One of Nickelodeon’s most iconic series, and arguably their best, is Avatar: The Last Airbender. The series has left a lasting impression on our culture, and is a prime example of a perfect balance of content and story equally appealing to both kids and adults. I recently revisited the series in this time of self-isolation, and discovered how many easter eggs and bits of foreshadowing there are in the early episodes. To show my love of the show, here’s my top 20 favorite episodes of the series. 20. Jet (Book 1, Chapter 10)In this episode, Aang and his friends meet a group of rebellious youths who fight against invading Fire Nation forces, led by dreamy warrior Jet. However, they discover that their plan will take lots of innocent lives with it. This is almost a perfect depiction of political activists who are so consumed by their beliefs and hatred that they don’t think of the long-term consequences. But what really makes this episode great is its ambiguous ending, where the team thwarts Jet’s plan without changing his beliefs. It shows that some people just can’t be changed by the simplest of actions; a more realistic outcome than in most kid shows. 19. The Headband (Book 3, Chapter 2)Having arrived in the Fire Nation, Aang and his friends attempt to blend in until their invasion. Aang soon becomes enrolled in a Fire Nation school, where he sees an opportunity to inject fun into the lives of his classmates. What makes this episode so great is how quotable it is. Aang’s interactions with the other kids are so amusing. And the scene where he gets Sokka and Katara to play his “parents” at conference with the school headmaster (in the picture above) is one of the most hilarious scenes of the whole series. 18. The Storm (Book 1, Chapter 12)This episode finally provides us with important backstory relating to Aang and Zuko’s pasts. While it is sad to see Aang’s childhood be ripped away from him after learning he’s the Avatar, the real accomplishment is Zuko’s backstory. The story of how his father banished him gets into some really dark places, darker than most kid shows would ever go. 17. The Library (Book 2, Chapter 10)The first time I watched this episode, I didn’t realize just how many hints there are towards the final episode. This episode is littered with easter eggs foreshadowing what the team encounters leading up to their final showdown with the Fire Nation. It’s also a very thrilling episode when it comes to its action sequences, and the ending where Appa gets taken away by Sandbenders was one of the most heartbreaking things I had ever witnessed as a kid. 16. Sokka's Master (Book 3, Chapter 4)In this episode, we finally get to see Sokka develop a fighting skill all his own when he trains with a Fire Nation sword master. His goofy interpretation of the master’s old-fashioned wisdom is a joy to behold. But it’s even more joyful watching Aang, Katara, and Toph struggle to figure out what to do without Sokka’s guidance and jokes. Who knew how aimless life would be without Sokka’s wise-cracking one-liners to entertain us. 15. The Avatar and the Fire Lord (Book 3, Chapter 6)The beginning of the 100 year war was always a mystery throughout the series. In this episode, we finally see what happened; revealing that the instigator of the war (Fire Lord Sozin) and Aang’s previous life (Avatar Roku) were best friends. For much of the series, the Fire Nation is depicted as power-hunger soldiers looking to conquer the world. Here we learn that, even if Sozin’s plans were bad, his initial intentions weren't just black and white. He wanted to share the prosperous life of the Fire Nation with the world, not just conquer it. This shows that the longer wars last, the more the original ideals become skewed and forgotten. 14. The Beach (Book 3, Chapter 5)Focusing entirely on the Zuko, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee as they go on vacation, this episode shows that, even though we’ve only known them as villains, they are actually human beings. The biggest laughs come from Azula, who’s attempts to act like a normal teenager despite being a manipulative tyrant. She doesn’t have the personality to integrate into a normal life, but she does want to. That shows us that, even though she’s crazy, she at least wants to be treated like a normal kid. 13. The Siege of the North (Book 1, Chapters 19 and 20)The two-part conclusion to the first season is one of the most epic moments of the series. Not only is it a great conclusion to the show up to that point, but it’s final battle (shown in the picture) is a beautiful feat of animation. Successfully balancing high stakes with true emotion, this story brings a satisfying conclusion while making us more than excited for what's to come. 12. The Puppetmaster (Book 3, Chapter 8)Even though it’s set in a fantasy world representing medieval Asia, they found a way to work in a Halloween special. And it’s a genuinely unnerving episode that slowly develops into a full-blown nightmare. The battle involving the Bloodbending techniques to a great example of how to add horror elements into an action sequence, and all done by a show made for kids. It’s not too scary for kids, but it’s still pretty scary. 