There are two ways to watch Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” live-action adaptation. Newcomers to the universe have no choice but to watch it on its own merit, leading to the discovery of a very rich world and the four element-bending nations. For fans of the original 2005 Nickelodeon animated series, however, it’s hard not to pick apart the adaptation for where it falls short.
Either way, the latest season of “Avatar” provides enough thrills and entertainment to satiate a binge — as long as you look past a few flaws.
The last season concluded with Team Avatar — Aang (Gordon Cormier), Katara (Kiawentiio), Sokka (Ian Ousley) and their flying pet friends Appa and Momo — saving the Northern Water Tribe from a Fire Nation invasion. With Aang having now mastered waterbending, the motley crew is off to the Earth Kingdom to find an earthbending teacher in Aang’s quest to master all four elements and bring balance back to the world.
Along the way, they pick up a group of refugees who they chaperone through to the great city of Ba Sing Se, a safe haven from the war-torn Earth Kingdom. In quick pursuit is this season’s central villain, Princess Azula (Elizabeth Yu) and two friends she recruits into the fold, circus acrobat Ty Lee (Momona Tamada) and emo knife-wielding Mai (Thalia Tran).
As is the case in the first season, the casting team hits it out of the park with finding AAPI actors who bear an uncanny resemblance to their counterparts in the animated series. This is especially true with the much-awaited arrival of Toph Beifong (Miya Cech), the blind earthbending expert who gets recruited into the Gaang after they stumble on her fighting men three times her size in underground earthbending matches. Cech is excellent and brings the exact tough, sardonic energy to the role that fans will be thrilled to see.
Overall, the Gaang’s side of the story is propulsive and fast-moving with an adventurous spirit. It is when the story flashes to Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) and his uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) that the episode begins to sag. Both incognito and on the run after their failure to capture the Avatar in the first season, Zuko is in the midst of a personal transformation as he reckons with his past. Iroh is always there to provide him with guidance and sage advice, but this side of the story is missing a sense of levity and playfulness.
What made Iroh such a brilliant character in the original series was the contrast between his deep wisdom and his overall goofiness — a sense that he had lived enough lives not to take anything too seriously, lest it get in the way of his afternoon jasmine tea. He was also the perfect foil to Zuko’s obsessively too-serious attitude. Much of that complexity and nuance is missing here, and their scenes sadly end up weighing down otherwise kinetic episodes — despite both actors turning in decent performances.
As far as story structure goes, the writers do their best to weave together a serialized narrative from the episodic adventures of the animated series. Sometimes this means bringing in an idea from what should have been in the first season — like the Blue Spirit — and remixing it into these new episodes.
These changes will definitely rub some fans the wrong way, especially after seeing these iconic plotlines used in completely different contexts. Just like the fact that anyone can waltz into the spirit world with the Avatar in this iteration, superfans are probably best just going with it — and trusting showrunners Christine Boylan and Jabbar Raisani to execute their vision for the show. Even if that means cutting out significant storylines that would have been challenging to adapt, like Azula’s iconic massive drill, her initial attempt to lay siege on Ba Sing Se.
Other edits make, at times, impressive logical sense — like spending more time getting to know Long Feng (Chin Han), Ba Sing Se’s cultural minister, or a deepening of the Beifong family’s lore. They also mercifully cut down Appa’s time away from the group this season when he gets captured — the tearjerker of a bottle episode in the original series.
An absolute highlight of the show continues to be the guest stars to watch out for along the way: Dolly de Leon (“Triangle of Sadness”) as Azula’s mentors Lo and Li, Dichen Lachman (“Severance”) as Avatar Yangchen, Rekha Sharma (“Yellowjackets”) as one of the refugees, Amita; this is one of the largest and most diverse AAPI and Indigenous casts on television. In this way, “Avatar: The Last Airbender” gets it right.
Unfortunately, the show doesn’t always rise to meet its casting successes. The season is visually too dark to watch — many scenes should probably only be watched in complete darkness, which might be a challenge given the season is being released over the week with the longest days of the year. The special effects are also uneven, as they were last season — landscapes look beautiful while some tighter shots of bending and anything Avatar State-related starts to look a little wonky. It’s a good thing they aren’t debuting any of these episodes in movie theaters.
As was the case last season, the script’s corny slapstick humor rarely lands, and unfortunately, the exposition is sometimes so obvious you could keep up with the plot watching from the corner of your eye as you scroll your phone. But you can’t help but feel this is probably the best they could do for an all-ages fantasy series.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” will likely never appease everyone — but there’s a reason why the first season was such a resounding ratings success for Netflix. It’s entertaining, propulsive and a rich universe mined from source material that is some of television’s best and most creative. If you can forgive its flaws, it’s a decent summer binge.
“Avatar: The Last Airbender” Season 2 premieres Thursday, June 25 on Netflix.
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