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Discussion Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Netflix Series (Disappointment) Thread

rêverie

rêverie

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So, the Netflix adaptation of TLA is coming out in checks calendar four (4) days and no one's made a thread about it out! Are we all that scared of how it may turn out and are collectively holding our breath or are there just no TLA fans on Fami?

I'm... cautiously optimistic about the new series. The trailers have looked fairly promising and the cast feels pretty good. I'm just really, really worried about the writing. It could so easily turn into a cheeseball fest and I'd absolutely loathe that. I realize this is an adaptation of a kids show we're talking about, but I don't think that is any sort of excuse for bad writing.

Anywho, anyone else here excited? Or terrified? What do you think the MetaCritic will be? (If it gets above a 65, I will honestly be impressed lol.) Are you going to binge it? I will definitely be tuning in the day of release.

56 MetaCritic from 26 Critic Reviews.
 
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I will at the very least give the first episode a go. I know they've spent a lot of money on this, so hopefully it turns out well.
 
EvilChameleon said:
I will at the very least give the first episode a go. I know they've spent a lot of money on this, so hopefully it turns out well.
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i think i'll end up watching all of it even if it doesn't live up to the OG series. unless the writing is so cringey i just can't.

netflix sure does love pouring millions of dollars into their shows though. sadly, that doesn't always equal a good show from them haha.
 
rêverie said:
So, the Netflix adaptation of TLA is coming out in checks calendar four (4) days and no one's made a thread about it?! Are we all that scared of how it may turn out and are collectively holding our breath or are there just no TLA fans on Fami?
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Not scared, per se since I’ll always have the original. Merely skeptical. The last live-action Netflix adaptation I watched was Cowboy Bebop and well…

I’m encouraged that the show creators cast people of color as everyone (literally the lowest bar to clear) but specifically, that they cared enough to bring back James Sie, the original voice actor of the Cabbage Merchant, to play the live-action Cabbage Merchant. 🤌

So help me if they fuck up Toph, the unquestioned best character in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don’t know if they’ll get to her in the first season though.

rêverie said:
Anywho, anyone else here excited? Or terrified? What do you think the MetaCritic will be? (If it gets above a 65, I will honestly be impressed lol.) Are you going to binge it?
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I was planning to subscribe to Netflix next month to keep my list active so yeah, I’ll definitely binge it.
 
It doesn't look particularly good and I am kinda burned out on mediocre Netflix adaptations (One Piece being the rare exception for this). I also think Avatar as a property has a lot of baggage with regards to how it mixes and matches elements of different cultures, there is definitely an undercurrent of orientalism to it even if it is well meaning. Love the original show but it's very much a product of its time. The various comments made by the production staff don't help either.

Unless the reviews and buzz are incredibly glowing this is probably a skip for me.
 
Catsylvania said:
Not scared, per se since I’ll always have the original. Merely skeptical. The last live-action Netflix adaptation I watched was Cowboy Bebop and well…

I’m encouraged that the show creators cast people of color as everyone (literally the lowest bar to clear) but specifically, that they cared enough to bring back James Sie, the original voice actor of the Cabbage Merchant, to play the live-action Cabbage Merchant. 🤌

So help me if they fuck up Toph, the unquestioned best character in Avatar: The Last Airbender. I don’t know if they’ll get to her in the first season though.
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lol yeah... cowboy bebop is kinda what i was referring to in the post above yours. not the brightest track record of anime (or anime-adjacent) adaptations.

i also didn't know that about the cabbage merchant! that's cute.

toph definitely feels like a character that they could get sooo wrong.
 
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At first I was actually kinda hyped but reading all the weird comments from the creative team about wanting to make it more appealing to adults and a kind of condescending attitude towards the original for being an animated show makes me very sceptical. I hope it's good but I have a sinking feeling they'll try to needlessly turn this into Game of Thrones, mostly for worse.
 
