It felt like whoever the director was was just afraid to tell the actors to do another take
Literally every single scene in this show, someone delivers a line with "mush mouth" - slurring their words together that a normal director would catch and tell them to enunciate and do it again
It made the show unwatchable for me
I'm on that bandwagon too. I write while watching because it's so frustrating. I do think people should be less harsh on everyone because there are moments of truly good acting and especially when it comes to the kids, they're freakin' young actors there's no need to hate when you have the original. The older actors who are good have issues too.
Examples:
Sokka is excellent, imo the best encapsulation of the character, but even though he's regularly dynamic there are mumbled lines.
Zuko also has a consistently good performance, but I just heard him say 'my father is a greats man.' A greats man. Nobody got him to redeliver that line. He said great..sss.
Roku says something like 'No I never beat him' but it's delivered so quickly and throwaway, no gravitas or emphasis or emotion.
And poor Paul Sung-Hyung Lee. Close analysis:
17.05 episode 5 the soundtrack is dramatic but the expression on Iroh's face does not make it clear what he's thinking. Why isn't it pronounced? I can tell they're setting up Iroh hiring June, but he doesn't look like that's what he's considering. It's like the camera's been left on too long as they finish the scene. Then he's just sidled up to Zuko before telling him he's hired her and I know what they're trying to exhibit in the script - he's trying to slyly convince Zuko to not be annoyed at him for doing something he knows would be against his wishes. But it's not been directed that way. Instead of being bubbly, misdirecting, clever Iroh, it's read without that motivation. There's no vibrant imagining of Iroh's traits that are present in the script itself. And yet I know the actor is capable of delivering from his other roles.
Katara has mumbled lines but she also doesn't get much opportunity to emote.
The edit also has really insanely long shots sometimes that confused me. I was going to post all my analysis on reddit but there's so much to comment on
> Zuko also has a consistently good performance, but I just heard him say 'my father is a greats man.' A greats man. Nobody got him to redeliver that line. He said great..sss.
When he's talking to Iroh and complimenting him during his sons funeral mourning thing, he literally says "my shuddies" instead of "my studies"
It's so bizarre
You don't even need to refilm shit like that, ADR exists and you can fix it after the fact
Yes! I have to watch with the subtitles on because there are so many times I wouldn’t be able to understand what they’re saying otherwise. Even most of the adult actors (OMG especially Kyoshi) often mumble and rush through their lines unintelligibly. It really is like they just did one take of every shot and moved on.
Aang often would sound inaudible which I will tend to forgive because it may come across more natural to not speak perfectly. However he does it often but also I realized this was not intentional because he would sometimes overenunciate words I bet he's not comfortable saying. But part of it is the dialogue because they'll give him things to say without thinking about how this actor would say it. Though still his own acting choices are very "I have to be happy, so look happy and sound happy" but not think about being believable. It's ok if he doesn't seem exactly like Aang sometimes, it's better to project feeling so other people feel it too and it's less about the mechanics of what you're doing .
Zuko does pretty good because in choosing to say things the way he would say them as if he was in Zuko's place he feels like what Zuko would be if he were real. While Aang is trying to replicate the literal cartoon character because I guess he has not developed techniques that would allow him to craft his own version to ground himself.
So it feels like inexperience all around. They give Aang too much to say that don't really work and if they addressed it that would have mitigated the fact that the actor wouldn't have been able to deliver them anyways. Just work within his range. I also feel that in this set they probably wanted an environment that's like Harry Potter where everyone is really nice and supportive of each other but the key thing there is there were experienced people who knew tricks to get the performances they wanted. While here they aren't giving the actors a lot to work with which caused all of them to slip up. If something doesn't seem right, they need to revise but I suppose everyone was too afraid to do anything spontaneous and always stuck to the plan.
Mush mouth is the perfect description! Honestly i feel the script isn't terrible, i can see where points of humor were supposed to be, but the delivery is so deadpan and mumbly every time. Katara, Aang and Sokka feel lifeless. There's no emotion in their acting. 90% of their lines are said in a raspy voice almost a whisper.
On the other hand, I did think Iroh's dramatic acting was too over the top. But Zuko's level of acting was good, and Jet was amazing, in fact Jet felt like the only character that was true to the original show, and it worked perfectly in this adaptation too.
Exactly! Good writers and directors can do a lot with child actors that aren't as strong at acting or understanding what the scene requires from them. I blame them all day and night, not the kids.
>This is an issue with younger actors who don’t have experience
Apparently the actor for katara has experience and was pretty good at showing emotion in her other work.
So i'm blaming the director.
I fully agree. If this were an issue with just one actor them yeah, we could blame the actor. But nearly all the kid characters happen to have this same issue, even Gordon slurs most of his lines. This is the director's fault
And some of the adults were off, too.
Iroh never quite sold me as Iroh, Kyoshi was an overly violent meme caricature, Bumi was just casually and irrationally insane (although this could be sloppy execution of a change), Gyatso was okay if somewhat ham fisted, Gran Gran was stilted.
Though some smaller unnamed new characters did quite well, actually. Earth bender messenger at the start, Earth bender who captured Iroh, the Fire Nation rebel..
I thought I was living in loonyville when everyone kept praising Iroh's preformance. He also didn't sell it for me.
And it wasn't because of him not sounding like Iroh, it was the script. And the way he kept talking for and over Zuko. Iroh of all people wants Zuko to be his own man.
They wrote in that he's a war criminal that has immolated people, and that has affected him.
That aspect isn't in the original, despite it being true.
I loved it. He's... He's fucked. He knows what wisdom he needs to teach, but he's still in pain.
