Cobra Kai Season 1 Review
The Karate Kid Grows Up in Cobra Kai
Cobra Kai, the follow up to the 1984 hit and ‘80s movie staple “The Karate Kid,” premiered in 2018 as a YouTube series, but found it’s way to Netflix where it got a huge boost.
Ralph Macchio (Daniel LaRusso) and William Zabka (Johnny Lawrence) are back in lead roles in present day, with memories of their brutal showdown at the All Valley tournament haunting them. Here’s a look at the trailer. Full review below.
I had no idea what to expect when I started watching the online show; I thought “The Karate Kid” was good, but didn’t have it’s poster on my wall as a teen (unlike my love of another Ralph Macchio ‘80s blockbuster “The Outsiders”). My sister loved Ralph, so when we found ourselves in LA in ’84 for family vacation she made my parents stop at a Golf N Stuff, the favorite hang out in “The Karate Kid.” We touched all of the foosball handles so we could say we touched the same thing Ralph Macchio touched. In our defense we were from a small town, it seemed like a big deal. Though recently I did that with booths at Casa Vega where Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio dinned in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” so maybe some things don’t change.
Season 1, Episode 1 starts off with a flashback to the infamous karate match, then continues to present day where we see Johnny (his name confuses me, that’s Ralph’s name in “The Outsiders”) passed out on his bed next to a beer can and bag of chips. Now this scene would normally annoy me (it’s a screenwriters way of easily and quickly showing us ‘this guy is a mess’) if it didn’t look somewhat familiar (hey, the pandemic has been hard, we’re all trying to deal).
Right off the bat we see Johnny as a non-PC, bitter guy (he calls his Hispanic teen neighbor “Menudo”) who likes ‘80s rock (at least he has good taste) and is taunted by billboards of the guy who beat him in the big tournament all those years ago. The writers do a great job of making rude Johnny a sympathetic character. It might be a subtle scene, but I’m a germaphobe and quickly noticed the 2 bandages (blood visible) on the fingers of the mini-mart guy as he holds up the saggy slice Johnny picked out from the warmer. I wanted to scream “Don’t eat it!” But eat it he does, while sitting on a curb in a parking lot. A pathetic scene that actually works. I feel for the guy (and it’s been 30+ years since we’ve seen him, maybe we’ve forgotten how horrible he was to Daniel). He’s a jerk, but is he worthy of cheesy, bloodborne diseased ‘za?
As the season progresses we get more backstory on Johnny that lends itself to our sympathy/empathy, depending on what our childhood was like. Daniel, however, is doing great. He owns successful car dealerships, has a huge house in the Valley, and is happily married. But not to Ali, the girl that came between Daniel and Johnny in “The Karate Kid” (played by Elisabeth Shue). No spoilers on if we see Ali throughout the season, but fair warning some Season 3 rumors are out.
We’re rooting for Daniel, but thanks to superior writing and character development, that doesn’t keep us from also rooting for Johnny.
As one would expect we see the next generation of karate kids. When we first meet Robby, Johnny’s estranged son, I was concerned about what direction they were taking his character. Would this show turn into something that resembles half of Netflix’s playlist: teen angst with smartphones.
And Daniel’s daughter is hanging out with the school mean girls so, oh no, are we headed for a teen show? No offense Gen-Z but there is more than enough for you to watch on Netflix, Hulu, Disney Plus.
Thankfully, the shows creators provide a good mix of current day Daniel and Johnny, their offspring (and their pals) and nostalgia. Don’t know if there is enough of a Gen-Z storyline to get that generation of Netflix viewers watching so I applaud any showrunner who is creating content for Gen-X. And extra props for the reverence throughout the show for Mr. Miyagi.
Won’t spoil the end of Season 1 but I did shout “no way!” at one point. It left me ready for more.