Is Cobra Kai as good as people say?
A friend of mine had been banging on about the Cobra Kai show for ages. He thought I would like it as a fellow mid-to-late 40s man who grew up watching the original Karate Kid. I had a gap in my schedule as I am self-employed and my schedule is full of gaps. So I thought I would watch an episode. Five hours later and series one was done.
What’s Cobra Kai all about?
This is more easily explained if I travel back in time to the glorious 1980s. Skip down to the next heading if you remember all the events of the original film but maybe you need a recap…
In 1984, when I was 12, there was a film called The Karate Kid. Which was great. A plucky young kid called Daniel LaRusso (played by Ralph Macchio) goes to a new school. He starts gets close to a hot cheerleader called Ali Mills (Elizabeth Shue). Her ex-boyfriend is a guy called Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) who gets miffed about this and unfortunately for LaRusso, he happens to be awesome at Karate. He bullies LaRusso.
At one point, LaRusso sprays water on Lawrence and so Lawrence and his mates chase after him to beat him up. A Japanese guy called Mr Miyagi steps in and instead beats all of them up because he happens to also be awesome at Karate.
Lawrence is the top Karate champ at a dojo called Cobra Kai whose sensei is a vicious sociopath called John Creese, who may or may not have undiagnosed PTSD (although that is purely modern conjecture and nothing to do with the film). Mr Miyagi and LaRusso go to Cobra Kai and there is an agreement that LaRusso will enter the All-Valley Karate Championships and Lawrence and LaRusso can fight it out there.
Mr Miyagi teaches LaRusso how to fight with Karate including a special one-legged crane kick. At the tournament, LaRusso and Lawrence face off in the final and LaRusso wins with the aforementioned kick.
Got all that? Right.
Cobra Kai starts 34 years later
Johnny Lawrence is now a handyman, living in a shithole with no money. One night, he defends his young neighbour – a teenager who has moved in with his single mother next door. The kid, Miguel Diaz, was being bullied by a group of teens and Lawrence steps in and beats them all up. Diaz consequently wants to learn karate. Like LaRusso and Miyagi’s relationship in the Karate Kid, Lawrence is reluctant at first but then relents. He reopens his old dojo, Cobra Kai, and starts to teach loads of kids who are bullied and rejected at school. Which is a nice twist.
The reopening of the Cobra Kai dojo also re-sparks the rivalry with LaRusso, who is now a successful and rich car dealer.
There is no real need to go into much more detail than that and this is all more easily explained by watching the trailer at the bottom.
So is it any good?
Yes, it is. It is fucking awesome. It is billed as a comedy-drama and that is fairly accurate. The trailer at the bottom doesn’t really show how funny it can be.
What makes it so great are the two main characters – LaRusso and Lawrence – who are both played by the original actors and really seem to enjoy themselves. The actors also serve as co-producers.
Cobra Kai starts with you seeing how Lawrence has pretty much fucked up his life, while LaRusso is rich and successful.
You also get to see the original events from Lawrence’s point of view – LaRusso stole the love of his life, then sprayed him with water, and then defeated him with what was an illegal kick.
The theory that LaRusso was the bully in Karate Kid was something that was brilliantly expressed in an episode of How I Met Your Mother, where Barney is disappointed that his surprise birthday guest is Ralph Macchio and not the real Karate Kid, Johnny Lawrence.
The whole dynamic between the two is superb and the characters are really well developed. They are recognisable as the original characters and their motivations are believable.
LaRusso is rich but still ridiculously competitive. Lawrence still tells people off for being a pussy and tends to want to punch people he disagrees with. What works so well is that they are both so likeable.
They both have kids and become mentors and there is a lot of other plot stuff going on but it all really works because of the main two leads.
I think Cobra Kai was originally a Youtube Original or something. But it is now on Netflix. Hurrah. Season three and four have already been confirmed. Hurrah once more.
If you don’t have Netflix, you can also watch it here (and buy the T-shirt).
From a personal point of view, I think this resonated with me as someone who grew up with the original film (and some of the sequels) and am now approaching 50 and wondering what the fuck I have done with my life.
If you have half an hour or so (each episode is roughly 30 minutes) then I highly recommend you check it out. Ideally, set aside 5 hours. Enjoy.
(In case you similarly liked this show, check out what else I like on TV but clicking on this handy link.)
Cobra Kai is also on Amazon and probably loads of other places.