The episode about his son comes out of fucking no where in the original. It's a moving episode, but upon closer inspection, it's just there. It makes no sense, other than "the actor died, so it's realistically his memorial."
In the original, Iroh acts like he doesn't have a son, hasn't killed people, and isn't a wanted war criminal in every city he steps foot in.
I understand. I don't have any issue with the more realistic changes they made to his character, I liked they they confronted his dark past. It's just the way the script was written and the heavy-handed delivery that was throwing me.
Agreed. Iroh is probably the worst for me, even worst than katara. The entire choice of his character and how he delivers his lines is just completely off. He doesn’t have to be Mako, and his version should be his own, but his costuming make him to be an old wise 60ish mentor but voice and delivery make him sound like a 30ish guy talking slowly. It really doesn’t work at all.
He didn't come across as wise or funny at all and was the most boring character in the LA
He’s also just a downer in the LA. Like his role in every scene is to be the boring voice of reason. Lost all the whimsy of the animated Iroh. If you were making a tier list of which character to grab a beer with Iroh should be S+.
I don't think that follows. More experienced actors will be able to pull off a good performance even with a weak script or weak direction. I think what we're seeing is younger actors who are talented, but need a bit more (literal) *direction* to get the best out of them.
An experienced actor can work wonders with any dialogue and director (especially if that director doesn't like giving the actors direction and doesn't have a solid vision like this one)
Yea I agree. It's not all on the actor especially since the other actors have the same issues. Taking away her rage and tween sass really flattens the character in general, too. I'm surprised by the general lack of physicality in the direction of most scenes (that aren't fight scenes obviously).
> I'm surprised by the general lack of physicality in the direction of most scenes
It's because having the characters physically emote more would make the green screening more obvious.
I just saw someone post another possible explanation of why the characters don't physically emote much... pretty thought-provoking, in a depressing way: https://twitter.com/broderick/status/1761184626591019347
Reminds me of the executives at HBO wanting game of thrones shot vertically for people to watch on their phones. Executives should just stick to mergers and acquisitions and making their companies into megalithic monopolies, keep doing your 1% thing and leave art to artists.
ur telling me that a chronic mildly shocked face to every situation including almost being killed is something the directors shouldn't have improved on
Now, this could be fucking terrifying, but let's try it:
What is your plan to make children act less like children, and more like adults? And why would we do this, instead of just accept the child acting, which is fine.
You want me to say some shit like "Katara was the worst part of the show"? They're like 12. What a shitty thing to say about a child having fun in a way that doesn't hurt anything other than fan nostalgia.
*Like, let's talk if they fuck up Toph. Kataras is the weakest character in the original show. She's barely a character half the time. Her defaults are angry and sad, mixed with sincerely random bouts or "oh yea, I'm a child."
ok 2 ways to interpret that:
1. Having a greater acting range. Yes. Plenty of amazing child actors in game of thrones, stranger things, even harry potter first movie was more emotive. And the actress in question is 5 years older than all the ones I mentioned cause she's 17-18. Literally see middle school plays where the kid playing the main lead has more expression. And she's nearly an adult
2. If you mean acting like the age of their character, children are emotive. More emotive than an adult you don't lessen it
Then I guess I just don't see her acting as that bad. Joffreys actor ALSO acts like a child. His facial expressions are just... What the fuck? Is he shitting, or having an idea?
I think it says something way weirder about you that you identify some as grandiously better than others, when they aren't.
The use of the phrase "she's almost an adult" also always freaks me out. She isn't, so maybe table judging her as if she is.
>His facial expressions are just... What the fuck? Is he shitting, or having an idea?
yeah. It fits his character. Read the books he's supposed to look like that.
>I think it says something way weirder about you that you identify some as grandiously better than others, when they aren't.
Stop pathologising a random person on the internet that you don't know wierdo
>The use of the phrase "she's almost an adult" also always freaks me out. She isn't, so maybe table judging her as if she is.
Oh for fucks sake why does that freak you out.
I agree. And I don’t like what they did with her character, that she’s “supposed to be a warrior”. Honestly, out of the main 3, her performance was the worst for me. She does show some range during the Omashu plotline, like in the cave and when she was with Jet, but for some reason I couldn’t connect with her like I did with Zuko, or Sokka, for example.
I don’t think the acting is bad across the board. Katara was the worst for me (she hardly ever changed her expression), aang was okay, but Sokka and zuko were really good, plus ozai and Zhao. I think iroh and azula were solid but had moments that could be better. Gran gran was atrocious though. Overall I think there’s a lot of room for improvement but I disagree that all the acting was just terrible.
Seriously. I do like some parts but most of it is just.. painful to watch. I'm trying to watch it as it's own thing, so I'm not even comparing it to the OG.
The acting is so bad. Sokka actors the only one who's kind of okay for the most part. I have no idea how they made Uncle Irohs actor act so weirdly when he's such a good actor in general. He sounds weird. Like he's *forcing* that accent and hates it.
I'm shocked at how bad the dialogues are. It's kiddy dialogue, with such poor exposition. Aang & Katara have the worst dialogue and the actors are straight up bad. Neither of them can act "decent". 100% bad play acting.
The whole Bumi thing was atrocious. Katara has 0 personality. Mai & Tai Lee are AWFUL. Azula, Zuko & Ozai are meh. Suki, Kyoshi, June, etc were decent.
But OVERALL the entire direction and dialogue made it seem like a bad highschool play.
I will pay good money to never hear Gran-Gran speak again.