This clip looked pretty good to me but I see a lot of people moaning about the general sluggishness of earthbending. I don't agree, I think it looks fine, suitable heavy.



Spoilered for newcomers, maybe.
 
oomoepoo said:
At first I was actually kinda hyped but reading all the weird comments from the creative team about wanting to make it more appealing to adults and a kind of condescending attitude towards the original for being an animated show makes me very sceptical. I hope it's good but I have a sinking feeling they'll try to needlessly turn this into Game of Thrones, mostly for worse.
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i actually haven’t seen this. was it in some interview? bc in the video i posted they seemed fairly reverent of it. also you could tell they still kept some of the lighthearted humor.
Robin64 said:
This clip looked pretty good to me but I see a lot of people moaning about the general sluggishness of earthbending. I don't agree, I think it looks fine, suitable heavy.



Spoilered for newcomers, maybe.
Click to expand...

yeah i agree, the bending in all of the trailers looks suitably flashy and exciting to me.
 
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oomoepoo said:
At first I was actually kinda hyped but reading all the weird comments from the creative team about wanting to make it more appealing to adults and a kind of condescending attitude towards the original for being an animated show makes me very sceptical. I hope it's good but I have a sinking feeling they'll try to needlessly turn this into Game of Thrones, mostly for worse.
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Yeah, this. The trailer seemed hype and then their hubristic attitude towards the original show in interviews kinda soured me on it. I'll check it out but I'm skeptical they truly understand what made the original so great.
 
Lugia667 said:
variety.com

Netflix’s Live-Action ‘Avatar’ Series ‘Took Out How Sexist’ Sokka Was in the Original: ‘A Lot of Moments’ in the Animated Show ‘Were Iffy’

The cast of Netflix's live-action "Avatar: The Last Airbender" adaptation say Sokka will not be as sexist in the series.
variety.com variety.com

the problem is that it was part of his character development. He was clearly portrayed in the wrong and learned from it. Comments like these just make it feel like they missed the entire point
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yeah, this would definitely affect sokka. i don’t think the original series handled it in the best way - it was a fairly childish representation of sexism at times ( i.e. “girls cook! men hunt!”) but it was great to see his growth and him understanding he was wrong thru way of suki really made their relationship even better.

i hope they didn’t just turn him into a joke machine.
 
oomoepoo said:
This isn't a high bar to clear, to be fair 👀
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Tron1 said:
I was going to add that. I agree, it isn't.
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i was looking at some first impression tweets from people (influencers? critics? couldn’t tell) who were invited to watch the first EP early, and there were several tweets saying it was indeed better than the “last live-action installment of this series.”

which, as you said, is not a high bar to clear lmao. but, at least there is that! now let’s just hope it far surpasses the movie.
 
I'm not gonna watch this unless at least 3 friends who are big Avatar fans tell me it's a masterpiece. Two won't do it. Has to be 3. If they all say it's just OK, I'll pass.
 
Dizzle said:
I'm not gonna watch this unless at least 3 friends who are big Avatar fans tell me it's a masterpiece. Two won't do it. Has to be 3. If they all say it's just OK, I'll pass.
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This is real talk a good filter, in general lol
 
Dizzle said:
I'm not gonna watch this unless at least 3 friends who are big Avatar fans tell me it's a masterpiece. Two won't do it. Has to be 3. If they all say it's just OK, I'll pass.
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sometimes listening to massive fans of original works isn’t always the best way to gauge exactly how technically “good” something new is tbh! nostalgia can easily get in the way.

i’ll definitely be comparing it to the original, but i will also give it some leeway on changes as long as they are good changes that elevate the story.
 
rêverie said:
sometimes listening to massive fans of original works isn’t always the best way to gauge exactly how technically “good” something new is tbh! nostalgia can easily get in the way.

i’ll definitely be comparing it to the original, but i will also give it some leeway on changes as long as they are good changes that elevate the story.
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I guess if a couple non-Avatar fans tell me it's amazing I'll have to reconsider. I'm just not really expecting that to happen.

