Netflix’s Avatar: Good or Mid?
POP-COOLEDTURED SPECIALIST
If you ever have time, then you need to watch the masterpiece that is Avatar: The Last Airbender. It is an amazing show that tells the story of a group of kids who are essentially forced to fight in a war in order to stop the evil reign of a nation. Although it has over 50 episodes, I can understand why people might be put off from watching it. Netflix must have thought the same when they decided to remake the show into shorter, condensed seasons (8 episodes). The only problem with this though… is that it is live action.
I’m sure there are plenty of ATLA fans who either remember or forced themselves to forget the travesty that was the M. Night Shyamalan adaptation. To put it simply, that movie was so bad that it threatened to ruin the legacy of ATLA. It was what Dragon Ball Evolution is to Dragon Ball. So when fans heard that they were planning on making another live action adaptation, people were rightfully worried especially with all the news of changes that they were making. And in the end what they gave us is… not bad?
Fans have agreed that this newest adaptation is without a doubt better than the movie (not a high bar). The problem is that they can’t seem to agree on whether the show is actually good or not. After all, when compared to something objectively bad, anything better is going to look amazing. So is this newest adaptation actually good or are people just blinded by the fact that it’s better than the movie?
If someone with no knowledge of ATLA beforehand were to watch it, they would likely say that it’s either decent or good. It tells a fun story and keeps your attention throughout. A fan of the original however, will likely have a few problems with it. For one thing, they get rid of a lot of Aang’s personality in the show. One of the interesting things about ATLA is that Aang never actually wanted to become the Avatar in the first place. He just wants to continue being a kid who plays around which is why at the beginning of the show he’s trying to put off his Avatar as much as possible to continue doing this. Throughout the show though, he slowly starts to come to terms with what he is and what he has to do.
Kyoshi Island is another example of the show suffering due to the adaptation. One of the changes the showrunners for the remake made was to tone down a major character’s (Sokka) sexism. According to them, they felt that it wasn’t progressive and didn’t reflect their own beliefs. The thing is, ATLA never glorified his sexism and in fact did whatever it could to show how wrong Sokka was. Multiple times the show does what it can to show that Sokka’s mindset is bad and that girls are capable of being much better than him. This culminates with the group arriving at Kyoshi Island and Sokka being humbled by a group of female warriors. Afterwards, he apologizes and even asks them to train him, finally realizing that it doesn’t matter whether you are a man or a woman.
In the remake, they turn what was an essential moment of character growth into your typical romance plot line. Rather than taking the time to destroy years of self-taught sexism, the show decides to focus on the fact that Sokka and one of the Kyoshi Warriors might be interested in each other. This highlights one of the remake’s flaws; being too afraid to give their characters flaws. As a result, they end up losing out on moments of potential growth.
This isn’t to say that the remake is bad. In the same episode of Kyoshi Island, they actually introduced a character known as Kyoshi early in a very amazing way that really showcases the kind of person she is. However, the show does a lot of things poorly, that makes me unable to call it good. Sure, it’s better than a movie. But is it enough?
Logan Floyd-Mcgee | Writer
POP-COOLEDTURED SPECIALIST
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