About two weeks ago, I was looking for something to watch and the suggestion list was insisting on Cobra Kai. I skipped a couple of times, to watch something I had already watch a thousand times before, like Gilmore Girls, or Jane the Virgin. I wish I hadn’t skipped. My husband came home and we decided to give it a chance to the show, just for a few minutes and we were hooked. I got soaked in at the first five minutes and couldn’t stop watching. I watched both seasons in a week.
The show was initially produced for Youtube Red, by Sony Entertainment, in 2018. How haven’t we all heard of it, is still a mystery, I don’t know anyone who watches shows on the streaming.I’m glad for once that Netflix decided to buy the two seasons and don’t hog it or give us 7 episodes every six months, as they do with shows like Mr. Iglesias. It all there for our entertainment.in the most millennial way, I want it now, and I want it all.
I don’t remember watching the Karate Kid franchise, but I’m familiar with Mr. Miyagi, banzai, and the nickname Daniel-San. The fighting dragon or bird pose is also part of pop culture, you don’t need to watch the movies to know about the rivalry between Daniel LaRusso and Johny Lawrence. You know LaRusso won the fight with the illegal kick, as it is stated multiple times 34 years later during Cobra Kai.
The show is based on what happened to each of the character’s life, after the Karate Kid movies. Daniel LaRusso, as expected, succeeded, is married, owns a car dealership, has a nice house, a wife, and kids. A typical cookie-cutter middle-class American life. Johnny Lawrence is a dead beat, borderline alcoholic, and an absent father to his mischievous kid, Robby, who by the way, hates him. After seeing a kid being bullied outside of a store, Johny goes out in his defense, fighting the kids using his lifetime karate experience. It’s a great scene and it keeps your attention during the entire fight. After all, Johnny fights against five guys alone. The next day, is on the newspaper, guess who sees it? Daniel LaRusso and that bring some meaningful memories. After the fight, Miguel, the kid who was being bullied, asked to be trained by Johny and that sparks on him the desire to open his karate dojo, that of course, he would name it Cobra Kai, based on the dojo he used to train, with his karate Trainer, Kreese.
What makes it Cobra Kai so cool, of course, the bickering between the two main characters. They are full-grown men, yet they can’t let go of the fact that LaRusso stole Johny’s girlfriend in high school and he only lost the fight because of that illegal kick. They still hate each other. LaRusso is calm and collected, but extremely hurtful and vengeful, while Johnny is a nutcase, learning how to teach karate with a purpose of fighting to compete and win, without almost killing the opponent. That gets in the way when we see his old Sensei Kreese make his way back into the dojo. Kreese is an extremely violent war veteran, who doesn’t want to teach mercy. He was apparently dead, but Kreese is alive and well. He wants the students to win, no matter what. So he instigates Johnny to fight dirty.
Apart from familiar characters, we have an array of new people that add to the fun. LaRusso’s Daughter, Sam is the typical girl next door, who gets infatuated by Miguel, knowing that he is being trained by her family arch-nemesis, now Sensei Lawrence. She encourages her dad to open his own Miyagi Dojo, based on her dad’s Sensei, so she can train karate, like when she was a kid. Almost like a Romeu and Juliett, but with some extra people on it, like Robby, who gets a job at Daniels’ car dealership to get make his dad mad, and end up finding in Larusso, the dad he never had. So he gets under his wings to learn some karate moves. One of the best scenes is the karate tournament, where Robby is coached by LaRusso, against Miguel, who is with Cobra Kai, aka Johny Lawrence, Robby’s dad. Johnny wants to win, but also don’t want Miguel to hurt his son. His conflicting mind is what drives the series. Its about between do what is right, or win against the person you had a beef with your entire life. You don’t know which side to cheer to. It balances it out during the entire two seasons.
Other cool things to add are the lack of technology expertise on Johny’s part. He is awkward and with no social skills, he also makes you uncomfortable to watch him navigate his endeavors. The fact he struggles with a computer system and phones is hilarious. Daniel Larusso is happily married, while Johnny is on the newly founded internet, looking for “hot babes”. It feels like he got stranded in the ’80s, especially when a female student, looks for him to learn karate and he says girls can’t do karate, because they are “soft”. When he gives Aisha a chance to prove herself, she beats the crap out of the other student. Entertainment at its best. After a huge fight breaks out on the first day of school, the second season ends with a major cliff hanger. Netflix announced that season 3 is coming in 2021, as its already filmed. My only problem is, Netflix itself.
Like I said many times before, Netflix is about the money. Not much what the audience thinks it’s cool, or popular. I had many shows I liked, canceled because the executives said there was not enough audience to keep it on the platform. Once again, because they didn’t want to promote the way it should be. Netflix is my Daniel LaRusso. I despise it, but can’t stop talking about and let go.
We don’t know much about season 3 of Cobra Kai yet. All we know is that according to the show creator Jon Hurwitz the series “is already filmed, edited and ready to go”, as he said on Twitter. Let’s hope its the beginning of 2021, but its Netflix, so I’m getting ready for the staggering of waiting months and months.
Cobra Kai has a little bit of everything for everyone. Karate, family values, comedy and loss. Flashback who lets whoever never watched the movies go along with the story the show is telling now. If you watched, let me know in the comments what did you like the most! I can’t wait for season 3!
Enjoy your holiday weekend ! Stay healthy !
J.G.Snelly
