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When I first heard people talking about how good Avatar: The Last Airbender was, I didn't pay much attention. It was a popular martial-arts superpower kiddie toon, and I knew about other "popular martial-arts superpower kiddie toons" of recent years. "Dragonball Z," meaning no disrespect to its fans, is not exactly the first title one thinks of when one thinks of epic storylines. (Epic planet-destroying martial-arts combats, on the other hand…)
But then I heard that M. Night Shyamalan, whose movies are at least well-crafted if not always to my liking, was planning to make a live-action adaptation of the series. And when I heard him comparing his plans to a "live-action Miyazaki movie," I was intrigued. As a friend had tivoed the first season's worth of episodes and burned copies for me, I didn't have to look very far to catch my first glimpse. The first half-dozen episodes caught my attention; the next half-dozen got better, and then I was completely hooked by episodes 12 and 13, and have just finished watching the whole thing through the last episode that's aired anywhere, "The Firebending Masters." And I have also just done something I almost never do for lengthy TV series—not even for Transformers: Beast Wars: I ordered the full-season box sets of Avatar Seasons 1 and 2, and will snag 3 as soon as it comes out.
( Why I'm so enthralled. )
There are so many other ways I could go into why I love the series—talking about the powerful and moving images, plots, and subplots in detail—but they'd almost all be spoilers, and this if any show deserves to be spoiled as little as possible. Suffice it to say that this show is one of the best things on TV today, and I'll be waiting with bated breath for my DVDs to arrive so I can explore all the extras.
(Apparently I'm not the only one to feel this way: Airbender's IMDB rating is a respectable 9.3—with 4,905 votes.)
But then I heard that M. Night Shyamalan, whose movies are at least well-crafted if not always to my liking, was planning to make a live-action adaptation of the series. And when I heard him comparing his plans to a "live-action Miyazaki movie," I was intrigued. As a friend had tivoed the first season's worth of episodes and burned copies for me, I didn't have to look very far to catch my first glimpse. The first half-dozen episodes caught my attention; the next half-dozen got better, and then I was completely hooked by episodes 12 and 13, and have just finished watching the whole thing through the last episode that's aired anywhere, "The Firebending Masters." And I have also just done something I almost never do for lengthy TV series—not even for Transformers: Beast Wars: I ordered the full-season box sets of Avatar Seasons 1 and 2, and will snag 3 as soon as it comes out.
( Why I'm so enthralled. )
There are so many other ways I could go into why I love the series—talking about the powerful and moving images, plots, and subplots in detail—but they'd almost all be spoilers, and this if any show deserves to be spoiled as little as possible. Suffice it to say that this show is one of the best things on TV today, and I'll be waiting with bated breath for my DVDs to arrive so I can explore all the extras.
(Apparently I'm not the only one to feel this way: Airbender's IMDB rating is a respectable 9.3—with 4,905 votes.)
