The Legend of Korra S02E01E02 – Review

By: Tim Hedrick & Joshua Hamilton (story)

The Story: I don’t suppose holy water and crosses work on these kinds of spirits.

The Review: For most of Korra’s first season, it strove to replicate the beautiful balance of humor and pathos as its predecessor, but ultimately fell short.  The Last Airbender achieved its powerful blend of childish enthusiasm and adult sensibilities by virtue of its characters naturally possessing both qualities.  The cast of Korra started out older, warier, more given to sobriety than silliness; it could never have the innocence and wonder that made Airbender so easy to love.

In many ways, the second season seems to embrace the show’s maturity a little more firmly than the first.  Aside from the irrepressible Bolin and the hyperactive antics of Tenzin’s youngest children, the tone of the show is now quietly grounded in grown-up concerns.  Even as Korra expresses her affection for the Southern Water Tribe’s yearly festival, she does so with a kind of distance, her fondness coming more from nostalgia than real pleasure.  She carries that same reservation throughout the season premiere, sometimes in a strange and stark contrast with Tenzin’s emotional regression once reunited with his older siblings.