I think the best case scenario is "competent but literal translation of the source material" and the worst case scenario is "wooden literal translation of the source material." I just don't see any scenario where they do something creative with it and it feels like a true expansion of the world into the very different medium of live action TV. With fan culture as it is, and the way studios interact with it, they'll be too scared to make any change outside of "modernizing" it.

This is very cynical, but meh.
 
Dizzle said:
I guess if a couple non-Avatar fans tell me it's amazing I'll have to reconsider. I'm just not really expecting that to happen.

I think the best case scenario is "competent but literal translation of the source material" and the worst case scenario is "wooden literal translation of the source material." I just don't see any scenario where they do something creative with it and it feels like a true expansion of the world into the very different medium of live action TV. With fan culture as it is, and the way studios interact with it, they'll be too scared to make any change outside of "modernizing" it.

This is very cynical, but meh.
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naw i actually completely agree. though i think worst case scenario is they marvelify it and turn it into a complete cheesy shlock.

though we will see in very little time!
 
Watched the first two eps now here in Aus... it's certainly not awful, but the changes basically don't improve on anything and make it a ton more generic and black and white (mainly for Aang to be heroic and have a destiny and wanting to be a hero rather than running away from his responsibility, the Sokka stuff isn't a big deal but he's less funny, bit one note in this) - but yeah... its fine? the animated series feels a lot more "real", with deeper characters etc... - i would say it stakes out the middle ground between Shyamalan and the original and basically gives a Hollywood cliffnotes version so far.
 
Watched the first episode... it's uh... something.

It's not terrible but it feels very disjointed between the "A NETFLIX ORIGINAL" and "Based on the beloved Nickelodeon animated series" parts. Because whenever they try to expand on it, it's kinda awkward and misses the point.

At least the german dub voices are the same as in the show :') (where possible, rip Iroh's va)
 
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aus89 said:
Watched the first two eps now here in Aus... it's certainly not awful, but the changes basically don't improve on anything and make it a ton more generic and black and white (mainly for Aang to be heroic and have a destiny and wanting to be a hero rather than running away from his responsibility, the Sokka stuff isn't a big deal but he's less funny, bit one note in this) - but yeah... its fine? the animated series feels a lot more "real", with deeper characters etc... - i would say it stakes out the middle ground between Shyamalan and the original and basically gives a Hollywood cliffnotes version so far.
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i'm not too surprised. this is kind of what i was expecting.

55 MetaCritic from 18 Critic Reviews.
7.2/10 MetaCritic from 49 User Ratings.

at least the user reviews seem fairly positive so far, which is more surprising tbh. i was expecting it to get a yellow rating, but was hoping for 65+ as that would signify, at least to me, that it did actually succeed in some areas. a 55 basically sums up what you're saying - it's... middling.

i have yet to watch. will be doing so with my bf later today. at least it didn't get a checks shyamalan movie 20!
 
The headlines of the reviews confirm what I feared. "Beautifully Crafted Disappointment," "lacks the original's magic," "another misfire" and "major letdown." Like I said, I'll talk to some real people rather than just read reviews. But I only watch like 4 tv shows a year, so I doubt this will be one.
 
If the series is just kinda average, that's disappointing. Idk, if that's really the best they can do after the M. Night movie then what was the point? The original is there and good, and if all your remake does is sand things down to a average, then why?

At least One Piece LA had reasons for existing and is distinct from the original anime and manga just by nature of its truncated length (and by the fact it does try to push how absurd it can be.) and Yu Yu Hakusho is over the top in its own way despite being a pacing nightmare.
 
Mer.Saloon said:
If the series is just kinda average, that's disappointing. Idk, if that's really the best they can do after the M. Night movie then what was the point? The original is there and good, and if all your remake does is sand things down to a average, then why?

