Cobra Kai is brilliant

[Dr Rock]

I never watched any of the original three movies so I wouldn't know who was who or what city or country it was in or whether gremlins exist in this universe. Do gremlins exist in this universe?

[madhair60]

Finished season 3. Very good season and finale, but tiny cracks are definitely starting to show.

Spoiler alert

Hawk face turn struck me as very abrupt, unless I missed something?

[close]

[checkoutgirl]

Saw the first two series and really enjoyed the first but hated the second. Not sure why exactly. The first felt fun and novel and the second seemed liked a teen romcom with the two teenagers kissing all the time.

Not sure how accurate I'm being there. Maybe the novelty wore off by the second series? Does it improve in the third?

[checkoutgirl]

I really liked the first season but I was getting bored of it all by the end of the second season and have stop-started Season 3 a couple of times now.

This makes sense. I think I initially enjoyed the story of the blond guy at a low ebb, gradually getting his life together and getting a gang/business together. There was a nice story going there with new characters coming in and a compelling finale. I never was much of a Karate Kid fan so nostalgia was not really a factor.

By series two the pattern of the drama became repetitive and obvious and the new lead boy (with a ponytail) rubbed me the wrong way and suddenly it felt cheesy and boring. They brought in the older villain guy to freshen it up and keep the narrative going but it didn't work for me. And five series of this? Bloody hell. Haven't seen the last three so I dunno.

[colacentral]

Totally agree with the thread mega fans. It might have usurped The Sopranos as the greatest show ever made.

Everyone slagged off Karate Kid 3 for years but it's always been my favorite. Absurd, hilarious bollocks. There's a scene where the villain is in a hot tub smoking a cigar and orders a henchman to dump nuclear waste into a lake or something.

I was worried that he wouldn't work in the Cobra Kai universe, but I thought they walked that tight rope as well as they could have. The actor is clearly corpsing in several scenes (look for a scene in one of the early episodes where him and Kreese are getting in a car; they're both barely holding it together) and loving how absurd his character and the whole situation is. It's great fun.

My main complaint is how short the seasons are. This last one whizzed by. I felt like they could have got away with two or three more character building episodes in the middle there.

[madhair60]

I only watched the Karate Kid movies a couple of weeks ago and I was surprised to learn how disliked 3 is - I found it miles more entertaining than 2, which is plotless dribble with a couple of decent moments.

[oy vey]

2 episodes in and it's just what I need after the abominable Dexter New Blood. So you eventually need to have seen KK3? I only made it to 2 back in the day. Best get it then.

[Spiteface]

3 is good. Been a while since I've watched them, but they're in the wrong order really.

In theory, the climactic fight between Daniel-San and Chozen in KK2 is a fight to the death.

Then in KK3, we're back to an Under-18s tournament?

Not exactly raising stakes, is it?

Terry Silver is fucking brilliant in Cobra Kai, though. Can't wait to see where season 5 goes with everything. Enjoying how fluid the status quo seems at times, with shifting allegiances etc, and it feels evident who the next defectors will be.

[oy vey]

Christ I'm on episode 8 of season 3 already. S2 was a bit ropey but loving 3. Johnny and Kreese are just great. Danny is a little one-note at the moment but I could watch Johnny's struggle to break through his cuntiness all day long. And miracle, the teens aren't annoying. 100% escapism telly.

[madhair60]

I'm fully caught up now and VERY EXCITED for season 5

[rjd2]

What will they do with Barnes? Just a generic heel hanging around Silver or something more interesting?

I know some have speculated he could be father of maybe Tori?  That does seem silly even in this universe?

[BeardFaceMan]

I don't think anything is too silly for this universe, that's why the show is so enjoyable, they're not trying to do anything other than have fun with it.

[oy vey]

Aaaand done. Couldn't slow down to watch KK3 before S4 but definitely will revisit all the originals amd add 3 and maybe 4 before S5 comes. Terry Silver is great. I notice Will Smith is an exec producer. Does that mean the reboot will be referenced? I'm allergic to reboots.

Anyway, terrific finale. Lots of lightening fast developments that would be too contrived for any other show. They really made lightening in a bottle. Great tip cheers.

[Spiteface]

Aaaand done. Couldn't slow down to watch KK3 before S4 but definitely will revisit all the originals amd add 3 and maybe 4 before S5 comes. Terry Silver is great. I notice Will Smith is an exec producer. Does that mean the reboot will be referenced? I'm allergic to reboots.

I believe it's been stated that the reboot isn't canon to Cobra Kai. So no Jaden Smith or Jackie Chan.

So that leaves Hilary Swank's character from "The Next Karate Kid" and Mike Barnes as potential returns for season 5, maybe Dutch from KK1, as he hasn't showed up yet.

[Crenners]

Imagine thinking this is brilliant but not watching any actual martial arts films despite infinite suggestions.

[king_tubby]

I've watched Shaolin Soccer, dipshit.

[Crenners]

It was a direct, blistering attack on madhair60.

[king_tubby]

In that case, carry on.

[madhair60]

Imagine thinking this is brilliant but not watching any actual martial arts films despite infinite suggestions.

i'll get 'round to em!

[oy vey]

[JamesTC]

Just finished the second to last episode. What an ending.

EDIT:

next episode

Ahh fuck, instantly retconned.

