Avatar: The Last Airbender (Netflix): Season 1

   

Based on: 2005 Nickelodeon animated series of the same name created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante Dimartino

Developed by: Albert Kim

Written by: 

Albert Kim, Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Joshua Hale Fialkov, Christine Boylan, Keely MacDonald, Gabriel Llanas, Emily Kim, Hunter Ries, Ubah Mohamed, Audrey Wong Kennedy

Starring: 

Gordon Cormier (Aang), Kiawentiio (Katara), Ian Ousley (Sokka), Dallas Liu (Zuko), Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Iroh), Ken Leung (Zhao), Daniel Dae Kim (Ozai)

Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1 trailer:

For those who may not already know, I'm an obsessive fan of the original Avatar animated series, which I'll refer to here as Avatar. I caught the tail end of its original broadcast in 2008 and I've kept up with the franchise ever since. It represents something of a core passion over my life. 

Despite the letdown of the 2010 movie, I had a very open mind about this adaptation. I'll refer to it as "NATLA," the term I've seen emerging online recently. ("Netflix ATLA"? "New ATLA"? Not sure.) I really enjoy live-action adaptations overall (an unpopular stance, I know!) and I've had increasing faith in Netflix's ability since a couple more promising adaptations were released prior to Avatar, like One Piece and Yuyu Hakusho. There were admittedly several mixed news releases prior to the premiere, most notably of which was the original creators' departure from the Netflix project, but I kept my faith. 

Sokka, Aang, and Katara

Now, having had time to watch it at my own pace and mull over my feelings, I remain positive. There were certainly several major flaws, which I'll get into shortly. But I think the reimagining aspect was exceptionally well done-- by which I mean the way Netflix rewrote the minor storylines and remixed the episodes, cutting some bits that don't do well in live action and adding its own scenes to benefit the story. Visually, the series also did excellently, with beautiful VFX, awesome sets, and polished costumes. (Well, admittedly too polished--I agreed with one critic I read who stated their costumes looked fresh from the factory, as if they'd never been worn before, instead of heavily worn down by village life, as they should have looked.) 

I'll lead with my criticisms. There are a few main things that I thought really detracted from the series, listed here in order of magnitude of my frustration: 

• acting, especially the line deliveries 
• some very forced plots 
• waterbending in the Northern Water Tribe (NWT) 

The acting, in my opinion, was by far the most distractingly negative aspect of the whole season. I love that Netflix casted new players to the industry, and I wouldn't change that for a minute. But maybe some counsel on how to make their spoken lines feel more natural would have been beneficial. To be clear, I don't mean the words/content of the dialogue. I thought the written dialogue was perfectly fine. It was specifically the actors' delivery. The two worst offenders, in my opinion, were Gordon Cormier and Dallas Liu. Most if not all their spoken lines felt awkward tonally, with emphasis placed in on the wrong words, or weird timing, and it consistently broke my immersion into the scene and reminded me that they're just actors playing characters. I felt that Gordon's ability grew more natural toward the end of the season, but sadly, Dallas' deliveries remained awkward to me throughout the entire thing. Almost every character in the series was an offender at one point or another, which leads me to wonder whether it was the director instead of the actors. Even Sokka and Katara, both of whom I thought were some of the best actors in the season, still had one or two lines that felt cringey. 

I placed "forced plots" second because it didn't affect most episodes. In fact, in my opinion, the only egregiously forced episode was NATLA's "Omashu," ep 3, which squeezed in plots from three different episodes of Avatar ("King of Omashu," "Jet," and "Northern Air Temple"). I appreciated that NATLA adapted this into a two-parter, so the three Avatar episodes were at least allowed to breathe a little over two NATLA hours. However, much was still lost in terms of motivations, earned redemptions, and character bonds that felt forced instead of organic. While the NATLA story was compelling and each of these subplots was actually woven together quite well, I think that if the writers had stuffed fewer elements in, the NATLA episode may have achieved a deeper emotional payoff and flowed more naturally. 

Finally, it was a frustrating mystery to me that in NATLA, neither Aang nor Katara learned any waterbending from a master in the NWT. That was a core plot of Avatar's first season and the very reason the team traveled to that location. However, NATLA provided Aang, Katara, and Sokka ("the gaang") with its own original reason to visit the NWT tribe, and therefore the lack of waterbending instruction wasn't quite as glaring of a plot hole. While I suspect this was done intentionally and there will be story reason for Aang to learn both water and earth next season, it still felt awkward that Aang was in the best location in the world to learn waterbending, yet none of them conceded to teaching him. It also felt awkward that Katara dubbed herself a waterbending "master" in the season finale when she had never received any formal instruction from anyone. 

