Netflix’s Avatar The Last Airbender Review

The Netflix adaptation loses their way, but eventually Finds its spirit

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Warning: This article may contain discussions containing spoilers from the Netflix series as well as the 2005 animated show. Consider when and where it would be appropriate to read this piece. 

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A Fiery Rough Start

“Episodes one and two were like meeting a dear friend again years later who wore the same outfit they did in the past, but the soul of who they were was now gone.”

No one needs to tell me just how huge Avatar The Last Airbender is in the realm of American television shows. Avatar and The Legend of Korra were two of the last shows of my young adult life that I never missed an episode of when it first aired on cable television. My butt was on the couch the minute the clock hit the top of the hour, every single new episode. Those days are long gone in the age of streaming.

The world needs more Avatar, but does it really need live-action Avatar again after the debacle from 2010? Netflix has answered the call and while the production got off to a rough start with the departure of the animated show’s original creators early on, we finally have a finished product. Like the production woes, Netflix’s Avatar starts off by losing their way, but fortunately finds their spirit before the end of the season.  

The costumes and set design were absolutely top notch production value

Honestly, the first two episodes were extremely difficult to get through as not only an Avatar fan, but as a film critic. Sorting through the omissions and story beat changes are a natural element for any adaptation that I surmise everyone associated with the show anticipated. Adaptations require sacrifices in the name of run time. We’ll discuss a few of these sacrifices later, but my initial impressions after the first two episodes were quite depressing.

Episodes one and two were like meeting a dear friend again years later who wore the same outfit they did in the past, but the soul of who they were was now gone. Fortunately, once the new live-action Team Avatar gets to Omashu in Episode 3, it does feel like I’m watching Avatar the cartoon again. It’s as if a switch flipped and Producer Albert Kim and the production team suddenly remembered the lessons Avatar the Last Airbender actually depicts and pivots with their adaptation to honor it more faithfully.

I’ll get very in-depth about the story Netflix presents to us in 2024 and there are plenty of good and bad that deserves analyzing. What is universally true though, is that Netflix nailed the casting of all the characters in terms of their appearances and costume design. The bending, the special visual effects, and for the most part the spiritual beings were pinpoint accurate to the source material. Like Netflix’s One Piece, the entire production and set design team deserves tremendous praise. It’s not easy to bring this complicated world to live-action and they’ve done it visually.

Struggle To Find The Spirit

While many of the actors look the part, some don’t quite harness the core essences of the characters. I can easily pinpoint the reason for this within a few episodes of the new series.

For years now, adaptations in mainstream media have struggled to find success and often blame every circumstance but the actual one that is causing a rift with the viewers. Producers are baffled at why audiences don’t resonate with a show or movie even though they provided big budgets and special effects.

The true reason is quite simple.

Run time is a pivotal key for development of any visual media. You have a certain amount of time to tell a story. I understand why studios feel the need to occupy every minute with essential beats that will keep the audience on the edge of their seats. That usually means big explosions and prioritizing violence. But here’s where they fail to understand the true value of good source materials. Sure the action scenes keep people’s attention, but it’s the down time moments that people memorialize. These are times that connections with characters are made with the viewers that they’ll remember years later on a random nostalgic night. 

Every Avatar fan can recall the image of the lovable Uncle Iroh crying under a tree. In the source material, a simple visit to a makeshift grave where his son fell is enough of a backstory for us to understand Iroh’s motivation. A sad old man singing a song might not be as action packed of a scene as a slap from an angry wronged Earthbender, but that’s what makes Avatar so special. The small quiet moments that show characters coping with the realities of their life is what garnered so much love for the series from fans in the first place.    

In Episode 4 of the Netflix show, the interaction between Iroh and the Earthbender captain during the prisoner transport doesn’t convey anywhere near the true meaning of Iroh’s deep sorrows. Netflix pushes drama through violence and conflict for viewers to sympathize their emotions towards the characters. That’s not effective nor is that what the spirit of Avatar stands for. It never was. 

There are 20 episodes that run about 24 mins each in Book One of the cartoon that equate to about 480 minutes of run time. The Netflix show has 8 episodes that run for roughly 60 minutes each. The total run time is basically in the same ballpark. The total time Netflix has with the audience isn’t the issue here. It’s the decision of what to allocate time towards that is a mixed bag. Writing for an episodic children’s television format is extremely different than writing for a 60 minute drama. However, I truly believe that there could have been better ways to implement certain low-key stories into this show that the cartoon masterfully incorporated.

