Television Anyone catch the Netflix Avatar trailer?

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

2 hours ago, TwinIon said:

Only saw the first episode and the tone is so different from the original. I'm trying not to judge it too harshly for that, but it is much more serious in a way that the One Piece live action show was not. The thing that makes me more concerned is that they don't seem that consistent in that slightly more gritty tone. The costumes are all bright and colorful and look brand new. Appa is as doofy in live action as in the animation. It makes me think they're going to be struggling with the nature of the show as taking place during a brutal war and the lightheartedness that the animation achieved.

honestly to me it just felt like they took darker elements from later in the show and introduced them sooner by showing us the threat of fire nation in pretty spectacular fashion. Keep in mind Aang has his grief-driven blow up in like episode 3 of the cartoon show. With the inciting scene and discovery making it very clear the level of violence that had occurred. So while rating up a bit and out of tone compared to just the first episode of the cartoon, I wouldnt say this is tonally a departure from the cartoon show.

 

2 episodes in and it does feel like they are struggling to have a “fun” show. Aang is trying to be way to earnest all the time and less like a kid trying to hold on to being a kid.  
 

the lack of lived in costumes is pretty common for this type of show. They could both be relatively bright and also look like they hadn’t just been professionally dry cleaned. I always wonder if its a budget thing or makes more convenient continuity.

[cusideabelincoln]

Welp, finished it.

 

The show stumbles past the opening episodes. Some questionable choices on which character-building moments to omit and which to spend time on. Even more questionable in that they attempt to stay true to certain banger moments from the animated series but most of the build-up leading to those moments was cut or reduced so they don't hit as hard. They also copy dialogue from the animated series that doesn't make sense for live-action-only viewers.

 

I'm not a fan of the voice-over narrations at the end of some episodes. One is particularly bad because it literally just states the obvious from what we had already saw previously in that episode so it's just a wasted 5 minutes they could have used for other characters. While I'm fine they cut out a lot of the goofiness from the animated show, they also just cut out other stuff too that was important and don't replace it with anything worthwhile. They really should have had at least one more "side-adventure" journey to flesh out both Team Avatar and Team Zuko.

 

And it's odd that...

 

Spoiler

Aang doesn't learn any water bending, nor even attempts to learn any. The live-action story loses focus on the goal of Team Avatar's journey. In the animated show they kept their goal in mind while at the same time doing side adventures and the live-action is not as successful at this.

 

[Massdriver]

9 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

That's true, which is something. I will say that RT isn't a great site for TV show aggregation, it's really only good for movies. However, when combined with IMDb, for TV shows you get a better idea since IMDb usually has more votes rating the show than RT. The additional problem with RT and TV shows is RT does not provide any additional breakdown beyond the basic percentages, whereas with films they provide a lot more data. on IMDb, tt's actually sitting pretty comfortably at 7.6/10 after 8,000 votes which is pretty good. For movies on IMDb, anything that is a 6.5 or above is at least decent/solid, but anything at a 7.0 or above is a good to great film almost guaranteed. However, TV show scores (compared to films) skew noticeably higher than movies, probably because of the sunk cost fallacy from what I've gathered over the years. Anything above a 7.5/10 means it's a decent/solid show, anything above an 8.0/10 means it's a good to great show almost guaranteed. So sitting at 7.6/10 means it's at least decent/solid, but maybe not good or great.

This is all pretty reasonable and I agree. I use IMDB coupled with RT. It is helpful on RT to skip through the review highlights to check the ratings from each critic to see the depth of a fresh or rotten review. For films RT has am average rating score that you could see by clicking the tomato’s similar to meta critic. I don’t play too much attention to RT audience scores since review bombs are too easy. IMDB is my go to coupled with RT and sometimes Metacritic. I also appreciate what everyone says here. 
 

Maybe I’ll check this show out eventually, but I’m no longer excited. 

[Greatoneshere]

7 minutes ago, Massdriver said:

This is all pretty reasonable and I agree. I use IMDB coupled with RT. It is helpful on RT to skip through the review highlights to check the ratings from each critic to see the depth of a fresh or rotten review. For films RT has am average rating score that you could see by clicking the tomato’s similar to meta critic. I don’t play too much attention to RT audience scores since review bombs are too easy. IMDB is my go to coupled with RT and sometimes Metacritic. I also appreciate what everyone says here. 
 

