When the Netflix live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender was first announced, I was cautiously optimistic about it.
This optimism faltered a bit when the creators of the original show departed, but my hopes started climbing again when I saw the trailers, which were quite good.
Well, the show is out and the consensus is in.
Turns out, the fandom is as divided as the two tribes in “The Great Divide” episode. 

As for me, I quite enjoyed Netflix’s adaptation of Avatar.
Is it as good as the original?
No, but it was never going to be.
Going into the show, I wanted a retelling of the story with changes that stuck true to the soul of the original and, for the most part, I got that.
Like the cartoon, the adaptation follows Aang (Gordon Comier) who, as the Avatar, is the only one who can master all four elements of Water, Earth, Fire and Air.
However, after being frozen in ice for a hundred years, he awakens to find that, in his absence, the Fire Nation has been waging war on the world and killed all of the Air Nomads. 

Teaming up with Katara (Kiawentiio) and Sokka (Ian Ousley) from the Water Tribe, Aang sets out of a journey to master all the elements to save the world, all the while being pursued by the disgraced Prince Zuko (Dallus Liu) and his tea loving uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee).
For the most part, I would say that the actors chosen to play these iconic characters do a good job portraying them.
My favorites of the bunch were definitely Ousley as Sokka, Liu as Zuko, Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh, Daniel Dae Kim as Ozai, and Ken Leung as Zhao.
Ousley in particular is excellent as Sokka who, while some of his character growth is unfortunately cut, still portrays the character with a lot of spirit and humor. 

The comedy of the adaptation is definitely in keeping with the original, with a lot of great laughs from both Sokka and the interactions between Zuko and Iroh.
The maintaining of this humor was good to see since this adaptation is darker than the original cartoon, what with the showing of the genocide.
The series also has plenty of good emotional moments, with the hardest hitting being an added scene at Lu Ten’s funeral.
This scene had me tearing up, although I will admit that this was mostly due to the context I had as a fan of the original show. 

So, the adaptation definitely maintains the soul of the original in regard to its tone with the good mixture of humorous, dark and emotional moments.
Where it deviates from the original is what I was most interested to see going in.
I wanted to see how the writers would introduce characters in different places and blend them into other storylines.
I think the writers nailed this in some areas and failed in others.
For example, I think episodes three and four did the mixing of different storylines and characters to create a new and cohesive storyline excellently.
However, I think the writers also dropped the ball with it, as Episode Five feels quite disjointed and like things were only added for fan service reasons, rather than them being necessary.  

I would not say that Episode Five is the weakest episode, though.
No, I think the first episode is, what with its constant clunky exposition.
This clunky exposition is an issue which sadly persists throughout the season, and I hope future seasons can improve upon it.
Another thing I hope they improve upon is the CGI.
Don’t get me wrong, the CGI is not bad.
There are a lot of moments of fantastic computer-generated environments across the season.
It’s just that sometimes, when the actors interact with these environments, I could clearly tell that they were looking at a green screen.  

And then there are a few things that the adaptation did which I just think were straight up bad ideas.
The first of these is the portrayal of Roku (C.S Lee).
He is the first past Avatar we see in the original show, and he is by far the most important as he warns Aang about Sozin’s Comet.
In the adaptation, however, he is overshadowed in importance by Kyoshi (Yvonne Chapman) and Kuruk (Meegwun Fairbrother), and he feels completely different from the Roku of the original.
The second, and by far the worst thing the adaptation did was Aang not learning Water Bending.
Seriously, this season is an adaptation of Book One.
You know, the book named Water.
Each season of the show focuses on Aang learning an element.
Book One is water, Book Two is earth, and Book Three is fire.
Aang not learning to Water Bend is honestly baffling to me. 

Aang is probably going to learn to Water Bend in between now and the next season, and I really hope the show does not do the same for earth and fire.
Still, there are a couple of changes that I think are actually improvements the original show.
Having Zuko’s crew be the division he saved, and having Han be an actually pretty nice guy were both great decisions.
So, with plenty of positives and negatives in this first season, it is easy to see why the fandom is divided.
For me, I would say that I am satisfied with this adaptation, so far.
Yes, there are some questionable deviations but there are also plenty of good changes as well, and the soul of the original show is still there.
I look forward to seeing the next season of this adaptation and hope they can improve upon it.