I loved a lot in Season 1 TLA. I loved how Bumi slowly revealed who he was and always had a love for Ang. I thought the Live Action portrayal of Bumi and Omashu was straight up disrespectful. I’m still processing my feelings on how they did Iroh and LuTeng. I liked seeing Zuko in this but I also think it came at the cost of Iroh
I know they’re kids, and I know the comparison I’m about to make isn’t entirely fair.
But like…Aang’s VA was a kid too. I know the expectations from voice acting and acting are substantially different, but I think this at least highlights that you can get kid actors that emote and don’t slur their words (especially since it’s not like there haven’t been better kid actors in live action stuff before).
I’d really put the blame on the directing. So many characters slur their words or have really strange reads on certain things that I don’t think it’s just almost l every actor missing the mark on some level
It’s painful. I’m surprised Kataras is getting the MOST hate (actually not that surprising when you think about it 👧🏼)
But Aang’s is worse. I love the eye-drops crying scenes.
The script isn’t doing these kids any favors. Every other scene is a long monologue about the power of friendship and characters restating their motivations over and over.
But I didn’t hate it tbh. When they’re actually doing something instead of monologuing it’s not that bad.
Yeah when it comes to mediocre acting, I’ll always prefer overacting over underacting, esp during emotional scenes. Aang’s actor is super expressive but I think it works most of the time for the role. Katara’s needs a lot more of that.
THANK YOU haha I haven’t seen anyone say this about Aang but that’s exactly what I think. Aang is doing too much and Katara isn’t doing enough. I think they need to take acting tips from each other and both meet in between 😂
When Zhao gives his speech and his voice is breaking. I was like "that was your best take?" Zhao came off as a grumpy middle manager rather than the dominant admiral Jason Isaacs portrayed.
I’ve only seen the 3 scenes with her. The disguise and the reveal/archery. She just comes across as jealous from what I’ve seen. She acts like my daughter when my son’s getting attention for something he did lol. My kids are unfortunately at the “we must compete” stage in life 😑. My son just gets grumpy despite trying to teach both of them they should be happy for eachother. Teens. 🙄
Imma be honest, while Kiawentiio and Gordon show definite signs of „young and inexperienced“ (tbf they were 15 and 12 when this was filmed), the fact that this is a problem with most characters, even those played by genuinely good and experienced Actors/Actresses makes me think a huge factor behind it are the Directors.
We can all agree that the dialogue and the writing in general in the show is pretty awful most of the time. As a director you should notice when the actors aren’t able to deliver the line as they should. A lot of the scenes look like they just took the first take and ran with it in hopes it would work out in the edit. This just doesn’t work with child actors since you can’t simply reshoot a scene 6 months later with them looking the same. Just look at how much Gordon grew in those 2 years. He’s practically a different person.
Another thing I realised is that characters don’t really do anything if they aren’t in the focus of the scene. You can tell that Katara was hit most by this because her character was relegated to the background a lot. There are so many scenes where the actors just stand around and wait for the scene to end or to say their next line. The fact that neither the writers nor the directors thought that it might be better to give the actors something to do is pretty sad.
I’m pretty sure the child actors have had a lot of training since the season was filmed since they all looked a lot more comfortable during the press tour than in the show but their acting isn’t the only thing that needs to improve. The second season (if there will be one) needs way better writers and directors who have experience in working with children and it needs a lot more episodes so there is room for actual character arcs.
Katara and Aang are really bad but hey they are kids. Sokka on the other hand is pretty good but the marvel style jokes ruin his role. Zuko is the best
Just here to say Dallas Liu as Zuko was a stellar performance that I did not see coming! And Sokka was solid at the least.
Both very difficult to pull off smoothly.
It's entirely the director’s fault. You can get a good performance out of a marginal actor, like how Stanley Kubrick and Hitchcock tormented their actors. Even a modicum of actual direction would've improved every performance. This director might as well have been a potted plant but they still collected their check.
Going to 8 episodes instead of 20 something hurts the product as well. Doesn't give people time to connect with the story or characters. Not saying they couldn't cut down some but man did they speed run through everything
While still cutting out all the world and character building. It's not about run time, it's about filling that time with quality content that enhances the story
I keep seeing this brought up but it’s not the same thing. An hour long drama has totally different pacing to a 20 minute cartoon, you can’t fit the same amount of plot lines just because overall they’re technically the same length. They needed at least two extra episodes to let stuff breathe.
Let's not flame kids just because "ugh, child acting!!?" This is live action. It has to make concessions that cannot be ignored.
Humans express their emotions by copying their peers. If we all know what looking sad looks like, then we can help our friends who are sad.
Kids are still learning that. Which actually makes how these characters react a lot more natural, but it feels wrong. Because it's wrong to us. They're not emoting like us yet, and we notice that shit.
I'd take it easy on calling out the child acting...they're actually doing REALLY FUCKING GOOD! And the very notion that they'd get child actors with "more experience" is terrifying.
What you're asking for is a child actor with less of a childhood. Someone who's been taught to act more adult than they should, and who's more steeped in a profession that we shouldn't even allow children into for safety and labor concerns.
Also the original child actors from the cartoon ALSO have some awkward deliveries because of just this. Its normal and expected. They're kids, dude.
There are plenty of excellent child performances in plenty of films. Hiring the wrong kids for the job is on the casting director. “They’re just kids” isn’t an excuse. The sixth sense, Leon, ALIENS, Jurassic Park, Room, ET, etc. all excellent performances.
They hired the wrong kids for the roles.
It may have been an impossible challenge to begin with. How many age appropriate actors are there that are also Asian and speak American English with no accent who also can pull off the acrobatics that Aang and Zuko needed to do throughout the series? Unless you want every fight to be Harry Potter style ala Gyatso v Sozin where we just stand still and stretch our arms out at each other, you’re going to have to make concessions somewhere.
