NETFLIX's 'Avatar the Last Airbender:' Season 1 Thoughts and Feelings.
All opinions in this review are my own. I have not watched or read any other reviews of the first season because frankly, I don’t really care what others have to say. My enjoyment, boredom, or dissatisfaction are my own. If you’d like to learn about my approach to ‘critiquing’ film and television you can click here.
The time between the announcement of the live action adaptation and its release was a wild ride. Most people were seemingly, and justifiably, apprehensive about the quality Netflix would be able to produce. Once the original creators of the beloved animated ‘Avatar the Last Airbender’ departed the production after alleged creative differences with Netflix, I was also apprehensive. Once trailers started to drop, however, my apprehension started to go away and my excitement grew.
I am sure there are plenty of people who hated the adaptation.
I was really quite surprised and happy with what I saw. I would give Season 1 a 7.5/10. I will organize my thoughts according to my list of ‘criteria.’ I will not be discussing specific things about the plot to avoid spoiling for those who haven’t watched. There is no greater offense than spoiling details for someone who doesn’t want to be spoiled.
Truthful performances from the actors, which could also be referred to as good casting.
Oh man, the amount of times I cried watching this show purely because of how sincere I felt the leads were. I thought they all brought so much depth and humanity for such a young cast. I hope people aren’t trashing their performances because they weren’t 100% cartoon accurate. Undoubtably the pressure for these actors to bring back the characters in a recognizable way was substantial, but I felt they committed in a really engaging and moving way.
No, there isn’t as much humor in the show as there is in the animated show. The “stakes” within a story are simply going to be different when something is animated vs. live action. If there was too much humor, I think people would walk away feeling like something was missing because it doesn’t match the content of the story. Young actors have access to a more vivid imagination, however their life experience is always going to be underdeveloped when comparing to an older actor who has lived more life. Comedy comes from life experience, I think the performances would fall flat if these actors were focusing on comedic timing/chops. Comedy is much harder than drama. I thought there were appropriate moments of levity to break the tension and remind us that these are still kids with hope for a better future.
Personally, I see these characters as kids in a horrific and significant war, which justifies the choice to adapt the tone into something more dramatic and somber. My personal favorite performance would probably go to Katara, played by Kiawentiio. Her bending fights were awesome, and I thought she brought much spirit to Katara.
2. Dynamic visuals that are appropriate and consistent with the style and tone of the story.
The CGI was awesome. The bending was awesome and devastating. You felt that these characters had access to incredible power that takes work and dedication to perfect. The martial arts was well choreographed and well filmed. The cinematography leaned into the expansive and vast world they were trying to create. They used more green screen than I would have liked, but what can you do? This is a fantasy world… green screens are inevitable. Flying Bison are obviously something you have to create mostly in post-production. The violence was more than I was expecting considering it’s TV-PG rating, which tells me that they were targeting the adults who loved the show as a kid.
3. Witty and thoughtful writing that is faithful and appropriate for the story.
Yes, some of the dialogue was bad. A lot of things were sped up and some key moments were underdeveloped. It could be argued whether the set-up/payoff was the best it could be. This was the first season, which is always going to have an element of trial and error. There were many changes made that I enjoyed and I thought added great emotional weight to the story in a necessary way. As I mentioned above, aspects of an animated show will be lost or thrown away for the live adaptation because they simply don’t work and would come across as insincere or not truthful to the moment. For those of you hoping for an entirely faithful scene-for-scene adaptation, I’m sorry. I’m sure you’re leaving this season disappointed. I don’t blame you for feeling that way, but encourage you to consider the challenges human beings must try to address in production. Humans are not magical gods, there’s only so much technology and the present day can offer.
4. Original concepts.
As an adaptation, obviously this criteria gets thrown out the window.
5. Creative risks and bold choices.
Changing the tone is a big creative risk. Some key elements of the characters have been modernized, which is a big creative risk. Attempting to bring an animated world to life is a big creative risk. I would say there were plenty of bold choices within this first season. The way I see it, the creators are going to throw a whole lot of things in there so that later, when they read reviews like this or follow the online discourse about the first season, they’ll have a better sense of what worked well so they can expand on that in season 2. The things that piss people off, well, maybe they’ll leave it behind. Trial and error. You can’t make everyone happy and these days, everyone is a critic.
6. High entertainment value.
I was entertained. Some episodes were stronger than others for me. Key moments that I was expecting to see had me glued to the screen, and others fell flat for me (particularly in episodes 4-6). Adjusting from a 20-30 minute episode cartoon to a 1-hour live action is a big one, and some people will inevitably watch in several sittings, which changes the viewing experience. There were times I was more interested in what was happening on my phone, which is a sign that I wasn’t fully engaged with what was happening on the screen. I happen to love backstory and slower moments to help develop character, but I don’t think it was always successful in this first season. The season finale was good, but not great for me. There was something missing, not that I can ascribe what that was. I also remember feeling that the end of season 1 of the animated show fell a little flat for me, so at least that is consistent and probably speaks to aspects of the plot.
7. Heart.
This is intangible and entirely subjective. Ultimately, for me this would be the factor that keeps me around for the next season. I need to feel like there was more to this than just a consumer good designed to make Netflix millions and millions of dollars (of course, this is always the true intention of these studios). To me, they do a good job if I forget that the studios are just trying to make money and if they put enough effort into the artistic expression of passionate artists and creatives. Based on what I saw, I would like to believe there was at least some heart present. I would say largely based on the cast. I think each actor took their responsibility seriously and did their best to bring these characters to life.
What did you think of Season 1? What were changes made that you appreciated? What were changes that made you rage?
