The Avatar Returns

So that happened.

 

The first season is done. 

 

What ostensibly is supposed to be Book One: Water, though this version of the show never once refers to it that way, has reached its end. And it got there without Aang ever even TRYING to waterbend. Not one single time.

 

That was a choice. This show makes LOTS of choices. And we talk about them.

 

NEXT: we’ve been bumped and bruised by this experience, but we still love the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender. So we will be back, hopefully soon, to discuss the other tie-in materials we’ve yet to cover, such as the comics which we never finished, and the novel series, which we never even started. Keep your eyes open, Monkey Yahtzee will return!




THE LINKS

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Renewed for Seasons 2 and 3 at Netflix by Selome Hailu, Variety





THE MUSIC

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (Premiere Main Title)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (End Credits)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

Studio Ghibli is undoubtedly meeting with lawyers even as we speak, given episode 105 of the Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is titled “Spirited Away,” and…boy howdy. This version of the Spirit World amounts to basically a color filter, and an admittedly pretty cool-looking Hei Bai, who is never actually resolved. Episode 106, “Masks” on the other hand pulls off what is arguably a GOOD translation of the source material, with possibly even an improvement or two? Play on to learn the truth, brave listener.

 

NEXT: all things, good or bad, must come to an end. Episodes 107, “The North” and 108, “Legends” wrap up this questionable experiment of a show. Or do they?




THE MUSIC

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (Premiere Main Title)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (End Credits)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

Oh my cabbages, here we go again. We find ourselves once more confronted with some very confusing story structure choices made in the name of condensing material from six different animated episodes into two messy episodes of live action. 104, “Omashu” introduces us to this version of the great Earth Kingdom city of chutes and ladders, and crams in a lot, I mean A. LOT. of characters and plot elements from across the animated series’ first season, and even a bit from season two. Then 105, “Into the Dark” has the unenviable task of trying to weave all those frayed threads into something semi-coherent. Our individual levels of outrage at the results may vary.

 

(Not really, though. We’re all pretty outraged.)

 

NEXT: it keeps going, guys. We discuss the potentially controversially titled episode 105, “Spirited Away,” and the at least partially Konietzko/Di Martino written 106, “Masks.”




THE MUSIC

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (Premiere Main Title)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (End Credits)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

Well. They said they were gonna do it. And they made good on that threat. And WE said we’d be here for it. And we…have paid for our hubris. The time has come for your boys to discuss the first two episodes of the 2024 live-action Netflix series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. As you might expect, we have opinions. Episode 101, “Aang” opens on a literal genocide. Did we need to see that? Episode 102, “Warriors” sands the adolescent sexism off of Sokka. Does that have unintended consequences for Suki’s arc? Can a sophisticated, mature take on a beloved animated property actually come off as MORE cartoonish than its source material? Who could possibly know?!

 

We do, in fact, manage to find some positives in all of this. However, STRUCTURE and DIALOGUE are the watchwords of this review, so buckle up, benders!

 

NEXT: Oh lawd, he comin’! Live-action Bumi is about to happen, and we bear witness in episodes 103, “Omashu” and 104, “Into the Dark.”




THE MUSIC

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (Premiere Main Title)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (End Credits)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

Team The Avatar Returns has been missing, locked in an iceberg of our own making for the past four years. Before we vanished, Netflix had announced it’s then-still-distant live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and we had only just begun speculating on what might justify the existence of another adaptation, and how it could possibly top the 2010 Shyamalan film. Well that adaptation has arrived, like a comet of doom, and we have been pulled back into the world to discuss the consequences. In this episode we shake off the cobwebs, try to remember what it was like to make podcasts, talk about what we’re expecting from the new show, and set the stage for our upcoming deep dive into the 8-episode first season of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

 

By the end of the episode we’ve wandered into Star Wars and comic book discussions, and we uncover negative comments on our PAST podcast discussions, which always makes me feel good. We’re kind of a mess…which may turn out to be appropriate.

 

NEXT: let the genocide begin! We kick off our discussion of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender with episodes 101, “Aang” and 102, “Warriors.”




THE MUSIC

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (Premiere Main Title)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)

“Avatar: The Last Airbender (End Credits)” by Jeremy Zuckerman, Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 1: Water (Music From The Animated Series (2023)