At least One Piece LA had reasons for existing and is distinct from the original anime and manga just by nature of its truncated length (and by the fact it does try to push how absurd it can be.) and Yu Yu Hakusho is over the top in its own way despite being a pacing nightmare.
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Ultimately all of these adaptations are a race to the bottom to capitalize on nostalgia and recognizability and reduce risk. So under the circumstances and the desire to create a show as safe and marketable as possible, you often get results like this.

One Piece benefitted from two things: 1) Oda's involvement, and 2) the anime was already a somewhat controversial adaptation due to all the filler, so an adaptation that trimmed the fat and rearranged things had a lot of appeal. It will be hard for other adaptations to capture that lightning in a bottle.
 
Robin64 said:
Let's goooooo!!

Also another clip:

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So not being funny or anything, but watching this clip and the scene framing/blocking just seems completely... Amateur?

It's a bunch of kids clearly standing in front of a CG background, there's nothing in the scene fore or midground to help sell the idea this is an actual place, and each shit is just a shot of the kids from the waist up talking. It looks like the Star Wars prequels.

I never got super far into the original series, but one of the things I remember being so good about it was the team using the animation format and medium to really sell the idea these characters were inhabiting a fantastical world full of details. You'd have scenes in the world framed in interesting ways, and animated to a really high quality, all to sell you on the illusion that this cartoon world was real.

What I'm seeing here is just... The complete opposite of that.
 
Mekanos said:
Ultimately all of these adaptations are a race to the bottom to capitalize on nostalgia and recognizability and reduce risk. So under the circumstances and the desire to create a show as safe and marketable as possible, you often get results like this.

One Piece benefitted from two things: 1) Oda's involvement, and 2) the anime was already a somewhat controversial adaptation due to all the filler, so an adaptation that trimmed the fat and rearranged things had a lot of appeal. It will be hard for other adaptations to capture that lightning in a bottle.
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One Piece also benefits from having a reason to exist. Many people aren't going to watch over 1000 episodes of a cartoon or read 20,000 pages of comic books, but they will watch a few seasons of a Netflix show. One Piece exists for the fans, but also to give a way in for folks who are interested but intimidated by how much material there is.

But you can just watch the Avatar the Last Airbender cartoon. It's not long. It isn't going anywhere. If this adaptation isn't going to do something different, then it doesn't really have a reason to exist.
 
It doesn't help that Avatar is nowhere near as absurd as other properties adapted into Live Action. You know, at least with Yu Yu Hakusho and One Piece part of the appeal is seeing how they tackle some of the weirder concepts in Live Action, whether they tone them down or add extra grime, or maybe push as hard as they can.

But Avatar is honestly not that disimilar from say... Lord of the Rings. High fantasy with clearly fantastical elements, but there's a strong distinction from the fantastical and just average humans living their lives. So the main setting is really not that disimilar from our reality. Outside the Spirit World which is its own sectioned off area.

If we're just going from a story POV, then Korra probably deserved a LA remake just to sand over some of the pacing problems of the original series. But the original Avatar is fine. Some pacing issues on some episodes, but nothing egregious.

Just no reason for this series to exist. Maybe it can grab a new audience, but if those people jump to the original show, I can't see why they wouldn't be satisfied with that, and any potential second season just kinda faltering from a lack of interest.

I feel this series ongoing problem will be finding ways to justify its own existence.
 
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unfortunately, i think they probably missed their chance to really prove why this remake is necessary. season 1 is absolutely the weakest of the 3 and had some areas that could’ve easily been improved on. season 1 of the original only really started being “great” in the final few episodes.

season 2 and 3 of the original series are actually quite great and basically need nothing to make them better. granted, that could mean that the LA series becomes better next season, but really only bc the original source did too.

unfortunate! i hope this doesn’t prevent them from trying to make something unique in the world LA, though.
 
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I watched a few episodes and I don‘t think it is that bad. The pacing is different, but I don‘t dislike it. The changes to the story seem reasonable, I like the darker tone and the cast fit the characters really well.

