Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season One)

I keep being told that what appears to be filler will become really important, but I lack the big picture of where some of that stuff is going. Other than that, though, I don’t know that I could ask for more. It’s got great characters with defined arcs, a serial narrative that is flexible enough to indulge the occasional experimental episode, and loads of well executed action, drama, and humor, all of it perfectly balanced. Points off for the filler (c’mon, it’s 21 episodes, some cuts could have been made), but it’s within spitting distance of the animated “Batman”’s quality.

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