Cobra Kai - Seasons 1 & 2

I never considered myself a hardcore fan of the original Karate Kid films. I enjoyed them growing up, and the first film held up when I re-watched it with a friend three or four years ago. A few years ago, YouTube picked up the rights to have their own exclusive series that features the characters from the original movies and have it pick up where those characters are today, 30 years after the original trilogy left off. It is called Cobra Kai (trailer), the name of the rival karate school that series antagonist Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) attended. The first episode of both seasons one and two are available to stream for free, but to see the rest of the seasons you will have to be a paid subscriber to YouTube Premium, or you can be like me and pick up the DVD set that combines the first two seasons for under $20.

The first season picks up in the present, nearly 30 years after the original trilogy wrapped up. It starts to focus on where deadbeat Johnny Lawrence is currently at in his life, barely able to make ends meet on his own and finding himself recently out of a job. He reluctantly helps his neighbor Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) out of a jam with some bullies. Miguel is impressed with Johnny’s karate skills and wants him to be his sensei, and once Johnny stumbles into some money, he re-opens the Cobra Kai school.

Cobra Kai is not all about Johnny’s journey as fate leads to Johnny soon enough getting reacquainted with his rival, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). Daniel is in a much better place in his life; he runs a car dealership with his wife, Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) and they have a daughter Amanda (Mary Mouser) that Daniel has passed on his karate tutelage onto. Eventually Johnny and Daniel’s egos heat up once again and in their proper way of thinking the best way to exact revenge on one another is for them to train their prized pupil in order to win the regional karate championship to rub in the other’s face. Only Amanda is hesitant on getting back into karate and fate leads to Daniel taking Johnny’s estranged son Robby (Tanner Buchanan) under his wing where this eventually all builds up to Robby and Miguel squaring off in the finals of the all-important regeional karate tournament.

By the end of the first episode I was completely on board, after originally thinking there was no way they can pull this off thirty years later. However, once you see Johnny and Daniel exchange words for the first time again all these years later it is readily apparent there is an organic chemistry between the two and it was eye-opening how the two did not miss a beat after three decades. Another factor that helps is Cobra Kai nails the tone it is going for. It retains just enough of that cornball-80s charm with elements of Johnny and Daniel still living in the past. Apparently Johnny boycotted new technology post high school and scenes with him discovering the Internet, smartphones and dating apps are all a riot. The humor is balanced out by playing it straight with the new younger faces introduced and going along for the ride with Miguel, Amanada and Robby’s teenage growing pains.

Seeing all the characters evolve over the course of the two seasons is a remarkable feat of television. Johnny goes on a journey from being deadbeat dad, to trying to be the same ruthless sensei that his teacher Kreese (Martin Kove) was to eventually learning a moral or two. Miguel’s and Robby’s season spanning arc is truly something else and watching them gradually become different people stayed with me. The build up to the season finale at the karate tournament hit all the right nostalgia wrinkles and I love how the tournament organizers overplayed it and properly recognized Cobra Kai’s AWESOME entrance. The karate tournament itself is masterfully produced and once again brought back fond memories of the original films with plenty of nice little nods and callbacks throughout. The final fight between Robby and Miguel lived up to the hype that built to it throughout the season. After picking up the DVDs I invited my brother over to watch this with me as I had a gut feeling he would appreciate Cobra Kai as much as I would, and sure enough by the season one finale tournament we both were unabashedly rooting for our favorites and feeling every kick and blow dealt throughout.

Season two raises the stakes with an old face in the controversial original Cobra Kai sensei Kreese coming back to help with Cobra Kai’s expanding student-base while Daniel officially starts his own dojo, Miagi-do to combat Cobra Kai’s influence in the area . Season two focuses more on Daniel and Johnny building up their respective dojos and minor friends of Amanda, Miguel and Robby in season one have bigger roles in season two when they also pick sides in the high school karate wars. Seeing the dojos poke and prod at each other during the course of the season appropriately built up tensions in skirmishes in the mall and a house party before culminating in a epic 10 minute fight on the first day of school where apparently school security is worryingly laxed. The fallout of that tumultuous brawl for the ages has major ramifications for certain characters at the end of season two, and while season one closed on a mostly positive note for most characters, season two saw its finale swing in the other direction with most characters in precarious positions.

I dug season two almost as much as season one and liked how the kids were a bigger emphasis in the sequel season and we got to see more of the periphery characters shine in the second season. The adults still play a big role in the follow-up season with Danny patching up squabbles with the wife, and Johnny having a standout episode where he reunites with his fellow Cobras in a ‘special’ heartfelt episode. Krese is still as ruthless as ever and wears Cobra Kai’s motto, “No Mercy” on his sleeve. Watching both dojos try to expand their rosters and quarrel at school during the daytime got both my brother and I riled up as we anticipated everything would come to a boil at another karate tournament, but were thrown for a loop for the gratifying over-the-top fight scene at the school. Again, the consequences for that big fight were felt in the closing scenes of season two with a few added little twists that put the future of Cobra Kai and Miagi-do in jeopardy for season three.

Speaking of Mr. Miagi, while Pat Morita passed away long ago, I will give props to how Cobra Kai has his presence remained a glowing constant on the show with frequent references and past clips implemented at poignant moments throughout the series. Almost every episode of Cobra Kai has quick clips and callbacks to the original movies, even The Next Karate Kid got a couple subtle nods (the Jaden Smith/Jackie Chan reboot got ret-conned out of cannon according to producer interviews). By the end of season two I was surprised how deep the writers and producers pulled for references and periphery characters that made a return, and I am grateful they peppered in brief shots of the original films to remind me of them.

There are a fair amount of extras for both seasons. The first season only has 20 minutes of bonuses with deleted scenes, audition reads, interviews with the composers for the series and two musical performances from William Zabka’s band. Season three has almost double the extras and aside from a gag reel and deleted scenes it also features more extended behind-the-scenes specials covering both season’s fight choreography, character profiles and a very handy feature highlighting most of the references to the earlier films. Not a boatload of extras by any means, but what is here is pretty good and I will give props to YouTube for not being content with only the episodes on disc.

I recall giving the cold shoulder to Cobra Kai initially thinking there was no way they could pull this off after all these years. I got there was a little bit of Johnny Lawrence nostalgia going on with some of the commercial spots of the character several years back, but in no way was I prepared to be blown away by how good Cobra Kai is and how it recaptured the same underdog spirit that made me love it in my childhood. Nor was I prepared for how they would introduced a new generation of students that won me over as much as Johnny and Daniel did three decades prior and made their journeys equally as riveting as Johnny and Daniel’s. Do not brush off Cobra Kai like I initially did and at the very least give the first episodes that are currently free on YouTube a shot.

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2015-16 TV Season Recap
2016-17 TV Season Recap
2017-18 TV Season Recap
2018-19 TV Season Recap
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