A massive fan of the original show, so of course I was excited, but hesitant to watch this show. I watched this show with my girlfriend cause we both love the show and both loved the trailer, however upon finishing this show, all I could say was it was quite an expectedly underwhelming experience.

The major thing that this show got right was definitely the casting of it. Gordon Cormier is absolute perfection as Aang and captures his childlike wonder, but you can also see him burdening himself over bring the Last Airbender and his responsibilities as the Avatar. Ian Ousley is the perfect live action Sokka, the man has the rizz, the voice and the attitude. Kiawentiio is a good Katara, however with the dialogue she was given, she wasn't able to act exactly like Katara in the original series. Dallas Liu was the biggest standout here, he has the voice of Zuko, the sass, the martial arts was all fire (literally)

There are more actors/actresses I want to bring up, but this review is long enough already. Besides the casting, the thing that stood out from the show was the visuals. Avatar is known for its rich lore and insane world-building, in the animated series alone, it was already very beautiful, distinct, and interesting, so of course it was a task - a challenge - to adapt each place. Upon watching the series though, I will admit at how impressed I was with how they adapted these locations. I was definitely most impressed with the Northern Water Tribe as it showed the scale of it, making it seem more like a city than a tribe. The bending effects were flawless, especially firebending. Nothing else much to say. The creature designs were also insane to see, because of how intricate, specific and down right horrifying the creatures look like. The thing that also stood out to me was how serious and how much more fleshed out some aspects of the show were, specifically in terms of the Air Nomads. It definitely added more context to everything that the original series couldn't adapt because of the limitations being it's a kids show and the episodes aren't that long for it to be that fleshed out. 

However, this is where I go into my negatives with this series. The acting was often bland and lifeless, to the point where it completely takes away from the characters personality. As much as the effects are amazing, it tend to be distracting at points, especially with the obvious green screen in most scenes. Now, this is the biggest complaint I have with the show. Obviously, adaptations are different from the original show, however it is so hard to compare this to the perfect animated series it was based on. It was distracting to have some plot points mesh with other storylines that don't even make sense at the end of the day. It all felt forced and, I hate to say it, full of fan-service moments that, if you're a fan of the original, will be fun to see, but if you're like me who is a fan of the original, but also hate force plotpoints then...this will suck.


I have hopes for a season 2 and a season 3, however with what this show has to offer...I'll just have to wait and see.

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