Cameron Recommends: Avatar The Last Airbender

Hey everyone, I have another recommendation for you, it's Avatar: The Last Airbender. No, not the terrible, terrible, awful movie by M. Knight Shamylan (or however you spell that guys name). The horror of that movie makes me shudder, brrr, so bad. No, I'm talking about the original TV show.

Simply put, Avatar; The Last Airbender is one of the greatest television series of all time. It has everything a great series needs: humor, action, deep characterization, a touch of romance, an interesting setting, satire, the list goes on and on. The story is about a mythical world where some people are born with the ability to bend one of the elements, either earth, air, water or fire. People bend these elements by using martial arts. The writers and creators of the show enlisted the help of martial arts experts in order to create fighting that was realistic, despite the fact that they are flinging fire or water at each other. Each element is given a distinct type of martial arts fighting style that they felt encompassed the idea and feeling of each element. It's pretty interesting to see.

YES!

In order to keep balance in the world there is one person who can bend all four elements, the Avatar. In addition to being the person who can bend all the elements, he is the bridge between the spirit world and mankind. Upon his death, the Avatar is born into one of the four nations, always rotating fire, air, water, earth, fire and so on.

The world is split into four nations, one for each element. However, the fire nation invaded, wiping out the air nomads and all the airbenders in the hopes of killing the Avatar, who was a child in the air nation at the time. However he survived. One hundred years later, he wakes to find the world in chaos, the fire nation is close to conquering the water and earth kingdoms. Even though he still just a teenager, he must learn to master all four elements and bring balance to the world.

This show is incredible guys. Now, before you go judging a book by its cover I have a few things to say. I was very hesitant to watch this show. I was introduced to it by a friend of mine, Dave Loomis. It looked an awful lot like anime to me, which I do not enjoy (despite my younger brother's several attempts to convince me otherwise). Well I was wrong to be suspicious. While The Last Airbender may look like an anime series, it isn't. It is completely American made. The creators simply chose Chinese culture as a basis for the show. While the animation may look like anime, it is far from it. Also, the whole thing was originally done in English, so no weird lip syncing or subtitles. And though it may seem to be directed at kids, it covers several very adult themes and concepts.

I love this show, it is perfect. The first season it's a tad slow, but it gets better as the show goes on. This series also has one of the most interesting and compelling character development arcs I've ever seen or read, I literally cried. Just go watch it. If you live near me, I have the whole series on DVD and I'd love to watch it with you.

Have you seen Avatar? What do like about it? Let me know in the comments below.

Cameron Recommends: The Simpsons

Oh yeah, that is right, I am writing in the blog again, for second week in a row, and all you doubters thought that I'd go back to the pattern of once every 9 months. Well, you were wrong. HA!

This week on Cameron Recommends I'd like to talk about one of my absolute favorite shows in television history, The Simpsons. I apologize beforehand in that this will be a rather long one with plenty of back story. If you'd like to just get to the

reasons why I recommend this then skip to the last paragraph.

The Simpsons, TVs favorite dysfunctional family and my all time favorite cartoon

series ever. I have been watching the Simpsons for as long as I can remember. Mind you the series aired in 1989 when I was 5 years old. My family loved the show and we watched it every week. Why, might you ask, was my family so interested in the show from the start? Because Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson along with Rod Flanders, Nelson Muntz and Ralph Wiggum, went to Fairmount High School in Kettering Ohio with my dad. Yep, it's my one and only claim to fame. She sends us Christmas cards and even wrote me while I was serving on my mission. She is very cool and does a lot of charity work including a program for terminally ill children where she calls them on the telephone with Bart's voice and talks to kids. So from the beginning when my dad realized that someone he knew was going to be on TV he was committed to supporting her, and we loved it.

Now to address some issues that people have with my beloved show. Many people have

expressed the opinion that my parents were irresponsible for letting me watch the Simpsons as a kid. In the early 90's there was a crusade of sorts against the Simpsons. Many kids that I knew growing up were not allowed to watch the show. However, these same parents would allow their kids to watch Friends with them. Let me pose you a little question, would you rather your kids watch a show where people are constantly sleeping with other people and where sexual innuendos reign supreme or a show about a family that stays together despite being a dysfunctional?

The negative press that the Simpsons got in the beginning of their season was an overreaction to Bart being an "underachiever and proud of it". Reporters said that Bart was a bad influence on kids and that children who were allowed to watch the Simpsons would grow up to be like Bart. Well I watched the Simpsons religiously as a kid and I'm on my way to earning a PhD in biological engineering and I am a fully active member of the LDS church, so there. If anyone reading this was as a kid forbidden to watch the Simpsons I strongly urge you to grab a couple of episodes from season 2-9 and realize how strong of a family the Simpsons are. Homer and Marge are a faithful couple who got married before their first child is born. Homer works to provide for the family and Marge is a caring stay at home mom who encourages her children. The family has nightly meals at the dinner table together and go to events and vacations together. Enough with that rant, sorry.

So why do I recommend the Simpsons? Simply put it is funniest show I've ever had the pleasure to watch. The Simpsons is the best example of social satire I've ever seen. The writers had a firm grasp on what was going on in society and made fun of it in fantastic form. I've seen most of the episodes from the first 12 seasons a couple of times and I still find myself laughing out loud. Now a word of opinion, I own the first 12 seasons of the Simpsons. After season 12 I personally feel that the Simpsons declined in quality and originality. So in reality this recommendation is for the Simpsons seasons 1-12. The Simpsons golden years were from 3-9 as this is where I feel the show really was in its stride. Seasons 10-12 are great but there are some dud episodes. And while I feel that there are plenty of stand out episodes in later seasons, the overall quality of the show declined. I doubt I will buy those other seasons. However, I highly, highly, highly recommend the Simpsons seasons 1-12 to anyone who loves to laugh. Here are just a couple of my favorite episodes: Cape Fear (well any Sideshow Bob episode really), Bart the Fink, You only Move Twice, and The City of New York vs Homer.

Thanks everyone and enjoy! Oh and feel free to comment if you agree or disagree with me on this.