Recently released new Netflix hit series, “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” has been getting iffy reviews from critics as well as fans, but there’s one thing everyone can agree on, and that is it’s not as bad as the 2010 movie adaptation. It’s a very low threshold to beat, but hey, it’s still something!
Back in 2010, M. Night Shyamalan took a swing at adapting the first season into live-action, and let’s just say it didn’t exactly hit it out of the park. To be honest, it didn’t even hit the ball if we were to use the same metaphor. Between the backlash over casting choices and just not getting the story right, it’s often listed as one of the worst movies ever made.
When Netflix announced they were taking a crack at it, fans were cautiously optimistic, as it became known that the original show’s creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, were working closely with the writers. But later on, they both left the project due to “creative differences,” and we all know what that really means—Netflix’s writers were getting out of hand.
So what exactly did the show get wrong? Let’s shed some light on Netflix’s most recent moneymaker.
1. The Dialogues
The dialogues in this show are just… ugh. It’s like the writers missed the memo on “show, don’t tell” completely. Instead of letting us feel the story through actions and nuances, they’ve got characters dumping lore and exposition left and right, dissecting their own feelings like they’re on a comfy therapy couch. There’s no room for subtlety or those little moments that speak volumes without saying a word. You know, the stuff that made the original series so great?
It’s like they skimmed through a Wikipedia page, sucked all the life out of the characters, and left us with droll husks, mostly. It doesn’t even get to the level of “it’s so bad it’s good.” And for a show that’s supposed to be all about character and relationships, this is a total train wreck.
