TV Report: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Season One

I blame this one on my friend Wendy.

Wendy started watching Avatar with her kids. Then she started collecting it. She mentioned it to Rosebride, who has an *obsession* with downloading stuff off BitTorrent.

So Rosebride downloaded all the episodes, burned a great big stack of DVDs, made my poor DVD player weep for mercy and ultimately give up the ghost testing said DVDs, and pestered me until I watched 'em all.

For a while, I couldn't walk into my living room without hearing "Wanna watch some Avatar?"

But, I guess it all worked out in the end (except for my broken DVD player), because this show rocks. It's the best American animation since "Gargoyles."

In a story with liberal Asian overtones (Korean in particular), the four elemental kingdoms have been at war for 100 years, with the Fire kingdom being the biggest aggressor. The only one who can stop the war is the Avatar, a human with mystical power who can control all the elements.

The problem? The Avatar is a goofy 12-year-old kid, and he's been missing for a century. Two teenagers from the Water Tribe (think Eskimos) find him frozen in a giant block of ice, and accompany the Avatar on his quest to come into his full power and stop the war.

Tremendous voice acting, a deep and intricate plot, spectacular action scenes, fantastic animation and music -- there is *nothing* about this show that is not top-notch.

I like that the Fire nation characters are given depth and not just portrayed as "bad guys." I find the deposed prince, Zuko, to be a very sympathetic character, even though he's supposed to be the main villain of the season. His uncle, Iroh, is by far my favorite character on the show. (And was brillantly voiced by Mako until his death.)

I'm also entertained by the number of times the kids lie, cheat and steal to obtain their objectives. Avatar is surprisingly free of "kids show" moral messages.

I'm an official fan -- I can't wait until Nickelodeon starts airing new episodes later this year. And I'm going to buy it on DVD -- Rosebride's homemade DVD's are OK, but not worthy of this wonderful show.