Just finished watching... Surprising

Hmm... Fair enough, but it's hard for me to like a show that basically pisses away half of its existence. Maybe I'm too rigid that way, but a bad episode or two is not the same as a bad season or two. I like for shows to have cohesion. You can't expect every show to have a plan from the very beginning to the very end, but some shows (like Breaking Bad, of course) managed to make it feel like they did, by constantly focusing on their trajectory, both where they've been, and where they're going, before breaking every episode.

In the early days of the show a lot of Korra fans told me that they were trying to find their footing in Season 2, since Season 1 was supposed to be a one off. Maybe, but I don't think knowing that is going to improve the quality any. That asks me to give them some room which I feel is not necessarily earned, especially when you consider that I didn't like the first thing they presented as its own complete story in the first place. One they had so much time on that they insisted on writing every episode themselves.

Now, I know you are not necessarily saying this, but when people grant me my perspective, but try to justify the rest it, it usually comes out like "Well, the first season might not be great, but that's because they tried to tell a whole arc in just one book. And Season 2 didn't come out great, because they hadn't planned ahead like in Airbender, so they were trying to find their groove." Great. So the first two seasons are basically a sucker punch to each other. I'm not sure I even understand that, I've seen a good number of shows that didn't need two whole seasons to find their groove. Not to that extent.

I remember a lot of justifications for Season 1 missteps revolved around them having "only a half hour" per episode and "only twelve episodes." The core excuse being that they were dealing with subject matter that they "really should" have an hour to tell. Okay... so why waste so much of that precious time on the minutiae of professional bending, like it's the tutorial in a freaking video game? Why waste it on a love triangle that nobody cares about? - They expected us to care who Korra ended up with before any of them (including Korra herself I should point out) were properly introduced! It's maddening.

This is becoming a general rant. It just sort of frustrates me that this seems to be riding on the originals' coattails. That being said, I'm sure you're right about the last two seasons being better, I'm just not sure I can give it a second chance, especially knowing that its sister show was good the whole way through. I had hoped for something that would live up to that legacy, and either way I don't feel like I got that. How could I if I can't enjoy the jumping off point?