Exploring Connections

Every fan knows it is an impossible task to adapt a beloved classic. Many of the changes done are to condense plot points and still attempt to convey a certain feeling from the source material. As the show progressed, I found myself actually enjoying it. I began to feel glimpses of the emotions I had for the original cartoon. The Netflix show isn’t bad in its own right. It’s enjoyable and you can understand the emotions it wants you to feel. It just struggles because it came out second to a superior manipulator of your feelings. 

Think to yourself, were you getting emotional when Uncle Iroh joins Zuko in his flashback and tells him he’s there as a friend because it’s a genuinely well written emotional scene? Or are you starting to tear up because you recall the pain from the cartoon’s “The Tales of Ba Sing Se” when “Leaves From The Vine” begins subtly playing in the background? That song holds no value in the Netflix show as the context was never introduced to viewers. Standalone viewers to this series will not relate or understand the deep sadness that looms from this tune.

A touching scene between Zuko and Iroh

Yet that’s the essence of the Netflix show. It wants to stand on its own, but uses cues from the source material without incorporating the soul from it into their new work. They’re invoking your previous knowledge of this world instead of putting in the proper story development to reinvigorate why you initially felt those feelings watching the cartoon all those years ago. Part of me feels like they should have made a fully original score as it’s unfair to Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Iroh and Dallas James Liu’s Zuko because they performed a magnificently acted scene here. They’re talented actors that gave the Netflix adaptation their best character relationship.

Fortunately, bright spots like that scene do show that the production actually understands where the core competencies of Avatar lie. There just isn’t enough of it to sustain throughout the first season. 

Sure, the Netflix team throws in meme scenes like the Cabbage Man to keep the iconic gags alive, but the actual core humor from the characters have largely been stripped. 

For example, the Netflix Sokka is a perpetually negative person who only sees the downside to everything. While actor Ian Ousley’s tone of voice is a terrific portrayal of the character, I can’t help but feel like his wittiness and dry humor was deconstructed. Sokka’s character flaws that help define his growth during their journey in season one were also curiously removed. If they kept in Master Pakku’s outdated sexiest ideology flaws for his growth arc in Episodes 9 and 10, I don’t understand why they felt removing Sokka’s similar realization with the Kyoshi Warriors would be better for his character. He’s a much flatter character in this live-action show than he was even in Book One of the cartoon. 

Changes are fine for adaptations if it improves on the development of the characters and story, but the alterations or omissions of characters in the Netflix show demonstrates a lack of understanding of the source material and why the story was told in that specific manner. 

In Episode 2, the Avatar Kyoshi scene was just disgraceful to that character. While Kyoshi has always been known as a stern warrior who values individual strength, she was never ruthless in her counseling to Aang in any material she was ever in. The aggressive nature in which she lectured Netflix Aang was significantly out of character for someone who unified the world for two centuries and acted as a bureaucratic mediator. Kyoshi is a character who on paper can be described as fierce, assertive, and ruthless, but her actions have a much deeper meaning to that reality. It’s easy to misinterpret the true nature of her characteristics. Netflix simply made her look like a stuck up bully.

Avatar Kyoshi’s portrayal is head scratching to say the least

I also don’t understand why they made the change to have Aang transmute into a body of his previous life with all the masterings of his previous skillsets. This was a stark departure from the source material that I can only surmise was written to show a strong female character kicking major ass. I don’t see any benefits to the addition of this “power” and only see plot holes now implemented. Why would a new Avatar need to master any element at all when they can simply transmute into their fully developed former bodies with all the knowledge and strength already established. That scene was nonsensical and only added for political reasons because it has no proper benefits to the story whatsoever. 

Discovering Flow That Works

On the flip side of that, Avatar Roku and Firelord Ozai were spot on with honoring their characteristics from the cartoon. The absolute best character in the entire Netflix adaptation is Dallas James Liu’s Zuko. The production and Liu perfectly epitomized the troubled character of Crown Prince Zuko. From his facial expressions to his mannerism, I have never seen a live-action adaptation of a character be this accurately performed. His fight with Kiawentioo Tarbell’s Katara in Episode 8 was a masterful presentation that gave me chills. It does the cartoon justice!

Gordon Cormier’s Aang and Tarbell’s Katara have certain moments that capture their iconic characters perfectly as well. However, some of their dialogue lines were a bit rudimentary written. Occasionally the deliveries of their monologues come off awkward and stiff to watch.  