The only real issue I have is that some VFX shots are either not ready or just not really pretty to look at. I normally can look past such things, but in this show it is glaring that they had little budget and/or time for Effects. There is a reason why Appa has so little screen time from what I‘ve seen.

I see that it spends too little time on the main team, each of them seem to do their own stuff much more often. As of episode 5 Katara, Sokka and Aang still feel like strangers that happen to travel together. Though I think that is something that could get better in later seasons (if it dosen‘t get canceled :p).

There is a lot of exposition happening and the show seem to be written with the intention to make any character motivation as clear as possible, though so far it dosen’t really affect my enjoyment.
 
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ok, i watched the first two episodes last night.

episode 1 was actually pretty bad. i can't believe how many storylines they attempted to cram in there. the opening with the earth bender stealing the plans felt kind of unnecessary and a waste of time, which is compounded later in the episode.

i don't mind that they showed the southern air temple genocide; it proves how horrible the fire nation can be and sets a darker tone for sure. it also was fairly well done i'd say, though i think the change of having aang just "think about this up in the sky" over actually running away from home gives his character less of a flaw and less development. (which kind of feels like a running theme...)

but then take these two things together and they add up to precious time they could've spent actually making episode 1 not feel like you're watching the first three of the original series at 4x speed. i realize the original episodes were only 20-ish minutes each and this one was about an hour, but those smaller episodes were more able to actually develop the characters and let scenes breath and have space. also, i think gran gran had maybe the worst line delivery of anyone and she said some of the most important stuff that episode. sorry gran gran.

episode 2 was markedly better. which, funny enough, is a single episode in the original series they took and expanded upon instead of condensing. crazy how it ended up being better?! not only do the characters and scenes get some more time to breath, but they focused much more on sokka who i think is actually the best actor of the bunch so far. they definitely made his romance with suki (who i feel also did pretty good and looked great costume/makeup-wise!) feel much more of a basic love story rather than the much more interesting angle of sokka slowly overcoming his sexism, which is unfortunate to cut. zhao is unfortunately very boring. the team actually had some cute scenes that gave me little sparks of hope. him meeting kyoshi felt way too soon and really unnecessary. meh. it was better though.

overall, i think this series actually seems like it has/had a chance, but they kinda squandered it with some cheesy writing, bad story blocking in areas, aggressive pacing, and some actors who aren't quite up to snuff. if they wanted to go darker, then go darker. we don't need everyone to have painstakingly simple character development and basic screenplays to offset the darker tone when we do have some pretty cute and lighthearted scenes between the main team; something they actually seemed to have gotten right for the most part.

i think the critic rating is fair so far. episode one was like a 4/10 for me, and episode two was an upper 5 to a 6/10. disappointing overall as like, why even remake it if you're not going to reach for the stars, but alas...

edit: damn really decided to write up the longest winded post in this thread. oops...😳
 
Mekanos said:
deadline.com

As ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Debuts To Strong Audience On Netflix, Creative Team Looks Ahead To Expanding Live-Action Adaptation

Avatar executive producer Jabbar Raisani spoke with Deadline about where he'd like to see the series go from here
deadline.com deadline.com

Curious if it'll get renewed.
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was one piece renewed? debuting above that seems promising for the series.

critically, i’m sure they can do better in season 2 just based off s2 being better in general. and hopefully since they’ll all be returning, they can work out the kinks and make a better show out of it.
 
rêverie said:
was one piece renewed? debuting above that seems promising for the series.

critically, i’m sure they can do better in season 2 just based off s2 being better in general. and hopefully since they’ll all be returning, they can work out the kinks and make a better show out of it.
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Yes, One Piece was renewed within 2 weeks, which is quite remarkable given the strikes going on at the time.
 
