What I’m watching

After some deliberation, I started watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix. I’m about three episodes and I have some thoughts.

First and foremost, I should say that I am enjoying the series. I find myself rather credulous as a consumer of TV and movies, more inclined to like something than not. That mostly has to do with my decision process to watch something. With so much–so, so much–media available for consumption, I often find myself with decision paralysis scrolling through Netflix and Hulu (the two streaming services I subscribe to). Usually when I decide to watch something new, it is through recommendation or other positive coverage, so not that I’m committed to liking it from the get-go, but I’m more likely to like it because of this.

Second, some thoughts from a discussion I had with my partner regarding live action remakes. While she doesn’t see their value, I see them as a way to capture a demographic who, for some unfathomable reason, absolutely and flat out refuse to watch cartoons. I will say categorically that I don’t understand those people, especially given that these “live action” remakes are heavily animated through CGI and other VFX. But maybe don’t tell them that there’s no such thing as benders. Their heads might explode.

But to carry on with my point, those misguided folks who refuse to watch cartoons because they are for children are missing out on some superb storytelling. I happen to think that Zuko’s character arc fro the cartoon is one of the best written redemption arcs ever. I can only hope that the new series is able to capture the emotion of the arc. But I have high hopes.

Third, remakes in general, which I guess you could also call “adaptations.” I think they serve several purposes, not the least of which is the aforementioned delivery of a story to a different audience. There’s also the very real opportunity to improve upon the original, either the presentation or the story itself. For example, though I never watched the movie, the bending in the The Last Airbender looked ridiculous, either through poor understanding of the source material or the limits of VFX at the time. Another example is the way that the movie Nimona improved upon the story of the original graphic novel, fleshing out characters, their backstories, and the flow of the story. Remakes are also a great opportunity to explore how the characters can change with the maturation of their creator. For this, I’m think of the series Netflix made of Scott Pilgrim, a superb graphic novel and fun live action movie. When things go in a completely direction in the first episode, at first I was taken aback and disappointed. But then I read that Bryan Lee O’Malley said that he was a completely different person now than he had been when he wrote the original graphic novel, and he wanted to use the characters to explore what was important to him now.

I’m down with that, though I know not everyone else is. Luckily, for those purists who cross their arms and say something isn’t as good as the original, the good news is that the original still exists. And if you’re like me, you own it on DVD so you’re not subject to the whims of a streaming service.

One thing I will say, not necessarily as a criticism, but an observation and maybe something you should know if you’re still on the fence on whether you want to watch the live ATLA. The original was a kids’ show, so it had a lot of what Sokka described as “wacky, time-wasting nonsense.” It was that nonsense that made the cartoon so delightful and was at the core of its spirit. The live action doesn’t really have a lot of nonsense. That’s not to say it isn’t funny; I have even laughed out loud a couple times through the first three episodes. But the story moves along at a brisker pace, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for characters like Chong and his nomads; or for characters like Jet to get their own episodes. So, just a head’s up on that.

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