I'm re-watching The Magicians with my wife, since she's never seen it. It's been long enough since I watched it last that I don't remember a lot of things that happened, so there's a lot of "I forgot got that!" moments for me, which is fun.
Theoretically it was in preparation to watch the new Netflix series.
After finishing the first season; before starting season two I put on the Netflix series. I made it about 5 minutes into Ep1 before deciding I’d just finish my rewatch of the original series instead.
I found it to be... fine. The actors and your expectations settle in after a couple of episodes. The Zuko actor is actually pretty good, Iroh is a different take but damned if Paul Sun-Hyung Lee's enthusiasm for every goony-ass genre part he does isn't infectious, and Sokka and Katara grow into their show personas. Aang... eventually gets less distracting.
The production design is authentic to the show, and Appa, Momo, and June's mole-wolf-horse thing are all well done. I don't think this show was necessary at all, and parts of it are stubbornly weak, but if it gets a new cohort of fans into the universe and watching the cartoons, it could be a net positive.
LOL. Fair enough. No two ways about it, he's a weak link, and that's a BAD part to have as your weak link, but eventually I found him to be okay. I think they cast him for his look and his ability to play "earnest," and he does that fairly well. I would have preferred they went with somebody who could pull off the mischief side more convincingly.
Everything you say sounds reasonable. I might give it another go but something about the whole universe my brain was just fine with accepting in animation but it just absolutely bounced off of in live action.
I am not going to lean in too hard on recommending it, LOL. It's deeply flawed, including too many costumes having that "straight from the wardrobe department" sheen, but with time and lowered expectations, I think there's some fun there.
Well I’m going to at least push it until I see Uncle Iroh. I didn’t know Paul Sun-Hyung Lee was in the show and TBH that was the real selling point of you’re reply 😂