But Airbender got what few animated series of its time had ever gotten: a planned three-season story arc, which allowed its complex themes and fantastic character development to evolve over time.Īirbender’s main conceit involves the use of Earth’s four traditional elements: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air.

That description might seem like a lot more than a show airing on the popular kids network Nickelodeon, of all places, can handle. Airbender’s storyline was unprecedented for its complexity and scopeĪirbender’s premise is frankly kind of oddball: a 12-year-old who’s also a monk who’s also a reincarnated superhero needs to singlehandedly save the world from encroaching conquest by an aggressive military nation. Here are four things to know about the show if you’re watching it for the first time, or just want to understand what makes the series great. Now that Airbender is on Netflix once more, it’s primed for an overdue, well-earned cultural resurgence. The story - a goofy kid who’s also the most powerful spiritual mage on the planet joins his friends on a quest to save the world - first surprises you, then charms you, and ultimately sweeps you up and deposits you in an entirely different headspace than where you began. There’s a multitude of reasons for that level of devotion. In my experience, most viewers don’t merely like Airbender they love it, the kind of love that usually gets reserved for shows with much broader critical and cultural clout. That’s a huge shame, because Airbender deserves to be more widely recognized by the broader public as one of the best shows ever made. Night Shyamalan’s notorious travesty of a film adaptation in 2010 thwarted Airbender’s big push into the mainstream. But while longtime fans recognize the show’s excellence, M. An action-adventure set in a high fantasy world, Airbender had a huge influence on the many acclaimed, serialized animated series that followed. That’s true whether you’re an Airbender fan who’s feeling nostalgic, or someone who’s been meaning to check it out but never had the chance to before - or if, like me, you’ve never stopped missing Airbender since it aired.Ģ020 marks the 15th anniversary of the premiere of Airbender, which ran for three seasons on Nickelodeon from 2005–2008. The release is undoubtedly meant to build anticipation for Netflix’s planned live-action adaptation of the show, but no matter how you feel about that news, Airbender’s return is a win-win for Netflix and viewers alike. The Friday release marks the first time in several years that the beloved animated series has been available on a major streaming platform in the U.S. Avatar: The Last Airbender has returned to Netflix.

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