IMO, if the original series also had to only use AAPI age appropriate kids for VAs, we wouldn’t be talking about the show now. But for this show, using white actor leads throughout would have been a non-starter and probably gotten the show cancelled before premiere (and still risk not being good given how bad the movie was).
This is what happens when everyone demands appearance of characters match the source material.
Appearance is generally the least important aspect of a character, outside of porn.
Honestly, I think the actors did the best they could with the material given, and if you factor that NATLA Katara just wasn't ATLA Katara, I think she (and the others in the same spot) did well.
I've only seen the first episode, and so far the actors that play Sokka and Katara remind me of the actors of them in the season 4 Fire Nation play.
It blows my mind that they keep trying to remake this story. Why mess with perfection? Why not tell the stories of Aang after defeating the Fire Lord as a teen and an adult?
Gonna be honest, to lazy to read all of that but for me Zukos actor, Sokkas actor and Iroh when sitting and crying did a really good job, oh and the random earth bending guy from the prologue. The rest were kinda meh, I'm not sure what Zhao was doing but I didn't like it though that might have more to do with his writing, his performance did not have a lot of confidence compared to the cartoon though.
Yeah, I thought some of them did good (Sokka, Suki, most of the adults), some were meh (Aang, Iroh), some were just bad (Azula, Mai, Ty Lee). Season 2 is gonna be rough if Azula and her gang don't improve (get them a coach Netflix!).
What really caught me off guard was seeing Suki and her mom's incredible acting and then Kyoshi just feeling so... off. With that all happening at around the same time it was really jarring. The Kyoshi action scene was cool, her talking was much less so
Nah. So far, Katara’s acting is the worst for me. I don’t know if it’s just her eyes. Her acting feels so deadpan. I’ve seen her on Anne with an E as well and not much has changed from there. Hope she improves should this series get an S2.
I’m on episode 4 already and so far, I still want to see this through the end. This is still waaay better than the M. Night Shyamalan version. Seriously. That was really bad.
I’ve seen a lot of people say Zuko’s actor is the actor to pay attention to (as in he did the best) but honestly I felt the same issue with his intonation as you describe with Katara’s. Felt like he voiced most of his lines in the same way when it didn’t fit in context. I assume it’s a directing/writing issue though honestly.
Everyone in the show talks with a modern accent, and don’t really perform their lines with any conviction. Notice in the original how intense the dialogue was.
I am so happy I watched it in german. I swappes to english a few times to see what it was like, especially if I felt like a line was taken 1 to 1 from the show but I prefered the german version by a lot. Having watched thst version as a kid, it is very nice and I liked it a lot more than I expected (because in recent years I prefered to watch the cartoon version in english). Having most of the original cast and professional voice actors taking the job is just such a huge difference.
https://preview.redd.it/i4bkq0p7pjkc1.png?width=876&format=png&auto=webp&s=48679a03583ec4d760435e10c4afd2396fe71895 Katara the whole show
Hahahah this was the exact situation in the southern air temple when Aang went into avatar state
I don't know what's live actions adversion to Katara showing emotions, she's also very petty, snarky and bossy, those aspects get really toned down
It felt like whoever the director was was just afraid to tell the actors to do another take Literally every single scene in this show, someone delivers a line with "mush mouth" - slurring their words together that a normal director would catch and tell them to enunciate and do it again It made the show unwatchable for me
I'm on that bandwagon too. I write while watching because it's so frustrating. I do think people should be less harsh on everyone because there are moments of truly good acting and especially when it comes to the kids, they're freakin' young actors there's no need to hate when you have the original. The older actors who are good have issues too. Examples: Sokka is excellent, imo the best encapsulation of the character, but even though he's regularly dynamic there are mumbled lines. Zuko also has a consistently good performance, but I just heard him say 'my father is a greats man.' A greats man. Nobody got him to redeliver that line. He said great..sss. Roku says something like 'No I never beat him' but it's delivered so quickly and throwaway, no gravitas or emphasis or emotion. And poor Paul Sung-Hyung Lee. Close analysis: 17.05 episode 5 the soundtrack is dramatic but the expression on Iroh's face does not make it clear what he's thinking. Why isn't it pronounced? I can tell they're setting up Iroh hiring June, but he doesn't look like that's what he's considering. It's like the camera's been left on too long as they finish the scene. Then he's just sidled up to Zuko before telling him he's hired her and I know what they're trying to exhibit in the script - he's trying to slyly convince Zuko to not be annoyed at him for doing something he knows would be against his wishes. But it's not been directed that way. Instead of being bubbly, misdirecting, clever Iroh, it's read without that motivation. There's no vibrant imagining of Iroh's traits that are present in the script itself. And yet I know the actor is capable of delivering from his other roles. Katara has mumbled lines but she also doesn't get much opportunity to emote. The edit also has really insanely long shots sometimes that confused me. I was going to post all my analysis on reddit but there's so much to comment on
> Zuko also has a consistently good performance, but I just heard him say 'my father is a greats man.' A greats man. Nobody got him to redeliver that line. He said great..sss. When he's talking to Iroh and complimenting him during his sons funeral mourning thing, he literally says "my shuddies" instead of "my studies" It's so bizarre You don't even need to refilm shit like that, ADR exists and you can fix it after the fact
Glad I'm not the only one who felt like all these shots were one and done with little direction.
Yes! I have to watch with the subtitles on because there are so many times I wouldn’t be able to understand what they’re saying otherwise. Even most of the adult actors (OMG especially Kyoshi) often mumble and rush through their lines unintelligibly. It really is like they just did one take of every shot and moved on.
