They have added an interesting twist. The entitled high school jerks are buddies with Daniel’s daughter. Daniel is defending the wrong clique.
I can’t help but laugh at the exaggerated way they portray teaching karate. Johnny’s one student would have left on day 1.
But, it was exaggerated in the movie too.
It is great seeing William Zabka working again. He’s a good actor.
I don’t think this will happen. I think that Kreese will possibly try to make Johnny do bad things, but in the end, I think Johnny will end up rebelling against him in the end (assuming that Kreese will be a major character in Season 2).
Just finished watching the series - I was highly skeptical of the idea (like many others, I’m sure) but saw it had something like a 100% rating on rottentomatoes so decided to give it a shot…thought it was great!
Bumped.
Cobra Kai (Seasons 1 & 2) was released on Netflix yesterday. I had heard good things, watched the first episode, and even after the good things I had heard, I was still pleasantly surprised. It’s really good. As several others upthread stated, the show does a really god job of showing pretty much all of the main characters as flawed human beings. It really sells how they can all legitimately view themselves as the heroes of their own stories, while they might seem like the villain to someone else. It’s also just really funny.
When I “binge” a series, that generally means I’ll watch an episode or two, do something else for a while, come back and watch another couple of episodes, and so on. It usually takes me a couple of days to “binge” a series. I watched the entire first season straight last night, and only took a break before Season 2 because it was so late. If the quality maintains for Season 2, I’ll probably be binging it straight through this morning.
I just binged s1. Really well done. One thing I have to say: Ralph Macchio really sounds like Steve Buscemi.
Watching this now on Netflix, and I’m impressed. Paraphrasing from upthread, this isn’t the highest of high art; but it’s a lot better than it sounds.
William Zabka’s “Johnny” from the original movies is everything I ever hated about Jr. High and High School. He was an unmitigated hate-sink. But Mr. Zabka’s “Johnny” in Cobra Kai managed to do something I would have found difficult to believe: sympathize with a flawed (sometimes deeply so) individual, struggling to do better, to be better, even with decades of bad mentorship, abusive/neglectful parental figures, and ingrained bad habits.
And he does it mostly with body language and facial expressions, and interactions with other characters. The writers and director(s?) definitely grasped the whole, “show; don’t tell” mentality of story telling, and Mr. Zabka is a fine actor for pulling it off.
Watched Season 1 and really liked it. Watching Johnny discover the internet was pretty good. Zabka has really done a great job portraying the tragedy of peaking in high school. He’s a man who’s never left the 80’s. Watching him relive the kick to the face over and over while drinking was painful.
Yeah I also binged the show recently and yes, it’s surprisingly engaging and nuanced. And it became significantly less comical and more serious as the second season went on. I do think the final episode of S2 was a bit outlandish (anyone who’s seen it will know which part I’m referring to) but part of the show is outlandishness - it all has to be taken with a grain of salt. All things considered, it’s up there with Better Call Saul and the Fargo show in terms of successfully taking the source material and making a spin-off show that retains the same feel.
Yeah, I found it surprisingly good. A couple of highlights include Johnny discovering the internet and relating the events of The Karate Kid from his perspective (largely following that YouTube video and cameos from How I Met Your Mother from the past couple of years).
It is, of course, fantasy. No one goes from complete “wangless dork” to beating up five bullies in a few months of karate lessons. Also the idea that Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence are the baddest mo-fos on the block is absurd. They are the winner and runner up of a local youth karate tournament from 30 years ago and haven’t trained in years (decades?). They aren’t professional or even Olympic level martial artists.
Ironic that Johnny’s friend Tommy - the one who yelled “Get him a body bag!” 30 years ago - ended up in a body bag in Season 2.
This was almost definitely a planned irony. The guy who played him actually was dying in real life. Clearly he had a sense of humor and also realized that his whole legacy was essentially the “body bag” line. Well played.
I just realized that I watched two seasons, not one. Nothing to do but wait for S3, I guess.
Also watched on Netflix over the last couple of weeks. Very good for what it is. The martial arts part of it is pretty hokey, as most of them clearly have zero training. Zabka has a black belt in some MA discipline, but other than that. . .Anyway, the acting was fine, and while I’m not a fan of teen angst movies, it was done pretty well.
