When I first heard news about Cobra Kai, I cringed. The phrases “spin-off” and “reboot” have become so frequent and so often yielding in sub-satisfactory product, that I’ve become somewhat sensitive and triggered whenever I hear them. Worse, when they’re attached to a property I’ve loved for nearly my entire life, The Karate Kid franchise. I felt immediate dread and a grave concern that The Karate Kid was next in line to become bastardized by the Hollywood machine that feels the need to bilk and ruin everything that was once successful, in order to attempt to cash in on nostalgia, and feast upon the wallets of the past, in the present.
The pessimistic feelings intensified when I heard that the show had been green lit, and then was actually in production. And then the press releases emerged with actual drop dates and that it was going to be a YouTube:RedTube exclusive, and the reality started to sink in that this was actually going to happen. I avoided all teasers and preview trailers, and tried to unsee whenever I caught any glimpses of any promotional materials, because frankly I didn’t want to accept that Cobra Kai was actually going to happen.
A friend of mine began telling me how pumped up he was that the show was coming, and how it was going to get him to actually pay actual money in order to get a RedTube subscription so that he could watch it. When I said that I didn’t really want to watch it, he called me a hipster that was being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian, and that I should be more open minded. I leveled with him, and told me that if he legitimately thought it was good, then I would give it a chance, but his judgment would be on the line if that were to be the case.
When the show dropped, my friend started texting me about how good it was. It’s easy to get caught up in the early episodes, but I didn’t want to watch something that was going to disappoint me in the long haul. The texts kept coming, spoiling some non-essential situational plot points that admittedly intrigued me. And then the next day, I get a text detailing how tired he was at work, because he had stayed up to just watch the whole series. Then my brother texts me asking me if I’d started watching yet.
It was becoming abundantly clear that Cobra Kai was going to be unavoidable, so I did my best to clear up an entire evening, and then I went head first into the show, hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. I watched the entire season in a single night; at ten episodes at just around 30 minutes each on average, such was easy to do, which I can appreciate the ease of start to finish.
I’ll be the first to admit that my apprehensions were all for naught, because Cobra Kai turned out to be pretty good, overall. An internet friend said it the best, that it was way better than it had any right to be, which I felt was a pretty succinct description of how I felt about the show.
Like most reboots and spin-offs, there was a ton of commentary about society in order to localize and modernize the timeline while explaining it to those who are older and might not catch on as quickly. Cobra Kai spends a lot of time explaining basically the general pussification of society and how it’s not clear and simple on how to deal with conflict in today’s age versus back in the 80s, when if two people had beef, they could throw down and fight and release all that aggression, and more often than not, not have to worry about someone calling the cops or someone getting arrested and having the whole rest of their lives marred by infractions with the law.
But once all the requisite modernization is out of the way, Cobra Kai has a pretty simple and linear plot that borrows heavily from the original film trilogy that almost makes the show as a whole an alternative re-telling of the Karate Kid and not quite so much of it an original storyline. Rightfully so, Billy Zabka is the star of the show, reprising the role of Johnny Lawrence, and the general twist of the entire plot is basically the role reversal between Johnny and Ralph Macchio, returning as Daniel LaRusso, where now both fully grown, Daniel is the guy with the money and success, while Johnny is the guy scraping by in poverty.
Joining the cast is the next generation of Karate Kids, including Miguel Diaz who basically is on the track to being the next Johnny Lawrence, Samantha LaRusso, Daniel’s daughter and once-protégé who goes to the same school as Miguel, and then there’s Robby, who’s Johnny’s misguided son whom Johnny was mostly absent throughout his life, leading to a rebellious and troubled teen.
Basically, I don’t really want to give too much plot away, but I think it’s fairly obvious the direction the show goes since I’ve already stated that it’s a lot of re-telling of the old plot, just for today’s audiences. However, I will say that when the season ended, I was way more satisfied with the show than I thought I would be, and that the bottom line is that the show was pretty enjoyable.
Here’s the thing though – as much as I found Cobra Kai season 1 to be enjoyable, I don’t believe that there’s really any direction for the show to go but downhill. I was wrong about the show in the first place, but given the direction of the plot, the way the show ended, and the general predictability of trope-filled Hollywood storytelling, I don’t think things can possibly get any better. With the show already confirmed for a second season, I have a different kind of dread now that I’m vested in the show, and have concerns about how the storyline is going to progress.
Ultimately, I worry that the action is going to diminish, and the plots around the core Johnny and Daniel will step to the wayside for the children, whom I feel has all the setup in place to basically become Twilight, which will then take center stage, and eventually lead people to wonder why the original series was even called “The Karate Kid” in the first place.
I was wrong about Cobra Kai before, so I could very well be wrong about the second season. But if I’m a betting man, I wouldn’t wager my own money that season 2 is going to be remotely as good as the first one was. Season 1 was for the grownups to catch onto their old nostalgia; season 2 is definitely going to be more for the younger audiences who probably watched the first season with their old-ass parents, and need to have some teeny fluff in order to hook them. Which might be good for them, but it’s going to suck for us old motherfuckers.
