As some of my previous favorite streams of the week wrapped up over the last couple of weeks, such as the new seasons of “Shrinking” and “Scrubs,” I began casting about for a new title to watch. I was having a bit of a difficult time; I’m not a big “Euphoria” fan, and I’m not caught up on “Hacks.”

As I looked around for something new, I decided to start a rewatch of the animated series “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” inspired by the unfortunate news that the upcoming film “Avatar: Ang, the Last Airbender” had been leaked online. As my rewatch progressed, however, I found myself enraptured by the series, which ended my search for me by becoming my favorite stream of the week.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” takes place in a world where some humans have harnessed the power to control one of the four elements — an ability known as bending. The four nations lived in balance for many centuries, but an attack by the Fire Nation has thrown the world out of balance. The Avatar is the master of all four elements, and destined to keep the power — but no one has seen him in over 100 years, and the Fire Nation is tightening its grip.

The show was first released on Nickelodeon in 2005, and ran for just three seasons. As an animated series, I can see why some adults would question its place here, but after burning through a rewatch, I will argue passionately that “Avatar” is far, far more than a simple cartoon show for children.

The show explores themes of family and friendship, but also much more adult ones, such as abuse (both physical and psychological), war, colonialism, propaganda, terrorism, and even genocide, along with more hopeful ones like redemption. It’s not afraid to confront its audience with these issues, trusting to its writing to convey the proper messages around such dark and mature topics.

The tonal shifts in “Avatar” are so deftly handled that I would forget it was a kids’ show altogether, were it not for the deft use of humor that’s clearly written with children in mind. But it’s never so juvenile that parents who are watching with their young ones will turn up their nose at the jokes — most are executed well enough to elicit a laugh at any age.

“Avatar” blends spirituality with the physical world in a way that few shows dare to attempt, even adult shows. Most titles that attempt to handle spirituality of any kind think of the world’s historical myths as sources for fantastic monsters that tear up cities, but “Avatar” is influenced by spirituality from all over the globe, including China and other parts of East Asia, as well as Inuit cultures.

It’s a true shame that, thus far, attempts to adapt “Avatar: The Last Airbender” to live-action format have not met fan expectations. The ill-fated M. Night Shyamalan film “The Last Airbender” left many fans with such a bad taste in their mouths that they were convinced the series could never work in live-action. Netflix delighted fans by announcing that it was planning its own adaptation of the show, with the show’s original creators, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. But the duo left the Netflix series in 2020, citing creative differences, and are now back at work on more animated content set in the Avatar-verse.

It’s a shame that their first new film featuring Aang and his friends has been subjected to the online leak treatment, but that episode has done nothing to detract from the brilliance of the original series. Viewers can stream “Avatar: The Last Airbender” on both Paramount+ and Netflix now.