Summary30 years after the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is running a successful car dealerships business while his old rival Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is seeking to turn his life around by reopening the Cobra Kai dojo.
Summary30 years after the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is running a successful car dealerships business while his old rival Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is seeking to turn his life around by reopening the Cobra Kai dojo.
Cobra Kai manages to give Karate Kid fans exactly what they want, while using the template of the original to launch new characters aimed at younger viewers. ... But it’s hard to imagine anyone enjoying this show as much as those of us who grew up on the original.
All the trite talk of nerds and mean girls feels like it’s from a forgettable teen soap. But the foundation of Cobra Kai is solid: Not only does it deliver on the ’80s retro fun we expect--yes, Johnny and Daniel do face off across a karate mat once again--but it goes beyond that, forcing us to grapple with exactly why we want to see Johnny and Daniel face off again so badly.
So glad they came out with this show. Love binge watching the show and it's awesome they have alot of the same people! Very smart and look forward to seeing more Seasons, just finished Season 4 and looking forward to Season 5!
A perfect, poetic sequel to The Karate Kid films, and just an amazing show in its own right; great characters, arcs and acting. Loved every second of this first season and cannot wait for the journey to continue!
Turning Johnny from a villain to a sympathetic character and showing some of Daniel’s flaws humanizes both men. However, while watching the first two episodes I was left a bit confused as there isn’t a clear antagonist or protagonist. ... If you’re a child of the 80s seeing how things have played out for Johnny and Daniel will be right in your wheelhouse.
This show gets a lot of things right from the perfect amount of references and music from the original and the acid-washed 1980s where the movie reigned supreme to the impressive casting and acting. .... That said, Cobra Kai relies on coincidence far too often even for a show spawned from the decade of decadence.
The thing you don't expect is for Cobra Kai to be pretty decent and to fill its entire first season with enough homages, twists and reversals to be much more consistently entertaining than it has any right to be.
80's nostalgia at its best. It doesn't try to hide or "transcend" it to be pompous and to take itself seriously like Stranger Things. Nice watching this with my wife and reminisce those old days. Of course it's not a masterpiece, it has lots of cliches, you can often see miles ahead where it goes but at least I didn't roll my eyes watching this like Stranger Things. The lead character is played very aptly, nice nuances between likable loser and hot-headed jerk.
The story of two middle aged, washed up men who use children to settle old scores from their pasts. Johnny is a deadbeat, while Daniel seems to be suffering from some sort of hero syndrome.
What makes the show even more frustrating is the fact that it completely ignores the fact that Daniel was bascially a psychopathic bully who harassed Johnny and his friends in school.
Let's be clear here, in the original movie, Daniel was the one who provoked Johnny. So when as adults Daniel starts harassing Johnny all over again, it feels absolutely absurd.
Daniel is a successful buisnessman , he lives in utmost comfort with his beautiful wife and his spoiled children in what is essentially a mansion. Johnny meanwhile lives alone in a run down apartment complex and is fired from his dead end job in the very first episode.
The moment Daniel meets Johnny, you can tell he is lording his good fortune over Johnny. And as soon as Daniel realizes that Johnny is teaching karate, he goes on the defensive to make every attempt to squash his old enemy.
Frankly, if YouTube wanted me to pay for Red, this was possibly one of the worst shows they could have used to try and lure me in.
The glorification of fragile masculinity. The acting is subpar and one-note. The writing is lazy. Save yourself the time and watch the original Karate Kid.