Hi people from all nations! It’s time to talk about the newest Netflix show, Avatar: The Last Airbender. We’re looking at the first episode, “Aang,” and I have a lot to say about it, so let’s dive right in! I know that the original is widely regarded as almost perfect, and comparisons to it are both inevitable and maybe unjust, so I promise I won’t talk much about the animated show (at least in future reviews) and treat this one as what it is, a standalone piece of entertainment.
1. We Didn’t Need That Intro
The episode overall is faithful to the first episodes of the animated show, the only exception is the beginning, we see an earthbender fleeing from the Fire Nation only to be caught, and when he thought his mission was going to be successful, Fire Lord Sozin reveals that the “secret” plan he helped deliver to the Earth Kingdom was a decoy.
Then we meet Aang and his Air Temple, we see the revelation that he is the Avatar and the inevitable killing of the Air Nomads. To be honest, I don’t think that all of this were necessary: I don’t want to go so far as to say that it’s insulting that they think that we need to see a genocide to understand that the Fire Nation are the bad guys, but a cartoon for kids didn’t show it to us, and we knew what happened and understood the implications of it.
I will also use this opportunity to repeat one of the most common critiques of modern series: everything is dark! It was hard to see much of the Fire Nation despite being illuminated by firebenders! The scene in the Air Temple also took advantage of the night, but it was dark as hell: if you have a 60-inch TV in a dark room that’s great, but phones, tablets and small TVs (meaning, the main way of consuming Netflix) are doomed.
2. Sets and Worldbuilding
The best part of the show so far are the sets. Here we see the Fire Nation, the Air Temple, the Water Tribe and Zuko’s ship, and you can tell the money was well spent: it was hard for me to notice any evident use of greenscreen, the sets were built to be used and I have to praise it.
One of the hardest things to translate from the animated world is that the kids had adventures throughout the world, so the production team has a big challenge ahead: the way I see it, there’s going to be at least one new set each episode, so let’s hope they manage to deliver as well as they did in this one.
3. The Characters
Now let´s talk about the characters… hey, remember that cursed movie from a polarizing director that came out in 2010? Oof, that was bad to see. Well the point of bringing back that bad memory is to talk about the casting, one of the biggest criticisms of which was that they kinda cast backwards: the good guys had lighter skin, and the bad guys had darker skin. Shyamalan defended his choices arguing that the show was more “ambiguous” than critics said (you can read all of this in Wikipedia).
Well regardless of what they did, this was a new opportunity to have better casting and let me tell you, they got it right so far, the kids all are great, Aang is played by Gordon Cormier, a Filipino-Canadian; Sokka is played by Ian Ousley, a mixed-race Cherokee; and Kiawentiio, a Mohawk actress famous for appearing in the third season of Anne with an E, is playing Katara; on the other hand, Dallas Liu, a Chinese-Indonesian is playing Zuko. So, the casting team was trying to be more respectful of the original, but what about their chemistry?
Well, they had little screentime together but so far, the siblings Katara and Sokka seem to be great casting. However, the standout was Aang, you just can see in his eyes the type of kindness that is needed for the character: I’m eager to see how they develop this season and in future seasons.
4. The Effects
Continued belowI’m divided on this topic: we saw water, air and fire bending, and the effects team did a good enough job with those, and the design of the animals was great, especially Appa, who is a faithful representation of his animated counterpart. Admittedly, he didn’t have much dynamism in his movements, but we are just starting.
On the other side, we did have bad CGI, mainly when we had those digital doubles that looked like that movie RIPD. It was specifically noticeable during the main titles, the rapid waters before meeting Aang, and, more egregiously, when he entered into Avatar State in the ruins of the Air Temple – his face was completely different from how Gordon Cormier looks.
So, so far, 50/50; let’s see how it evolves in future episodes.
5. Zero Laughs
One of the biggest differences from the animated show (I know, I know, I said I’d try not to make too many comparisons) is that, so far in this episode, there was zero comedy, in fact the beginning is dark and moody, which was appropriate for the tragedy of the Air Nomads, but a very noticeable contrast to the original, that was full of comedy.
The later scenes were a little bit more lighthearted, and we got to see some of the distinctive Sokka attitude that I hope translates into funny moments in future episodes. But, being honest, this might be the weakest point of the series: the original was a perfect blend of humor and deep moments, this new, more serious approach is very common in reboots, and I just hope to see more lighthearted stuff now that the kids are together and they develop their friendship.
And that’s it for this episode, but I know you are expecting me to answer that big question: was it good or not? Well, being completely honest, I didn’t quite like it, the first scene left me with a negative attitude and I hate feeling that way, so I tried to be as open as possible for the rest episode. Let me be clear, it’s not bad at all, but it hasn’t won me over yet.
What did you think of this episode? Leave your comments below and join us next week for our take on episode 102, “Warriors.”
