Avatar (Can I say that? I hear 20th C. Fox own it now)
EPISODE 5
You're gonna have to forgive me; Ride the Lightning broke us like a twig and not even clearing Won't Get Fooled Again made it better.
Sokka screams like a girl! He really is the Xander!
I liked the episode. No huge advances in the story but it was fun and had good action, and if Zuko shows up every episode you risk him losing credibility - there's a reason Voldie doesn't show up in Prisoner of Azkaban, yo.
Some expansion of the Avatar world, although these self-contained cities do risk RPG syndrome ('Hey, it's the Earth town! Stock up on air magic!'), but carping aside the show has already mentioned the Earth Nation as a major antagonist to that of Fire, so I'll keep quiet about why a single city warrants such an advanced postal system.
Earth bending is pretty cool. The city gates were impressive. It's interesting to see it work out; whilst apparently air bending is common within the relevant tribe and water bending rare, for the Fire Nation it's a martial trait and in Earth, civic.
Speaking of that postal system, Zim is still the king of chase sequences, but this one worked very well due to exceptional comic timing and property damage. The flashback introduction was not so much a tip-off as a straight-up deposit of the plot twist, but a solid action sequence was a good effort at distracting the audience. I think this is the first really Aang-centric episode so far, and he carried it well.
That is to say, the first episode where Katara and Sokka were really just Companions.
Still funny, in fact almost Python-lite this time around ("Take them to the Refurbished Chamber That Was Once Bad!"), although the King hogged a lot of Sokka's limelight. Katara actually got the best ones this time: "Other than the crystal slowly encasing my entire body? Doing great!" and the pay-off to the name-guessing exchange - "Rocky! Because of all the rocks!" "We're gonna keep trying but that is a great back-up!".
It toyed with trite saturday morning sentimentality at the end, but pulled itself back from the brink about how I'd expect: "...and when you do [confront Ozai]... I want you to think like a mad genius!" Although that's gonna be a lot to live up to.
Oh! I loved the way they handled the drill scene. "Men, you're going off to combat soon, it's important that you be prepared for anythi-"
Also, a genuinely cool Matrix-style action moment when Aang barely dodged one of the boulder attacks. There are few non-shit flo-mo/bullet-time riffs around, although still fewer actual funny Matrix gags.
You're gonna have to forgive me; Ride the Lightning broke us like a twig and not even clearing Won't Get Fooled Again made it better.
Sokka screams like a girl! He really is the Xander!
I liked the episode. No huge advances in the story but it was fun and had good action, and if Zuko shows up every episode you risk him losing credibility - there's a reason Voldie doesn't show up in Prisoner of Azkaban, yo.
Some expansion of the Avatar world, although these self-contained cities do risk RPG syndrome ('Hey, it's the Earth town! Stock up on air magic!'), but carping aside the show has already mentioned the Earth Nation as a major antagonist to that of Fire, so I'll keep quiet about why a single city warrants such an advanced postal system.
Earth bending is pretty cool. The city gates were impressive. It's interesting to see it work out; whilst apparently air bending is common within the relevant tribe and water bending rare, for the Fire Nation it's a martial trait and in Earth, civic.
Speaking of that postal system, Zim is still the king of chase sequences, but this one worked very well due to exceptional comic timing and property damage. The flashback introduction was not so much a tip-off as a straight-up deposit of the plot twist, but a solid action sequence was a good effort at distracting the audience. I think this is the first really Aang-centric episode so far, and he carried it well.
That is to say, the first episode where Katara and Sokka were really just Companions.
Still funny, in fact almost Python-lite this time around ("Take them to the Refurbished Chamber That Was Once Bad!"), although the King hogged a lot of Sokka's limelight. Katara actually got the best ones this time: "Other than the crystal slowly encasing my entire body? Doing great!" and the pay-off to the name-guessing exchange - "Rocky! Because of all the rocks!" "We're gonna keep trying but that is a great back-up!".
It toyed with trite saturday morning sentimentality at the end, but pulled itself back from the brink about how I'd expect: "...and when you do [confront Ozai]... I want you to think like a mad genius!" Although that's gonna be a lot to live up to.
Oh! I loved the way they handled the drill scene. "Men, you're going off to combat soon, it's important that you be prepared for anythi-"
Also, a genuinely cool Matrix-style action moment when Aang barely dodged one of the boulder attacks. There are few non-shit flo-mo/bullet-time riffs around, although still fewer actual funny Matrix gags.