We live in a time when millennials who grew up watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon can’t seem to catch a break. Whether it’s M. Night Shyamalan’s so-bad-you-can’t-even-hate-watch it 2010 film, Paramount not seeming to care too deeply about Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender leaking online, or the first season of Netflix’s live-action series—sans creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino—taking head-scratching creative liberties that did more harm than good with diehard fans of the series, let alone fans of animation, who’re once bitten and twice shy by the mere mention of “live-action” anything. However, we also live in an age when live-action projects can surprise us by being quite good, giving Netflix, misplaced or otherwise, confidence to keep on trucking until morale improves. Which brings us to the second season of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender series and where it shakes out in this equation. Long story short: it’s fine. Not an absolute disaster by any means. Short story long: it still feels incredibly imbalanced as a live-action show based on a cartoon, begging the question of why it even exists. After having mastered waterbending and fending off the invading Fire Nation in a bittersweet victory, thanks to the assistance of the kaiju-sized Ocean Spirit, the second go-around with the live-action Gaang sees Aang (Gordon Cormier) traveling from the Northern Water Tribe to the Earth Kingdom in hopes of finding a teacher to help him master earthbending. Unfortunately, Aang’s trip isn’t a direct flight to mastering the elements. Key among the troubles weighing on his arrowed head are contending with Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) siccing his lightning-wielding daughter Azula (Elizabeth Yu), on his air bison’s trail, peeking over his shoulder at the ever-present threat of her brother, Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu), and saving the Earth Kingdom of Ba Sing Se from an invasion by the Fire Nation. His last hurdle as the teenage savior of humanity would have been easier to overcome had Ba Sing Se’s citizens and king not fallen for the propaganda claiming there was no war in the first place.