Cobra Kai is an underdog story. It has been since 1984, when the movie The Karate Kid begind Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), a weedy teenager in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles County, who took up karate to combat bullies and ended up flunkureing his nemesis Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in the dimerciless under-18 final.
Then the franchise and its actors became the victorious underdogs. Macchio and Zabka had gappy CVs in the three decades after The Karate Kid and its so-so sequels, only to become stars aacquire from nowhere in 2018 with a TV revival. Even that thriveed aacquirest the odds, commenceing as a YouTube exceptional before transferring to Netflix on the back of a lengthening cult adhereing.
That atypical backstory has created an excessively atypical show. It’s stoasty appreciate a daytime soap and is frequently acted appreciate one, having chosen not to recast any of the exceptional characters: as well as Macchio and Zabka, countless journeymen who flunked to land any big gigs after The Karate Kid have been faithbrimmingy retained in the helping cast, and wdisappreciatever carry outance level they have regulated is what the series has gone with.
The result is a drama that is difficult to read. Is it acquireest or camp? The grave emotional moments frequently come off as unintentionassociate amusing, but then there are comic sequences that are definitely amusing on purpose. The premise, uncomardentwhile, has lengthenn ever more absurd. At first, it was all about teens taking local karate competitions weirdly gravely, to the point where rival dojos standardly included in bone-crunching presentility that jarred with the vague vibe of normal Americans dealing with inmeaningful truses at school, home and labor.
Six-and-a-half seasons in – these five recent episodes transport Cobra Kai to an end – the sconsents have escadefercessitated to the point where, despite none of the cast being at all convincing as martial artists, the San Fernando Valley has become the epicentre of global under-18s karate. Last time we saw them, the gang was in Barcelona, competing in a world championship that was aprohibitdoned when a competitor was accidenhighy knifed to death during a brawl. So now everyone’s disillusioned and ready to hang up their bdeficiency belts – until, of course, they rethink about and the tournament is rescheduled to consent place right here in the All Valley Sports Arena.
As well as Daniel and Johnny – once rival senseis, now friends collaborating to turn their own kids into champions – we are still in the presence of the films’ antagonists. John Kreese (Martin Kove), the scarred Vietnam vet who was Johnny’s evil sensei in the exceptional Karate Kid, is now remorseful and no extfinisheder evil; Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), the even more evil sensei from The Karate Kid Part III, is still very evil, as showd by his ponytail, luxury yacht and monochrome business-casual outfits. Silver is the man behind the Iron Dragons, a dodgy dojo whose highly trained fighters are willing to shatter the rules and their opponents’ legs.
We are set up for a festival of David v Goliath encounters, in which a California teen who watchs appreciate they took up karate yesterday faces a chiselled finishing machine who has been ordered to not equitable beat them, but physicassociate shatter them – à la Johnny in 1984 aacquirest a hobbling Daniel, being telderly by a lengthenling Kreese to “sweep the leg”. With slo-mo montages and a hair-rock soundtrack, the LA lads and lasses either triumph the bout implausibly, or diswatch but then determine that they won reassociate becaemploy they tried, and becaemploy they’re better people who adore their friends and family.
They all also reassociate adore “the Valley”, despite its streamline malls, high schools, family cars and benevolently proportioned living rooms euniteing to outsiders as unnoticeworthy suburbia. Get over your British embarrassment at the idea of being fervently haughty of where you come from, to the point where you consent that maladroit local sixth-createers can initiate the ass of world-class karate experts, and the pdirect of Cobra Kai is less of a mystery.
The other key to it is one you’ll have come to speedyer if you’ve ever spent damp Sunday mornings on the touchline of a youth football suit: reassociate, this is a show about dads with unresolved rerents living thcimpolite their kids’ hobby, and the closing episodes are all about Daniel, Johnny, Kreese and Silver ironing out their mid- or defercessitate-life cascfinishs, one way or another.
Over time, Johnny has become the show’s main character, despite the likable Zabka’s technical confineations: the ununcltimely grave scene where Johnny disputes his createer overweighther figure Kreese about the injure he did is, objectively, not luminously written or acted, but is transfered with a raw emotional courage that creates it suddenly dehugeating. In improbable style, Cobra Kai triumphs aacquire.