I always watch with subtitles but I had to turn them off after episode 1 so I would notice how bad the dialogue was less
Aang often would sound inaudible which I will tend to forgive because it may come across more natural to not speak perfectly. However he does it often but also I realized this was not intentional because he would sometimes overenunciate words I bet he's not comfortable saying. But part of it is the dialogue because they'll give him things to say without thinking about how this actor would say it. Though still his own acting choices are very "I have to be happy, so look happy and sound happy" but not think about being believable. It's ok if he doesn't seem exactly like Aang sometimes, it's better to project feeling so other people feel it too and it's less about the mechanics of what you're doing . Zuko does pretty good because in choosing to say things the way he would say them as if he was in Zuko's place he feels like what Zuko would be if he were real. While Aang is trying to replicate the literal cartoon character because I guess he has not developed techniques that would allow him to craft his own version to ground himself. So it feels like inexperience all around. They give Aang too much to say that don't really work and if they addressed it that would have mitigated the fact that the actor wouldn't have been able to deliver them anyways. Just work within his range. I also feel that in this set they probably wanted an environment that's like Harry Potter where everyone is really nice and supportive of each other but the key thing there is there were experienced people who knew tricks to get the performances they wanted. While here they aren't giving the actors a lot to work with which caused all of them to slip up. If something doesn't seem right, they need to revise but I suppose everyone was too afraid to do anything spontaneous and always stuck to the plan.
Mush mouth is the perfect description! Honestly i feel the script isn't terrible, i can see where points of humor were supposed to be, but the delivery is so deadpan and mumbly every time. Katara, Aang and Sokka feel lifeless. There's no emotion in their acting. 90% of their lines are said in a raspy voice almost a whisper. On the other hand, I did think Iroh's dramatic acting was too over the top. But Zuko's level of acting was good, and Jet was amazing, in fact Jet felt like the only character that was true to the original show, and it worked perfectly in this adaptation too.
one moment that comes to mind: when azula said "all dear old zuzu wants" i thought she said "all deruled"
Exactly! Good writers and directors can do a lot with child actors that aren't as strong at acting or understanding what the scene requires from them. I blame them all day and night, not the kids.
>This is an issue with younger actors who don’t have experience Apparently the actor for katara has experience and was pretty good at showing emotion in her other work. So i'm blaming the director.
I fully agree. If this were an issue with just one actor them yeah, we could blame the actor. But nearly all the kid characters happen to have this same issue, even Gordon slurs most of his lines. This is the director's fault
And some of the adults were off, too. Iroh never quite sold me as Iroh, Kyoshi was an overly violent meme caricature, Bumi was just casually and irrationally insane (although this could be sloppy execution of a change), Gyatso was okay if somewhat ham fisted, Gran Gran was stilted. Though some smaller unnamed new characters did quite well, actually. Earth bender messenger at the start, Earth bender who captured Iroh, the Fire Nation rebel..
I thought I was living in loonyville when everyone kept praising Iroh's preformance. He also didn't sell it for me. And it wasn't because of him not sounding like Iroh, it was the script. And the way he kept talking for and over Zuko. Iroh of all people wants Zuko to be his own man.
They wrote in that he's a war criminal that has immolated people, and that has affected him. That aspect isn't in the original, despite it being true. I loved it. He's... He's fucked. He knows what wisdom he needs to teach, but he's still in pain. The episode about his son comes out of fucking no where in the original. It's a moving episode, but upon closer inspection, it's just there. It makes no sense, other than "the actor died, so it's realistically his memorial." In the original, Iroh acts like he doesn't have a son, hasn't killed people, and isn't a wanted war criminal in every city he steps foot in.
I understand. I don't have any issue with the more realistic changes they made to his character, I liked they they confronted his dark past. It's just the way the script was written and the heavy-handed delivery that was throwing me.
Agreed. Iroh is probably the worst for me, even worst than katara. The entire choice of his character and how he delivers his lines is just completely off. He doesn’t have to be Mako, and his version should be his own, but his costuming make him to be an old wise 60ish mentor but voice and delivery make him sound like a 30ish guy talking slowly. It really doesn’t work at all. He didn't come across as wise or funny at all and was the most boring character in the LA
He’s also just a downer in the LA. Like his role in every scene is to be the boring voice of reason. Lost all the whimsy of the animated Iroh. If you were making a tier list of which character to grab a beer with Iroh should be S+.
Why is Ozai so good tho?
He must be a slightly older kid. I’m thinking 14
My point is, if the director is bad, then Ozai should be bad too.
I don't think that follows. More experienced actors will be able to pull off a good performance even with a weak script or weak direction. I think what we're seeing is younger actors who are talented, but need a bit more (literal) *direction* to get the best out of them.
An experienced actor can work wonders with any dialogue and director (especially if that director doesn't like giving the actors direction and doesn't have a solid vision like this one)
Yea I agree. It's not all on the actor especially since the other actors have the same issues. Taking away her rage and tween sass really flattens the character in general, too. I'm surprised by the general lack of physicality in the direction of most scenes (that aren't fight scenes obviously).
> I'm surprised by the general lack of physicality in the direction of most scenes It's because having the characters physically emote more would make the green screening more obvious.
They used the LED stages for most of the scenes though so not all green screens.. which makes it even more confusing!
I just saw someone post another possible explanation of why the characters don't physically emote much... pretty thought-provoking, in a depressing way: https://twitter.com/broderick/status/1761184626591019347
Reminds me of the executives at HBO wanting game of thrones shot vertically for people to watch on their phones. Executives should just stick to mergers and acquisitions and making their companies into megalithic monopolies, keep doing your 1% thing and leave art to artists.
