Disappoinment from Avatar, questions for True Detective, and more from the week in TV
A look back at The A.V. Club's top TV reviews and features from the week of February 19
Which Love Is Blind season 6 couples will actually make it?
Break out your golden goblets and 98 Degrees CDs, folks, a new season of Love Is Blind has commenced. The pods are officially open, as the sixth edition of the Netflix dating experiment dropped its first six episodes on the streamer on February 14 (duh). As is reality TV tradition, season six follows a fresh set of Charlotte-based singles as they meet cute, make love connections and ultimately get engaged under the guidance of co-hosts Nick and Vanessa Lachey—all before they meet in person. Read More
5 unanswered questions from the True Detective: Night Country finale
For a series that makes a big deal out of asking the right questions, the finale of True Detective: Night Country sure left us with a lot of open-ended ones. Or maybe, as Jodie Foster’s Liz Danvers puts it, “Some questions just don’t have answers.” That’s not going to keep us from asking them, though. While season four’s two big murder cases were solved in the 75-minute episode, there are still some lingering mysteries that left us feeling less than satisfied. That’s not unusual for a show like True Detective, which always leaves some room for ambiguity and speculation. In fact, that’s part of the fun of it. So now that the final credits have rolled, let’s pull on some of those dangling threads and puzzle over the enigmas left behind at the end of the season. Read More
Avatar: The Last Airbender review: Latest adaptation lacks the original’s magic
Hollywood loves nothing more than gnawing on the bones of preexisting IPs. Whether a reboot is good or not, it will almost certainly be lucrative. When it comes to Avatar: The Last Airbender, the industry powers that be should’ve learned their lesson the first time. In 2010, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko’s Nickelodeon show, widely considered one of the greatest animated series of the 21st century, was adapted by M. Night Shyamalan in The Last Airbender. That film is widely considered one of the worst movies of the 21st century. (We’re talking a 5 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating). Unfortunately, it didn’t stop Netflix from making its flesh-and-blood-and CGI adaptation. The best thing to say about it is at least they did a better job than Shyamalan. Read More
Curb Your Enthusiasm recap: Balls get Larry into (and out of) trouble
So last week on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry made himself quite the popular guy. After making a lot of people very mad for lugging a racist lawn jockey around in his car to replace the one he broke at his Airbnb, even bringing it to a Black church barbecue, he pled non-guilty to breaking that water bottle law and won everyone back. As Larry and pals stroll through LAX, having flown back in from Atlanta, they’re welcomed by all sorts of new and exuberant L.D. fans who have followed the news coverage surrounding his legal stuff—even the actress Sienna Miller is impressed. “Thank you on behalf of everybody who has a heart,” she says to Larry, and throws in that running into him was “bashert” (“destined” or “fated” in Yiddish, which definitely pushes a button or two for old Larr). She says “keep in touch,” and bumps into something like a dork as she walks away, clearly crushing a little—but he can’t make a move. (There’s a quick a bagel thing that’s worth mentioning, too: Larry tosses one he doesn’t want to a homeless guy rather than allow him to approach the car—it’s fine this time, but this comes back later.) Read More