Weeks after its release, the general consensus about Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender seems to be: Well, at least it’s better than the infamous M. Night Shyamalan version! A low bar, but at least it was cleared.
But why is it so hard to adapt Avatar: The Last Airbender? It could be the scope. ATLA is sprawling, taking place over three 20-episode seasons. Condensing even a single season into a movie or an eight-episode drama means losing some pivotal character moments (even if ultimately the run times between seasons might be similar). Plus, there’s a lot that animation brings to a story that can’t ever be replicated in live action.
But the great thing is that the perfect ATLA adaptation already exists — it’s just in the source material itself.
Yes, I’m talking about the Ember Island Players’ adaptation in “The........