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I finished watching the series - it was... fine. A sorta toned down more "mature" (ie: generic) take on the story where everyone has very clear motivation for their actions that is spelt out to the point people just outright say "I'm afraid of..." like they're in screenwriting class - but all that said, despite it not really adding anything or doing anything better than the original, I wasn't like... outright disgusted by it, it was fine.
 
Mekanos said:
deadline.com

As ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Debuts To Strong Audience On Netflix, Creative Team Looks Ahead To Expanding Live-Action Adaptation

Avatar executive producer Jabbar Raisani spoke with Deadline about where he'd like to see the series go from here
deadline.com deadline.com

Curious if it'll get renewed.
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I think it will. Nick is backing the series and hey if it got the numbers, I'm sure Netflix doesn't care what critics say.

Granted, it probably has to hold retention for it to be impressive. Or whatever, Netflix's metrics for success are always confusing.
 
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aus89 said:
I finished watching the series - it was... fine. A sorta toned down more "mature" (ie: generic) take on the story where everyone has very clear motivation for their actions that is spelt out to the point people just outright say "I'm afraid of..." like they're in screenwriting class - but all that said, despite it not really adding anything or doing anything better than the original, I wasn't like... outright disgusted by it, it was fine.
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As a therapist I was very proud of their ability to speak openly about their feelings haha. As a viewer I was quite bored.
 
Robin64 said:
This clip looked pretty good to me but I see a lot of people moaning about the general sluggishness of earthbending. I don't agree, I think it looks fine, suitable heavy.



Spoilered for newcomers, maybe.
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In this clip, earthbending is at the very least, 64x faster than in the M. Night one.
 
I’m okay with it so far. I had low expectations. No issue from me.
 
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I wasn't a fan of the live action for a lot of reasons but I don't feel it's worth complaining about. I hope people who want to enjoy it have a good time.

If you're disappointed, I recommend what I'm doing right now... Rewatching the original animated series! It's still phenomenal and I feel much better seeing certain things portrayed in the ways I prefer.
 
Well overall that was fine. About as good can be expected I suppose. Some choices weren't great adding bloat and overexplaining which lead to needing to rush some sections despite already cutting a lot of story. 6.5/10. Good sets and outfits with some good cgi and some mediocre. You can see why some decisions were made for basic budget and man hour reasons though. Some of the actors/lines were a lot better than others (casting based on appearance is pretty much perfect, I'm amazed they even found actors that match as well as they do- pretty much across the board), but almost everyone is at least a little less compelling overall.

The "its just as bad as the film" people were click baiting.

Its a cartoon that ended up less mature in an attempt to be more mature for live action. It happens.

Good that season 2/3 are greenlit, it would be a lot of work and set up just to throw it away. Even if 3 got cancelled I would be happy enough we just 2. Hopefully some actors/lines get cleaned up, character beats are hit stronger and that Toph and Azula (in the main plot) end up as compelling as they need to be. (not really sure how Toph is going to contrast against Katara with the personality shift though).
 
I'm not even bothering to view it. The original series is really all I need, as it stole my heart years ago when I first saw it on Netflix in 2021.
 
Jon Turner said:
I'm not even bothering to view it. The original series is really all I need, as it stole my heart years ago when I first saw it on Netflix in 2021.
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This is pretty much how I feel, though I watched it when it was airing on nick originally. I did rewatch it a couple years ago and it has held up beautifully. I'll probably rewatch the original again before too long.
 
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Mekanos said:
deadline.com

As ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Debuts To Strong Audience On Netflix, Creative Team Looks Ahead To Expanding Live-Action Adaptation

Avatar executive producer Jabbar Raisani spoke with Deadline about where he'd like to see the series go from here
deadline.com deadline.com

Curious if it'll get renewed.
Click to expand...
Got renewed for two more seasons, which I presume are Books two and three: Earth and Fire.

Watched the show and thought it was pretty good. Not fantastical, but good.

But that Mai though, horrendous. And I wanna give Azula a chance to see how they develop her madness
 
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