Like every month before, I clicked on the What’s Coming to Netflix YouTube video to see what to get excited about come May. Most of the advertised shows were Netflix Originals (no surprise there), but then, I saw it. Avatar: The Last Airbender. Not the M. Night Shyamalan disaster, but the O.G. Nickelodeon cartoon.
There are a billion reasons why I’m absolutely stoked that this show is coming to Netflix (May 15th)! Mainly, I’m excited to watch one of my childhood favorites all over again and experience the emotions I felt when I watched it the first time around. I haven’t seen the show since 2008, when I watched the series finale in the break room of my local YMCA because I was there for some Friday night hangout program they put on for the public schools, so yeah, I guess it was a while ago.
It’s not that I didn’t want to rewatch the show – because I definitely did – but it’s one of those shows for which you have to allow some time to process for a while, before you’re emotionally ready to dive into the plot. We were given three seasons of absolutely riveting writing, episodes and characters that were extremely progressive for their time. Young me was in love with everything about the show: there was action, depth, underlying romance, humor, people with “superpowers” and a large acceptance of fantasy elements. I mean, what kid wouldn’t love a show like that? Older me stills loves the show for all of that and more. I think I grew into appreciating how well the story arcs and how well the character developments were written, since I knew a little bit more about the creative side of things as I got older. The parallels between characters and their flaws gave the show such a realistic feeling.
In a way, Avatar: The Last Airbender was my generation’s Steven Universe. While it didn’t have as much of a social impact as Steven Universe (a large movement of people accepting and being proud of their LGBTQ+ identities), both shows depict young characters dealing with pretty traumatic events and the effects of those events that everyone handles differently. Furthermore, both shows depict how people can change, even if they’ve been the villain.
Ugh, I could go on and on about this show, but Avatar: The Last Airbender is one that you have to watch for yourself to fully understand. For now, I’m counting down the days and overloading my social media feeds with interesting facts and analyses.