Cobra Kai

I didn't have many expectations going into this show, or at least, I didn't have high expectations. The ones I did have were that of a fun low budget trip down memory lane. But this is so much more than that. The production values are great, the casting is great, the plot, the writing, the tone, the pacing, acting, soundtrack. It's all great start to finish and it has what Mr. Miyagi taught us, balance. It seems to hit so many right notes without pushing anything too far, the comedy is just right, the emotional moments, just right, the cheese, the action, just right. It also does a great job of leaving the viewer to decide who the real heroes and villains are because unlike the movies nothing here is black and white.

If you've seen the films, you will really enjoy this. If you haven't, you'll probably really enjoy it anyway. It stands on it's own and feels modern, but as a continuity, 30 years later, it does this masterfully and very respectfully to its past and its source without heavily relying on it.

I was a little nervous when the show first aired, but after watching the first season I got hooked...!
It had some laughs and plenty of action. It was gritty in comparison to the film sequel.
Series 2 started drawing the sand lines, so to speak, as we see there is no right or wrong, but a grey area.
Then season 3 got even better! And the final episode...I was in awe! The two epic fight scenes; one with Miyagi-do students and former Cobra Kai students fighting side by side against Cobra Kai students, and the one with Lawrence vs Kreese then LaRusso vs Kreese.

The whole itself brought back some very familiar faces from the Karate Kid series - bringing together old and new generations.
I can't wait to see how it concludes!

I didn't set out to watch Cobra Kai. In fact, my first reaction upon seeing the trailer for season one was to "cringe". It came across as a bad modern teen soap opera, that had hitched a ride with much older, martial arts franchise, from the 80's.

Since then, I've been glad to have been proven "partly" wrong. Yes, it is a teen soap opera but enough of the original 80's Karate Kid films essence has rubbed off, making it moderately charming and watchable. Even to a wider, older audience.

The re-emergence of original characters I remember as a teen, watching the original films, held my attention. Season one to four, sensibly builds upon the formula that made the original films so watchable.

Sadly, season five is more preachy soap opera than karate action. The cheesy humour of the previous seasons, is mostly absent too.Indeed the tone is unsuitably lecturing and serious, which is, I feel a mistake.

This franchise, even in its dark moments never took itself too seriously. Nor should it, given what is essentially the larger than life, almost comic book vibe, the whole thing has going on.

In summary, season one to four is enjoyable. By contrast, season five seems to lack a clear sense of direction and worse still, doesn't seem to understand what it is, this franchise represents. I think maybe its time for this nostalgic joy ride, to get the "chop."

This is another one of the shows I left IMDb over. I logged in, gave it a check, and all the reviews above 5 stars were gone. They don't want people to like it...

... and I understand why, Cobra Kai breaks all the rules.

It respects the IP, and you aren't supposed to do that any longer. It respects the fans, and you can't do that either. Both of those are huge No-nos in present day Hollywood... because they want things to fail.

And then, of course, it doesn't shriek politics at the top of it's lungs as loud as it can in every episode to push "Meh Message."

In fact it not only entertains, but it actually takes old fan theories into account, or at least one of the more popular fan theories and spins it to make the old baddie look like a good guy, to make the story more relatable from Johnny's perspective and it manages to do it without insulting or antagonizing the fans.

I don't want to say that this is the perfect reboot, but it is the sort of Reboot that is successful for a reason. It's the one that Hollywood should do more of.

This is just such a terrible series it is hard to know how to cover it all in a brief review. At first it was slow but mildly interesting just because we remembered and liked the original movie. But the unbelievably stupid and childish behavior of the "adults" was so off-putting that I'm not sure why we even stuck with it.

Just one example of the problems: can you really stomach a teacher throwing empty glass beer bottles at their students in an outdoor training area where everyone is always barefoot? This happens indoor too, and NOBODY every says one thing about how inappropriate or dangerous that could be! Empty beer bottles seems to be a near constant theme of the program, but throwing them at the students gets more frequent in later seasons. so the concept of this kind of adult behavior seems to be completely accepted by the writing team and the producers.

The story lines are still a little engrossing, but the ridiculousness of the writing just makes it too hard to actually like either the show or any of the characters - they all constantly shift from stupid to stupid AND evil to saint and then back again to stupid, and they do this repeatedly, sometimes several times in each episode. Now in the middle of the final season, we are just hate-watching it so that we can finally put this mess behind us.