For anyone that loved the original The Karate Kid myself included. Cobra Kai is a must watch. It’s a testament for how a sequel should be done. Karate kid was your cliché high school American drama, school bully (Johnny Lawrence played by William Zabka) picking on the new kid (Daniel Lerusso played by Ralph Macchio). Except all the high school bully/cool kids know Karate. Cobra Kai is the name of the Karate Dojo that Johnny and his friends attend run by their ruthless sensei John Kreese (played by Martin Kove) Once you see the dojo and how Kreese is you kind of understand why Johnny and his friends act like they do.
So, enter Mr Miyagi, an old master who saves Daniel from getting another beating by Johnny and his crew. Daniel persuades Miyagi to teach him Karate for the upcoming Karate tournament who Johnny is the raining champion and we have The Karate kid.
Everyone knows what happened at the end of Karate Kid now fast forward 34 years and we have Johnny as our main protagonist. William Zabka and Ralph Macchio both reprise their roles and let’s face it there’s no one else who could play the parts.
There is so much nostalgia with Cobra Kai with lots of talking and remission over the past and many flashbacks from the first movie. It will make you want to watch The Karate Kid again.
The magic thing is they have managed to get the audience to sympathise with Johnny. But Johnny got what he deserved right?
Daniel is now a successful business man with a loving wife, daughter and a beautiful home with a pool. Opposite end of the spectrum with have Johnny who is now kind of a loser, an alcoholic with and estranged ex-wife and son, still driving the same car and still bitter over his tournament loss 3 decades later. He still lives in the same town and see’s billboards and advertisements everywhere of Russo’s smiling face promoting his business, rubbing his face in it just that little bit more. We learn a little more about his backstory, his troubled relationship with his bully of a father. You can kind of see why he was the way he was.
Johnny is still kind of an arse though who makes some very humorous insults and comments throughout the series.
Without spoiling to much we now have a new school kid (Miguel Diaz played by Xolo Maridueña) who once again is getting bullied by the school bullies. Johnny witnesses this and reluctantly steps in.
Baring witness to Johnny kicking arse, Miguel eventually persuades Jonny to teach him Karate. Johnny eventually agrees now Johnny has taken over as the Mr Miyagi and they both decided to re-open Cobra Kai with their original motto “Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy,”
Not that I take much notice of Rotten Tomatoes I prefer IMDB, it does have a 100% rating which speaks for itself. It is extremely entertaining, doesn’t take itself too seriously as it has many comedy moments and if you loved Karate kid and its sequels, it’s a no brainer.
The only minor downfall is it’s exclusively being shown on YouTubes paid for streaming service so now we have another paid for service to join Sky, Amazon prime, Netflix plus many others I’m sure. At the moment you can watch the first 2 episodes for free (linked below). Even if you haven’t seen The Karate Kid and first of, how dare you. Anyone that’s has ever been bullied can relate. I simply can’t recommend Cobra Kai enough, go watch it now.
