Previewing Olypmus

Syfy is a weird channel that I sometimes am not sure what it is trying to be. One thing that ties all of its programs together is they all look fairly low budget, just a step up from Ed Wood type movies. But sometime they try to make legitimate television show that just fail (like last year's Ascension), sometimes they make movies that are meant to be bad (they are on their third Sharknado) sometimes they just buy Canadian show to fill up airtime. Speaking of trying to make legitimate television shows, I do not think they have produced a new one that had any sort of acclaim since Battlestar Gallactica and that ended six years ago.

Their latest attempt at scripted programming is Olympus and to be honest I am not entirely sure if Syfy produced it as a legitimate program or if they are in on the joke like a serialized version of Sharknado. If you do turn in I highly recommend you go into it with a Sharknado state of mind because watching ironically may be the only way anyone can find any enjoyment of it.

The story follows... some dude. No I did not forget the name between watching the first episode and by the time I wrote this. The main protagonist's name is never spoke because, as he explains, anyone who speaks it turns to stone and he does not want to test if that he would also turn to stone if spoken. Was he cursed by Medusa? Are they withholding the name so they can shock you that he will turn out to be Hercules or some other famous name in Greek Mythology? You will have to let me know if they ever bother to reveal the name?

So random dude has been tasked to rescue an Oracle from Cyclops (Syfy is finally putting the Face Off contestants to use because Cyclops is kind of creepy especially where they put his one eye) to take her back to the Temple of Gaia. There is also a secondary political plot that seems like it is trying way too hard to be like better shows in the genre like Game of Thrones, but Olympus is not even Spartacus. Maybe it should be as it is a bit distracting as it go from fantasy type CGI background with piratical background. But again, if this is meant to be a Sharknado type farce that is so bad it starts to almost be good, they are doing a pretty good job at it.

Olympus airs Thursdays at 10:00 on Syfy.