Cinepals - AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER (Netflix) 1x6 Review & Discussion!

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

This is our honest and immediate thoughts on Avatar The Last Airbender Episode 3 from the new live action adaptation by Netflix. What did they get right? What did they get wrong? Does it work? The live action show stars: • Gordon Cormier as Aang  • Kiawentiio as Katara • Ian Ousley as Sokka • Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko • Elizabeth Yu as Azula • Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Robocop, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Total Recall 2070, Ahsoka) as Uncle Iroh • Daniel Dae Kim (Hellboy, Lost, The Legend of Korra, Saints Row IV, Spider-Man 2, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Crash, 24, ER, Star Trek Enterprise, Hulk, Angel, Star Trek: Voyager, The Practice, Seinfeld, The Pretender, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, The Jackal, Walker Texas Ranger, Cradle 2 the Grave, The Divergent Series) as Fire Lord Ozai • Ken Leung (Rush Hour, The Family Man, Vanilla Sky, Saw, Inside Man, X-Men The Last Stand, Star Wars Episode VII, The Blacklist, Old, Inhumans, Joker: Folie à Deux) as Commander Zhao Join our Patreon www.Patreon.com/JabyKoay for the full length reaction to this show and many others ans subscribe to our YouTube channel for the cutdowns www.youtube.com/@cinepals   SOCIAL MEDIA ~CinePals~ Twitter & Instagram: @TheCinePals ~Jaby Koay~ Twitter & Instagram: @JabyKoay ~Achara Kirk~ Twitter & Instagram: @AcharaKirk

Sina. Pals. What's going on, everyone? I am Jabby Kauai, joined by Acharya Kirk. What's up? We are watching Avatar, The Last Airbender, Episode 6, from the Netflix live action adaptation. Thanks again for joining us. Every episode since episode 4 has just been making me cry. Aye, aye, aye.

Yeah, that thing with Gatsu, we knew. It still hurts. They telegraphed it. But yeah. It still hurts. It still hurts. And his little face when he walked in the door, and it's... It's like, oh, no, I've been left behind again?

Oh, I can't. Hmm. What? No, I get you. I get your feelings. Yeah, no. And then, like, when Zuko was, like, recovering in the bed, and he's, like, crying, and he's, like, you know, the weak can be strong, too. And I'm like, oh, poor baby.

Yeah. I just want to give you a cuddle. Oh, he's so good. Dallas Lou is such a good actor. He's killing it, man. Because even when he's doing nothing, he's doing great. Yeah. You know, when Ang was talking to him in that little, I don't know what, the hut or whatever,

and Ang is going on and on. Yeah. You know what he's a goat hair or lemur hair. I forgot what he's asking him. Rabbit. Rabbit hair. And he's just looking at him. Yeah.

You can see there's something going on in his eyes. Yeah. He's feeling so many things. And whatever that is, it's so interesting to watch. And when he's laying there, his spirit is busted. You know, his spirit's broken. His pops just burn his face half off. And it's like, he does such a good job with the moments where you're not allowed to do much.

Either he's a huge fan of the show. He really wanted to do it justice. Or when he got the part, he like really, really like deep dived into the character. he's bringing so much. I see a long career for him. Yeah, he's great. He's such a strong actor. Such a strong actor.

I'm just so impressed with his ability to do a lot with very little. And I've seen that in other actors in the show where it's a small moment and it should be a small moment. And they do a lot of like, shifty looks with their eyes. And I'm like, it's a bit much. The guy playing Zhao, who was the bad guy in Rush Hour, Ken Long. Yeah. Like, I like him. It's his interpretation of that character.

and I think that it works for the show. Right. It's just that there's a lack of strength sometimes I see in his character that I felt from the cartoon. And maybe that's on purpose. It's something in the way he performs that doesn't quite resonate with me, not quite my tempo. Yes.

But I think maybe it works for the show and I'm just getting used to him still. Like if I was a second watch, maybe I'd be more cool with it. Daniel Day Kim, though. Oh, wow. Whoa. Yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Taking into consideration in episode five with six

because it's almost like a two-parter episode, right? I know the whole thing is one cohesive, almost like a long movie. Yeah. But five and six are very much together. It had a nice journey and a nice arc in the way that they fused multiple episodes together. And I think they were able to accomplish most of the beats effectively that they needed to accomplish. Yeah.

And the nice little monologue by Iro with the montage of imagery. I thought it all worked together really nicely. They adapted what was in the cartoon actually quite effectively. I thought it was nice. the way they kind of expanded on what was in the cartoon. Fire Lord Ozai. I really like what they're doing with his character here. And I don't know if that is in the writing, in the direction, or in the choices that

Daniel Day Kim is making for the character. But I like how you can see that underneath it all, he's not just this like completely sadist monster. He does care for Zuko. He just thinks that he has to be hard in order to. to teach him these important life lessons. You can see that it pains him to hurt his son, but he's like, he must be taught.

