Emmanuel Mousseau

A complete bastardization of the original. It may look like Avatar The Last Airbender on the surface but if you're a fan or if you look deeper than the admittedly beautiful visuals, you see a hollow, rushed, mishmash of Book 1's episodes that betrays the defining struggles of main characters, the personality & charm of others & the basic understanding of complex themes such as genocide, imperialism, violence & self-defence, racism, family, gender roles, insecurity, duty & more. The acting is not particularly good, especially for a cast that has potential. The standouts are Azula, Ozai & Zuko, while Iroh fails to remind us of why his participation in the war felt redeemable in light of his spiritual awakening, compassion & genuine desire to atone in the source material. While the paternal relationship between he & Zuko was a net positive, all his other scenes felt flat & void of his charm & wisdom. Sokka was void of humour, quirks or really anything that made us love the character in the first place, perhaps because the writers thought removing his entire arc was justified if they focused on a minute ramification of it. His sharpness & agressive line delivery made him feel stiff. It doesn't help this white actor feels out of place among Indigenous actors, flying in the face of claimed commitment to representation & the theme of genocide which is so prevalent in the original while glossed over here. The arc about cultural appropriation is completely removed in favour of a poorly executed false flag terror attack which also fundamentally misrepresents another core caracter whose presence was meant to inspire discussion about the limits of violence as a means of self defence. Katara's arc felt entirely unearned, as though she, Aang & Sokka had been travelling together for months, instead of a few days, considering she only features in 6 episodes, one of which establishes her character. The dynamic between her & Aang especially suffers as the burgeoning romance of the Cave of Two Lovers, a Book 2 plotline is unfortunately (poorly) woven in here as a brother-sister adventure that can't even stick to the lore of the setting, to fix a problem that was also borne of a mischaracterization of one of Avatar's wildest characters. So is that of Bato of the Water Tribe, which originally cements Aang as part of her family, which is eschewed for a poorly executed Spirit World flashback of Sokka's where Hakoda is portrayed with toxic masculinity & a hindrance to Sokka's development. Other avatars make good appearances while outright being laughably condescending & even angry at Aang, in a way that is profoundly counter to the lore & their roles as mentors. Again, the lore is fundamentally misunderstood by the showrunners, likely why the creators jumped ship. With all these flaws, misunderstanding of the lore & vocabulary, the relationships between characters, their struggles & overall themes & philosophies, the well executed outward appearance is somewhat soured by the dialogue coming out of the characters, glaring omissions despite having a 25 minute difference in runtime than the original Book 1 & the implausibility of events in Avatar world settings. If you want something that looks like Avatar but doesn't feel like it, this show is for you. If you loved the original, this show is but a reference to it. You will be disappointed. At least Shyamalan's atrocious movie didn't even try to be remotely faithful. Here the veneer makes it all the more disappointing.