A personality. It's like she's just reading lines, occasionally smiles, and splashes fire nation people with water.

1st ep: It's a first episode, but decent.
2nd ep: I genuinely liked it. Little more action at the end helped.
I bailed halfway through episode 3. It was horrible. I'll try another later.

I know it was a cartoon that they made into a live action. There are certain allowances I'm willing to give. However, this show literally feels like a formula cartoon except with live actors. Should I expect a little more realism in a fantastic fantasy world or is the cartoonish acting, plotting, and dialog a selling point?

 

Holy fuck that first episode was rough. Some 2/5 shit right there. It was better than Shyamalan (admittedly low bar), but dear lord do they just not know how to do exposition. Dragged down the whole episode because that's what like half the episode was. On the bright side, the more lighthearted scenes and moments worked much better in both writing and acting. Overall very meh on the storytelling parts as well. I'm hoping that in future episodes, where they can actually focus on the story and not really bad info dumps, they get better both with writing and acting. But for right now, uh...

This prediction feels accurate.

Spoiler: Episode 1: Aang, More Detailed Thoughts

Aight so I took a running tally of thoughts as I watched it for a discord server, so I'll just spruce those up and put them here.

-Anyhow we're opening in the Fire Nation for whatever reason. Night scene so mediocre lighting as is the norm with Hollywood nowadays, but so be it. The fight scene isn't as well shot or edited as I'd like, but this feels like a very weak attempt to start with an "exciting" opening. We're thrust in without any context and we're given no direction on how to feel or where to get invested or anything. It's not flashy or fun enough to be eye catching either. Not a good hook.

-Sozin doing good spycraft. Solid way to establish the threat. Weird sightlines on Sozin in these shots though. We're given the impression by the cinematography that these guys are eye level, but the actor for Sozin is clearly looking upward. And then he just immolates the guy. Damn. And then he announces genocide before the intro sequence. Alright so it's not Tywin skinning a stag but it's a solid establishment of a bad guy (albeit one who we won't deal with past like this episode). Really hamfisted explanation of why he's going for the Air Nomads, and to one of his own guys when that general or whatever should've known. (Little did I know at the time that this would be one of the better exposition scenes this episode would have).

-I don't think that's Katara doing the intro. Sounds older. Kyoshi maybe? Weird but okay. Also I get that they have to remix the music a bit, but I don't think they quite hit it. Might just need to get used to it though.

-And we have Aang at the air temple. The flying feels a bit too.... trapeeze like. Like they edited out the wires but you can still see them, y'know. The show has enough of a lightly cartoon aesthetic that I think it overall can pull off some of the pretty fake looking bending effects, but Aang's flying is still too fake to pull off.

-Air Nomad Council. Another info dump political scene. Yeah this feels like bad structure. Two of these in the first ten minutes makes this a very slow start to the episode. Bad storytelling economy here.

-Okay the Aang actor is pretty solid with some of the funnier lines, but some odd deliveries on the more serious ones. Not sure if that's early episode nerves, mediocre direction, an actor limitation, or just because the lines are clunky. Good chemistry with Gyatso when the writing isn't failing them though. Exposition continues to be rough.

-Overall, the scene where Gyatso tells Aang he's the Avatar just kinda falls flat. Not good, it's too important a scene for this story. They spent too much time on political exposition, not enough time on character and the actual emotional beats that need to be hit. And so this scene is left without an established foundation, and it's not written well enough to handle that. Just too inefficient of a start to the episode and it's already coming due.

-Oh god that Aang soliloquy on who he is... man guys come on. Show don't tell dammit. Parts of it are fine but other parts are just too on the nose. And this poor kid just doesn't quite have the chops to sell it.

-Alright so they showed more of the genocide than I thought. They only mentioned comet enhancement at the end, and I thought they were eschewing the concept entirely until then... which means they did a very bad job of establishing what comet enhancement is. Like I guess Sozin and the firebenders using jet boosts is the closest, but yeah. Not great. And otherwise the scene wasn't bad... but it wasn't as impactful as it needed to be.

-Not sure how I feel about Aang not purposefully running away, and instead it being an accident. The original version was a much stronger choice, but I can understand the change. I think they can make it work given the different direction the interviews suggested they were going with Aang's character arc. We'll see how they handle it going forward. I think Aang feeling guilty is too crucial to completely avoid, but there's certainly room for him to still feel survivor's guilt. (And I did get a bit of a sense of that at the end of the episode). They're also telegraphing a "this is too much for a child" style character story for Aang (execution tbd), so I think it could be fine.