Maybe I’ll check this show out eventually, but I’m no longer excited. 

 

Yeah, I agree, it's best to combine the RT and IMDb scores to get a good sense of things. The average rating on RT for films, as you mentioned, it way more important than the percentage score, which they do not provide for TV shows unfortunately. I don't like Metacritic for anything but games (and that's more because of a lack of options) as I find that to be overly harsh about almost everything. I get a sense that the worst kinds of fans go there and/or review bomb the audience score on RT.  

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

8 hours ago, Massdriver said:

Maybe I’ll check this show out eventually, but I’m no longer excited. 

I still want to finish it. Nothing Ive seen has been so egregiously bad to me. However, if you’ve seen the entirety of the animated show you dont need this show.
 

I will recommend this show to my dad. He will never watch the cartoon series and the show is good enough he’d likely really enjoy it. He’s the target audience for things like the Halo tv show and Rebel Moon.
 

11 hours ago, cusideabelincoln said:

The show stumbles past the opening episodes. Some questionable choices on which character-building moments to omit and which to spend time on. Even more questionable in that they attempt to stay true to certain banger moments from the animated series but most of the build-up leading to those moments was cut or reduced so they don't hit as hard. They also copy dialogue from the animated series that doesn't make sense for live-action-only viewers.

I had a feeling this was going to continue to be an issue. Their time at the air temple was so short compared to the cartoon show, like they wanted to rush to having that scene. Episode 1 of this show was an hour and covered what was essentially the first 3 episodes of the cartoon with a bit of stuff we dont get a hint of until later seasons. But then episode 2 of the show was 40 minutes and covered only a single episode of the cartoon. With again some elements from later seasons mixed in. Total season runtime looks to be roughly the same, so it sounds clear that choices were made to present the same story differently in the same amount of time. And since they are taking later season elements and bringing them in now I wonder what the plan is for the next 2 seasons. 
 

I hope it doesnt mean they get overly self indulgent. Spending 200 words to say something when 20 would do. Slow shots and long pauses for dramatic intent that pad out a run time, but slow the pace down too much where scenes become less interesting. I hope theyre smart with their time and if they attempt to expand on the source material they do it in service of the story and world. 
 

I guess time will tell. 

[Mercury33]

Halfway through. I wasn’t sure after episode one, felt very uneven and forced. But honestly it’s hit a groove and I’m loving it. Im enjoying the different take of leaning much more heavily on the the emotion and gravity of the war and its effect on everyone. 

[johnny]

i’m through 3 episodes and i’m having fun. it’s not amazing yet but i like it. 

 

if you’re a weirdo about a different showrunner doing things a bit differently then don’t watch i guess 

[Fizzzzle]

I'm six episodes deep, I enjoy it.

 

1) I wasn't initially stoked on the new take of Iroh, but I've grown to love the way the actor portrays him (it's like following up robin Williams as Genie)

2) I was worried that they wouldn't give Zuko a proper stint as a villain, and they didn't. But I think it works for the tone they're going for

3) the way they combine storylines doesn't always work and makes things feel tonally inconsistent. Episode 5 is a perfect example of that

4) LOVE the music. The way they weave in "little soldier boy" during Irohs scenes is brilliant and will (hopefully) have a big payoff later

5) the acting is inconsistent, but it doesn't really bother me. They're mostly dealing with kids. The guy who plays Sokka is great, and the guy who plays Zuko is also mostly great. Aang and Kitara... The kid playing Aang was literally 12 when this was filmed.

[Fizzzzle]

I think there is something sacrificed by having 8 hour-long episodes vs. 24 20-minute long episodes, and that was a creative decision they had to deal with. Sometimes I think it works better, but by necessity it means tonal inconsistency since you can't just have a "silly" episode even you only have 8 episodes to work with.

 

And before anyone compares it to One Piece, One Piece is not even remotely close to narratively coherent and nowhere near as emotionally impactful. One Piece doesn't ever *have* to feel like it's going anywhere

[Mercury33]

We binged 2-8 all day yesterday. I loved it! Look, it’s not the cartoon. Nothing will ever be the cartoon. It’s arguably one of the ten best tv shows of all time in my opinion. And that doesn’t even speak to the power of nostalgia. So if you’re expecting/demanding that then don’t even watch it. 
 