[close]

[Spiteface]

Season 5 trailer and date announcement

https://youtu.be/Wrmx6gc0a8I

September 9th.

[Mobbd]

A good friend put me onto Cobra Kai. His review was much like that of the OP here, that is complete nonsense but a lot of fun.

I don't quite agree with that. I found Season 1 to be truly excellent. Really well written. I enjoyed it without much irony at all.

I was amazed at the care with which they built upon the cultural capital of The Karate Kid (i.e. that it always felt apropriate and well-deployed in a way that, say, new Star Trek largely fails to do) but, much more than that, I felt that it stood on its own two feet. The scripts felt genuinely tight and had loads of immediately-likable new characters whose lives were intertwined in a way that made sense. Funny, exciting, coherent, intelligent. Just perfect.

Season 1 was crushable and I got through it really quickly.

Season 2 feels like a step down though. I'm on the fifth episode and it's not bad but it feels a bit staid. It's not badly made but the tightness and the sense of a vision have gone. I was wondering today what it reminds me of and it's... get this... Baywatch. (A show I haven't thought about in decades! Even when that Pam & Tommy show was trailed, oddly.)

What I'm saying is that Cobra Kai doesn't feel like a nonense-but-fun show to me at all. The first season was genuinely skillful and rich with ideas to the point where I felt it might eventually become a Better Call Saul, but the second season feels... a bit naff. To the point where I might not watch much more.

Can anyone offer an opinion on if it picks up? Or if Season 2 is known to be the weaker of the five seasons?

[Mr_Simnock]

It's ace. I don't like 80s nostalgia for its own sake (I've never been so angry at a book as when I read Ready Player One) but here I think it works because it's done through the eyes of the two middle-aged main characters' still reliving something that happened in their teens.

I know a lot of blokes like that, still trying to be that person they were around 18-25 going into their 50's

[dead-ced-dead]

I agree with the above, Cobra Kai is wise in ways you don't expect it to be, even when it indulges in silliness and fight scenes. Thematically it's not always 100% tight, but it's rich.

Stories about middle-aged ennui, the curse of nostalgia, slipping into and/or trying to break free of toxic masculinity that was forced upon its characters when they were teenagers. Are they failing the young people in their life in the same way older, manipulative men failed them? Is it a cycle that can be broken or is doomed to forever spin?

Really compelling, moving stuff.

[Mobbd]

slipping into and/or trying to break free of toxic masculinity that was forced upon its characters when they were teenagers

This is definitely some of the best stuff. In Season 1, after dumping a fair amount of toxic masculinity onto his only student, you can see something click when said student explains his "pussiness" as the result of his dad not being around. Beautiful and subtle performance from William Zabka in that penny-drop moment.

[Mobbd]

Can anyone offer an opinion on if it picks up? Or if Season 2 is known to be the weaker of the five seasons?

It picks up. The end of Season 2 is amazing and I'm enjoying Season 3 so far.

[willbo]

me and my best friend had an obsession with KK3 in the 90s and repeating Terry Silver's lines to each other, so I was excited to see him back. I was already in a couple of Terry Silver online fan groups years before CK was announced...

[Mobbd]

It picks up. The end of Season 2 is amazing and I'm enjoying Season 3 so far.

It really picks up. Season 3 was great. I just finished it.

Going in to the final episode, I was wondering if they'd even try to top the awesomeness of the

Spoiler alert

school fight

[close]

at the end of Season 2. And did they!

Spoiler alert

The fight in the house was amazing. The environment probably isn't as iconic and relatable as the school but the actual structure of the house lent itself so well to it: all those glass windows around the central atrium so that there's always two or three other fights happening in the background while the main one you're enjoying is happening in the foreground. The editing and stunt work is all so, so good but credit has to go to the regular actors who are clearly in great shape and have been trained really well to fight.

I'm no expert on fighting films or choreography but this all struck me as very very good. So much visual interest yet still grounded in character as all the personal beefs they've been building up finally pay off. While you've got Sam and Tory and Dimitri and Hawk, you've also got beefs all the way down to those two nerdy background kids.

As if this weren't good enough, Kreese and Johnny are fighting in the dojo while we're also intercutting back to young Kreese in Vietnam. He's being made to fight his superior officer by Viet Cong over a freaking snake pit. The snakes are beautiful, all colourful and writhing. Haha. So, so cool.

[close]

Hard to believe if you haven't see it, but none of this feels gratuitous or stupid. It's a lot of fighting but it doesn't feel relentless. It's all grounded in character and totally earned.

This show is superb. It's not quite Better Call Saul levels of artfulness and it doesn't try to be, but a fair comparison is the Star Wars sequels. It is much, much better than those on a micron of the budget. Family, friendship, excellent fight sequences. Yet none of it is moronic.

As well as a great episode in its own right, it sets things up for Season 4 in an extremely satisfying way. We already know the story that's coming up and I can't wait to see it play out.

Finished season 3. Very good season and finale, but tiny cracks are definitely starting to show.

Spoiler alert

Hawk face turn struck me as very abrupt, unless I missed something?

[close]

I see what you mean. He was beginning to seem irredeemable and it's kinda amazing that Dimitri would even give him the time of day. But he hears the voice of Kreece saying "your enemy's enemy is your friend" and I think he realises it's the one thing his sensei ever said that made sense. And if Kreece is his enemy after all, then he has to quickly reassess who his allies are.