Grounded, human, and sensible writing. A simple but visually breathtaking magic system, that still somehow feels physically plausible in action. Minimal exposition and mumbo jumbo. Good leads and some particularly excellent anti heroes and supporting characters. ATLA is what other fantasy series wish they could be, in spite of the franchise's severe limitations.

The animation is excellent, particularly in action sequences. The soundtrack is legendary. But all releases (even the recent Blu-Ray remaster) suffer from interlacing and oversharpening artifacts, albeit not enough to significantly detract from the show.

It is not a flawless masterpiece, like some reviewers are raving about... not even close. ATLA feels immature or cringy at times, it has a boring evil main villain, and some episodes are slow. But its just so many levels above other fantasy series, and most live action TV, that it deserves a rare 10/10 rating.

I would highly recommend the sequel series as well. It feels like a reincarnation of ATLA, not a continuation or an orthogonal story.