-Okay so for reference, everything pre-Ice Ball takes about 20 minutes, so roughly one full episode of the main show. In it we get a lot of exposition done and some okay character work for Aang. Overall kinda mid, which is not great when this should've been a big "oh fuck" opening. Anyhow, let's see if our water tribe friends do better. (Ehhhhhhhhh maybe they did but it's debatable)

-Hiding waterbending so the firebenders don't see it. Cool angle, it has potential. Main issue is that Katara's... kinda not standing up to Sokka when he's being an ass. Katara's a lot of things but she's not meek. I dunno, maybe it happens later? (It did not happen later. Hopefully it's a character arc for her this season that peaks when she throws hands with Pakku but even then... I think it really weakens the character but we'll see what they do.)

-Wait so Katara accidentally breaks Aang out of the ice ball while trying to get the canoe? What? Guys, c'mon. (This especially doesn't work because they give her a whole mini arc about struggling to really waterbend but she can still just accidentally crack the ice ball?)

-Zuko scene with Iroh. Pretty decent for him. Iroh... not quite there. The actor has potential, but his advice isn't right. I think the actors for Zuko and Sokka have an uphill battle because the voice actors were both really good and really distinctive, so it's going to be a real adjustment and take work to really evaluate them for their performances and not just comparing them to the original. "Restore my honor" was conspicuously absent, but I'm trying not to hold that against them. Maybe he'll say the line later.

-So after Aang wakes up, there's these kids that are running around ignoring Aang? Sokka's dialogue makes it sound like they should be playing with him but they didn't do that when they actually shot. And then there's a weird cut right between Aang saying where's Sokka and Katara asking Sokka if he's seen Aang. Very confusing. Who edited this?

-Okay, seeing this kid say Appa has sold me on the actor for Aang. Or at least what they saw when they cast him. They've got the more fun lines and exchanges down pretty good.

-The fuck did they just give Gran Gran the cartoon's intro to randomly say? The fuck? Yeah this is a really clunky scene. Clunky writing and acting that can't save it, which is bad because this is the scene where Aang realizes that he's been frozen a hundred years and his people have been murdered. It should be very emotional! And oh god then there's this clunky Katara exposition scene is giving me Shyamalan flashbacks.

-Aang giving her waterbending advice is a fine, it just feels so different to the expected character dynamic. They've got a handle on Aang, but Katara is just not right at all.

-And Gran Gran just cold calls that Aang is the Avatar based on nothing. The fuck?

-(In reference to when Katara convinces Sokka to fight instead of selling out Aang). Oh god please don't reduce Katara to a hope speech female side character/love interest. This is not the cue to take from the Ember Island Players.

-Yeah this whole sequence where Zuko attacks the village isn't working. These resolutions are not earned. Writers are giving the characters unjustified character affirmations. Nobody ever fought for Aang before? Where's that coming from? And Sokka turns around to help Aang too quickly without any real justification other than the hope speech which was not enough.

-Okay so Iroh going for a face to face with Aang is cool. But I'm not happy with what he's saying. Like he's afraid to contravene the Fire Nation party line here even though he clearly doesn't agree with it. That ain't Iroh. Where's the wisdom? Not sure if this is a mistake or if they're going somewhere with it, but they had the opportunity for a really cool scene and they made it forgettable.

-And there's almost no tension in the escape from Zuko's ship. Would've been better if Sokka hadn't already changed his mind and defended Aang back at the village, because it would mean him catching Aang could've felt like an actual payoff. (Since the episode ends with Aang going Avatar state with Gyatso, I'm understand why you don't have that be how he escapes Zuko's ship. Makes sense. But it all still feels very underwhelming).

-And we cut right to him finding Gyatso's corpse. I'm fine cutting down this visit. The episode already covered enough that this is really the only important part left from the original episode, the genocide really sinking in. But come on man, just give me a bit of a transition. Establish the new location a bit more. Let Aang spend more than three seconds taking things in. And unfortunately because of the mediocre character work earlier, Katara can't be the one to bring him out of his Avatar State rage, and they give it to Gyatso instead. Not sure if that was self-awareness on their part or just luck, but that was the right choice. Though again it would've been better if their earlier writing was better.

-Aang, in his grief, is much more on-mission in the final scene than in the cartoon, which is a decision I understand and despite a lot of mediocre-at-best writing I do think that they and the actor managed to justify that character beat. So at least we get to end on that positive note. But man was there a lot of disappointment to be found in this episode. The ceiling of my expectations is hardening.

