Avatar: Seven Havens hands the Avatar a bad reputation

Avatar: Seven Havens, the new animated series from Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, is streaming now on Paramount+, and I had the first three episodes queued before my coffee finished brewing. The pitch is the boldest swing this franchise has taken. The new Avatar is a kid named Pavi, a young Earthbender who learns she is the successor to Korra, and in her world that title does not make her a savior. It makes her the most hated person alive.

Quick ground rules. I am keeping this to premise and the public record, so nothing past the setup you would get from the trailer. If you want to go in completely cold, bookmark this and come back after episode three.

Paramount's official release lays out the shape of Book 1. Three episodes landed today, October 9. Episodes 4 to 6 follow on October 16, episodes 7 to 9 on October 23, and the last four, 10 through 13, on October 30. Details on Book 2 will come later. The voice cast is led by Saheli Khan as Pavi and Aishu Devan as Nisha, her long-lost twin, with Akshay Khanna, Major Curda, Sakina Jaffrey, Darren Barnet, Dianne Doan, and Dee Bradley Baker. Avatar Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios produce.

Here is a small thing I noticed while lining up sources. When Paramount+ announced the date at Comic-Con in July, Animation World Network reported a full 26-episode release. By September, Paramount had switched to three-episode Friday batches, and Variety noted that Book 2 was already greenlit at 13 episodes. I think the batch plan is the right call for this specific show, and I will explain why below, because it has to do with what the critics are saying about the first three episodes.

Every Avatar show has asked whether the world deserves its Avatar. This one starts with the world voting no.

Variety's Alison Herman gives the clearest picture of the setting. The story jumps more than two centuries past The Legend of Korra, which wrapped in 2014. The four nations are gone. An environmental cataclysm, blamed on Korra herself, has turned the land into a wasteland, and the seven havens of the title are walled city-states holding out against sandstorms and bandits. Pavi is an orphan from the haven of Ellora who hides her multi-element bending and talks to objects because she does not have friends. Herman also points out the South Asian influences woven into the world, the warmer desert palette, and a more electronic score from series composer Jeremy Zuckerman. She was sent six episodes and comes away curious, if not fully sold on the ensemble yet.

Gizmodo's Isaiah Colbert is tougher on the premiere. He puts the timeline at 225 years after Korra, praises the art direction from La Chouette Compagnie as a desert-punk turn for the franchise, and says the twins are the heart of the show: Pavi with Aang's pacifism, Nisha with Korra's fight. His complaints are specific. The jokes undercut the danger, the dialogue explains too much, and the animation in the first three episodes can look stuttered. Then the key line for anyone deciding whether to keep going: he says the next three episodes are where the show really sings and the animation gets much more consistent.

Then and now: The Last Airbender vs Seven Havens

The table is built from the Variety and Gizmodo reviews plus Paramount's release, and it shows why this show is a risk. Aang's story was about a world waiting for its Avatar to come back and fix things. Seven Havens flips the starting point, and the show seems to be daring longtime fans to sit in that discomfort. Gizmodo even reads the Korra-blaming as the writers poking at the real-world fan arguments about the last show, which is a gutsy thing to build a premise on.

My watch plan for Book 1

• Tonight: episodes 1 to 3. Watch them together. Judging the premiere one episode at a time is how you talk yourself out of a show that both critics say needs room.
• October 16: episodes 4 to 6. This is the real verdict batch. It is where Gizmodo says the action and animation click, and it is also as far as critics were allowed to see.
• October 23: episodes 7 to 9. Neither review I read covers these, so from here on we are all watching blind.
• October 30: episodes 10 to 13. The only four-episode drop, which is a strong hint that the Book 1 ending wants to be watched in one sitting. Halloween weekend sorted.
• Book 2: 13 more episodes, no date yet.

That plan is why I like the batches. If Paramount had dumped all 26 episodes in one night, a slow first three would get judged in a weekend scroll and half the audience would bail before episode four. Three at a time, with the better batch arriving a week later, gives the show a second first impression. For a series whose premiere is the weakest part, that is a gift.

It has been a strong couple of weeks for animation and fantasy on the TV desk. Ranma 1/2 Season 3 started its weekly Netflix run last Saturday, and Percy Jackson's first two seasons hit Netflix for anybody building a younger-viewer fantasy queue. Seven Havens sits right between them: a kids' show on paper that is clearly hoping the adults who grew up on Aang stay for the ride.

My take after reading everything I could find, and before I hit play: the premise is the most interesting idea the franchise has had since Korra grew up and the world grew up with her. Whether the craft can catch up to the concept is the open question, and the next two Fridays will answer it. I will be on the couch for both.

How we made this: researched and drafted with AI assistance. Sources are linked in the piece.