11. Lake Laogai (Book 2, Chapter 17)It obviously earns points for the ending, where our heroes are happily reunited with Appa. But when they descend into the secret Dai Li headquarters underneath the titular lake, it’s a very tense and effective atmosphere. Also, the conclusion that leaves us hanging as to Jet’s ultimate fate is very emotional. We know what’s coming, but we don’t see it. 10. The Ember Island Players (Book 3, Chapter 17)The prelude episode to the 4-part series finale, the gang attends a play based on their global adventures, written by a Fire Nation playwright who was always a few steps behind our heroes. Acting as a recap of the entire series filled to the brim with meta-gags, we are taken on a hilarious journey back through our favorite moments while the writers gear us up for the epic battle that’s yet to come. 9. The Boiling Rock (Book 3, Chapters 14 and 15)A two-part episode that focuses on Sokka and Zuko breaking into a Fire Nation prison to rescue Sokka’s father. What follows is a thrilling and hilarious journey as they work to find a way to escape a prison that has never been broken out of before. It’s also great that to see the two reunite with people from their past; with Sokka reuniting with his father and Suki, and Zuko forced to confront Mai and Azula for the first time after leaving his nation. 8. The Cave of Two Lovers (Book 2, Chapter 2)It may just be a filler episode, but it’s one of their best. Thanks to a group of listless nomads, the story is filled with so many laugh-out-loud moments and memorable quotes. The comic timing is absolutely perfect, and the story of love acting as a guide through the labyrinth of tunnels acts as great character development. It also works with building up the relationship between Aang and Katara, which we all knew was going to happen eventually. 7. The Day of Black Sun (Book 3, Chapters 10 and 11)Their invasion plans come to fruition as the solar eclipse begins. Watching their army attempt to conquer the Fire Nation capital is one of the show’s most epic battles, with so many pieces happening all at once. It’s impossible to take everything in upon first viewing. That’s what makes this episode so great. I also love that, with the eclipse and the upcoming Sozin’s Comet, the show delves into more science fiction territory than just fantasy. 6. Avatar Day (Book 2, Chapter 5)“That’s why we call it justice. Because it’s just us.” Another insanely quotable episode that delivers one belly laugh after another, this one finds the team stuck in a town that despises the Avatar. In their attempts to prove Aang’s innocence, their interactions with the looney town are so hilarious, especially with their extremely one-sided law system. Before I get to my top 5, here are some honorable mentions in no particular order:
5. Sozin's Comet (Book 3, Chapters 18, 19, 20, and 21)Just because this is a perfect conclusion to the entire series, doesn’t mean that it’s the best episode. Nevertheless, it’s still a masterful piece of television that boasts stellar action sequences, gorgeous animation, and a truly emotional conclusion to the characters we love. Very few series finales give us everything we want while also managing to exceed all our expectations like this one did. It balances some many different tones, and wraps all the series's details in a nice little bow. 4. The Crossroads of Destiny (Book 2, Chapter 20)This episode is one of the darkest episodes of television I’ve seen, with one of the most devastating conclusions ever. As if the uncertain ending was upsetting enough, the creators really twist the knife by making us wait almost an entire year before the next season began. This episode does everything right, and really makes us scared (but also excited) for what comes next. 3. Appa's Lost Days (Book 2, Chapter 16)Showing us what happened to Appa after getting captured by the Sandbenders in The Library, this episode is hard to watch with crying a little. Our favorite flying bison is put through some miserable stuff as he is sold to an abusive circus, then then escapes and tries to make it on his own without much luck. It’s heartbreaking watching him suffer through all these things as he tries to make his way back to Aang. 2. The Awakening (Book 3, Chapter 1)The first episode of the third and final season; what makes this episode so great is how different it feels from the rest of the series. From the opening shot, the tone of the episode shows us that things are different. Our heroes aren’t just the fun-loving bunch we knew in the first two seasons. Things are serious now, as they prepare for their invasion of the Fire Nation during the solar eclipse and journey ever closer to their ultimate goals. 1. The Tales of Ba Sing Se (Book 2, Chapter 15)By far the best episode of the whole series is merely a series of short stories following the main cast as they live their lives in the titular Earth Kingdom city. Each story shows us different sides of the characters we’ve spent so much time with. But the one story that makes this episode the best is Uncle Iroh’s, who spends the day helping people before setting up a shrine for his son (who died in the war) and tearfully singing a folk song. It’s one of the best pieces of short drama ever made that makes me cry every time I watch it, especially with the tribute to Iroh’s recently deceased voice actor Mako at the end. While these are my personal favorites, all 61 episodes of this show are great in their own way. Very few shows run perfectly from beginning to end without a single misstep. It's what makes Avatar: The Last Airbender a true masterpiece in both animation and television, and a show that will be talked about many years from now.
