Well, at least they kept the cabbages.
Few children’s shows remain as universally beloved and critically acclaimed as Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. Between a spinoff series, an expansive comic run, and an infamous live-action film, Nickelodeon’s acclaimed animated adventure has no shortage of adaptations, though some have certainly been more well-received than others.
Nineteen years after the original series premiered, Netflix is throwing its hat in the ring with its own take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, an 8-episode live-action limited series that brings Aang, Katara, and Sokka to the small screen once again. But while Avatar: The Last Airbender may get the broad strokes right, the eight-episode format forces the series to hack and chop storylines, character arcs, and setpieces—delivering a serviceable but ultimately lackluster live-action reimagining that functions as little more than a watered-down retelling of a modern classic.
Avatar: The Last Airbender chronicles an ancient civilization comprised of four kingdoms: Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, all of which house talented “benders” who can manipulate their respective elements in combat. When the Fire Nation launches a full-scale war on the other kingdoms and razes the Air Nomads to the ground, sole survivor Aang (newcomer Gordon Cormier) must harness his unique power as the Avatar, master of bending all four elements, to put an end to their century-long reign of terror.
Without question, the most stark and perpetually noticeable difference between Cartoon Network’s original Avatar series and Netflix’s new live-action reimagining is structure. While the cartoon delivered twenty 20-minute episodes per season, the new series instead opts to follow a more traditional “prestige limited series” format and reshape the first season into eight hour-long episodes.
Netflix might understandably want to structure their Avatar series like a limited series—in the streaming age, the idea of a 20-episode season for a live-action series is virtually unthinkable. But while reshaping the show’s format may allow Avatar to fit in more seamlessly among Netflix’s other content, it’s a choice that comes at the expense of pacing, narrative accuracy, and (perhaps most crucially) character growth.
Is Avatar: The Last Airbender accurate to the original series? Sure, all the broad strokes are there—water tribe siblings Katara (Kiawentiio Tarbell) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) still find Aang in the ice in the series premiere, and season one still ends with Aang channeling the Ocean Spirit in a climactic battle against the Fire Nations at the Northern Water Tribe. But while all of the major plot points are accounted for, the smaller story arcs and details get lost in the mix. The series habitually pulls plotlines and characters from as many as five separate episodes at a time, creating hour-long mishmashes that feel more like “Avatar Greatest Hits” reels rather than episodes aimed at propelling story and character.
Where the animated series would devote entire episodes to exploring a single thread, The Last Airbender wants to have its cake and eat it too—cramming as many recognizable plot hooks from the original as possible, but not devoting the proper time to exploring the depths and nuances of what were previously concepts that got an entire episode of their own. On the one hand, it allows Avatar to remain mostly accurate to the original (though there are some bizarre minor changes, like Sokka’s romantic exploits, or the story behind Zuko’s Agni Kai) series, but in its haste to include all the greatest hits from book one, the Netflix series woefully neglects the cartoon’s greatest strength: its characters.
With a 20-episode season, Avatar: The Last Airbender had the breathing room and the freedom of pacing to craft masterful, nuanced character arcs that transformed enemies into allies and revealed hidden depths, often through seemingly inconsequential plotlines. Episodes like “The Storm”, “The Southern Air Temple”, and “ Jet” allowed the series to dedicate entire episodes to scrutinizing a single character or theme with great focus. This resulted in emotionally potent episodes that didn’t necessarily propel the story forward but expanded our understanding of beloved characters.
By cramming a 20-episode season into eight episodes, Avatar forces the narrative (and the audience) to move at a breakneck pace, never allowing time for the story to slow down and explore individual character motivations or relationships. As such, the burden of character depth falls almost entirely on the shoulders of Avatar’s young cast—an unenviable task, especially for a group of relative newcomers. Some are far better than others— the Fire Nation characters across the board tend to deliver the strongest performances (Ken Leung’s Admiral Zhao is a particular highlight). But the core trio of Aang, Katara, and Sokka simply don’t put forth strong enough performances to supplement the already thin writing.
Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is by no means unwatchable or disgraceful—the visual effects are impressive (if poorly composited), the scale is appropriately epic, and when it finally finds its rhythm with the finale two-parter, the series is undeniably entertaining. But in that same breath, it’s hard to sincerely praise a series whose greatest strengths are recycled from a better, more fully realized version of the same show. Though fans looking to take a walk down memory lane may enjoy the novelty of seeing Team Avatar in live-action (again), Avatar: The Last Airbender is an underbaked, underwhelming adaptation of an animated juggernaut.
All episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender are currently streaming on Netflix.