09.14
Do the monkey with me.
Well over a year after a season finale that satisfied no one, Korra’s back. Can the show do better than Amon’s reveal? Will Mako be more than a bit of a douche? Hopefully and probably not.
Unlike Young Justice, the gap between seasons doesn’t give us a load of already-developed plot lines. Asami still has trouble reconstructing Future Industries. Korra’s still training. Bolin is a pro-bending captain for some rookies. And Mako is still a douche, but he’s now a detective douche. While more than a few of the team seem comfortable, you can see the gang’s more than willing to reunite to deal with some new concerns. Korra and the crew’s skills haven’t atrophied or anything, so this new direction with the spirits promises to be a challenge.
Meanwhile, the show introduces the Northern Water Tribe chief as well as Korra’s uncle, Unalaq. Unalaq is a hardcore spiritualist and thinks that culture has become too corrupted by material fantasies. He sneers at the notion of festivals and wonders why the people aren’t fasting to purify their bodies. To him, Korra is uneducated and in desperate help of a new mentor to strengthen her status as the Avatar. While another show would’ve painted him to be obviously wrong, Avatar is the series where giant spirits wreak havoc if something’s amiss. And considering how Korra’s been more into the physical side of bending than the other, she’s a bit screwed.
Not literally.
I like how the show’s trying to go into a new direction, with some promises of returning characters like Wong Shi Tong. The progress is slow, but noticeable. Still, the show seems to be aiming at being comfortable where it is at the moment than going somewhere else. Throughout the premiere, I could describe many moments as “nice” or “decent” instead of “amazing”. That scene where Bolin finds out about films being invented is nice. The dancing penguins were neat. Seeing Korra’s parents back was kind of cool. The fights with the spirits were interesting enough. Then there’s the feeling in the back of your head where thinking things were all right, but could’ve been better. Like how Unalaq just bends spirits to incapacitate them while Korra can’t use tactics or anything to win her way through them. The premiere doesn’t say “They’re back!” so much as “Oh hey, they’re back.” There aren’t any explicit flaws, but nothing to make you think back to how wonderful watching it was. It all felt like the season three premiere back in the original show where the characters are moving, but the plot is only starting to walk.
Speaking of, there’s no way that Unalaq isn’t the main villain for this season. From the way he acted like how he separated Korra from her other mentors; I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if he pulls a betrayal somewhere down the line. Like who ever heard of a non-evil uncle who convinces his niece to go on his side instead of her loving parents? It doesn’t help how the show already pulled that idea with Tarrlok last season. If the show can actually portray him as an honest-to-goodness hero who just has a really bad of communicating his actions, then I’ll be impressed. The show can be many things, but being unpredictable is not one of them.