Princess Yue (Amber Midthunder). I agree with criticisms that her wig isn't great, but I thought the actress did fantastic and her reimagined role as Spiritual Leader of the North worked very well

Before I move on from the "criticisms" section, I want to mention a change that I saw widely critiqued online but that I don't feel is a negative myself: removing Sokka's sexism. While I don't agree with NATLA's reason, which was something about updating the themes of their series to reflect modern times, I also don't think it negatively affected NATLA's Sokka. Even in Avatar, Sokka's sexism only really came out in "Warriors of Kyoshi." He grew out of it within the first half of the episode... and then it was never mentioned again. I saw a lot of fans complaining online about how it was "core to his character growth" in Avatar, but I simply don't agree. After that one episode, it wasn't mentioned again, and it didn't affect any other part of his character development. Instead, I would say the main character arc Avatar's Sokka goes through relates to his confidence as a warrior and approval from his father. That development spans the entire series, and this growth is very much touched on in NATLA. 

That's quite enough for the negatives! Shifting gears, there was plenty to praise about the series as well: 

• character additions 
• great new scenes 
• visuals (costumes, sets, VFX)
• strong reimagined stories 
• bending battles 

NATLA included several characters in its first season that either weren't in Avatars first season or weren't in the Avatar franchise at all, and I think every one of them was a good addition. The notable additions were Azula, Ty Lee, Mai, Avatar Kyoshi, Avatar Kuruk, and Yukari. The latter character was original to NATLA, though notably replacing the character of Oyaji from Avatar. Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai were all pivotal characters to seasons 2 and 3 of Avatar and I think it was very appropriate for NATLA to introduce them in the first season. They gain rich depth and growth in Avatar's second and third seasons and I think it worked better for NATLA to establish them as a major presence right from the beginning. Kuruk and especially Kyoshi enjoy greatly expanded screentime which serve NATLA's reimagined plotlines more specifically. Without being too specific, Aang's path is more spiritually guided in NATLA than Avatar, and his Avatar predecessors (including Roku) help him determine what being the Avatar means and help guide him through the Spirit World in a greater capacity than was needed in Avatar. 

Suki (Maria Zhang) with her mother, the Chief of Kyoshi Island, Yukari (Tamlyn Tomita). Yukari is original to NATLA and their relationship was a strong improvement NATLA had over Avatar

I loved the look and costume design of every Avatar they showed in NATLA, so I'm going to add them here :D this is Roku (C. S. Lee) 

Kyoshi (Yvonne Chapman)

Kuruk (Meegwun Fairbrother) 

The new scenes included in NATLA were probably the greatest area of improvement that the live action had over the original. This will easily get into spoiler territory, so I'll keep it light. NATLA's adaptation was reimagined, meaning they rewrote many of the episode plots to tell new stories or go in new directions, while still covering the overarching ideas of season 1. This reimagining involved several new stories and retold some familiar plots in new ways. In doing so, they added several new scenes that contributed richly to the relationships between important characters and added new depth to some familiar plots. This was great to watch, and probably the best way that NATLA contributed to the existing franchises. 

Among NATLA's new scenes included a library/shrine of sorts to past Avatars that Zuko has on his ship, seen here. Given the fact that Zuko's hunting the Avatar, it makes sense that he would have such a collection of information and relics on past Avatars to educate himself. 

Another thing I was very impressed by was the visuals. More or less every scene was a treat! I especially remember loving Omashu, Suki's village, the Southern Water Tribe, Roku's island, the Spirit World, Koh's lair, and the NWT. Each of these locations felt real and lived in, and paid homage to Avatar in spirit. The only location I wasn't especially fond of was the Southern Air Temple, which was depicted as flat and spread out, whereas Avatar's Air Temples were all tall, narrow, and built atop jagged spires that necessitated airbending to navigate. I also thought the bending and bending battles were adapted very well. I thought that the power was all there: firebenders were able to generate strong blasts and earthbeners were able to throw around formidable chunks of rock, unlike in a certain movie. 

My final praise will be on the new stories. NATLA significantly reimagined its two-part "Spirited Away" and "Masks" episodes (the former of which is a lovely nod to Studio Ghibli). It loosely adapted several plot points from Avatar, but didn't constrain itself to matching Avatar, thus allowing itself to create and resolve its own plots. The result was a really beautiful storyline that was mostly original to NATLA but still effectively accomplishing the essence of what had been accomplished in Avatar. I think they were honestly the best two episodes in NATLA's first season. Where NATLA's "Omashu" and "Into the Dark" (which I had critiqued in an earlier paragraph) failed by forcing itself to mirror specific, iconic sequences from Avatar in what resulted cringe-worthy and forced moments, "Spirited Away" and "Masks" departed largely from Avatar and succeeded in telling its own story. 

Overall, I very much enjoyed watching NATLA. I had to kind of continually ignore the awkward acting, but to me, that wasn't a big deal. It was worth it to take in the new scenes and excitingly reimagined story. With seasons 2 and 3 already renewed, I can't wait to see what Ba Sing Se looks like, and I'm particularly excited to see our very first live-action Toph!!