After years of waiting, the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action is here. I finished the last episode a few minutes ago as I began writing this. I was optimistic but also cautious about this. Many of us Avatar fans have been burned before with a live-action adaptation. It also doesn’t help the original creators left the project years ago. I have left this first season feeling happy, but I have some major issues that won’t be fixed moving forward.
Avatar: The Last Airbender. (L to R) Gordon Cormier as Ang, Kiawentiio as Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Netflix © 2024
To start, this season needed at least 10 episodes or more, and longer runtimes. I felt the rushing of things occurring starting in episode 2. This isn’t to say the show constantly rushes, it’s just at times I felt it. We are condensing 20 episodes of the animated series into 8 episodes. It was bound to happen, and I feel it hurt this adaptation in spots. The fundamentals, the main core things are incorporated in one way or another here. Sadly, other characters/storylines are missing, or severely underused. Now this isn’t to say the show doesn’t work. The things we do focus on shine and brought me joy as I went through the eight episodes. I just miss certain things that could have made this better.
The cast is spectacular, even though some had to win me over as I was hesitant after the last live-action attempt. Gordon Cormier brought the seriousness, and some lighthearted moments needed for Aang. Cormier had the whole weight of the show on his shoulders, if he didn’t succeed as Aang, then Avatar: The Last Airbender wouldn’t work. I wish Aang had more fun moments, and more goofy scenes, but this adaptation focused more on the seriousness of the storylines being told. Another personal highlight is Dallas Liu as Zuko. With how broken, and hurt he is in the first season, Zuko had to be handled carefully. Liu thankfully brought some amazing moments from the original series to life, and some new things as well. The cast brought their A-game here, It didn’t go unnoticed by me. You do feel the emotions each of the characters are going through.
Avatar: The Last Airbender. (L to R) Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Robert Falconer/Netflix © 2024
I knew from the trailers that it seemed the team behind making the show put a lot of time, and effort into making this live-action adaptation feel authentic. Thankfully, this holds up throughout, it felt like I was being transported to all the locations we visited. Characters look like their animated counterparts and the different elements bending during action scenes look great. Air, Water, & Fire Bending look seamless and accurate to how the animated series portrayed it. Earth Bending is the one that felt a little slow, but not to the point of breaking the action scenes. Hopefully, they will listen to feedback, and improve this moving forward. Let’s hope so since a very important Earth Bender will be showing up in season 2.
With this being an adaptation, changes were going to be happening. This doesn’t mean I just accept it and agree with it, however. Some changes made sense, as we can’t cover everything the original series did, but some changes felt off. I won’t go into spoilers, but there is a significant plot point that isn’t addressed until the final episode. It realistically should have been referenced in the first episode, or soon after. Another major one involves Aang, and it’s not the more serious angle they took with him. There is a fundamental thing he does throughout the first season of the original animated series, that he doesn’t do here. The show does address it but nothing changes as we have to keep moving forward. It makes me question, how this will affect the show moving forward.
Avatar: The Last Airbender. Daniel Dae Kim as Ozai in season 1 of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Cr. Robert Falconer/Netflix © 2023
Another major change is the inclusion of Fire Lord Ozai, along with Azula and a few others into this season. Ozai as we fans know, is hidden in the shadows, not shown to the audience for a while, only heard in dialogue. We see him front and center at times during the 8 episode run. Daniel Kim did perform the character well, but I wonder how it would have been if he hadn’t just outright been seen until maybe closer to the end of the season. Azula is a character I love to death, and her being incorporated earlier than she originally was overall worked. It overall helps elevate her to be a bigger threat in season 2, if we get it.
As I stated earlier, the core elements are covered in this adaptation, even when it does feel rushed at points. I did enjoy my time watching the show, but I wish I loved it more. After watching this, I now want to do a rewatch of the original series. It’s been years since I watched it, and this live-action series made me remember more so why I love this story. Yes, this adaptation isn’t perfect, but it tried and succeeded at points, giving us this story with a big budget, and care for the locations and characters. I hope fans give this a shot, as it’s worth the time to watch. Now after seeing this more serious take on the series, I wonder how The Legend Of Korra would do as a live-action adaptation.
Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s first season is on Netflix now!