I really like those colors that they're kind of adding to this character. Who's basically an Asian mom? Pretty much. I was initially reluctant to buy into this whole thing of Ang having to split up from guitar and soccer. But I think that what they did with that time was very useful. It allowed us to focus in more on Ang. Yeah.

Because I felt up to that point, I don't really feel too much of a connection with Ang. Like, I wasn't feeling the connection that I felt with him in the cartoon. I still don't exactly. But this episode allowed me to access him more than in the previous episodes because he was without them. Yeah, because he, and I loved the stuff where he was talking with Prince Zuko as well. It was just a very vulnerable moment for him as well. Or he's just kind of talking about the expectations that are on his small shoulders

that he understands maybe a bit of what Zuko is going through. Like, I thought all of that stuff would, like, discovering who people are and behind those masks, right? Like, even the revelation to Zucco's army that, like, well, actually, kind of saved your lives because you were about to be sacrificed, you know? Like, it was all really cool to drive the point home of, like, maybe you don't really know who someone is at first glance. How did you feel about the acceleration of this whole Prince Zucco's storyline? I feel two things about it. I like it and I don't like it. I like the way they did it in the cartoon because it allowed me to dislike him first before I got to like him.

But at the same time, like, we don't know. Netflix doesn't know if they're going to get a season two or three out of this. There have been many Netflix shows that have been canceled because they just didn't get the traction that Netflix was hoping for. And so like glow, for instance, they didn't get a season four or something like that. Keeping that in mind in what Netflix has. a history of. I like that they brought it forward because it allowed me to really appreciate the talent that is Dallas Liu. Yeah. His ability, like, I got to say it again, his ability to do so much with so little, it's such a challenge. Like, I think that that's one of the most difficult things to

do is to still make you feel something off of doing nearly nothing. Uncle Iro, played by Paul's son, Jung Lee. Like, he is so good at the moments where he's almost choking up. Yeah. That's where he shines. He really does. Yeah. That's where he wins. me over. It's the other stuff where I'm like, that's okay. It's fine. It's fine. We're going to that's fine. It's when it gets to the emotional stuff, I'm like, okay, that's why they hired you. With Prince Zuko, I think I feel similarly. In a way, it is cool that we get to have that earlier. And I think for anyone who's coming into this fresh, not knowing Prince Zuko's actual backstory, it's probably really nice to be able to kind of latch onto his character.

in a positive way a lot sooner. The note I had earlier about Aang and feeling overtrained, there was misinterpreted by a comment where someone thought I was talking about his powers as an airbender, and I was talking about him as an actor. Yeah. And I still get that sense of him feeling overtrained. But I will say that there are a multitude of instances

where he is just looking and he's quiet and observing. I love those moments with him. That's where he has done his best. I feel like you need to maybe give some people a little bit of context about, like, the whole overtrained statement. Well, because you have, okay. Because you used to work in casting. Yeah, you have two different kinds of kids in, or three. One, the parent is forcing the kid to be there and the kid is just awful.

And then the kid is like, nah, and I'm like crying. And it's like, okay, this kid clearly should not be, like, if you can't get him to do the audition, you should, it's not going to be on set. They're not like, it's going to be a problem, right? Yeah. And then you have the kids who are just very naturalistic. I think that's how, what's his name for Terminator 2 got hired. He was also 12 or 13 at the time. And he was just so real and raw.

Then you have the kids who are very well trained, who can like hit their marks, hit like commit the lines to memory like that. Take direction. Take direction. They all, they know all the notes and stuff like that. And like this kid is clearly very, very well trained. That's great. But you can feel the training because he doesn't have the experience.

experience of a grownup, it's hard to like separate then between like, it's hard to find the naturalistic thing again. Right. Because sometimes it's like, yes, you need to rely on your tools and your training and all of that. But the training is there to support you so that in the moment you let it all go. Yeah. Which is where the magic happens. Yeah. He doesn't seem to have emotional improvisation. He's having to rely on, okay, this is what I'm supposed to feel right now. Gordon Cormier and Keo Wen Tio, like they're, they feel young. And so, yeah, they maybe lack some of that experience and confidence to just kind of be like, I'll just hope that my feelings carry me through. This is setting aside the fact that this kid has a show to carry.

Yeah. You know, that's a lot of pressure. It's like the same pressure as being the avatar in a way. You know, he's leading this show and he's so young. And he's doing a fantastic job overall. Yeah, I mean, especially being this. new person that no one's heard of before really like that's a lot of pressure yeah can you imagine like yay the the joy of being like i booked the avatar but also like oh my god there's

an entire fandom who's out there watching me judging me being like are you good yeah don't mess up ang you know you guys thanks so much for hanging with us hopefully enjoyed that i'm jabby kui this is achara cook peace out