Cobra Kai from the perspective of someone who’s never seen The Karate Kid
I’m sorry! I really have never seen The Karate Kid! I saw the 2010 remake (and liked it) but that’s about it. I was born too late into the 80s to actually be an 80s kid.
But Cobra Kai is a really good show!?
Looking at reviews of it I don’t think anyone expected it to be a serious exploration of how the effects of high school bullying can ripple down for generations, but that’s exactly what it is. The two main characters are both incredibly messed up and they’re passing all their worst qualities on to their children and students. Seeing it happen is like watching a car crash in slow motion, PLUS the teenagers in question have the more esoteric 21st century bullshit to deal with as well.
I’m up to just before the season finale of season one and I dislike almost all of the characters. Lawrence is a bigoted asshole with a chip on his shoulder and Larusso is a capitalist who screws over poor people just to get a shot at his high school rival. Apart from Lawrence’s son and Larusso’s daughter (who I’m guessing will shortly have a Romeo and Juliet thing going on) they’ve made everyone and everything around them worse.
I think this show was probably only greenlit on the basis of, hey, there’s a lot of nostalgia for the 80s around now, right? But Cobra Kai is the antithesis of that. The broke, bullied 80s movie hero always walked away triumphant and got his ticket to a better life, and yet turns out the world he lived in didn’t actually improve any. (An 80s movie villain is now literally the President of the United States, after all.) There’s always a cycle. If any of the characters in this show manage to actually break it that’ll be their real strength.
(Maybe it’s a good thing I wasn’t an 80s kid.)
September 8, 2020 @ 7:25 pm
Ohhh no lol this review is the first one I’ve read that hasn’t praised Cobra Kai in some way LOL :) But you know what, it’s interesting reading your perspective because it’s refreshing :) I was an 80s kid and also studied Karate for many years so when I heard they were making this into a TV show I was like WOAH, cool! But I get what you mean about the characters. The thing with Johnny is that the actor Billy Zabka said in an interview his vision for what he expected of Johnny was the opposite of what the creators thought he should be. Which I found really interesting. The other nice thing about Cobra Kai is that while it does focus on Johnny’s perspective, all of these new characters have enriched the original Cobra Kai storyline a great deal. I think its really nice how the creators have managed to transition the story of two misfits from the 80s who are at war with each other into something that can and does affect their offspring and all the people in their lives. It’s tragic but engaging at the same time. I get that some people won’t like it but I think you really should consider watching The Karate Kid before you totally write-off this show :) I’ve never read a review before from someone who hadn’t already loved the characters because of The Karate Kid. But the 80s was an awesome time and characters like Johnny Lawrence and Daniel Larusso are definitely worth investing time in :D If you decide not to, that’s cool also but I am interested to see if you’ll consider watching TKK :)
September 8, 2020 @ 8:03 pm
Ah I’m glad to see you love it! Honestly, I probably didn’t make this clear (this post is kinda a weird stream of conciousness), but I do actually REALLY like this show, even though I dislike the main characters pretty strongly at the moment. It’s completely fascinating to me seeing them hurtle towards destruction over something as seemingly inconsequential as who won a teen karate tornament.
Like, after I’d seen the first few episodes I read a bunch of reviews saying things like, “This is a fun nostalgic show full of badass karate moments!” and I was like ‘what, no no no, this is a TRAGEDY about people who can’t let go of the past! Geniunely I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended in someone’s death!’ But I like a good tragedy. :)
I was actually thinking I might watch the original Karate Kid inbetween my finishing season one and watching season two! Treat it as a flashback episode!
September 8, 2020 @ 8:47 pm
I totally get what you mean :) But yeah, I tend to avoid reviewers, even though I consider myself a critic lol I just try to avoid them as much as possible because I don’t want anything clouding over my process of being objective (which is so hard to do sometimes and I doubt I’ll ever master it). Feelings are an inevitability of life, no matter what we do whether it be watching tv shows, movies, reading books. You cannot escape them :) I’d love to see your take on TKK!
September 9, 2020 @ 2:07 pm
I’m also watching Cobra Kai with the OP (my wife) and I loved the Karate Kid as a child, it was one of my favourite movies back then. It’s a really great show and wonderful to see a fresh take on the events of KK. Especially from the antagonist’s perspective, and how he felt wronged by Daniel in the original movie. I think for me it’s interesting to see why the main characters from KK are so messed up, and even though I like them as characters, I don’t think they’re good people (yet!). I don’t think they’re bad people as such, either. IMHO they’re just people living in the past and struggling to keep it from affecting their present. But I reckon that’s where the show’s strength lies – showing how it’s all too easy to hold onto something that you need to let go of. Great show!
September 9, 2020 @ 11:36 pm
Hey there :) And yes! You nailed it lol I mean I think what people enjoy is just seeing every day people screwing up! It’s what everyone can relate to, when something doesn’t go your way and you make bad decisions, I mean who doesn’t know how that feels? It’s wonderful to see how grounded and fleshed-out these characters are, it’s something I’ve thought of for a very long time growing up like whatever happened to Johnny :) Now we can resolve those thoughts and watch everything falling apart all over again lol it’s kinda awesome
September 10, 2020 @ 1:17 pm
Hahah yeah, that is a very familiar feeling! I think it’s boring when characters are too perfect because what do you have to work with then? lol!
September 10, 2020 @ 7:38 pm
Yeah there is that and I guess the more real and relatable a character is, the more entertaining to watch I guess. I mean these guys are making mega bucks from this show and now its on Netflix, the bar will be raised even higher. I am just really happy for William Zabka and Ralph Macchio – those guys deserved to be in the spotlight again because their characters will loved by generations of viewers :)
September 11, 2020 @ 3:44 pm
That’s very true, it’s nice to see them in the spotlight again!
September 11, 2020 @ 8:50 pm
Yeah I think it’s awesome and considering William Zabka wasn’t really doing a lot of acting when Cobra Kai came along, it’s probably made a huge difference :)
September 8, 2020 @ 9:55 pm
Awww thanks! :) I probably will do that at some point then! I did see TKK on Netflix not long ago. (UK Netflix is usually so rubbish I was surprised it was even there, ahaha.) It was good to hear your thoughts!