Personally I love that they picked a tone and stuck with it. They didn’t try and cram everything in. Adapting the more serious and adult tone from season 3 right from the get go gave this thing a weight. You’re able to understand what’s at stake much quicker while also never feeling very rushed. I also think this makes the show a little more appealing to a broader audience. 
 

I personally didn’t notice any inconsistencies in tone. Episode 5 is actually my favorite of the whole season haha. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there. They just didnt stand out to me. 
 

There are a ton of people I’ve been trying to push to watch the original cartoon that have resisted. All of them so far seem much more open to trying this. My hope is that they enjoy the adaption enough to want to go back and watch the cartoon(my wife in particular literally asked if we could watch the cartoon now as soon as we finished the adaption haha). So the more people this brings this amazing story and world to the better imo

[Fizzzzle]

One shift in tone that I loved is how they actually made you feel like they were in a world ravaged by 100 years of war. The original series never really did that.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

9 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

One shift in tone that I loved is how they actually made you feel like they were in a world ravaged by 100 years of war. The original series never really did that.

Not in season 1 anyways. Season 2 you got a better sense of that right away. 

 

16 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

I think there is something sacrificed by having 8 hour-long episodes vs. 24 20-minute long episodes, and that was a creative decision they had to deal with.

Smashing episodes and elements together like they did allowed them to tackle more plot lines from the show without needing to create as many different locations. 
 

One shift in tone I absolutely did not like was in regards to episode 4. 

 

 

I disliked everything they did with King Bumi. It didnt fit the character of Bumi or what the show was doing. He was giving Aang grief for playing around and not taking the war seriously when that was an arc in the cartoon and nothing they were doing in the live action show. Aang was already a stoic, mature, person only focuses on learning about being the Avatar and getting to the Northern Water tribe to get trained. Theyre not doing the whole bit where Aang is only visiting places to have fun. 
 

in the cartoon Bumi taught Aang to approach problems differently. In the Netflix show its Aang teaching Bumi that you can rely on your friends. You know the friends Aang didnt know would show up and hadnt planned on them in any way. 
 

 

 

it’s yet another example of the netflix show taking out a character arc as though everyone in team avatar are already people of perfect character. Zuko looks to be losing his full series arc, by way of having another character do the awful things he did in the cartoon. Like attack Kyoshi village like a thug. Or he just doesnt do them at all. 
 

im only through 4 episodes, but Im struggling. I am sure my dad will like show though. Id never get him to watch the cartoon show, even if he likes this show. 
 

trust me, I am trying think “am I bothered because it’s different or because it’s worse”. The mix-matching of story elements is different, but I dont dislike that. However the changes to characters and their arcs is worse. 

[Fizzzzle]

11 minutes ago, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Not in season 1 anyways. Season 2 you got a better sense of that right away. 

 

Smashing episodes and elements together like they did allowed them to tackle more plot lines from the show without needing to create as many different locations. 
 

One shift in tone I absolutely did not like was in regards to episode 4. 

  Hide contents

 

I disliked everything they did with King Bumi. It didnt fit the character of Bumi or what the show was doing. He was giving Aang grief for playing around and not taking the war seriously when that was an arc in the cartoon and nothing they were doing in the live action show. Aang was already a stoic, mature, person only focuses on learning about being the Avatar and getting to the Northern Water tribe to get trained. Theyre not doing the whole bit where Aang is only visiting places to have fun. 
 

in the cartoon Bumi taught Aang to approach problems differently. In the Netflix show its Aang teaching Bumi that you can rely on your friends. You know the friends Aang didnt know would show up and hadnt planned on them in any way. 
 

 

 

it’s yet another example of the netflix show taking out a character arc as though everyone in team avatar are already people of perfect character. Zuko looks to be losing his full series arc, by way of having another character do the awful things he did in the cartoon. Like attack Kyoshi village like a thug. Or he just doesnt do them at all. 
 

im only through 4 episodes, but Im struggling. I am sure my dad will like show though. Id never get him to watch the cartoon show, even if he likes this show. 
 

trust me, I am trying think “am I bothered because it’s different or because it’s worse”. The mix-matching of story elements is different, but I dont dislike that. However the changes to characters and their arcs is worse. 