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The first thing to admit about this movie is that it is no high art. Based on the weekly comedy sketches created by Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox, the film is designed to expand on the tone and style of said shorts into a feature length adventure. This isn’t the kind of film you would see getting award nominations and critical acclaim from critics. You’re love of the movie will depend on how much you can stand the YouTube duo.
But as someone who has loved the Smosh brand for years, their first feature outing is a joyous sight to behold. It has its obvious limitations; such as a small budget that results in some lackluster visuals and a TV movie aesthetic. But for fans of Ian and Anthony, their palpable chemistry and signature humor will be more than enough to fulfill your expectations. There’s also a surprising amount of well-written character development that elevates this film above others of its kind. The duo’s adventure finds them at a crossroads in their lives. Anthony is focused on furthering his career despite working a dead-end job as a pizza delivery driver, while Ian still spends his days browsing the various videos on YouTube. They both wish for more from each other: Anthony wants Ian to grow up and make something of his life, while Ian wants Anthony to remember the carefree days of their youth. When they receive an invitation to their high school reunion, Anthony sees this as an opportunity to impress his old crush Anna Reed (Jillian Nelson). But when an embarrassing video of him shows up at the same time, he fears rejection. He and a reluctant Ian travel to the YouTube headquarters to talk with site founder Steve YouTube (Michael Ian Black) about taking the video down. He can’t, but reveals that they can change the video by literally going into YouTube. What follows is an adventure through a variety of content in order to find the video and restore Anthony’s reputation. The story has flashes of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure in it, which makes sense since it was directed by Bill himself, Alex Winter. It follows two best friends who go on a fantastical adventure that ultimately saves their friendship. That’s pretty much the extent of it. There’s isn’t much in terms of layers to the film’s themes of Internet fame and what it means to grow up. They’re just jumping off points for the story to enter full comedic territory. But if you like this kind of humor, you will find much to enjoy during the film’s breezy 84 minute runtime. There are multiple stabs towards Internet trends and what it takes to truly get famous on YouTube, and they all mostly land well. There are some hardy belly laughs to be had at the expense of Internet content creators. The comedy is mostly aided by the performances of Ian and Anthony. Again, your tolerance of their brand of humor will depend on how much you tolerate their online videos. It’s their chemistry and central friendship that help even the film’s weakest jokes land with some kind of chuckle. They don’t give fantastic performances, but they give enough to make their characters very entertaining. Another of the film’s biggest assets is its surprising commitment to character development. Rather than just being a series of bits held together by a loose narrative, the film has an actual story with character arcs for both Ian and Anthony. It really feels like they grow and develop throughout the film; because they aren’t the same people they were at the beginning by the end. They become better human beings because of their adventures. This may seem like a “duh” when it comes to screenwriting, but there are many other movies of the ilk that don’t do this. They merely throw their characters into a situation without using these circumstances to grow their personalities. There are no character arcs, so by the end, they are the same people they were at the beginning. By actually spending the time to develop Ian and Anthony’s characters, they become people that we want to root for and we feel like we learned an important lesson about life by the end. Smosh: The Movie is no cinematic masterpiece; but when compared to other movies from the YouTube community, it really seems like one. Rather than just littering a stale story with even staler gags, this film chooses to actually focus on a narrative in which the leads grow and learn as characters and become better people by the end. The humor is where some viewers may be tested, but there is fun to be had in this one even if you don’t care for their style. For a movie starring two of YouTube’s most influential stars, if could have been a lot worse, but it’s also way better than it had any right to be. That, in and of itself, is an accomplishment in my eyes. On the surface, the 2016 reboot of the 1984 supernatural comedy Ghostbusters has all the fixings of a cash-grab project. It’s light on story and heavy on fan service, despite not including the fan favorite characters. It follows an entirely new set of characters that are designed to fit the audience favorite personalities of today. However, if you’re willing to look beyond all that, it turns out to be so much more.
