Cobra Kai - Season 1-3 - TV Review

One of the reasons I started writing reviews is because there are some pieces of media I want to get more attention. Another reason is because there is so much out there that catches my interests that sometimes I miss things when they come out. Hell, every time I see my father he asks if I've watched Citizen Kane yet, even though it's on no streaming service out there (or at least not without paying an arm and a leg). Some things I've missed have ranged from meh to really good, but on every rare occasion have I found a beautiful gem of media that I feel shocked that I've missed out on. Well this week I have found one of these gems: Cobra Kai.

Cobra Kai is the TV sequel of the original Karate Kid trilogy from the 1980s. Taking place in our present time, it revolves around Johnny Lawrence (once again played by William Zabka). He's a loser with no money, a separated wife, a son he hasn't been able to take care of, and with no goal in life. One day though he sees some high school bullies beating up on a kid named Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) and uses his karate to defend him. The next day Miguel asks Johnny to train him in karate, to which Johnny says no. But seeing once more the success of his former rival, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), he decides to open up his own his old Cobra Kai dojo and train a new generation of kids how to defend themselves and be badass. But Daniel, upon seeing the news, has a fire of youth reignite in him and he and Johnny once more become rivals in the field of karate.

Now the main reason I missed out on this show was because it was originally only on Youtube Red, Youtube's own premium streaming service. I already owned Netflix and HBO and I considered Youtube Red to be a pathetic attempt for Youtube to have its own original content. I mean just today I discovered a channel called TerminalMontage that has insane animations based on Nintendo characters, with many of their videos in the tens of millions of views. How can Youtube top that? The answer is they can't. But recently, and very oddly, Youtube dropped Cobra Kai after season 2 and the show was picked up by Netflix. And so I had no excuse to not watch this show and after binging three seasons I feel like a complete moron for not watching this incredible show sooner. And with that I have to warn you all there will be a couple of spoilers in this review. You have been warned.

Cobra Kai is a show that feels absolutely at home in the new "Miyagi-Verse" (all three originals films plus this show). It has the tone, the action, story, and characters of the films, but builds on and develops them to become even better than before. Let's face it, The Karate Kid is kind of dated now with some of its humor and it helped begin a wide range of other cliched stories of a young kid finding an old, wise master to train them. While set in and feeling a lot like a modern show, Cobra Kai has those touches of 80s awesomeness to it. But more than that the show respects the original source material very well! Some would say it uses a ton of fan-service to enhance the story, but fan-service (at least to me) are small moments that remind us of previous entries in something that aren't very impactful on the main story. Instead Cobra Kai is a master of using nostalgia to enhance the story because when it reminds us the original Karate Kid movies exist it isn't just for a small moment, but a large moment or for a series of moments in the show. That's extreme respect right there.

William Zabka's return as Johnny Lawrence is a performance I was immediately and fully captivated by. Due to his continual failures in life after that iconic karate tournament we start the show off (and stay mostly the same) throughout the show with him having a mind-set to somebody from the 80s. He wants to be cool, badass, and get a nice chick. Also he has never used or owned a computer, smart phone, or tablet and has never been on the internet before because "that's for nerds." This time of thinking in a modern day setting is out of place, but also just what the show needs because watching the show and thinking about real life... people are afraid to say anything bad about each other. Unless it's online. Johnny though doesn't give a fuck about that because that's not how he was raised in the original Cobra Kai dojo.

Let's explain with an example early in the show: Shortly after Johnny opens the new Cobra Kai, with Miguel as his first student, he gets another student named Aisha Robinson (Nichole Brown). She's a chubby, African-American girl from the same high school as Miguel who's kind of smart. Because of her brains and her weight though (not her race) she's bullied by other female students, mostly through online harassment. They vote videos and comments on how she's fat, ugly, and that she should kill herself. To switch things up from the original movies, the show uses a lot of examples of online bullying to fit with the modern times and I was surprised and happy to see this update while still having scenes of action. Her reason to join Cobra Kai is that she wants to defend herself if these bullies do more than just attack her through the internet.