The whole "not starting Zuko as a proper villain" thing bothered me for a minute, but it doesn't anymore now that I've finished it 

 

Honestly, I'm fine with the show. Is it as good as the original series? No, but the original series is literally one of the greatest shows ever made, so we're picking nits. The show is good. And I didn't see the original until I was like 25.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

20 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

. And I didn't see the original until I was like 25.

I think I was even older as I dont recall seeing the entire series until it was on Netflix. Book of Kora though I caught the week each episode aired. 

[silentbob]

Just watched the first episode and already like it more than the movie (not hard to do) Main cast seems ok, but the kind playing Aang, has the perfect voice for Linus. The grandmother was the real sour note in the acting. Sister was paying for Netflix and gotta hopefully cram it all in before it expires in 2 weeks. 

[Fizzzzle]

8 hours ago, silentbob said:

Just watched the first episode and already like it more than the movie (not hard to do) Main cast seems ok, but the kind playing Aang, has the perfect voice for Linus. The grandmother was the real sour note in the acting. Sister was paying for Netflix and gotta hopefully cram it all in before it expires in 2 weeks. 

Thankfully that's the only episode in which she ever speaks!

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

5 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

Thankfully that's the only episode in which she ever speaks!

She narrates a note left for Katara in episode 2 that Katara finds in her bag. Strangely enough her acting reading a note was better than when she was in front of a camera. 
 

either that or the editing team really fucked this show by picking the absolute worst takes for a scene. 

[TwinIon]

Up to episode 4 and I'm enjoying it well enough. It's not great, not terrible. I think they did an admirable job of combining elements from the original episodes, but even when they're clever, there is something to be said for focus. I'll keep going.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

3 hours ago, TwinIon said:

Up to episode 4 and I'm enjoying it well enough. It's not great, not terrible. I think they did an admirable job of combining elements from the original episodes, but even when they're clever, there is something to be said for focus. I'll keep going.

ill be honest, I think I only felt so much whiplash from the combining of so many plots into a single episode, because I already know where those plot lines came from. Including location. 
 

though episodes 5-6 felt like they really compressed the size of the world. Made it feel so very very small, because they couldnt combine everything into a single location like they did in Omashu. 
 

but I suspect people who havent seen the cartoon will feel as much or any whiplash. 

[Mercury33]

Not mentioned yet but the implementation of the Cabbage Guy was 🤌🏻

[silentbob]

On 2/27/2024 at 6:51 AM, Fizzzzle said:

Thankfully that's the only episode in which she ever speaks!

although the one is voice over and one with her on screen. Wasn’t nearly as bad those times but were shorter in nature. I have 2 more episodes to go and overall I’m enjoying. Some CGI comes off a little cheap and others look great so far. So with that. . . .

 

 

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Renewed at Netflix for Final Two Seasons

WWW.HOLLYWOODREPORTER.COM

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The double-season order for the live-action adaptation will conclude the fantasy drama.

 

 

 

[TwinIon]

I finished it and thought it wasn't bad. A bit rushed and never quite living up to the standards of the original, but never offensively bad. There was plenty I didn't think would work well in live action that went off just fine. The acting is inconsistent, but errs on genuine, if nothing else. I'll watch the next seasons, but I won't be desperately awaiting them.

[Fizzzzle]

9 hours ago, TwinIon said:

I finished it and thought it wasn't bad. A bit rushed and never quite living up to the standards of the original, but never offensively bad. There was plenty I didn't think would work well in live action that went off just fine. The acting is inconsistent, but errs on genuine, if nothing else. I'll watch the next seasons, but I won't be desperately awaiting them.

I feel like some of that is maybe due to writing but also to do with actually using unknown child actors. The actors who play Aang and Kitara have pretty much never done anything before, and their performances vary wildly in consistency (compared to Zuko and Sokka, who are consistently excellent in my opinion)

 

I liked the first season enough that I'm excited to see what they'll build with it, especially as the actors get older and more experienced. This isn't game of thrones or Harry potter, where the young actors are protected by a wall of established thespians. There is nothing to hide behind. I feel like the first season could have suffered from it while also giving the third season that much more impact.

[Massdriver]

This is worth watching. I agree it wasn't great, but not bad for a start. I don't expect children to act perfectly and thought they did an adequate job. I'm hoping they learn from the first season and it only gets better!