It’s official: Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 is happening – so, what does the Netflix live-action remake’s second batch of episodes need to get right?
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That may seem like a strange question, especially if you’re looking at Avatar from Netflix’s position. After all, the show – which retells the beloved Nickelodeon animated series of the same name – posted 21.2 million views in just four days. As of March 7, 2024, its total view count was over 41 million. So, despite Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s mixed reviews, it more than met Netflix’s expectations. That’s why the platform’s execs greenlit a second (and third) season, after all.
But as the live-action Avatar‘s lukewarm critical reception suggests, there is room for improvement here. Indeed, for Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 to soar as high as its protagonist, Aang, it has to focus on one thing in particular: taking its time.
Breakneck Pacing Is the Netflix Avatar’s Achilles Heel
Sure, there are plenty of other areas where showrunner Albert Kim and his cast and crew could sharpen things up in Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s second season. Season 1’s CGI could’ve been more consistent, its lengthy monologues shorter and less overwrought. Some of Avatar‘s younger actors could’ve used a little more help shaping their performances, too.
Kim and his team have also yet to make the most of being in a unique position to expand upon the original Avatar story. Arguably, the whole point of revisiting the Nickelodeon animated series in live-action is that you can reimagine it in ways that would’ve been inappropriate for a cartoon aimed at kids. But so far, we’ve only seen this happen very rarely; the Air Nomad genocide sequence in Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1’s first entry, “Aang,” set a precedent future episodes failed to meaningfully follow.
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Yet none of these shortcomings is what’s holding Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender back. Indeed, even if Season 2 doesn’t address any of them, it’ll still be a perfectly serviceable batch of episodes, just like Season 1. No, for Avatar‘s sophomore outing to really move the needle, it needs to slow down its storytelling. That doesn’t necessarily mean stretching things out across more installments – although few people (myself included) would object to that – but rather a less breakneck approach to pacing.
Trying to squeeze all 61 episodes of the Avatar cartoon into less than half that number of live-action episodes was always going to leave less room for downtime. As such, all but the most ardent purists expected that some of Avatar‘s most beloved subplots, character beats, and running gags wouldn’t make the jump to the Netflix series. There’s a balance to be struck, however, and right now, the Netflix version isn’t getting it right.
Avatar’s Side Stories Are Its Secret Sauce
True, Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 is broadly faithful to its cartoon counterpart’s core narrative. But there’s more to Avatar than just Aang’s quest to master all the elements and bring down the Fire Nation. So much of the heart of the series – particularly its humor – lies outside its central storyline. Prune away too much of this material, and you’ve captured Avatar‘s story, but lost its soul. There must be room for hilarious beach vacations and heartbreaking solo “soldier boy” song sing-a-longs, too.
Whittling Avatar: The Last Airbender down to its essential plot points drastically diminishes all its core characters’ arcs. If Kim and his fellow writers and directors can’t figure out how to make room for stuff like Iroh and Zuko’s tea shop or Katara and Toph’s girls’ day out in Season 2, we’ll never bond with them the way we did the first time around. The original Avatar‘s second season is where the overarching plot really kicks into gear, however, it’s also where the show’s characterization goes up a notch, as well – and the Netflix Avatar‘s second season needs to honor both.
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Of course, that’s easier said than done. As I alluded to earlier, even if Netflix slings Kim a couple more episodes for Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2, that probably won’t solve the problem. How could it? There’s still going to be more source material than screen time. But there is another, more practical solution – albeit one most fans won’t want to hear: less fidelity to the cartoon.
If the Netflix show’s current approach of condensing the established Avatar narrative doesn’t allow necessary space to do its heart and humor justice, frankly, it doesn’t work. It’s as simple as that. So, for Season 2, Kim and his team should try rebuilding Avatar‘s story from the ground up, creating a new roadmap that treats the cartoon’s spirit, not its synopsis, as its North Star (or Sozin’s Comet, as it were).
Will this spark outcry when Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 lands? Absolutely. However, most Avatar devotees will eventually come around to this more substantively faithful retelling of Aang’s story – it’ll just be a matter of time.
All eight episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 1 are currently streaming on Netflix.
