Nineteen years (plus one day) after the original airing date of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Netflix airs its long-awaited remake. The first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024) opens on a grim note. The series starts with genocide. For those who have seen the original, this might be a surprising move; while part of the original story, we only hear about it at a later point in the show. The new version has made this a more prominent event with some rather gruesome deaths. And this is precisely what characterizes the remake versus the original: the story, while in essence the same, is darker and has been mixed and matched to fit the eight episode format.
For those who are completely unfamiliar with the franchise, a quick overview. The story is set in an Asia-inspired universe where some people, ‘benders’, can move one of the four elements – water, earth, fire, and air – with their minds. The world, divided along the lines of these four elements, was in balance until the Fire Nation started a war and committed genocide on the airbenders.
Their goal? Killing the one person that could stop their war, the Avatar. The Avatar is the only person in the world who can master all four elements. By chance, he ends up not being with the rest of the airbenders when the Fire Nation attacks. He goes missing until siblings Katara (Kiawentiio, Beans) and Sokka (Ian Ousley, 13 Reasons Why) find him one hundred years later. Our Avatar Aang (Gordon Cormier, The Stand) is now tasked with resolving the war that the Fire Nation had started a hundred years ago. Only one problem: the Avatar is twelve years old and only knows how to airbend. He first needs to learn how to master the other elements.
And so our story commences. This first season covers roughly the first season of the original. A lot of our fan-favorite characters are introduced as the three travel the world to find a water bender that can teach both Aang and Katara how to waterbend. Fans, however, might end up disappointed if they expect a one-on-one transition from the anime to this show. The writers have taken some serious liberty to mix up the events from the original. Especially episodes three to five are quite different than what you might be used to. This is not necessarily a problem, although some things were better in the original.
The series is decent, not great
Katara and Aang face few real personal character struggles. Part of what made the original so good was that Katara was amazing, but not perfect. And Aang had to face that he had fled the Air Monastery on purpose to flee from his destiny as the avatar. His arc consisted of having to accept the immense pressure put on his shoulders, and the consequences of having fled from it. Now, Aang just happens to not be there, removing a major part of what scarred in him in the original.
A major strength of this version is that it is able to show the horrors of war in so much more detail. The original was for ages 6+, while this one is clearly aimed at an older audience. This is not just visible in the fighting scenes (although it is), but also in the way characters are scarred. There is a particularly powerful scene where an Earth Kingdom soldier confronts Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, The Mandalorian) with the horrors of what he did when besieging Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom capital. This is something that is glossed over in the original, but painfully laid out here. While I missed the more cheerful King Bumi from the original, it makes sense to have the character scarred by fighting a hundred years of war, and a hundred years of horrible decisions. A drawback of this heaviness is that it misses some of the lightness and hopefulness of the original. That one really build up over the seasons in terms of seriousness, while this one starts off quite on a dark note.
The show is characterized by a tendency to ‘tell, not show’, rather than the other way around
Yet, there are some substantial problems. A lot of the dialogue feels empty, for starters. The show is characterized by a tendency to ‘tell, not show’, rather than the other way around. The characters spend a significant amount of time psychoanalyzing their emotions rather than showing them. I think this is partly due to not having enough space to fit in all events and all character development. Some things, like learning water bending feel rushed or make little sense. What happened to our strong-willed feminist characters, such as Katara and Suki? And what did they do to Roku?!
The show compensates for some of these problems in beauty; the views are gorgeous. The green screen is sometimes a bit too obvious, but it is was easy to look past that. The fighting choreography is also great which must have been a challenge, bringing an anime to life like that. The casting is generally on point as well, with a shout-out to Daniel Dae Kim (Hawaii Five-0) as Firelord Ozai.
Overall, I enjoyed watching it. The series is decent, not great. If you decide to watch being a fan of the original, try to go in with as few expectations as possible. It will make things easier.
About the writer, Nienke de Boode
She started with watching NCIS, CSI and Bones, but over time her passion for TV shows has grown to what it is today, with dozens of shows that need to be watched. You can always wake her up for a good crime show, but she is also open to different things. Comedy and fantasy are on her list of favourites as well. Since October 2014, she also writes for MySeries to combine her love for TV shows and writing.
