The original series is my favorite TV show ever. Asking the Netflix series to be as amazing as the original would be like asking for a grandma that's better than the one you had growing up, it will never happen. This show can mimic and modify, but my hope was that it wouldn't butcher. I do have my criticisms, but overall I thought it was quite solid.
I began episode 1 unconvinced that I would make it to episode 2, but soon I wound up watching the entire first season. Right away the tone of the series is quite a lot darker then the original. The show is structured to be less funny and while I find the drama to fall by the wayside just a little bit, it is still funny and sad when it needs to be, and it benefits from epic action sequences, and higher stakes. The lookalike actors, costumes, and cities are impossible to scrutinize, and I got tears in my eyes regularly from the love that went into rendering the anime into live action. The show reimagines the story, and adds a few plot elements that I now wish were in the original. They also added more backstory to some of the characters, and delve further into the lore that is only seen in the spinoffs. It may be less lovable than the original, but there is still a lot to love.
There were some issues that I took with this show however. While there is a good amount of talent in the child actors, they can't convince me like the cartoon can. The episodes are triple the length which results in telling as many as three episodes at once. While this works well at story driven times, it's awkward to see them combine The King of Omashu, Jet, and The Northern Air Temple all into one episode. They also cut some lesser but still good episodes. I was also bothered by a few character changes, Bumi is jaded, Ozai is louder and less calculated, and Azula needs to be a complete &$@#%. There were also instances where it wasn't edited well, and it felt like the characters were talking about something that happened in a deleted scene, though I never had an issue catching up with the plot.
Don't go into this show expecting it to be the original, it's not that good. I recommend the original to those who have never seen Avatar, and recommend this to the fans of the original series. This show uses fan service smartly, and you can take the good out of it, and use it to improve a few blank pages of the original. The anime holds no surprises for me anymore, and this is a fun way to re-experience it for the first time. I look forward to season 2. Any fan with an open heart will really enjoy this.
"It's like the hermit crab, maybe you weren't born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home."
I began episode 1 unconvinced that I would make it to episode 2, but soon I wound up watching the entire first season. Right away the tone of the series is quite a lot darker then the original. The show is structured to be less funny and while I find the drama to fall by the wayside just a little bit, it is still funny and sad when it needs to be, and it benefits from epic action sequences, and higher stakes. The lookalike actors, costumes, and cities are impossible to scrutinize, and I got tears in my eyes regularly from the love that went into rendering the anime into live action. The show reimagines the story, and adds a few plot elements that I now wish were in the original. They also added more backstory to some of the characters, and delve further into the lore that is only seen in the spinoffs. It may be less lovable than the original, but there is still a lot to love.
There were some issues that I took with this show however. While there is a good amount of talent in the child actors, they can't convince me like the cartoon can. The episodes are triple the length which results in telling as many as three episodes at once. While this works well at story driven times, it's awkward to see them combine The King of Omashu, Jet, and The Northern Air Temple all into one episode. They also cut some lesser but still good episodes. I was also bothered by a few character changes, Bumi is jaded, Ozai is louder and less calculated, and Azula needs to be a complete &$@#%. There were also instances where it wasn't edited well, and it felt like the characters were talking about something that happened in a deleted scene, though I never had an issue catching up with the plot.
Don't go into this show expecting it to be the original, it's not that good. I recommend the original to those who have never seen Avatar, and recommend this to the fans of the original series. This show uses fan service smartly, and you can take the good out of it, and use it to improve a few blank pages of the original. The anime holds no surprises for me anymore, and this is a fun way to re-experience it for the first time. I look forward to season 2. Any fan with an open heart will really enjoy this.
"It's like the hermit crab, maybe you weren't born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home."
- Aang, 2005.
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