Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 Review: Netflix’s Live-Action Remake Still Hasn’t Found Its Feet

Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender continues to be a dispiritingly pointless adaptation, still misunderstanding the appeal of the original Nickelodeon cartoon.

As with Season 1, the chief problem is pacing. Aimed at a middle school audience (although it attracted plenty of adult viewers), the animated series was fast-paced and funny, airing long seasons of 20-minute episodes that gradually introduced a rich fantasy world. The Netflix remake condenses this into a structure more suited to adult TV, with Season 2 clocking in at seven plot-heavy, hourlong episodes. That isn’t to say this version is more mature, however. It’s just slower and more serious in tone: two traits that definitely aren’t beneficial to the source material.

After mastering the art of waterbending with the help of Water Tribe siblings Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley), the 12-year-old Avatar Aang (Gordon Cormier) spends this season exploring the Earth Kingdom. In order to master all four spiritual elements and bring peace to the world, he must find an earthbending teacher as soon as possible. This teacher comes in the unexpected form of a blind girl named Toph (Miyako), a lively and disruptive addition to the cast. But the next chapter of Aang’s education brings a new set of dangers, as Fire Nation forces spread through the Earth Kingdom and prepare to attack the walled city of Ba Sing Se.

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Things get considerably darker this season, as Aang and his friends encounter refugees fleeing from Fire Nation attacks and navigate a complicated political situation within Ba Sing Se. Cutting out most of the tertiary storylines, this season adapts a memorable arc from the original series: the period our heroes spend as “guests” in Ba Sing Se, trapped by an authoritarian government that relies on propaganda, surveillance, and a terrifying cadre of secret police.

At the same time, the Fire Lord’s son, Zuko (Dallas Liu), and Zuko’s lovable uncle, Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), have also made their way to Ba Sing Se, living under assumed names as they both grapple with their roles in the war. Here we see our first hints of a redemption arc for Zuko, who was previously hell-bent on capturing Aang for the Fire Nation’s war effort. Now trying to build a new life as a civilian, Zuko is an angsty teenager who desperately wants to prove himself to his coldhearted father but can’t measure up to his ruthless sister, Azula (Elizabeth Yu).

3.5

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2

Like

• Adapts a compelling storyline about civilian life during wartime

Dislike

• The episodes feel too long and slow-moving
• Lacks the humor and personality of the original animated series
• Cursed with gloomy Netflix lighting
• Removes a lot of world-building from a rich fantasy setting

Despite focusing on some of the most compelling storylines from the Nickelodeon show, this season suffers from exactly the same problems we saw in Season 1. Instead of the bright colors and quick humor you’d hope to see in a kids’ show, it’s full of long, slow-paced dialogue scenes with nary a joke in sight, frequently filmed in the dark. The shortened episode count also means less time for casual character development. Miyako makes her mark as the rude and cynical Toph, but most of the ensemble cast still feel pretty thinly characterized. That includes Aang himself, because while Gordon Cormier does his best to embody Aang’s naive charm, he’s hamstrung by the show’s relative lack of comedy: a problem that may stem from the makeup of the creative team.

Unlike Avatar‘s original creators, who specialized in children’s animation, all of the remake’s writers come from an adult TV background, previously working on shows like Castle, The Rings of Power, and Supergirl. Considering the way this remake struggles with humor and pacing, I think it would’ve benefited from looking more toward Disney Channel sitcoms, whose writers have a better understanding of children’s entertainment.

You could gripe about a dozen fundamental problems with Netflix’s Last Airbender, but they ultimately feed into the same issue: It’s boring to watch. One particularly illustrative example arrives in the season premiere, when Aang asks his old friend Bumi (Utkarsh Ambudkar) to teach him to earthbend, and Bumi refuses, explaining why Aang should seek out a different teacher. In the cartoon, this is an action-packed chase sequence full of inventive fantasy combat, culminating in about 45 seconds of exposition. On Netflix, it becomes a three-minute static conversation taking place in a darkened room. No one enjoys having things explained to them in this manner, least of all 10-year-olds.

M. Night Shyamalan’s Avatar movie is now a defining example of disastrous live-action adaptation, in large part due to the way it featured a majority-white cast in an Asian fantasy setting. The Netflix show clears that bar by staying true to the source material and making authentic casting choices, yet it doesn’t have a purpose beyond capitalizing on a popular franchise. Plus, the live-action format arrives with its own challenges. Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s animated choreography drew inspiration from real martial arts, but for obvious reasons a lot of the bending techniques break the laws of physics. In order to make that work in live-action, you’d need a martial arts stunt team that this show simply doesn’t have. 

For viewers who are new to the story, Season 2 provides a deeper look at the Fire Nation war, which we witness through its impact on civilian life. Across the Earth Kingdom, refugees are traveling to find food and shelter, while older generations recall their previous experiences with Fire Nation attacks. In Ba Sing Se, we get a kid-friendly exploration of life under an oppressive regime, where the government erases all evidence of the war outside. Skewing a little younger than The Hunger Games, it’s a dystopian narrative that viewers can easily map onto real life, depicting how well-meaning people can be swayed by propaganda and manipulative leadership. 

Once again, Zuko receives the most interesting arc among the main cast, starting to forge his own identity as he faces up to the destructive effect of his father’s rule. But at the risk of belaboring the point, this season’s qualities still pale in comparison to the original series. Starring a young cast who sometimes struggle to bring life to a dull script, this show’s main selling point is the fact that it isn’t a cartoon — and that clearly isn’t a strength in itself. 

Premieres: Thursday, June 25 on Netflix
Who’s in it: Gordon Cormier, Dallas Liu, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Miyako
Who’s behind it: Christine Boylan and Jabbar Raisani (showrunners), Albert Kim (executive producer)
For fans of: Season 1 of Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender
Episodes watched: 5 of 7