tl;dr LoK Season 1 was cliche and disappointing
This is going to contain major spoilers for the Legend of Korra finale. If you haven't seen it yet, I would recommend you don't read this. It would be better for you to formulate your own opinion first.
And a foreword: I am a die-hard fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I cosplay Aang, and soon I'll be cosplaying The Lieutenant from LoK (even though he kinda sucked the entire season). I love Bryke, and I love the world they've created. But I have some very serious criticisms to send their way. The biggest thing I loved about ATLA was all the paradigms that it shattered. Somehow that way was lost in LoK...
So I was severely disappointed. While the production quality for the finale was everything I expected, the story and writing was painfully cliche. Basically, it was like a production from M. Night Shyamalan.
A lot of people had been complaining throughout the whole season that it all felt rushed and that the perspective was clearly biased in favor of benders. Neither of these things bothered me, because I assumed that Bryke had a rocket in their pocket which they'd be unleashing with the finale. I was certain they'd be able to wrap it all up in a tightly sealed package and deliver some really good quality conclusion. I was wrong.
The first problem is that they tried so hard to surprise us. The thing is, it's not a surprise when 80% of the fandom was predicting it to begin with. And the only reason everyone was predicting it is because it was such an overdone trope. "OH MAH GAWD IT TURNS OUT THAT THE BAD GUIZE WERE BROTHERS ALL ALONG, OMG." Seriously Bryke? You pulled that card? Out of where? Why? How was that in any way necessary? What message is that even sending? That being a horrible person runs in a family? And then what about the legitimate concerns of the Equalists? Is that ever going to be addressed? Why the hell did it have to turn out that their leader was just playing them all for fools? Why fall back to that cliche: "Aw mih gawd, the big bad guy was lying to everyone all along. Surprise surprise!" Is it really so hard to believe that someone would want to extinguish bending out of empathy for the non-bending oppressed? Is it really so hard to let them have a champion with ambiguous morality? Do you really have to reduce this whole issue to Avatar versus Psychotic Irrational Bending-Hater? It would have been so much more refreshing and appropriate for Amon to have been a character with actual depth like he was set up to be; not some cliche straw-man.
And then the bloodbending garbage. This aggravates me more than anything, mostly because they never justified it. They never really justified the Yakone bloodbending lineage at all (Why does their specific family have this unique talent? Seems like a lazy writer's convenient plot device), and they never justified how bloodbending could be used to remove bending. And it makes even less sense when you consider that waterbending healing couldn't fix a problem caused by waterbending and yet Energybending did fix it. What's up with that? If he was using bloodbending to remove their bending, the damage should be physical. If energybending is the key to restoring it, then the damage should have been spiritual. The only justification I can see is that Amon was only using bloodbending to subdue them, and then he actually used energybending to remove their bending (because why not? Maybe after learning what happened to his father, Amon went out and discovered the secrets of Energybending, and that's why he was gone for so long). But this is never explained at any point in time. C'mon, what the hell?
Moreover, how in the name of Kung Fu Action Jesus did it make any sense that losing her first three bending arts would suddenly awaken her fourth? It all seemed so painfully contrived; I really expected better.
Hiroshi Sato's story was also completely unbelievable to me. He's the most motherfucking intelligent man in the fucking world who clearly has/had a deep love for his wife and daughter, so naturally his reaction to his daughter trying to reason with him was to try to kill her. Because intelligent people obviously can't be reasoned with. And sentiment obviously means nothing to a man who was driven to such great lengths to seek retribution for the loss of his loved one.
Also, Makorra was handled dreadfully. That's all I really have to say about that.
And then there's the whole extermination of Airbenders... wut? Yakone lost his bending, but was still able to raise two very powerful bloodbenders. What exactly is to stop Tenzin and his children from raising more Airbenders? How was that a big deal at all? And obviously Amon knows this, because he was one such person. So what does he think he's accomplishing with this big circus act of taking away their bending (or attempting to, anyway)? He has to know that in the long run, it won't amount to much.
And how exactly did severing Korra's connection to the other three elements open up a connection to air? And why didn't Amon just sever the air connection along with the other three? Did it not exist while Amon was taking her bending? Would he not have found it suspicious that there were only three elemental connections when there should have been four? And then did it suddenly open up out of desperation?? What does airbending have to do with desperation??? How exactly would desperation be a catalyst for a connection to airbending? Airbending should be about freedom and letting go. This whole plot point seemed very weak.
As far as the final (ending scene) conclusion is concerned, I think that's the least of the holes in this season. Korra was obviously contemplating suicide; sacrificing herself so that the next Avatar could come. I think it's at this point that she fully recognized her duty as the Avatar, on a physical and spiritual level. It was then, as Aang said, at her lowest point, that she was able to change herself in a fundamental way. So that's all fine and dandy. But then what I don't like is that suddenly she can return bending to everyone. Well okay. Um. So what was the point of this entire season? It's like a sitcom; everything is just going back to how it was before the whole Equalist saga. There's no sense of loss and simultaneously no sense of progression. I guess Korra can airbend and energybend now, but so what? She was bound to learn eventually anyway. In ATLA, learning to bend was just a means for the final conclusion, which was fixing the state of the world. Returning balance to it. Republic City started off imbalanced and as far as we can tell it will remain imbalanced. After all the shit they pulled, non-benders will probably be viewed more negatively than ever, and their legitimate grievances will be enhanced rather than addressed. There was absolutely no resolution offered to them. There is still no balance.
So I guess in conclusion, the action was fantastic, and the production quality lived up to my high expectations. But Brian and Michael... please stop writing. Please let professionals take over that part. You guys just stick to producing, concept design, and story-boarding. Let people who know how to write (AARON EHASZ) take care of that.
I think the only part of the finale that I really found satisfying was Bumi's holler.