Riley S. Avery

Incredible attention to historical and textual detail. Beautifully shot. Fantastic.

Lots to like in this show. But first, no adaptation will match the original, it is too iconic to ever approach with a live action. My biggest gripe is that Aang came from the ice sphere, like Athena, fully formed as the avatar, and there is no progression with his childlike shirking and then acceptance of his duty. But overall, it’s not vital to the story. They made Sokka less sexist which is fine, but don’t replace it with anything as a foil to empower Katara. It makes her a kind of shadow, and it feels like by avoiding the appearance of sexism they actually commit it by not taking time to develop her as a character, making her fall in love with Jet for no reason other than his beauty, and not teaching Aang to waterbend. The fire bending and fight scenes are magnificent, especially Zuko’s, (Dallas Liu) who shines intensely in this show. As does Aang and Iroh. I love the casting. The attack on the airbenders was a powerful and emotional sequence and had me crying. The presence of actual death seem to raise the stakes, which is cool. Azula is way off, but that’s a hard one to nail. Overall small nitpicks but overall a great adaptation. The show maintains the emotion and