On paper, Avatar: Seven Havens is absolute catnip for me. Picking up at some point long after Legend of Korra, the world has been reduced to seven havens (get it?) following a mysterious cataclysm that the remaining people blame the previous Avatar for causing. Heady stuff! In practice, however, this juicy plot and narrative threads are let down by inconsistent animation and hard-to-follow action.

Note: spoilers for the end of episode 1 follow.

The new show follows Pavi and Nisha, long-lost twins who also happen to both(?) be the Avatar(s) somehow. From every in-universe source as well as everything we as viewers know, if true double Avatars would be a first. The mystery of how that’s possible, what happened to them and the world at large, and the struggles of the city of Ellora to survive is the driving force behind the new animated show’s first season.

New faces, new places

Helpfully, this is all completely fascinating to me, a huge Avatar nerd that’s seen the movie and other shows, read the comics, and owns every art book. Post-apocalyptic Avatar setting? Yes, please. What do you mean Korra ruined the world? How is it possible there are two Avatars? This kind of hype is intentionally cultivated, of course, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t work on me.

One major hurdle any new Avatar show is going to encounter, just like Legend of Korra before it, is that introducing a new Avatar as protagonist essentially means an entirely new cast and setting. They’re generational, so it’s not like, for example, Asami can reasonably feature heavily in Avatar: Seven Havens even if Legend of Korra had a bit of a “have your cake and eat it too” attitude by slipping in very old characters from the original show as well as descendants.

But Nisha and Pavi are immediately charming, and their supporting cast of Jae and Karthik, among others, stand out even if they’re not quite the Team Avatar of old. The fact that Nisha and Pavi are voiced by Aishu Devan and Saheli Khan, respectively, also helps bridge the gap a bit given they’re roughly as young as Zach Tyler Eisen was when voicing Aang in the original Last Airbender series. There’s a throughline there, whereas Korra always felt more like an adult.

All the ways in which this really works for me and pushes the right buttons are frustrated by the simple fact that Avatar: Seven Havens often just doesn’t look that good when it matters. I won’t speculate as to how it happened or why, but the work produced by Avatar Studios and Nickelodeon Animation Studios, with animation services provided by French studio La Chouette Compagnie, regularly pales in comparison to previous Avatar offerings.

It is perhaps unfair that Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, the sequel movie to the original series, released earlier this year and looks incredible – animated movie budgets and animated series budgets are not the same. Plus, Studio Mir (known for its previous work on the Avatar franchise) crafts a high bar to clear, even if I’ve quite enjoyed other La Chouette productions like the Disney animated series Dragon Striker.

Braving the elements

While the Avatar: Seven Havens environments and backgrounds are colorful and bright with some incredible attention paid to lighting at times, most of the major character design elements feel flat. Compared to the design of the city of Ellora, which is awesome in the literal sense of the word and regularly gets featured in broad, zooming shots, major characters feel a bit bland even if the crowds of nameless characters are themselves nice to look at.

But the real problem is Avatar: Seven Havens’ action. The martial arts and bending of the elements while mixing the two are hallmarks of the franchise, and Seven Havens has a readability problem. It doesn’t matter how fast or slick your animation is if it can’t be followed logically, and Seven Havens frequently gets lost. Even in isolation, it’s rarely impressive, though there are still several moments that stand out, like Jae taking on multiple bandits at once, for example, despite my overall disappointment.

I take no pleasure in now agreeing with much of the early sentiment towards Avatar: Seven Havens. When the trailers first came out, the collective response to the animation was fairly tepid, but I firmly planted my feet on the “wait and see” side of the line. Trailers are rarely representative of an entire product! But I waited, and I’ve seen, and I’ve unfortunately been left wanting. The classic Avatar theme rising up behind Nisha and Pavi embracing their destiny is wildly effective when it happens, but it can’t make sequences that follow look any better.

Avatar: Seven Havens is out now on Paramount Plus, with new episodes releasing weekly. For more, here’s our guide to the best new TV shows heading your way.