The Last Airbender

Netflix™ is wonderful. Not good enough for me to own stock in it, but I certainly enjoy the service. As long as they have shows I want, Netflix is the way to watch.

As I've mentioned before, we watch a lot of television series, many of them already concluded. Some we watch to see if we want to watch the current series. Hell on Wheels, for instance, is a western series set during the years of building the railroad. I like westerns, so we watched the first season before deciding it wasn't worth continuing. Perhaps building the railroad was as dirty, gritty and evil as they portray, but if I watch something I'd like to see some redemption in the story. We didn't see that in the series, so we'll not continue with it. Along the same lines, we just couldn't get into The Walking Dead, a series about an apocalyptic world filled with zombies. I have a fascination with apocalyptic stories, though I'm not a big zombie fan. There might be some redemption in the series but it was, frankly, just too graphic. We tried Torchwood but just couldn't get into it, which is a bit odd, since I really like good science fiction. Maybe that's why I couldn't get into it. We still watch Farscape, but it's easy to lose interest and we've taken a break from that series. That's another nice thing about Netflix™; the shows are there when we want to see them.

The movie The Last Airbender was given poor reviews in the theaters. Darling and I had no preconceived notions and it was a fun movie. I read that the series was good, regardless of the simple fact that it is animated. I like a good story. The series didn't disappoint. We finished the first season and it coincided nicely with the movie. Because of the poor ratings for the movie, I don't think they'll make another one, but we'll watch the rest of the animated series on Netflix. It does help that it is served in short, twenty-four minute sections. I think the writing is pretty good, almost all episodes ending with a funny line or short scene. I like that a lot.

I won't say all the lessons are good ones. In one, the heroine steals a scroll. Granted, she steals it from Pirate thieves, but it is still stealing. In another, the Avatar makes up a story (lies) so that two tribes will stop feuding, a problem they've had for generations. Still, lying is lying. A good truth might have served them better. The Avatar is a reincarnated being; well, that just isn't going to happen.

Overall, the series is still entertaining and I can overlook some of the trivial because it is fiction. I don't pattern my life after a television show, and have no intention of making changes in my way of living because of a television series.

Ideally, I suppose the series would contain inspirational messages that would make me want to change my life for the better. It does have themes of loyalty, of sacrifice, of failure and repentance - things that are part of real life.

I don't know. The Last Airbender is a fun show with no bad words and no graphic violence. I can deal with that.