The original Avatar the last Airbender series is one of my favorites of all time. I remember watching it live week to week as a high schooler and thinking how weird it was I was so into a "kids show" on Nickelodeon. As I get older I've watched it a few more times and the more I watch it, the more I love it. It holds up in every aspect-the visuals, writing, character arcs and relationships amongst each other, humor, etc.
So when this show was announced I was skeptical because the movie stunk, and because the original series makes it a lot to live up to. I've now watched the whole first season and I have to say it exceeded my low expectations. As others have said, the visuals are incredible and some of the casting is actually very much on point. I thought Yue, Iroh, Zhao and Zuko in particular were all pretty great (However, other casting decisions were not good at all, but that wasn't my main problem that I'll get to later). I appreciated that they didn't veer too far off the path of the first one in terms of plot (although they did rearrange some things that I thought were unnecessary and skipped some story sections I liked). Keep sticking to the source material in the future seasons!
The thing I think they missed on big time though, and hope to see changed in the coming seasons, is the brightness, levity, and humor of the original series. The first one walked the line really well of portraying at times very mature themes, but packaged them in a way that was very digestible and often times funny. The remake ditched that strategy almost completely, and the tone is over the top serious and at times even dark. I really couldn't specifically believe how they portrayed Aang and Sokka as mostly serious characters, it felt wrong. They're both kids, they don't need to force them to act like adults, it's weird. To add to that, Katara is portrayed timid this time, when in the original she was feisty and the voice of reason to two goofballs.
If you watch the original for just one episode after watching the live action version you see how radical the tone shift is, and I hope they don't keep going in this direction, it could be so much better with a brighter and funnier tone, one that doesn't take itself so seriously but still can tackle mature themes. That was one of the pieces that made the first one amazing.
So when this show was announced I was skeptical because the movie stunk, and because the original series makes it a lot to live up to. I've now watched the whole first season and I have to say it exceeded my low expectations. As others have said, the visuals are incredible and some of the casting is actually very much on point. I thought Yue, Iroh, Zhao and Zuko in particular were all pretty great (However, other casting decisions were not good at all, but that wasn't my main problem that I'll get to later). I appreciated that they didn't veer too far off the path of the first one in terms of plot (although they did rearrange some things that I thought were unnecessary and skipped some story sections I liked). Keep sticking to the source material in the future seasons!
The thing I think they missed on big time though, and hope to see changed in the coming seasons, is the brightness, levity, and humor of the original series. The first one walked the line really well of portraying at times very mature themes, but packaged them in a way that was very digestible and often times funny. The remake ditched that strategy almost completely, and the tone is over the top serious and at times even dark. I really couldn't specifically believe how they portrayed Aang and Sokka as mostly serious characters, it felt wrong. They're both kids, they don't need to force them to act like adults, it's weird. To add to that, Katara is portrayed timid this time, when in the original she was feisty and the voice of reason to two goofballs.
If you watch the original for just one episode after watching the live action version you see how radical the tone shift is, and I hope they don't keep going in this direction, it could be so much better with a brighter and funnier tone, one that doesn't take itself so seriously but still can tackle mature themes. That was one of the pieces that made the first one amazing.