When Aisha first enters the dojo and asks about signing up Johnny is at first reluctant to let her in because she's a girl. Miguel changes his mind though and he asks why Aisha wants to join. After Aisha tells Johnny he gives a response I wasn't expecting. Normally I would hear responses such as, "Wow, that's it? You should toughen up," "Oh... Well I'll help you out," or "Oh that's nothing to worry about." But instead Johnny calls her bullies a bunch of pussies, saying that back when he was her age bullies had the balls to actually face their victims instead hiding behind a screen. He says all of this so bluntly, not holding back what he thinks of her situation, and lets her try out for his dojo. Miguel is hesitant at first about hitting a girl, but Aisha quickly shows she's capable of fighting after Miguel knocks her down and defeats Miguel in their mock fight. Johnny is impressed and gains respect for her, letting Aisha become his second student, leading her to become a prominent member of his dojo.

With the world becoming less black and white and more grey in terms of morality people are often more hesitant on speaking out loud or publicly about what they feel or think on certain topics. Look at a lot of big companies on how they "care," but don't do much to help out when a problem is pointed out by the public (unless it gets an insane amount of press). Society is getting soft in terms of stand up for ourselves because technology and the internet has let us hide what we think and we often believe that if we actually go out in public to talk about certain subjects we'll get hunted down and violently beaten. Worse is that older generations, the ones in charge, don't understand well how much kids are forced to grow up and that they're learning faster that everything isn't black and white, not just good and evil.

Cobra Kai though isn't as afraid to get down and dirty with its conflicts. There's a ton of grey morality throughout the show from all sides, especially between Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. As the show continues Johnny becomes more open to ideas and students, not caring about their ethnicity, gender, sex, etc. He just cares about teaching them to defend themselves. But this also conflicts with Daniel and his beliefs that Cobra Kai returning to the valley is going to bring a lot of trouble, even if Johnny is trying to teach his students to have a little mercy in them, unlike his previous teacher, John Kreese. Both of their students begin to conflict with one another in lots of teen drama ways, but they all connect to bigger conflicts that are just as grey, which made me so invested with the show. Like Game of Thrones, actions from any character could affect the story of other characters in small or big ways.

Speaking of Kreese, he returns to the show and is played by his original actor, Martin Kove. He becomes the real villain of the show, taking over Johnny's Cobra Kai and instilling the harsh training and beliefs he taught his original students. He becomes the very dark grey moral danger in the show and is a great villain. Not only is he strong and experienced in martial arts, but he also is very good at manipulating others and causing all sorts of chaos while looking innocent. He is always one step ahead of his enemies, who are basically everyone (even his students). But the show does something more with him and gives him backstory as to how he became the asshole he was in the movies and in this show. Kreese I believe will always be irredeemable in this show and in future seasons of this show, but by fleshing him out we can understand why he became who he is now, making him feel like a real person and not just a dumb villain like in the movies.

The show just has a ton of great writing to it because the show is so good at never fully siding with somebody. I mean Kreese is the one character we're supposed to all root against, but even he has a few moments that makes us almost like him. But besides him there is no real person to side with because a lot of characters have strengths and weaknesses. Daniel especially can be nasty, despite his somewhat believable ideas that Cobra Kai is nothing but trouble. He tricks people to raising rent on Johnny, does his own sleazy commercials to slam Cobra Kai, and becomes a bit too obsessed with stopping Johnny to recognize some of the problems around him. Yet he's also the student of Mr. Miyagi, being very cultured, peaceful, and caring to his friends and family. Plus all the drama of being high school student, having crushes and relationships, and being young and inexperienced can cause all sorts of drama that we can find faults on many sides.

