Avatar The Last Airbender RECAP: Season 1

It's the Netflix Live-Action adaptation of the beloved animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender! This is the complete recap and review of season 1.

Original Animated ATLA Recap:

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[idac]

"Aang should practice water bending too, but this whole season he's like Nah, I'm good" I'm deadd

[kriegerscavern]

"Sokka is a rizzbender" - truer words have never been spoken

[RushOfJustice]

This legend busted out the same shirt for the live-action that he wore when he recapped the animated series THREE YEARS AGO

[richardmendy]

"You are a wizard harry" is such a cool subtle reference. love the vids.

[ummmyeah]

I give it a 7/10. It's better than the movie that's for sure 😂

[hakeemtosin]

" Saved himself by Freezing into an Ice Cube" that line gets me everytime 🤣

[bimbodhisattva]

"rizzbender" took me straight tf out lmao

[y.d.y]

"Sokka is a rizzbender" - you got me there😂

[joenzoma]

😂😂, "rizzbender"....keep up the good work man of recaps!

[TheEternalSteelAngel]

IM GETTING READY FOR WORK AND THIS IS THE BEST THING ILL SEE TODAY!

Thank you for covering the original, and thank you for now covering the live action, ManO.

Loving the content coming out.

Congratulations on The Sponsers, they are well deserved!🤙🏼

[do-ol]

In my personal opinion. Live action adaptations can be accomplished. But there is something about animation where live action is held back, with animation you have far more freedom and control to play with and it lets people adjust tiny details that make a second viewing better. Live action will always have its limits even with the addition of cgi or old fashioned practical effects yet it doesn’t make it automatically bad or better. Everyone has their preferences. Although I do love the fact that the cabbage merchant is the same actor from the original series! Edit: As an adult I love the Uncle even more and it kind of made me an anti war person. “After Six hundred days away from home, my men were tired and I was tired.” You can tell in his voice on a second watch he’s thinking of his son. 😢

[TheYuccaPlant]

Wow, your recap makes it seem like this is is almost as good as the cartoon, good job!

[BP-efmr]

Rizzbending!! OMG! Sokka would LOVE to hear that!! Thanks for the great recap!!

[shamanthhl]

Although this season was not as good as the anime, it is very unique in its own way. There are ways in which the show could have improved and there are areas where it did better than expected. All in all it was 6.5/10 for me

[purgejmi]

It's almost like the creators of the movie were like "let's take out all the awesome stuff, dumb it down, take out all the important side plots, and change a tone of stuff that no one will probably miss. We gotta get through this quickly, we only have 3 movies!" And it sucked so there was only one movie lol.

[herm]

It was never going to be better than the original--when something is perfect, there's no way to improve it--but for what it was, it was a solid adaptation. My biggest gripes were with some of the defining characteristics for some characters. I loved the actor for Uncle Iroh and I think they cast him well, but a key part of his personality was missing. In this show he was either serious or kinda sad the majority of the season whereas in the cartoon, he's always bringing light-heartedness to Zuko's perpetual cloud of gloom. Iroh is so wonderful because he can go from being wise and pensive to goofy and silly and then will bust out some Dragon of the West a$$-kicking stuff...he's a complex character and we just didn't see enough of that.

I get them introducing Mai and Tylee early but for all they added to the story, they shouldn't have bothered. Mai is SO dry, monotone and sarcastic and Tylee is the complete opposite--super bubbly, upbeat and happy...we got like 1% of that from either actor. I guess they didn't really have anything to do other than stand around and watch Azula, but I found both of them to be wholly boring and nothing like their characters. Hopefully they'll do better in season 2.

Overall though, it was a decent adaptation. Very condensed (from 20+ episodes in the original down to 8, I expected it) but no major upsets in terms of completely messed up plot points; the acting was decent from the kids but not great. I'd expect they'll get better as the seasons progress, though I will say the guy they got for Sokka was about 97% perfect to Jack Desena's Sokka. He captured Sokka's sarcasm and I found myself laughing out loud at him more than anyone which was great. Yeah, overall, it was good.

[atheistforcastiel]

Oh thank god, I thought I was the only one crying Zuko sat by Iroh.

[qfncpwr]

I loved the series... Its a thing of its own... 8/10...

[almost_no_brain_cells_left]

IM YOUR BIGGEST FAN (I’m not smart enough to watch shows and you have saved me)

[scottmcguirk]

This recap shows the outline for the live action series was great. Filling in the outline with bad dialog is where they lost it. I think more changes like have Azula older than Zuko but not first in line for being a girl. Then focus on more adult acting with good writing.