Between the plethora of streaming services and conventional cable options, people are being inundated with a little too lots of TV. This has been true for years. But this became especially evident in 2020, when pandemic-induced production delays gave viewers a rare opportunity to finally catch up on programs that were standing in their queues. Because of this recent level of fire hose on television, it has become much easier for series to escape – even those adapted from a familiar IP.
For a while, it looked like the YouTube TV sequence for The Karate Kid would fall into that trap, because, well, a TV sequence for The Karate Kid it’s a ridiculous idea to start. Set more than 30 years after the events of the first film, Cobra Kai inverted the script by turning former school bully Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) into its main protagonist. The years that have gone by have not been kind to Johnny – he is an absent father, seems to subsist entirely on Coors Banquet, and somehow he seems to be going through a midlife crisis for most of his life – but he finds a chance for redemption by opening a karate dojo for a new generation of marginalized teenagers. Meanwhile, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is still roaming the Valley, and while he embraces the late Mr. Miyagi’s virtues, he type of a presumptuous idiot about always doing the right thing. (Daniel also opted for the entire “Karate Kid” scheme to serve his successful car dealership, “kicking the competition” and giving customers bonsai trees; upon hearing that Johnny is reopening Cobra Kai, he starts Miyagi-Do. )
Basic expectations for Cobra KaiThe first season, released in 2018, was as low as possible. But credit where it’s due: the series skillfully packed its karate Kid nostalgia for examining toxic masculinity, how youthful indiscretions can remain in someone’s life for decades and, if you can believe it, cultural wars for generations. (Yes boomers, deadass!) Also, Cobra Kai he doesn’t skimp on the needles of the 80s, sweeping training sets, well choreographed karate sequences and tacky catch phrases that were essential to the franchise.
But between his debut in 2018 and last summer, Cobra Kai it was just a spot on the pop culture radar. That is, until the series found a new streaming dojo: Netflix. The program left YouTube – yes, YouTube was trying to compete in the scripted programming game; went as smoothly as Quibi – for Netflix in August and benefited from the rather tangible Netflix Bump that helped increase the numbers of series as disparate as Breaking Bad, The good place, Riverdale, and You. Cobra Kai quickly became the no of the platform. 1 program during the summer, and considering that the second season debuted discreetly on YouTube’s paid subscription service in the middle of a huge Avengers: Endgame and War of Thrones The avalanche of content from the 8th season of 2019, this increase is the type of underdog story befitting the valiant franchise. It took a few years, but Cobra Kai finally it seems to have the right place to show its movements. And with the launch of the third season on Netflix over the weekend after the New Year, the new partnership got off to a great start.
Season 3 takes things after the chaotic West Valley High School feud between students at Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do – a shocking enough incident to warrant local reporting with incredible chyrons that say “Violent Karate Clash”. As silly as a karate-centric staging may seem, the ramifications are very serious. Johnny’s pupil, Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), is in a coma at the hospital and may never walk again, having been expelled from a two-story balcony by [gasp] Johnny’s estranged son, Robby (Tanner Buchanan); Robby has been expelled and is going to juvenile detention; Daniel’s daughter Sam (Mary Mouser) has PTSD and physical scars from her involvement in the violent melee; Johnny has his dojo and his students stolen by his ex-sensei, John Kreese (an evil cartoonist Martin Kove); and Daniel’s car dealership is in financial trouble because of Miyagi-Do’s association with what happened at school. Seems … fun?
While it is admirable that Cobra Kai wants to treat the side effects of the West Valley fight seriously – the actions have consequences, etc. – the series stood out to this point because it understood that a soapy melodrama centered on two adults still obsessed with a karate tournament that took place over 30 years ago is obviously absurd. Cobra Kai you must find a Zen balance between self-awareness that you are watching a show in which a Los Angeles community lives and breathes [checks notes] karate, while providing enough emotional stakes for you to invest in the characters; perhaps sending distressed teenagers to the ICU and reformatory is a step too far. And that before we get into several Flashbacks of the Vietnam War that serve to underline why John Kreese acts like him. Kove is clearly having fun exaggerating like Kreese, who believes – and I’m not kidding – that the politically correct is society’s new enemy. (I’m calling it now: an editorial “In Praise of John Kreese, Sensible Sensei ” by The federalist.)
But the first editions of season 3 will not matter much if viewers accept the spree. The big (ongoing, endless?) Debate about whether the series is best served through entire seasons at once or the delivery of weekly episodes can best be assessed on a show-to-show basis – and in the case of Cobra Kai, going through the comparatively bleak first half of the new season means reaching satisfactory results faster. This includes a careful detour to Okinawa, Japan, where Daniel meets with friends and enemies from The Karate Kid: Part II, offering more evidence that Cobra Kai it is somehow as self-referential as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Unfortunately, if you wanted a karate Kid remembering, the only movie in the franchise on Netflix is the universally ridiculed The next Karate Kidand, somehow, I doubt Oscar winner Hilary Swank is eager to return.) And as long as you can suspend your disbelief that almost all violent confrontations avoid legal consequences, the karate choreography is as impressive as ever.
It may be an exaggeration to consider a dramatic half-hour comedy about karate a daring and creative endeavor, but it is difficult to exaggerate how terrible the continuation of a decades-old franchise centered on a rather one-dimensional villain who took a crane kick to the sounds of face on paper. The feeling of watching Cobra Kai is no different from Ted Lasso Experience: After overcoming the shock that this reckless concept really works, you can appreciate how good the show is. And very similar Ted Lasso, the key is in the sincerity of the main performance of the show, subverting expectations.
Typed like a bully in your post –karate Kid movies like Back to school and Just one of the guys—Billy Zabka is a legitimate revelation in Cobra Kai. He takes Johnny Lawrence out of the hole in 80s athletes’ stereotypes and becomes a surprisingly nuanced anti-hero. Johnny’s vernacular and attitudes may get stuck in another decade – he says he never owned a computer because “he is not a nerd” – but his transformation into the series can be summed up in the hilariously blunt philosophy he wants to convey to students this season : “Being tough doesn’t mean being an idiot.”
It is simple and direct, as well as the Cobra Kai. The series won’t break the wheel – students prefer to break wood, anyway – but in an era of pop culture filled with derived sequences, reboots and remakes, there’s a lot to admire in a program that knows how to extract original elements out of a existing franchise and take them in new intentional directions. Now with the support of Netflix, the series has already been renewed for a fourth season, guaranteeing at least another year of fiefdoms centered on hyperspecific karate in the greater Los Angeles area. “I thought karate had died in the 1980s,” said a local resident on the news. It probably should, but against all odds, Cobra Kai it’s a knockout.