Ignoring the events of the original film, this new continuity introduces us to particle physicist Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig). In her early life, she was a firm believer in all things paranormal, despite being mocked by everyone around her. Now a respected scientist, she does whatever she can to distance herself from her past, for fear that she could become a laughing stock again. That is until something from her past comes back to haunt her. Her former partner, Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), has published a book about the paranormal that she and Erin wrote years before without her knowledge. She fears this will lead to the end of her career, which sadly comes true when she, Abby, and her lab partner Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) discover a real ghost and the video of their discovery goes viral. But Erin’s belief has returned, and the three of them make it their mission to prove it to the public. They start a business attempting to find and capture spirits to study, named Ghostbusters by the public as an insult. They hire the dim-witted yet good hearted Kevin Beckman (Chris Hemsworth) as their mostly inept secretary, and history buff Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) when she also encounters a spirit. But little do they know, there is a madman responsible for these sightings. A genius inventor named Rowan North (Neil Casey) is attempting to bring about a ghost apocalypse, and only the Ghostbusters has the tools to put an end to his plot and save the world. What this new plot does well is managing to stand on its own. Sure, it’s full of references to the original movies and follows some of the same beats as the first film. But other than that, the film follows its own story and characters. Rather than just skipping to them with their fully-developed equipment and business, the film takes its time showing us what it took to get from point A to point B. This makes the stakes better earned, as we know why these characters care for each other. The cast also aid in making this new bunch of characters quite lovable. While the characters are more archetypes than fully-fledged humans, Wiig, McCarthy, McKinnon, and Jones do a great job of taking them and making them very fun to watch. Their palpable chemistry makes their fictional friendship very believable, which makes us care for them to win the battle against the ghosts. One of the standouts of the cast is McKinnon’s Jillian Holtzmann. She is easily the most unique of the new Ghostbusters; taking on the role of Harold Ramis’s Egon Spengler, but putting her own weird spin on it. Not much is known about her character from a backstory point, but she gives little clues through her dialogue that makes us curious to know more. She paints a good picture of who she is without doing much, and that’s a feat in and of itself. But probably the best performance of the film is Chris Hemsworth as Kevin Beckman. Like the other actresses, he manages to take a basic archetype and turn him into something very lovable. He makes what should be an insanely annoying character into one of the most hilarious highlights of the film. He also manages to work wonders with improvisational comedy; consistently keeping his jokes fresh by delivering clever one-liners and subverting the tropes of his role as the dumb blonde hunk. But even I have to admit that some of the cast’s one-liners don’t always work. They ride the modern train of constant improv, delivering joke after joke in a consistent manner. A lot of the time, the cast give the same type of jokes over and over, and while it works for the most part, it also manages to miss its intended targets. Which leaves us with an abundance of jokes that aren’t as funny as the characters seem to think they are. But even if it somewhat stumbles in the comedy department, it more than makes up for in its visuals. The film is gorgeous to look at, boasting a stellar color palate when it comes to its army of spectral villains. Even if some of the ghosts don’t look fully up to snuff when it comes to the standards of CGI today, they look great for the world and tone that the filmmakers have established. Though it does miss the mark a bit when it comes to the action sequences. Director Paul Feig excels at the comedy aspects of the film, and the film does have some fun set pieces during the second half. However, some aspects of the action don’t come alive as much as they could. There are multiple points towards the finale where the ghosts they fight look more like figures moving across a game board. Feig is an excellent director, but he maybe needs more practice when it comes to movies of this scale before he truly nails it. But that’s not to say that he fails the entire film, because for the most part, he very much succeeds. This is one movie where I would recommend the extended director’s cut more than the original theatrical cut. The extended cut may be 19 minutes longer, but it’s a way more coherent film than the one released in theaters. The story plans out more naturally, is loaded with other (and better) variations of the jokes, and overall feels like a more satisfying experience. So don’t truly judge the film until you’ve seen the director’s cut, because Feig’s version is infinitely better than the original studio version. The new Ghostbusters isn’t quite the movie that fans would expect, but manages to carve its own identity despite really being just a franchise starter at its core. Its talented ensemble makes a variety of paper thin caricatures into entertaining characters. The improved humor, while not always successful, is mostly very well delivered. The visuals are striking and colorful, and was one of the few films to truly embrace the 3D aspect with ghosts really looking like they fly off the screen and into the theater. Though we probably won't get a sequel, it's a fun one-off outing with a fun group of new busters. If you're curious to read my original thoughts, check out my review of the original theatrical cut on my old, and now defunct, review blog. |