After much thought and consideration... I've decided to write a review for this show. Let me start by saying that I had my hopes so high for this show, since its rating is so high and all the reviews are in its favor and obviously I wanted to like it, to be moved, intrigued, mind-blown and overall entertained. And I got most of them... but overall this show felt pretty average to me. Usually before I choose a series to watch I normaly check the imdb all time 250 list of TV Shows in order to find one that seems interesting, has a pretty decent rating and the balance between its episodes ratings of over 9 and under 9 is decent too. Avatar: The Last Airbender seemed therefore decent enough for me to give it a shot. I'll try in this review to be as objective as I can and to mention both the good things it does and also the bad things.

Starting with the good: The premise of the show of having people that can bend the 4 main elements of our world seemed pretty interesting. And the fact that one nation was in war with the other nations really caught my attention. The characters were ok and likeable overall... even though they were a bit cliched (more on that in the bad part) but what I loved about the characters in this show was their development, especially Zuko's and Iroh's (who was my favorite character by far) who were the only characters I truly liked a lot. The others were ok to say the least. The development of these two especially in seasons 2 and three were incredible and the episodes were so good that in someway for me saved this series from being just an ordinary "Shaman King"-like show for kids. Also, at times there were episodes so good that it reminded me of some of the best episodes from real TV shows like Prison Break, LOST, etc... And although season 1 and some episodes from season 2 were just like kids show, the rest of season 2 and season 3 were great and with tension and stakes, storytelling, character development and fitting ending. But the overall fun and excitement this show gave me over its three season course cannot be outweighted by the faults and flaws that in my opinion it had. It was overall a pretty good show that unfortunately didn't surprised me or shocked me through its development or twists in the story, but which had just enough to make it overall fun and worth watching.

The bad stuff: Just like any TV Show or movie that takes place in an "alternate Earth" no matter its time period, just like Lord of The Rings or Game of Thrones, etc... it lacks background. And what I mean by that is that it doesn't feel palpable or believable like a story that would take place on "our Earth". And that is through the fact that this show just like others introduces a new world that needs so much background to be believable. You would say "why does it need?". For me something that has a good foundation, good basic explanation for things that happen or exist in the show is overall good and believable. But something that is superficial and expects me to just don't care about that and defies my logic in order to like and accept that, doesn't really work for me. From the premise I had sooo many questions. Like why there are 4 nations? Why certain people could bend only a specific element and others other element? "you may say that some powerful force (like in star wars)" but that is just gibberish. Next, why were there an Avatar? Why only him could learn to control all elements? How did the Avatar reincarnation process happen? How , how and how? Why did the Fire Nation destroyed and conquered so many cities and tribes? And yes the last one is answered by stating that the Fire Nation only wanted to share technology with the other nations. But you do that through force and war, and killing inocent people? Really? Wasn't any other way to do that? Couldn't the writers find a better motivation for the fire nation's actions? It just seems safe writing because after all this was a kids show. Next... story and episodes: The story was overall good except the filler episodes. And those were like 50% of the show. And although there were good episodes and chracter development throughout the show for SOME chracters, others stayed the same. Aang remained just as childish as in the beginning. Soka was throughout the whole show just the third character with funny jokes and overall very cliched. And Katara was the cliche girl-who was in love with the main guy but didn't wanted to tell him that-type. Speaking of the development, Aang's learning of mastering the four elements is not shown throughtout the show to be growing and becoming better. It is shown only in 3 episodes separately for each of the other elements he didn't master and ocasionaly here and there some training in the filler episodes. But you don't get a sense that this guy is learning, is acumulating knowledge in how to control these four elements (or 3, since he was an airbender master). The only time it was brought out was in the last four episodes when he needed to face Ozai. But otherwise no development of his powers during the shows run. Even the opening theme (and this is laughably bad) kept the thing about him needing to learn more before he could save the world until the last episode. I mean wasn't he at least somewhat ready then? How else could he defeat Ozai? It is beyond my mind how no one seems to notice this and just keep praising this show and saying "oh, this show is the best ever!", when it has soo many problems. Next, the finale is pretty weak (I mean only the 4th part) but I wrote a review for that, you can check that out. I spoke there also about the villain. There were also episodes that were extremly overrated like "The Crossroads of Destiny" in which Aang - ***SPOILERS FROM HERE - was in danger of dying by Azula's lightning. That is never explained why he was vulnerable to her lightning although he was in the Avatar State and as it was shown earlier in season 1 finale he was pretty much invincible in that mode, or how did the lightning affected him, at least to try and make some decent sense. I know, it was only a shock tool to make you think he was going to die. But if you would have thought it through you would have realised (and not be shocked then) that he couldn't have died. Since he was the one the show said it was going to save the world. Therefore that shot left me cold, knowing that it had no value at all just shock, since he was going to survive and bring order in the world by the end of the show. Next, and that is probably just as much as disappointing and frustrating is that Zuko betrayed Aang when all the season his character was being build as one who was starting to doubt the side on which he was and go join Aang's side. That build-up was blown into pieces by an unexplicably turnaround by the season 2 finale where he sides with Azula inexplicably. That was just like Star Wars: The Last Jedi. You build a chracter towards a decision and then you make him take the oposite decision. That right there took all my chatarsis away. I didn't feel like my emotions that were being build for the finale could be released and therefore the ending being worth it. - SPOILERS END HERE***

I could really go on and on, and talk about other stuff that disappointed me about this show, because my expectations were extremly high. Now I've learned a lesson, never have your hopes and expectations too high for anything. They might disappoint you just like this show disappointed me. In conclusion I would say that this show overall deserves an eight from me since it was very entertaining but at the same time flawed and with some problems that for me just can't make it a masterpiece like everyone is raging about.