Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” is a slightly above average adaptation of the beloved 2005 animated series. The story, just like the cartoon, follows Avatar Aang and his friends as they traverse the four nations in search of masters who will be able to teach Aang the four elements.
The show opened to 21.2 million viewers during its first weekend and received very mixed reviews from both critics and at-home audiences.
The current critic score on Rotten Tomatoes is 60%, and the audience score surpasses that rating with 75%. In comparison, the original animated series has a Tomato critic score of 100% and an audience score of 99%.
This show may not be a one-to-one adaption, but most of the changes the new show takes are inferior to the originals.
The three main characters lack the emotions and charm their animated counterparts had, and the actors’ performances makes them difficult to get used to. I found this to be mainly due to important character arcs being changed or placed in a mediocre direction, not because of the actors themselves.
Gordon Cormier portrays Aang, and while he definitely looks the part, Netflix stripped the character of the goofiness that made Aang so lovable in the original. However, Cormier is still able to make the most of the writing and eventually starts to feel like the character audiences are more familiar with.
Kiawentiio Tarbell portrays Katara, and despite being a good actress, I believe the lackluster direction lets her down. She comes off as the worst actor of the main cast but similarly to Cormier, the last couple of episodes make her look much better.
By far the best characters in this show are Sokka (Ian Ousley), Zuko (Dallas James Liu) and Zuko’s uncle, Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). Liu and Lee’s relationship remains the true heart of the show. Every time they appeared on screen, I found myself forgetting about our three main characters.
I only wanted one thing going into this show: an answer to the question of “does this deserve to exist?” While it’s definitely better than the abomination that was M. Night Shyamalan’s 2010 adaptation, it just barely warrants its existence.
While this first season is sub-par, the future of the show is bright. Seeing how much the cast loves the original, I think the inevitable second season will be an improvement over the first.
