Percy Jackson and the Olympians Breathes New Life Into the Franchise

Looking for your next binge-watch, or just need to fill an hour? Welcome to Your Weekly Watch List, our curated collection of the best shows on television. Here's what to watch from Sunday, December 17 through Saturday, December 23.

Late December has become synonymous with blockbuster releases, but for many fantasy lovers, one premiere looms larger than the rest: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a series adaptation of Rick Riordan's bestselling novel series. In addition to the highly anticipated Disney+ drama, this week brings the return of Dr. Death to Peacock, a new season of Marvel's What If...?, Trevor Noah's latest Netflix special, and more.

Trevor Noah: Where Was I

Tuesday, Netflix

If The Daily Show required Trevor Noah to keep his attention focused on American politics and culture, his latest special (and fourth for Netflix) reflects just how far his mind has strayed since departing the Comedy Central staple. Filmed at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Where Was I is distinctly international in its framing: Over the course of the hour, Noah reflects on experiences from his recent Off the Record world tour, from getting a grim history lesson in Berlin to losing his luggage in Paris. As he's done in previous specials, Noah uses these stories as a springboard to larger ideas about cultural differences and the various ways in which the United States lags behind (or outpaces) other nations.

Where Was I isn't perfect — there's a lot of bathroom humor, for starters — but on the whole, it makes for an entertaining hour from a comedian no longer working within the constraints of a nightly cable broadcast. Plus, it features a surprise cameo from the subject of one of Noah's funniest bits, so be sure to stick around until the very end to check it out.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Wednesday, Disney+
*Our must-watch pick of the week

At long last, Disney's series adaptation of Percy Jackson and the Olympians — which was officially announced in 2022, after a lengthy fan campaign — has arrived. Season 1 hews closely to the events of the first book in Rick Riordan's series, The Lightning Thief, in which 12-year-old Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) discovers he's a demigod — in his case, the son of a human mother and Greek god Poseidon — and takes refuge from a hostile world at Camp Half-Blood, a sanctuary for children like him. When Percy is tasked with recovering Zeus' stolen thunderbolt, he embarks on a harrowing journey with his friends Grover (Aryan Simhadri), his satyr guardian, and Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), the daughter of Athena, in a desperate attempt to prevent war from breaking out among the gods.

The Percy Jackson series has been pitched as a course-correction after two widely criticized film adaptations (even Riordan has spoken out against the movies), and in that respect, longtime fans are likely to leave feeling satisfied: Showrunners Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz have remained faithful to the novels and loaded the show up with Easter eggs. However, they also ensure that newcomers to the franchise can follow along by thoroughly explaining the characters' backstories and the mythology at the heart of the story, and they take advantage of the eight-episode runtime to delve deeper into this vibrant world.

With five additional novels to mine for inspiration and a large supporting cast of deities, including Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jay Duplass, there's no shortage of places the show could go in future seasons — but first, Percy and his pals have to make it out of the Underworld alive. Two episodes of the fantasy epic premiere Wednesday, followed by one every week through January 31.

Dr. Death Season 2

Thursday, Peacock (Full Season)

Well over two years after Dr. Death aired its first season, Peacock's true-crime anthology returns with yet another stranger-than-fiction tale of medical malpractice. In the early 2010s, Italian doctor Paolo Macchiarini (Edgar Ramírez) claimed to have developed a synthetic trachea that could be bathed in a patient's stem cells and transplanted into the body to treat various ailments. For years, everyone — from the medical community to journalists covering his advancements in regenerative medicine, including former NBC News producer Benita Alexander (Mandy Moore) — rallied around the "super-surgeon," but when Macchiarini's patients began dying, his colleagues (played by Luke Kirby and Gustaf Hammarsten) stepped up to blow the whistle on his research fraud.

Dr. Death Season 2 tracks Macchiarini's rise and fall through tandem investigations: the one conducted by his colleagues, who uncovered evidence of Macchiarini's misconduct, and another by Benita, who fell in love with her subject, only to discover that their fairytale romance was a sham. Though the two portions of the show hardly overlap, giving Season 2 a somewhat disjointed energy, they both raise questions about how this man — as charming as he may have been — successfully conned so many intelligent people for so long. Viewers looking for additional answers should check out Dr. Death: Cutthroat Conman, a companion documentary also dropping Thursday on Peacock.

What If...? Season 2 Premiere

Friday, Disney+

For those starting to suffer from Marvel fatigue, What If...? offers the perfect antidote. Rather than continue existing storylines in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this Disney+ series explores what would have happened if key moments played out differently and the subsequent ripple effect across the multiverse. The animated anthology unfolds through the eyes of the Watcher (Jeffrey Wright), a member of the alien race who oversees the multiverse and its many alternate timelines. As he travels from one timeline to the next, the Watcher encounters well-known characters, including T'Challa, Peggy Carter, and Nick Fury, many of whom are voiced by their live-action counterparts.

While Season 2 will once again see the return of familiar faces like Hela (Cate Blanchett), the Asgardian Goddess of Death, and Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), it also introduces a new hero created specifically for What If...? named Kahhori, a member of the Mohawk Nation who discovers the Tesseract after it falls to Earth. Kahhori's episode, which was produced in collaboration with members of Mohawk Nation, aims to bring a new perspective to the MCU, one that honors the character's Indigenous heritage and the rich history of her community.

If You Have...

An Hour

Lawmen: Bass Reeves Finale: Sunday, Paramount+
The Gilded Age: Season 2 Finale: Sunday, 9:00 PM ET on HBO
A Murder at the End of the World Finale: Tuesday, Hulu
Bookie Season 1 Finale: Thursday, Max
Rap Sh!t Season 2 Finale: Thursday, Max

An Evening

Archer: Into the Cold (Series Finale): Sunday, 10:00 PM ET on FX
Survivor Season 45 Finale: Wednesday, 8:00 PM ET on CBS
Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire: Thursday, Netflix

A Full Day

Julia Season 2: Thursday, Max *Catch up on Season 2 ahead of this week's finale!

Up Next

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road: Monday, December 25 on Disney+
Letterkenny Season 12 (Series Finale): Tuesday, December 26 on Hulu
Slow Horses Season 2 Finale: Wednesday, December 27 on Apple TV+
Berlin: Friday, December 29 on Netflix

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.