-Overall, this first episode has a lot of just really badly done exposition. Like fuck they do not know how to write good exposition. And because of that, the episode suffered not just because it had a lot of clunky scenes, but because it stopped them from managing to do the rest of the stuff well because they kept interrupting it with bad exposition. I'm hoping that future episodes, which should have less info dumps required, will let us see what the writers are actually good at.

-On the bright side, the more comedic scenes are much better in terms of both writing and acting. I'm hoping some of the odd line deliveries are just early episode jitters.

-Economical storytelling is hard. Like real hard. The original show was quite good at it (less so in Korra), but man was it bad here. Next episode I think is just fully devoted to Kyoshi Island? Which is a lot of time that maybe they'll use Zuko to fill, but hey maybe with more time to breathe they'll do better. There's enough else I'm concerned about with the writing skill, but I'm hoping that this episode is just a low point and not a norm.

-Wait yo where Momo at

Episode MVP: idk I guess Aang? Maybe Sokka?
Episode LVP: Gran Gran.

 

The Omashu episode was absolute dogshit. It's the only one I think was legitimately worse than the 1st episode.

 

Solid 5.5/6. Feels like they did a live action Ember Island play instead of a live action Avatar cartoon

Pros:

• They did a good job showing the power of bending and it’s casual use throughout the world. In Omashu there was background earth bending in a lot of scenes that wasn’t focused on, just background visuals like walls sealing up behind characters as they go through
• Stakes feel more real than the cartoon. It’s a joke in the show that Jets the only character that ever died, definitely not the case here
• Sokka and Ozai were great casts. Iroh grew on me also despite some weird lines and ridiculous faces he made
• They worked in some of the more cartoony jokes without going too far. Cabbages and Secret Tunnel

Cons

• Commander Zhao is the worst. So over the top and campy, he brings down any scene he’s in. Roku is a close second for worst
• Changes to the Ozai/Zuko/Azula dynamic were bad. Pretty much all of it - don’t get me started on the Agni Kai changes and Azula being the least favorite child
• Aang/Zuko character building shouldn’t have been there. Too early for Aang to be so understanding and sympathetic to him. It’s a clear part of the cartoons progression that Aang is immature and grows as a person throughout the show
• It felt very rushed. When they get to the North they kept saying they finally got there, but it feels like it’s been a week since they met
• Think the above is because they merged too many plot lines. Seemed to be 3 episodes of the cartoons going on simultaneously in each arc. Merging Jet with Omashu could have worked out, but don’t think the mechanist should have been included. Merging the forest spirit and Aang getting captured worked, but Roku plot line shouldn’t have been crammed in there.
• Koh is one of the most menacing and interesting villains so naturally they changed him completely
• Why did they cut out Roku telling Aang about the comet? Maybe they’re going to have him learn about it in the Library and merge the invasion of fire nation in season 3 with the comet plot line?

 

I thought it was pretty obvious that Azula was the favored child and Ozai was manipulating her? Zhao's final speech to Zuko seemed to confirm that.

This has been addressed in interviews. They did not want to put a time limit on the Comet in order to account for actors aging up and so they chose to keep it very open ended.

Supposed I'll give my review.

As an adaptation, I give it a 6.5. The major issue is that, once again, the Netflix limit of 8 episodes cut off the show at the knees. The show could have benefited from an extra 2 episodes in the first part of the season settling the foundation of Team Avatar and portraying Zuko chasing after them more before Zhao appeared. It also needed an additional episode at the end of Aang in the Northern Water tribe learning/Sokka and Yue's romance flourishing/Katara's learning of waterbending.

As a fantasy show? I give it a 9/10. Lots of fun. My wife (who has never watched the cartoon) loved it and is super excited for a season two. She also thinks Katara and Zuko are going to end up together which I find lol.

Further Thoughts:
-The Bending. Lots of great action sequences and loved how the bending looked; that said, the show really needed its "Daredevil in a hallway scene" and it didn't really have it.
-Loved the enhancement of the sceen with the 41st division and Zuko's story.
-Katara didn't feel like Katara until like the last two episodes. As an adaptation, that was poor, but I think it works as a standalone. Let her grow into that character I guess?
-Suki's actress is drop dead gorgeous. I felt a little agape with she took the make up off. Her and Sokka's chemistry was pretty obvious.
-Sokka was the best part of the show. He embodied Sokka.
-The exposition was so bad. Way too much Tell rather than Show. It was really painful at times. Aang's monologues were so bad.
-The water bending lacked weight. Like....the water just splashes and people go flying but it doesn't feel like there is an impact.

I think the show would have benefited from just being from Zuko's perspective honestly. The firenation scenes were the best part of the show.