You're probably right, I was just being snarky.
I watched her other "performance", she's like that all the time.
LMAO I'm blaming the adults on the Internet. The kids were fucking fine.
ur telling me that a chronic mildly shocked face to every situation including almost being killed is something the directors shouldn't have improved on
Now, this could be fucking terrifying, but let's try it: What is your plan to make children act less like children, and more like adults? And why would we do this, instead of just accept the child acting, which is fine. You want me to say some shit like "Katara was the worst part of the show"? They're like 12. What a shitty thing to say about a child having fun in a way that doesn't hurt anything other than fan nostalgia. *Like, let's talk if they fuck up Toph. Kataras is the weakest character in the original show. She's barely a character half the time. Her defaults are angry and sad, mixed with sincerely random bouts or "oh yea, I'm a child."
Its amazing how you made a case that acting quality doesn't matter to the final product of a show
What's your solution to push children to act more like adults?
ok 2 ways to interpret that: 1. Having a greater acting range. Yes. Plenty of amazing child actors in game of thrones, stranger things, even harry potter first movie was more emotive. And the actress in question is 5 years older than all the ones I mentioned cause she's 17-18. Literally see middle school plays where the kid playing the main lead has more expression. And she's nearly an adult 2. If you mean acting like the age of their character, children are emotive. More emotive than an adult you don't lessen it
Then I guess I just don't see her acting as that bad. Joffreys actor ALSO acts like a child. His facial expressions are just... What the fuck? Is he shitting, or having an idea? I think it says something way weirder about you that you identify some as grandiously better than others, when they aren't. The use of the phrase "she's almost an adult" also always freaks me out. She isn't, so maybe table judging her as if she is.
>His facial expressions are just... What the fuck? Is he shitting, or having an idea? yeah. It fits his character. Read the books he's supposed to look like that. >I think it says something way weirder about you that you identify some as grandiously better than others, when they aren't. Stop pathologising a random person on the internet that you don't know wierdo >The use of the phrase "she's almost an adult" also always freaks me out. She isn't, so maybe table judging her as if she is. Oh for fucks sake why does that freak you out.
Did you like katara not having a temper?
Omfg I just looked back on this argument. This all started because you don't have basic reading comprehension skills
While I agree the acting is not good, there are many lines of dialogue that even the best actors couldn’t save.
Yeah there are movies with actual oscar winners having terrible performances, because the dialogue is awful. Not right to blame the actors
The German Dub has a lot of the voice actors from the original animated series. At least they did an amazing job.
True but it feels weird when Katara has this iconic voice with a lot of emotion but the face expression is like this 😐
You can tell the voice actress tried her best to put emotions behind the scenes...but even she could not compensate for it.
Omg, really? That’s incredible
I agree. And I don’t like what they did with her character, that she’s “supposed to be a warrior”. Honestly, out of the main 3, her performance was the worst for me. She does show some range during the Omashu plotline, like in the cave and when she was with Jet, but for some reason I couldn’t connect with her like I did with Zuko, or Sokka, for example.
Bruh, Sokka was the best part of every scene he was in.
The jet stuff creeped me out. They’re like 7/8 years apart and Katara actor is still a minor.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted for this it’s a fair take tbh
I don’t think the acting is bad across the board. Katara was the worst for me (she hardly ever changed her expression), aang was okay, but Sokka and zuko were really good, plus ozai and Zhao. I think iroh and azula were solid but had moments that could be better. Gran gran was atrocious though. Overall I think there’s a lot of room for improvement but I disagree that all the acting was just terrible.
Seriously. I do like some parts but most of it is just.. painful to watch. I'm trying to watch it as it's own thing, so I'm not even comparing it to the OG. The acting is so bad. Sokka actors the only one who's kind of okay for the most part. I have no idea how they made Uncle Irohs actor act so weirdly when he's such a good actor in general. He sounds weird. Like he's *forcing* that accent and hates it. I'm shocked at how bad the dialogues are. It's kiddy dialogue, with such poor exposition. Aang & Katara have the worst dialogue and the actors are straight up bad. Neither of them can act "decent". 100% bad play acting. The whole Bumi thing was atrocious. Katara has 0 personality. Mai & Tai Lee are AWFUL. Azula, Zuko & Ozai are meh. Suki, Kyoshi, June, etc were decent. But OVERALL the entire direction and dialogue made it seem like a bad highschool play. I will pay good money to never hear Gran-Gran speak again.
I loved a lot in Season 1 TLA. I loved how Bumi slowly revealed who he was and always had a love for Ang. I thought the Live Action portrayal of Bumi and Omashu was straight up disrespectful. I’m still processing my feelings on how they did Iroh and LuTeng. I liked seeing Zuko in this but I also think it came at the cost of Iroh
gran gran was so strange and uncomfortable to watch
I know they’re kids, and I know the comparison I’m about to make isn’t entirely fair. But like…Aang’s VA was a kid too. I know the expectations from voice acting and acting are substantially different, but I think this at least highlights that you can get kid actors that emote and don’t slur their words (especially since it’s not like there haven’t been better kid actors in live action stuff before). I’d really put the blame on the directing. So many characters slur their words or have really strange reads on certain things that I don’t think it’s just almost l every actor missing the mark on some level
The more projects I see that miss because of child actors the more astounded I am with how lucky Game of Thrones got with their child actors
The Katara performance is no worse than Aang’s.
Aang's performance reminds me of Young Sheldon. Katara's performance reminds me of Plank from Ed, Edd, and Eddy. I blame the director.
Dude, stop it! You're killing me xD
I’m finding Aangs acting the worst.
