Postby Gendo'sPapa » Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:45 am
The Legend of Korra is really good. It has some flaws - the writing is not as focused as the original show, by breaking the show up into four complete mini-series characters drastically fluctuate in importance & the at-the-time big deal of ending the show with a canon gay romance fell flat for me because I don't recall the two characters ever having had an actual conversation beforehand - but is still up there as one of the better American animated series.
Not sure how to think about an Avatar: The Last Airbender remake but Netflix is seriously looking for their own Game of Thrones*** + they need a mega-franchise brandname show to compete with Disney Streaming (launching in Fall 2019) that is going to draw most of its appeal from viciously using popular franchises. I expect we're about to see a couple announcements of "Netflix to do show on INSERT BRAND NAME Here" as they prepare for Disney Streaming to steal a lot of their online viewer hours.
On the upside though, sounds like the original creators are actually involved this time & not just there in name-only so a certain filmmaker can make it all their own Netflix will pull out the big bucks for it & best of all, with the times that they are now thankfully whitewashing ain't gonna get a cultural pass in 2019/2020 like it did in 2010. Sokka & Katara won't be two super white kids from the suburbs of Kentucky hilariously out of place when standing alongside the rest of the members from their "Tribe" who are all actual Inuits. That still blows my mind that people thought it was "acceptable".
I am interested.
***Which Netflix will never really get a Game of Thrones type pop-culture phenom. Their model of "You Can Watch it All Now" ruins any chance of them having a long-standing pop culture juggernaut like Game Of Thrones. Even their biggest hit shows, namely House of Cards & Stranger Things, have a very short lifespan as the center of pop culture - Kevin Spacey scandal aside I think every season of House of Cards is maybe a popular center of discussion for 4 days before people move on to the next things & while Stranger Things fares a little better it's mostly iconography & people's weird obsession with the way underage lead actress that stays a points of conversation - before everyone moves on because people binge them as quick as possible & don't really sit with the experience. A big reason why GoT is the phenomenon it is today is because the story (show, not the books which will never end) has been slowly dished out to people over the course of almost a decade. When you only get a little bit of the story a week it engenders discussion with others, anticipation of whats next, the opportunity to make narrative predictions & be proven right or wrong, etc. The audience sees a character change from one viewpoint to another over the course of several months & not just over the course of an afternoon. New Avatar will be huge for Netflix but most people will probably binge the first new season in a weekend.