Simply put, Netflix’s take on Avatar: The Last Airbender is bad. At best, the show serves as a constant reminder of how amazing the original Nickelodeon cartoon was. At worst, it makes M. Night Shyamalan‘s 2010 The Last Airbender film feel like a mercy because at least that poor effort was only 2 hours long. Granted, there are some saving graces. Most of the cast is good, with relative newcomer Dallas Liu (PEN15) as Fire Prince Zuko, veteran character actor Ken Leung (Industry) as Commander Zhao, and the great Daniel Dae Kim (Lost) as Fire Lord Ozai being the prime standouts (yes, the show is very pro-Fire Nation, at least in making that the best part of this first season). Additionally, the bending visual effects look fantastic. But none of these pros are enough to bring balance to this world.
From the opening minutes, it becomes clear that this live-action remake aims to be both a dark and violent fantasy epic for the post-Game of Thrones crowd, while also trying to capture the silly and cartoony fun of the source material. However, this balancing act of sorts never fully clicks in the 8-episode season.
Lol surprising no one the show is ass
Rotten tomato score
Genuinely enjoyed the first seasons of both. Good acting, good directing, good set design, good pacing, good intrigue… and the fucking costumes in GoT. Every season they got better.
But so much of what was good in these series was the investment of a ton of time and effort and genuine love of the source material. Once that fell away in the later seasons, the shows just collapsed in on themselves until they were nothing but self-referenced tropes. Season 8 of GoT sucked because it was so obviously and disastrously rushed. It was clear the showrunners didn’t want to do this job anymore, and it gutted the end product.