I GOT A JOB. Completely unrelated to the fact that Appa, Aang's flying bison, bears a striking resemblance to the mythical Alot, is the fact that Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender has been showing me an astonishingly good time. I never would have expected anything from the show - and I certainly wouldn't have watched it - had it not been for my girlfriend and I recently watching M. Night Shyamalan's abysmally acted take on it, which despite its shortcomings I enjoyed in a fairly extreme fashion that extends quite a bit beyond the quality of the film. This prompted her to tell me that it's a shame the film didn't do well enough to merit another two movies, since it's such a great story. Less than a week later I'm tearing through the series and having a great time of it - my only concern is my predictable inability to space them out and the episodes running out too soon.
The show takes potentially very dark material and gives it a very light, comedic treatment - sometimes too light if I'm being completely honest, but that's more of a matter of taste. It's done quite masterfully, making the show epic in scope while pedestrian in pacing and presentation. This is one of the big things that gets lost in translation to the big screen, where Shyamalan has given it an epic and frantically paced treatment that is frankly inappropriate. The show, on the other hand, feels VERY reminiscent at times of One Piece, which is possibly/probably my favorite manga and has always been an epic story couched in simple, in some ways even childish terms. Avatar obviously borrows very heavily on the oriental side of things, but it doesn't feel derivative, or like misinterpreted eastern sentiments snatched up by the creators are being even further misinterpreted by the writers and actors. It waxes a bit cheesy from time to time, but mostly sparingly enough that I can dig it.
Oh and I heard 'Splosion Man is on sale for $2 tomorrow. Sweet.
-R
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