Posting challenge

[magnetic_pole]

Ignoring the ceaseless talk of shutdowns and furloughs in favor of a little internet escapism...

Anyone else watching Korra? I can't get over how thin and black-and-white this show seems, especially after the complex world building and grey antagonists of Avatar. It's funny, the series almost seems to be inverted, with the scenes starring Tenzin and his family--the lighthearted comic relief--touching a very real emotional chord with me, while the scenes with Korra--ostensibly where the Serious Action is going on--fall flat. Are there two different teams writing these two story lines? Has it not occurred to the creators of the show that Eska's threats of violence aren't funny, and Korra's interrogation techniques are unacceptable? The joy of Avatar has always been that the moral universe of the show was larger and more complicated than the universes of individual characters or subplots. Korra seems to go for a cheap laugh too often.

Comments

[delphi]

I'm feeling much the same way. I keep thinking that I'm missing something with Korra's storyline - like it can't possibly be this simplistic and uninteresting, and that it can't be so disconnected from anything the characters were meant to have learned in the last season. It's so easy to imagine alternative takes on the story that I would find so much more engaging, but the episodes just keep drifting further in the opposite direction. (And Bolin/Eska has become so gross. I was hoping that Asami was going to step in during the last episode and be the voice of reason, but nope.)

That said, I would be happy to watch all Air Family, all the time. Tenzin and Ikki's tea party, Bumi and Kya's hug, and the idea of one family being responsible for restoring an entire culture...that's the Avatar-verse I love.

I'm still slightly hopeful that by having Korra turn on her uncle and by wrapping up the Air Family drama so quickly, there's some sort of twist planned for when the two storylines come together...but after last season, I'm not holding my breath.

[magnetic_pole]

The Air Family bits were light on the surface--hugs and cute animals!--but beneath that there were real issues, recognizable individuals making choices in difficult circumstances, and the story line wrapped up and left us with more complex characters I'm interested in seeing again. Korra's storyline is about moral choices on the surface, but there's nothing beneath that. I'm with you in holding out hope for the intersection of the two story lines, though.

Meanwhile, Eska and Bolin: yes! *shudders* M.

[torachan]

I'm sad that the Eska storyline is so bleh because she's voiced by Aubrey Plaza, whom I love!

I really loved the scene with Ikki and Tenzin and the baby sky bisons this last episode, and Varrick was hilarious hiding in the platypus bear (that platypus bear just pooped money!), but those two things have really been the highlights so far. It bugs me that Korra seems to not have had any character growth at all from last season's events.

[magnetic_pole]

Oh, Varrick! I forgot to mention him. He's great--silly, funny, morally gray. I hope they've got plans for him.

I like Aubrey Plaza, too, and had they just spun that relationship a bit differently--it doesn't need the element of violence or the shadow of "craziness" on throws on Eska--it wouldn't be so problematic. That last scene was horrifying. :( M.

[red_squared]

Anyone else watching Korra?

Yes :( [contains spoilers for latest episode]