I really liked the show, and I love that the humor is nuanced and you have to look for it, such as Johnny pouring whiskey into a beer can to drink outside, or his search terms when he discovers the internet.
But it sucks for any other dojo in the valley, who presumably trained their students for years to reach black belt only to have the tournament dominated by students with less than a 6 months of training, with 3 of the top 4 contenders either from Cobra Kai or (unofficially) Miyagi-do
So I rewatched Cobrai Kai seasons 1 and 2 before watching season 3 (finished just now) and I notice that Pat Morita was just 52 in The Karate Kid–7 years younger than Ralph Macchio is now. Holy crap did Pat look old quick.
Just finished season 3 myself. Liked it, other than the absolute refusal to call the police (except for one time where it backfires on the good guys). Sure, then there would be no reason for season 4 (coming next fall, apparently), but that takes a major suspension of disbelief.
I had the same thought. After that last attack (trashing Daniel’s house, multiple assaults, property damage, injuries…) NOBODY called the cops? None of these kids’ parents pressed charges? I can’t suspend my disbelief that far. Still enjoyed the season, and I agree they needed a reason for season 4, but this was taking things too far. Don’t even get me started on how fast Miguel went from paralyzed to full-contact karate, and how fast Dmitri’s arm healed fully.
I think four seasons should be it for them. They get together, beat the everloving stuffing out of Kreese (and see him in prison for the rest of his life), the Miyagi-Do crew kicks the crap out of the Cobras (or somehow makes them see the error of their ways, but at this point I’m past forgiving Tori) and everybody hangs up their gis and heads off to college while Johnny ends up marrying Miguel’s mom. The end, roll credits.
PS: Where did the North Vietnamese get so many snakes? And were they supposed to be scary? Even the “cobra” the kids allegedly stole looked like a little python. 
I was wondering how many were crushed to death each time a soldier fell.
Yeah, but they’ve done time jumps before. You could, if you were feeling generous, assume that Dmitri’s arm being healed shows “time has passed”. Enough for Miguel to be fighting again? Only if Mr Miyagi had applied the magical healing powers of karate.
So I’m almost through with Season 3 (have 2 eps left). I have to say that while Kreese made S2 interesting, by exacerbating Johnny’s inner conflict, he makes S3 the weakest season yet. Kreese’s Cobra Kai is just a cartoon villain. What I enjoyed most about Cobra Kai is how Johnny wanted to recreate the ‘badass’ ness of Cobra Kai, but without going full asshole. And that balance was interesting. Kreese Cobra Kai isn’t interesting.
I discovered Cobra Kai around Christmas when my brother introduced it to me. I’m mildly ashamed to say I watched all of S3 on Jan 1 except that 1) I couldn’t go out on 12/31 and 2) I did nothing else on Jan 1…
I love it! Season 1 was fantastic and Season 2 was very good but just a little bit weaker. That last episode though was epic! Granted, if I was a parent at that school I’d be absolutely apoplectic! But this is Netflix, and I have no kids, so I accept the story hook, line, and sinker. My main complaint is that I maybe get a little tired that they feel like they have to have a fight scene every 5 minutes. Maybe if they have them every 8 minutes instead it might be a little better?
Season 3 I thought was the best season so far! Daniel isn’t necessarily a good guy, he has a lot of good characteristics but several flaws, especially with holding grudges and a quick temper. Johnny, as it turns out, is a very good guy. A genuine teacher and a badass. His heart is in the right place even if it’s permanently housed in 1985 (Hashbrown Iron Eagle!), but he suffers from the same problems Daniel does, especially grudges and a quick temper. It’s so easy to relate to each of them at some level! And so easy to get angry at them when they fail to realize how similar they are! I hate to think of either of these 2 guys as a “villain” and the idea that they could ultimately create something between them that merges their 2 styles is very appealing.
To that end, Kreese is a perfect villain. He takes all of the bad elements of Cobra Kai and just drives them up to 11. I can’t wait for season 4. And in the meantime if you’ll excuse me, I need to do 50 pushups on my knuckles!