5.2/10 This show oozes of writers who didn't pass fifth grade thinking they can do a better job of writing a mAtUrEr version of the original show, and ending up with a product that is even less nuanced than a cartoon. When I saw that they were going to cram 20 episodes of Book 1 into 8 hours, I hoped that they would adapt 16 episodes worth of content, given that Book 1 had about 10 hours. But that wasn't the case. They created original content, for better and for worse, and incorporated elements from Book 2 that didn't fit at all, and ignored a lot of what made Book 1 good. If there's anything positive this show did, is that it made me love Book 1 even more. There are things I liked about this show. First of all, they really nailed the effects, the bending styles, the cinematography and the sets, and the vibe of the show is just absolutely incredible. They really did justice to the visuals of the show, that during the first 2 episodes (before they started derailing) I thought to myself that even if this show lacked substance, I would be fine with it if it was a Zack Snyder's Watchmen situation, where the story is pretty faithful but didn't hit right, but still managed to be a visual spectacle. Unfortunately, this show did far worse than that. The actors are pretty much perfect on the looks part, and I really liked Dallas James Liu and Daniel Dae Kim's performances, they really stood out to me. The others are decent, Gordon Cormier takes a little getting used to, but Katara's actress is very lifeless to me, and I don't know whether to blame it on the actress or on the writing. But above all that, I loved what they did with Zuko and Iroh in the show, Episode 6 being my favorite episode, granted that it's still not as good as the original, but it managed to strike my emotional cords, especially given my attachment to their original characters, made me more emotional than they probably intended. The negatives...where do I even begin? You know what, screw it, I'm not gonna waste my time listing down the infinite amount of things I hated in this show. Just go on youtube and type in "netflix avatar bad" and most of those videos will pretty much sum up my thoughts on the show. But hey, at least Cabbage Guy is here, and at least they're pronouncing the names right, at least people with chinese names are actually chinese and not indians. Everything in this show is a dumbed down Gen-Z catering version of the original. How do you mess up adapting a cartoon? How do you manage to be exactly what the cartoon mocked in that one episode where they went to watch the play about them? How do you manage to write a more unrealistic script than a cartoon? Where is Aang's joy and playfulness? Where is Sokka's confidence and sexism? Where is Katara's jealousy and maternal instincts? Where are Momo's misadventures? Why is Bumi so revenge driven? Why is Azula even here? Why are the old Avatars so immature and quick to throw tantrums? Why is it called Book One: Water and Aang didn't water bend AT ALL? Hell, even M Night Shyamalan managed to include that. Overall, if you've seen the original, this is not for you. If you haven't seen the original, just go watch it. It's not a different medium like books or anything, its just another tv show, so it shouldn't be any trouble to watch. And if you wanna see a live action representation, just watch the fights on YouTube.