While we’re on the subject of Katara and Aang and Netflix’s conflicting understanding of the source material, if they wanted to remove the Katara and Aang romance angle, they should have stayed away from the Cave of Two Lovers. That episode in the cartoon was a huge growth episode for Aang as he learns about earthbending from the story of Oma and Shu and the badgermoles. That episode also was important for Zuko as he gets to see the effects of war on civilians that his people have caused. It has deep meaning as he still makes the wrong decision at the end of the episode, showing that growth and change is a long term process that doesn’t happen overnight. These are things the Netflix series omits and misunderstands their importance to their respective character’s long term development. To me it seems like Netflix wanted to show fans that they’re clever in incorporating an easter egg of sorts.

Zuko and Katara’s fight looks straight out of the cartoon

In fact, Netflix Aang has shown no willingness to even want to understand the other disciplines of bending throughout the entire season. By contrast, in Book One of the cartoon, he struggles coming to terms with the uncontrollable nature involved with firebending thus hurting someone he loves. Katara begins helping him with waterbending during their journey long before they reach the Northern Water Tribe. 

This is a prime example of storytellers choosing story beats of drama over story beats of connections between characters. Anime fans have often found what is called filler episodes and arcs to be a waste of time. But it’s often the down times that help fans learn the inner makings of heroes and their relationships with one another. We don’t get to see Aang and the Aang Gang create many of these memories on Netflix. Seeing Aang try to impress the local kids and especially Katara by riding the elephant koi during the Kyoshi episode of the cartoon perfectly illustrates that Aang is just a young boy who has the same tendencies all kids their age struggle through. We’re constantly told exposition by Netflix Aang reminding us that he’s just a kid and he’s been gone a long time instead of scenes showing us his immaturity. We don’t get that connection to Netflix Aang that we do with cartoon Aang.

Hope for the future

However, what gives me tremendous hope for the future of the Netflix series is thanks to the latter half of the season. Episode 5 “Spirited Away” might be the best episode in the entire season. The spirit world aspect of Avatar is pivotal to the balance that makes the Avatar franchise so special. This episode is a good example of combining source material and reallocating things in the overarching story that makes sense. The owl spirit Wan Shi Tong cameo does not feel out of place in the spirit world forest. Wan Shi Tong is a character that appears much later in Aang's cartoon adventure, but also one I didn’t mind seeing out of place on Netflix. 

“Spirited Away” might be the best episode of the season

The two-part “Winter Solstice” episodes were a good early plot line during the cartoon to adapt into Episode 5. Unlike the Cave of Two Lovers change, the writers for Episode 5 actually deviated but still kept the core theme of what made the “Winter Solstice” work for Aang early in his adventure. Combining those aspects of the “Winter Solstice” with another spooky forest episode in the later Book Two season episode “The Swamp”, was a brilliant decision. They naturally fit together and give all three main characters the proper development they needed while saving run time. Still, I would have loved to see Aang see a vision of Toph like in the cartoon instead of his moment with mentor Gyatso. I do find a lot of Gyatso and Aang’s interactions to be forced for emotional value. There just was not enough time dedicated for this relationship to mature prior to witnessing Aang’s loss.

I truly hope that we get a chance to see Book Two adapted to live-action. It’s beyond time we see the enigmatic Earthbender Toph shine. Like many fans, she is one of my favorite characters (Azula being #1). Once the Aang Gang expands to four, the show should be able to really take off. It might be blasphemy for me to say this, but I’ve always found it a bit hard to rewatch Book One. That’s why it wasn’t a surprise when I recognized Book Two plots implemented early and out of place in this first season already. 

As much as I think Avatar the cartoon is a masterpiece, I know it wasn’t perfect. Fellow Avatar geek and the Sypnotix’s gaming contributor Seri and I did a full podcast episode (NSFW language) about the legendary show a few years back for Incoherent Geek Shit. Even back then I felt certain characters were lacking the proper character development that the creative team eventually perfected with its sequel show Korra.

While Netflix does an overall solid job of identifying the characters as they should be, they also struggled to build their core identities together in this new world. There are lots of strong bonding moments and character growth to come for Team Avatar and it would be a shame if they didn’t get a chance to bring it to life. The second half of the season built a lot of trust for me that even though the Netflix production lost their way in the beginning of the journey, they’ve found their spirit and are only beginning to hit their stride heading into the Earth Kingdom arc.

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