen drama: Olympus

 <-Next season, we follow the mishaps of Herakles in the new Drama inspired by "The Hills," "Olympus"

During a press conference, FOX entertainment has announced it’s latest drama in the style of TV shows like “The OC” and “The Hills,” to be titled “Olympus.” Rather than taking place in a beach town, this television show will take place in the mountains of Greece, and will focus on the day to day troubles of the gods that live there.

Thankfully, the nice folks at Fox gave me a preview of the shows setting and characters. Although this show is really being filmed in the Saddleback mountain range in California, they manage to make it look a lot like it is actually being filmed in Mount Olympus in Greece. A great deal of time will be spent in the fictional school Olympus High, where several of the characters struggle through the everyday issues of being high school students, maintaining worshippers, maintaining their divine portfolio, and competition with other gods.

A Preview show of a place many of the main characters hang out, a coffee shop named "The Forum."

The show will be taking place in a variety of locales that actually exist on Mount Olympus, and an actual coffee shop based off of “the Forum,” a place frequented during the show, is being planned in order to promote the show. The first episode they showed me focused on Herakles, and showed his relationship with Zeus, with a brief glaring match between him and Hera. Later Orpheus was shown playing a song by whatever band those kiddies are listening to these days. Although the actor that plays Athena was quite hot, she got the role of the jealous jerk down perfectly. I took issue with the fact that Herakles seemed to have been portrayed as a bit more macho in mythology, but the people at Fox said they wanted a new twist on the character. They also pointed out that this is why Orpheus plays a guitar instead of a lyre, along with having Orpheus showcase music by the latest bands. Fortunately, the pilot episode showed us a lot of the characters, and the hot young actors who are going to be playing them:
   Here's a shot of Olympus high, which the show will be taking place at

Zeus: Zeus is the principal at Mount Olympus High school. Although he mainly appears as a guidance figure to the other gods, he will occasionally get his own moment in the spotlight. He is currently having marital issues with his wife Hera, which makes things difficult while trying to a proper father figure to his illegitimate son Herakles.  

Herakles: Zeus’s illegitimate son who is trying to fit in at Olympus high. He has trouble getting along with the other students, who make fun of him because he isn’t really a god. Furthermore, he feels estranged by his father, who never seems to have time for him, and his scheming wife Hera, who always seems to make things difficult for him. At the start of the series, he’s been attempting to complete twelve labors in hopes of getting strong enough to join the Mount Olympus High Football team.

Orpheus: A singer who plays the guitar every Saturday at “The Forum” the coffee shop that the students at Olympus high frequently attend. He’s best friends with Herakles, as he’s the only person who really understands what it’s like not being a god in this town. Sometimes can be found by the lake gazing off into the distance, mentioning something about a girl named Eurydice.

Poseidon: Poseidon is the local surfer dude, who always seems to use metaphors that allude to surfing. He’s also very popular with the ladies at Olympus High, despite being a bit of a delinquent. He is quite famous at the school for an incident where he lost a contest with Athena, and wound up flooding most of the school.

Athena: Leader of the student council at Olympus high, she’s the principal’s daughter, and everybody knows it.  Started a rumor a few years ago about Poseidon’s ex-girlfriend that she was never able to recover from. Strangely, there are some rumors floating around that she has a crush on Herakles, which would ruin her reputation entirely if they were to be confirmed, since Herakles is SUCH a dork.

Aphrodite: Another member of Athena’s band of cheerleaders, quite famous for her on and off relationship with Poseidon. Then again, who DOESN’T she have an on and off relationship with? Recently, she’s had her eye on Herakles, just to see how it would cause Athena to react…

Artemis: The local goth chick, she always seems to be late for class. She loves animals, and doesn’t get along with Athena and her gang of blonde cheerleaders. She can be seen hanging around with Herakles down at “the forum” sometimes, and likes listening to Orpheus’s work, especially after Eurydice died and he got into a darker type of music.

I’m actually exited to see how this show turns out, and if any of the actors will be able to launch their careers from this show. Furthermore, Fox said that if the show is successful, they will be launching a spin-off series named “Valhalla.” This show will be airing sometime next season on Fox!

1 comment:

Gregory said...

That would make an interesting show. The Titans could be from the Rival School. :D