Okay, so, I'm just going to bump this back up because I'm just now catching up. I spent the last week watching all of Avatar, and just finished off Book 2 of Korra. My feelings are mixed.
On one hand, the action is good. I think the character of Korra is a good example of the idea that the Avatar can be a very different person from regeneration to regeneration, and not forcing us to watch her have to go through, slowly working her way through each element is kind of nice. Unfortunately, that also removed a lot of chance for legitimate character development. Instead, Korra just bounces between "I want to be a good Avatar and you just don't teach me what I need to know" and "I'M SO SORRY FOR DOUBTING YOUR ABILITY TO TEACH ME". The Book 1 love triangle deal had the chance for making more happen, but instead, we hit Book 2, and the relationship between Korra and Mako just falls apart as Korra no longer seems to know how to react properly. Even by the end of Book 2, I felt like she had made absolutely zero progress towards becoming a good, likeable character entirely due to her lack of consistency in what should be growth. I really hope Book 3 makes an effort to develop her as the Avatar, and moves away from her ridiculous reactions to every little thing that happens in her tiny group of friends.
Speaking of character development, Bolin and Asami did nothing through all of Book 2. The writers essentially tossed both of them off on the sidelines, would give them a brief moment of action, and then ditch them again. Or in Bolin's case, we got to see him inexplicably participate in almost none of the action until the last few episodes of the season. I just feel like Asami essentially played her role in Book 1, and that the writers don't really know what to do with Bolin, since they certainly have failed at making him as likeable as Sokka was in Avatar. Mako, well, I dunno. He's a good character in that he gets shit done and seems to actually be increasing in ability, but he sucks in that he is essentially just there half the time to add some form of bullshit romantic tension.
Plot wise, well, honestly, Book 2 kind of fucked shit up. How are you going to present a greater villain than darkness itself? You just had the Avatar face the archenemy of all light in the world. Good luck in Book 3 and Book 4 on providing us with an enemy that doesn't feel like a step backwards. As well, the plot for the second season was just kind of weird. I guess it's mostly because Avatar didn't really focus on the spirit world stuff much, and when they did, they never made it seem like it was, well, anything like how the spirits and spirit world were ultimately represented. It was interesting that they brought back the lion turtles and explained why the one in Avatar was so special in being able to guide Aang by showing how much power they truly held though. Still, the idea of the spirits, an essentially unfightable entity that is more bipolar in their reactions than Korra, becoming a staple of the last two books just screams for more really stupid things to happen. I just felt that the Equalist thing, although a little weird in itself, was better in some ways, despite the fact that bringing back blood bending was lame. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't just suddenly the power to blood bend without a full moon. They never explained how bending could be blocked by blood bending either. Not even a little. Regardless, at the least, they did leave a plot line open in that Book 3 can focus around Korra trying to reestablish the connection to her past lives, so there isn't absolutely nothing to build off of.
In the end, I dunno. In total, the plot seems to bounce between bearable, weird, and just feeling its way through from episode to episode. They don't seem to know how to balance the use of the new technology they introduced with the bending abilities of the past, and there are a lot of flat out arbitrary plot details that keep making it into seasons that aren't long enough to support details that do nothing to forward the plot. At the same time, I have to concede that despite all of the flaws, it is written just well enough to keep me interested in seeing what will happen next. This spirit thing really pushed it though. As excited as I was to go from episode to episode, by the end of Book 2, I just didn't know what to think about it anymore.
The music is cool. That's pretty good.
Now, to be fair, despite all of my criticism, they did keep me watching through both seasons so far, and for that, they can be sure that I'll be watching the next two, if nothing more than for the fact that I want some closure on the series as a whole. It ain't perfect and it certainly isn't as good as its predecessor, but it holds its own just well enough. My criticisms for all of the things they didn't explain even a little are close to never ending, and the fact that they opted to totally ignore certain things from Book 1 just rustles my jimmies ever so slightly. That doesn't change the fact that it is interesting though, and I have watched other shows that I like more that have opened themselves up to far more plot inconsistencies and character development issues than this one. No matter how much bad I can point out, I'll still be excited for each new episode until the series ends.