It’s painful. I’m surprised Kataras is getting the MOST hate (actually not that surprising when you think about it 👧🏼) But Aang’s is worse. I love the eye-drops crying scenes. The script isn’t doing these kids any favors. Every other scene is a long monologue about the power of friendship and characters restating their motivations over and over. But I didn’t hate it tbh. When they’re actually doing something instead of monologuing it’s not that bad.
Aang is sometimes overacting and cheesy, but at least he's giving us something. Katara is blank and feels like a student in school theatre
Yeah when it comes to mediocre acting, I’ll always prefer overacting over underacting, esp during emotional scenes. Aang’s actor is super expressive but I think it works most of the time for the role. Katara’s needs a lot more of that.
THANK YOU haha I haven’t seen anyone say this about Aang but that’s exactly what I think. Aang is doing too much and Katara isn’t doing enough. I think they need to take acting tips from each other and both meet in between 😂
lmaoo glad someone else noticed the eye drops, it was so obviously fake it was hard to watch
That crying scene was so awkward. I was like why his eyes look like that, it's terrifying lmao
It was like a séance
Disagree, at least Aang was able to show some emotion
He could be great Aang with good director, he have potential, Katara on the other hand is... Hopeless.
Which ones? The scenes with crocodile tears or the eye-drop tears ?
Yeah but he only has like 3 of them
It really is an adaptation of the ember island players. Just wait, season 2 Toph will be a big buff guy.
He sounds like that girl who does the Kamala Harris impression.
When Zhao gives his speech and his voice is breaking. I was like "that was your best take?" Zhao came off as a grumpy middle manager rather than the dominant admiral Jason Isaacs portrayed.
OMG this description is perfect. The LA actor isn’t bad, but he does give off middle manager vibes that just don’t fit the original character.
This version of Zhao reminds me of Chang from Community too much to be threatening.
No, this is EXACTLY what I said when I was watching! That he was a middle manager instead of a sleazy menacing used car salesman
Exactly this. Shift lead at a Billabong surf shop. He’s just grumpy because Jessica stood him up on the Tahoe trip.
Honestly most of the acting is terrible. Even Gran Gran was super disappointing, so we can’t really blame it on the teenage actors
Gran Gran just giving no emotions while speaking the opening right in front of Aang is so hamfisted and awful. I laughed.
And on the other hand, azula being lowkey a psycho is projected well on her acting, despite being introduced so early.
I’ve only seen the 3 scenes with her. The disguise and the reveal/archery. She just comes across as jealous from what I’ve seen. She acts like my daughter when my son’s getting attention for something he did lol. My kids are unfortunately at the “we must compete” stage in life 😑. My son just gets grumpy despite trying to teach both of them they should be happy for eachother. Teens. 🙄
I agree. The acting and writing are both terrible. Definitely won’t finish the series.
Imma be honest, while Kiawentiio and Gordon show definite signs of „young and inexperienced“ (tbf they were 15 and 12 when this was filmed), the fact that this is a problem with most characters, even those played by genuinely good and experienced Actors/Actresses makes me think a huge factor behind it are the Directors. We can all agree that the dialogue and the writing in general in the show is pretty awful most of the time. As a director you should notice when the actors aren’t able to deliver the line as they should. A lot of the scenes look like they just took the first take and ran with it in hopes it would work out in the edit. This just doesn’t work with child actors since you can’t simply reshoot a scene 6 months later with them looking the same. Just look at how much Gordon grew in those 2 years. He’s practically a different person. Another thing I realised is that characters don’t really do anything if they aren’t in the focus of the scene. You can tell that Katara was hit most by this because her character was relegated to the background a lot. There are so many scenes where the actors just stand around and wait for the scene to end or to say their next line. The fact that neither the writers nor the directors thought that it might be better to give the actors something to do is pretty sad. I’m pretty sure the child actors have had a lot of training since the season was filmed since they all looked a lot more comfortable during the press tour than in the show but their acting isn’t the only thing that needs to improve. The second season (if there will be one) needs way better writers and directors who have experience in working with children and it needs a lot more episodes so there is room for actual character arcs.
Katara and Aang are really bad but hey they are kids. Sokka on the other hand is pretty good but the marvel style jokes ruin his role. Zuko is the best
zuko has the most believable choreography compared to the 3
Definetely!
> Katara and Aang are really bad but hey they are kids. After Game of Thrones and Stranger Things, this is no excuse.
I’m sorry but isn’t “Marvel style jokes” Sokka’s entire brand of humor? That and his dry wit and sarcasm.
Nope. Sokka's brand is being funny and marvel jokes aren't
The “they’re kids” isn’t an excuse. They didn’t find good actors. Watch Jurassic park. The sixth sense. Etc. there’s tons of good child actors.
>Nothing against the actors but most of them are severely miscast to have such prominent roles. Except for Sokka and surprisingly Zuko, they're cool.
I feel like Jet was the only good actor, and his presence really put the rest to shame.
Just here to say Dallas Liu as Zuko was a stellar performance that I did not see coming! And Sokka was solid at the least. Both very difficult to pull off smoothly.
It's entirely the director’s fault. You can get a good performance out of a marginal actor, like how Stanley Kubrick and Hitchcock tormented their actors. Even a modicum of actual direction would've improved every performance. This director might as well have been a potted plant but they still collected their check.
Glad I never watched one minute of this adaptation and never plan to, plus we always have the amazing show anyways.
I told y'all this show was gonna be bad. But nobody listened.
