Last thing I expected from this live action adaptation is to hate it. Yet here I am, a wretched fool, no wiser than I was before. After suffering 8 excruciating episodes, I can finally conclude this torture with realization that I absolutely hate this show.

I am a big fan of the animated series, I watched it years after its release so I was just swallowing the animated episodes in a crazy binge. Legend of Korra was also available with all its seasons already, so it was a pure pleasure to watch all of this at once. My conclusion was that Avatar had a better story, themes, characters and arc, despite sometimes being very childish. And Korra was more mature and more complex in the world structure, which was big development from more simplistic world of the Avatar, but the characters and the dialogs were weaker and not quite good. Still, it was a great fun as well and I personally consider Unalaq/Vaatu as one of the best villains ever seen in a movie or a tv show. There is something so fatal in his intentions and what he wanted to achieve, he was pure evil. And I know that the character is not very liked by the fandom, but I think his plan and intentions were truly epic on the universal scale, not just small and local like all other villains in the shows. He made the entire existence feel vulnerable and fragile, which is a horrible point to realize, invoking a sheer nightmare. This is why for me he was a great villain, because he was able to trigger that primal existential fear.

Anyway, after enjoying very entertaining One Piece, which I absolutely loved and even watched it twice, I was quite optimistic regarding the Avatar. But to much of my surprise, this show is just horrible on every possible level. And even worse, it is extremely annoying and irritating to watch.

The biggest letdown for me was the actors and the acting. The producers were so afraid of the woke mob, that they went extra miles to find all the correct faces and races to fill the show with, that they completely forgot to find someone with actual acting skills. This is what happens when producers have no balls. Each actor in this show is just terrible, all of their own personal facial tics, twitches and spasms are on full display, they do not look like characters in the show, they looks like amateur actors that just spewing the lines. Katara is constantly doing something irritating with her tongue, whether rolling it to her teeth or licking her lips, and that actor that played Jet did the same. Aang has just empty look on his face constantly, he is not expressing anything on his own. Working with eyes is most important thing an actor can do, but all of them just have empty glass eyes all the time. Sokka just has annoying face and his personality is repelling, Zuko was over the top expressive and acted chaotically and superficially. There was no depth behind any of them. Azula was just trash, I don't think she has any training or understanding what it is to be an actor. Even the grownup actors were horrible, Iroh, Ozai, Bumi are just people in costumes doing cosplay, they were so bad I just couldn't connect between them and the characters they were supposedly playing. The only good actor in this mess was Ken Leung as Commander Zhao. He is after all an experienced actor that did something in his life, so he was the only one that was somehow interesting to watch.

The other thing was the story and the dialogs, that were not adapted properly. Everything just felt flat, repeating, with emphasis on irrelevant moments, forced gags and stupid moments. Aang is constantly saying that he has no idea what he was doing without any signs of progress. He was constantly looking for others to help, but not doing anything himself. He didn't even try to bend water, that felt really annoying, especially when in the animated series he was already trying to bend water in the first season. I was constantly waiting for him to start doing something, but he was just moving from one adult to another with pitiful look, asking for help like a bum on the street. Katara's feminist outburst at the Northern Water Tribe was delivered as if it was the most important point of the entire show, as if the writers finally found the one theme in the show they can understand. The show felt rushed and shallow, the important moments that were suppose to dive into the philosophy and the themes of the show were delivered with such artificial pathos that it felt repulsive. The writers were clearly overwhelmed by the content and they just couldn't control a proper structure and the pace, to show only what is more important. Their motivations were not to make the best show possible from the available material, but to show random moments and hope they will somehow connect into coherent plot. Which they didn't and they failed.

Action scenes were lazy and unimaginative, very childish. Just recently I watched on Netflix both Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning and The Final, and also YuYu Hakusho adaptation, and it was astounding to see such a high level of fighting choreography and ability to film such thrilling fight scenes. Nowadays the technology allows to be very creative in that aspect, and the fact that Avatar directors didn't do anything as good just shows their artistic limitations and lack of courage.

I can write a book about every bad aspect of this show, trashing absolutely every second of each episode, it's hard for me to find any redeeming qualities here. So right now my only possible reaction to this show is to hate it, because it doesn't deserve any praise and it's offensive that it's based on one of the more beloved animations. Though the show is a big success on the Netflix, it seems, with a lot of views. So additional seasons will be produced. I can only hope that the actors will mature, new writers and directors will be better qualified, and the next seasons will be improved. Personally I prefer to wait for One Piece season 2 than this. With such failed start, not much room to improve.