Late to the party realization: Avatar: The Last Airbender is pretty dang cool

I’ve been hearing for a bit about Avatar and most recently heard of the film (and complaints about the underrepresentation of Asians in the live action casting for a series with an eastern setting).  In any event, I got it for Kate for her birthday and we’re now seeing why the Nick cartoon got such a good buzz.

The basic setup, long promised savior with lots of powers, is about as well-established as they come.  What sells the series is good and funny writing, a likable set of main characters, and a varied and skillfully depicted setting.  The storytelling is quite episodic, but there is a sense of larger arcs and the episodic nature hasn’t precluded inclusion of neat supporting characters.  Of course, that’s relatively easy to pull off at the start of an episodic series, time will tell if they can keep it up.  But at episode 6, I’m hooked.

I can’t recommend it yet if you need something fundamentally new or different; or a series that couldn’t rightly be described as young adult.  However, if you’ve got no objections to a good story, well told, that so far has values that are worth sharing with said young adults (aside from the cruelty towards cabbage merchants), I’d say it’s worth watching. 

Comments

[Zeiram]

Just wait until you're a little further in...

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1211282334]

It just gets better through and through, and it's very well told.

[Greg Sanders]

Excellent! Always nice to hear that something you enjoy will just keep getting better.