For someone used to network TV, the almost haphazard scheduling of
Avatar: The Last Airbender has been more than a little confusing. Nickelodeon has aired seasons of this show with extensive breaks between episodes, and then waited months and months between seasons. For a show aimed at a younger audience with a short attention span, this doesn't seem like the wisest plan. Especially since
Avatar: The Last Airbender isn't a
Spongebob Squarepants, which has nothing resembling an overarcing story and can air reruns forever without anyone much caring.
Avatar: The Last Airbender and its coherent, specific story arcs is a tale best seen beginning to end, and finally the end of the series – its last few episodes before its conclusive finale – will air in just a month. Strangely, the current schedule is that the last episodes will be aired straight through during the course of one week, an odd choice after the lengthy and painfully long schedule the show previously endured.
The latest issue of Nickelodeon Magazine included a feature on
Avatar, with a blurb reading as follows:
“Tune in to brand new episodes of
Avatar: The Last Airbender every weeknight during the week of Monday, July 14. Then on Saturday, July 19, catch a special two-hour episode.”
Though the blurb isn't entirely clear, that would put the schedule something like this:
July 14: Ep. 52, "The Western Air Temple"
July 15: Ep. 53, "The Firebending Masters"
July 16: Eps. 54 and 55, "The Boiling Rock" (one hour)
July 17: Ep. 56, "The Southern Raiders"
July 18: Ep. 57, "The Ember Island Players"
July 19: Eps. 58 - 61, "Sozin's Comet" (two hours)
I'm of two minds on this. The first finds this schedule rather anti-climactic. After waiting seven months for the show to return, to have it regurgitated day after day like this almost feels as though Nickelodeon is trying to rush the show off the air without allowing much of a build up to the series' end. But my other mind is the crazy obsessive
Avatar: The Last Airbender fan mind, which watched all of seasons one and two in a giant marathon. Getting to see the no doubt explosive end to this series all in one go may be a bit of an
Avatar overdose, but I'm more than ready to feel the rush.
One reason Nickelodeon may be choosing to air the end of the series this way is because of the aforementioned weird scheduling for the show. A few of these episodes are already out on DVD despite having not aired in the US, and several episodes have already aired in other countries. The season three DVD box set is scheduled to release in a few short months, and from what I hear a novelization was recently released which gives away the entire end of the series.
So, they might as well get the show out all in one go. There's no doubt that Nickelodeon, not used to a show as arc-based as
Avatar, messed up with the scheduling. Despite this, I'm not going to complain – we have ten brand new episodes on the way, and I plan to enjoy every minute of them.
Are you happy with the schedule for the last Avatar episodes?
- , BuddyTV Staff Writer
Source: Nickelodeon Magazine
(Image courtesy of AvatarSpirit.Net)