Cobra Kai is also a very funny show. I had a lot of laughs throughout the show because some of the dialogue and situations are really well executed in a comedic sense. When Johnny first tries a computer for the first time and then gets on the internet I was laughing so much! I'm having a hard time typing right now with the laughter I'm having from remembering that scene. Everyone is just so relaxed, and giving their all in their performances that the humor just is an added bonus. And a lot of the dialogue can get really funny, like how Daniel's car salesman rival mocks him after Johnny defaces one of his billboards. But then Johnny knocks the guy's drink out of his hands and everyone around this jerk who mocked Daniel, as well as the guy himself, is shocked that Daniel just karate kicked that drink like it's nothing and I'm just grinning like a little kid and giggling over at their expressions. The show just really knows comedy, I love it!

Now while I love the writing of the show and highly praise it there are also moments of writing that I think also makes it a bit of a negative. There are moments throughout the show that feel poorly executed, but aren't immediately noticeable since they're that big of moments. For instance Miguel starts the show off with Asthma, but after a few episodes it's never brought up again in the whole series. There is no cure for asthma and while I do like it better that he doesn't have it why even put that in the show to begin with? Also this show has that stupid trope where the teachers come in after the fight is over and the good guy is the winner. Like come on, that's old cliche that's just dumb. Again, I think the writing can be really strong with this show, but there's a quite a few little holes in the story that might not tarnish a whole episode, but things I kept noticing that felt off.

I also believe that some people might not be fans of the tone of the show. Some might say it's too much like a teen drama or that even the modern updates the show feels out of place with the modern era, that it's too much like the 80s where the movies took place. Me... I didn't see these as problems, they made the show feel right at home the movies. Though I find some of the tone to be a little over the top, especially with how the teachers in the school are so stupid and useless. Like there's tension between these that go to different karate dojos and all they say in response really is to "hug it out." Like that's the dumbest advice you could ever give in this situation, especially since a hug can turn into a strong, damaging attack with their martial arts.

So going back to positives, you can't have a Karate Kid inspired show without some karate and my god does this show got it! Almost all the actors in the show that do karate are either expert karate users or expert dancers (which can help pull of the karate in making it look awesome). This includes the younger actors, so everyone looks like they're kicking ass throughout the show. The first big karate fight of the show comes early in season 1, episode 5, and when it starts I jumped to my feet, cheering on our good guys as they kicked ass and delivered some hard justice! People get hurt in this show and some of it is brutal! Plus the fights are very well choreographed, getting as much of the action shown as possible. The people behind the cameras knew how to shoot action scenes!

Karate though isn't just about the physical, it's also training of the mental and the show, just like the movies, seems to get that right as well. Daniel once again uses the ways Mr. Miyagi taught him to train his students, Johnny does it his own way, and all of them help teach a sense of teamwork, companionship, and confidence to all the students (as well as the masters). Cobra Kai has a lot of mental lessons to teach its characters and the audience, really getting deep into what karate is really about: Training of the mind and body. When I started the show I was mostly expecting similar lessons that Mr. Miyagi taught Daniel in the original films. I got that and a lot more with Johnny and Daniel teaching their students and each other that they're no so different from one another, to open each other's minds more, and what it means to be emotionally and mentally fulfilled/ at peace.

Cobra Kai is a lot better than what it could have been. I'm shocked at how good this show is. It's got epic material arts, fantastic characters, an engaging story, and is very respectful of the original source material. It does have a few writing problems, but nothing severe so far. Again, I feel ashamed I didn't watch this show sooner, but I'm glad Netflix picked it up because god damn I had a blast with Cobra Kai and I'd happily rewatch it again. It just does so much right and invokes feelings of old with feelings of new to make a masterpiece of action and drama. So strike hard, strike fast, and watch Cobra Kai!!!

Tentative Score: 9/10

Definitive Score: 9/10

I have a feeling that next season will be the last season of the show. If they can go further than that while keeping me engaged with a great story then they can go ahead and do more, but I think a fourth season might be the perfect point to end it. Maybe I'm in the minority on this though.