Avatar The Last Airbender, The Live Action Series

The live action series of Avatar the Last Airbender is definitely not Brian and Michael’s work. Them leaving the team of the new production caused a stir in the fandom. ATLA was marred and mangled once and fans are afraid it would happen again. The fandom grew up charmed and adored by Team Avatar. The world that Brian and Michael, along with Aron, built all those years ago is legendary (close to myth, even) anyone who attempt to change it will suffer the harsh criticism of fans.

But. I love it.

I love the cast. I love episode 6 the best and through the splicing and the fusing of episodes from the OG series, the creators of this live action version took the work seriously. They respected the OG material by showing themes that resonated to me from the first time I saw what my then 10 year old boy was so amazed at — a flying bison, until our family’s realization that we were all robbed of Zutara.

I appreciate the approach and treatment the live action has on gender issues and for showing Aang’s fear and despair. War can drive people to insanity. Humans lose themselves and become monsters we only meet in our nightmares. We see them all here in this live action series. What the characters bring with them in this show is hope that’s fragile and tarnished. There lies its sincerity to do the franchise good.

I now hope and look forward to a second season. Netflix owes us an epic live rendition of the Blind Bandit.