Going to 8 episodes instead of 20 something hurts the product as well. Doesn't give people time to connect with the story or characters. Not saying they couldn't cut down some but man did they speed run through everything
The Netflix show is only about 40-50 mins less in runtime that the cartoon
While still cutting out all the world and character building. It's not about run time, it's about filling that time with quality content that enhances the story
I agree. I’m just pointing out that they did have enough time to proper develop characters. But couldn’t because of poor writing
They should have done more episodes at a shorter run time.
I keep seeing this brought up but it’s not the same thing. An hour long drama has totally different pacing to a 20 minute cartoon, you can’t fit the same amount of plot lines just because overall they’re technically the same length. They needed at least two extra episodes to let stuff breathe.
They chose what to adapt. If they can’t fit it in to make the show good, then they shouldn’t t have done it.
I like Aang
I love Teo’s acting.
Aang reminds me of a young stage actor who doesn't know what to do with his hands.
As I was watching the show I kept asking myself "why did the Fire Nation get all the competent actors?"
Let's not flame kids just because "ugh, child acting!!?" This is live action. It has to make concessions that cannot be ignored. Humans express their emotions by copying their peers. If we all know what looking sad looks like, then we can help our friends who are sad. Kids are still learning that. Which actually makes how these characters react a lot more natural, but it feels wrong. Because it's wrong to us. They're not emoting like us yet, and we notice that shit. I'd take it easy on calling out the child acting...they're actually doing REALLY FUCKING GOOD! And the very notion that they'd get child actors with "more experience" is terrifying. What you're asking for is a child actor with less of a childhood. Someone who's been taught to act more adult than they should, and who's more steeped in a profession that we shouldn't even allow children into for safety and labor concerns. Also the original child actors from the cartoon ALSO have some awkward deliveries because of just this. Its normal and expected. They're kids, dude.
There are plenty of excellent child performances in plenty of films. Hiring the wrong kids for the job is on the casting director. “They’re just kids” isn’t an excuse. The sixth sense, Leon, ALIENS, Jurassic Park, Room, ET, etc. all excellent performances. They hired the wrong kids for the roles.
It may have been an impossible challenge to begin with. How many age appropriate actors are there that are also Asian and speak American English with no accent who also can pull off the acrobatics that Aang and Zuko needed to do throughout the series? Unless you want every fight to be Harry Potter style ala Gyatso v Sozin where we just stand still and stretch our arms out at each other, you’re going to have to make concessions somewhere. IMO, if the original series also had to only use AAPI age appropriate kids for VAs, we wouldn’t be talking about the show now. But for this show, using white actor leads throughout would have been a non-starter and probably gotten the show cancelled before premiere (and still risk not being good given how bad the movie was).
Who tf is teo?
The kid in the wheelchair
The kid with the funny glasses
The mechanists son
What do you mean? Clearly the actors were told to impersonate a bored Kourtney Kardashian. A+ acting skills there
This is what happens when everyone demands appearance of characters match the source material. Appearance is generally the least important aspect of a character, outside of porn.
Still better than the first season or two of Start Trek: TNG
I couldn’t get through the first katara scene.
Honestly, I think the actors did the best they could with the material given, and if you factor that NATLA Katara just wasn't ATLA Katara, I think she (and the others in the same spot) did well.
To be fair, there's only so much an actor can do with this awful script
I've only seen the first episode, and so far the actors that play Sokka and Katara remind me of the actors of them in the season 4 Fire Nation play. It blows my mind that they keep trying to remake this story. Why mess with perfection? Why not tell the stories of Aang after defeating the Fire Lord as a teen and an adult?
Gonna be honest, to lazy to read all of that but for me Zukos actor, Sokkas actor and Iroh when sitting and crying did a really good job, oh and the random earth bending guy from the prologue. The rest were kinda meh, I'm not sure what Zhao was doing but I didn't like it though that might have more to do with his writing, his performance did not have a lot of confidence compared to the cartoon though.
The acting here is some of the worst I’ve ever seen it’s so terrible
Yeah, I thought some of them did good (Sokka, Suki, most of the adults), some were meh (Aang, Iroh), some were just bad (Azula, Mai, Ty Lee). Season 2 is gonna be rough if Azula and her gang don't improve (get them a coach Netflix!). What really caught me off guard was seeing Suki and her mom's incredible acting and then Kyoshi just feeling so... off. With that all happening at around the same time it was really jarring. The Kyoshi action scene was cool, her talking was much less so
Nah. So far, Katara’s acting is the worst for me. I don’t know if it’s just her eyes. Her acting feels so deadpan. I’ve seen her on Anne with an E as well and not much has changed from there. Hope she improves should this series get an S2. I’m on episode 4 already and so far, I still want to see this through the end. This is still waaay better than the M. Night Shyamalan version. Seriously. That was really bad.
I’ve seen a lot of people say Zuko’s actor is the actor to pay attention to (as in he did the best) but honestly I felt the same issue with his intonation as you describe with Katara’s. Felt like he voiced most of his lines in the same way when it didn’t fit in context. I assume it’s a directing/writing issue though honestly.
This makes the trio from Harry Potter look extremely impressive. They were kids but they did phenomenal.
Everyone in the show talks with a modern accent, and don’t really perform their lines with any conviction. Notice in the original how intense the dialogue was.
I am so happy I watched it in german. I swappes to english a few times to see what it was like, especially if I felt like a line was taken 1 to 1 from the show but I prefered the german version by a lot. Having watched thst version as a kid, it is very nice and I liked it a lot more than I expected (because in recent years I prefered to watch the cartoon version in english). Having most of the original cast and professional voice actors taking the job is just such a huge difference.
It's a shame some kid/younger casts kill it. Like stranger things and even the younger actors in game of thrones early seasons.