Didn’t like the Ali but but the kreese backstory and ending was legit. Good cheesy show which is hard to pull off
I thought it was great. Although the invasion of the house at the end was too over the top. I don't see a bunch of middle-class high school kids doing that and asking to go to prison. Overall though the show is about perfect for what it is supposed to be.
As long as this new season doesn’t end with some stupidly choreographed massive karate brawl at school between a bunch of rookie white belts, I’m good!
First surprised they made one. Then not surprised; at a company with a money making opportunity. Cobra Kai the game. Looks to be a scroller beat-em-up.
I saw the first three episodes originally on YouTube but didn't pay for YouTube Red so never saw the rest. I also don't have Netflix so didn't watch any further. I've been binging on it the past weekend and got through the first two seasons and it's really really good. As someone who does martial arts, coached martial arts and am not too much younger than the Johnny Lawrence and Danny LaRusso characters a lot of it hits close to home. The martial art techniques in the fights are exaggerated for effect but a lot of the interplay between the senseis, students and even rivalry between the schools feels authentic. There are many lines that the senseis say to their students that I've said myself or have been said to me by my senseis. A few scenes ring very true to me. At the end of Season one Johnny's coaching to his team is very similar to what I myself have said to my competitors before and during a major Judo tournament. Including winning the right way and I've had to restrain and admonish students for doing something dishonorable. Also the scene where Danny is trying to reach a student who isn't very coordinated and is complaining all the time and Danny ask him why is he even here is a question I've asked a student. Also when Johnny is telling Miguel to not make the same mistakes he did that really touched me as a few years ago I made the same speech to an promising student and remember one of my Sensei telling me the same thing 20 years ago. Also a lot of the bad rings true and the Cobra Kai philosophy does exist in martial arts and was much more prevalent back in the 90's and 80's when I had started and was coming up. I had senseis like Kreese who used both physical and mental abuse like what we see in Cobra Kai to motivate students. Who used a lot of the same language including telling students "Don't be p*****s". While actually Dojos actually vandalizing each other and getting into big school yard brawls is pretty much unheard of as long as I've done martial arts, school rivalries, poaching students and even undermining schools and instructors is very real and sadly something I've experienced first hand. Will probably be watching season three tonight and have been really impressed with it so far. Something I really recommend for anyone who has done martial arts, looking to do it themselves, or get their kids into it.
@rocketsjudoka Oh man you're gonna love Season 3, it blows away the first two seasons in terms of fights and story. I finished it in like 5 hours in one sitting, lol.
im not sure what the best seasons would be ranked but the best scene is Johnny's dream about the neighbor that's for damn sure
Binged all of season three yesterday and still very good. I think season one and two were a little better but still pretty good. While I like how authentic a lot of Cobra Kai has felt from a martial arts standpoint season three started to get further from that. While through out the the series the martial arts have been exaggerated for entertainment value a lot of season three it seemed much more noticeable. Also a lot of the plot is getting pretty predictable. All that said still very good and look forward to season four.
Yeah I feel like I'd pretty much rank them season 1 1st, season 2 2nd, season 3 3rd. So I guess that means I think it's getting "worse", but really, it's still 10/10 guilty pleasure entertainment value for me, even if most of the plot lines are super-predictable. Much as season 3 did entertain me, in an odd way it kinda just treaded water. After the end of season 2, I assumed we would quickly get to the point of teamup between the two dojos, literally in like an episode, and that would be what season 3 was mostly about. But instead they took all of season 3 to get there. So it feels like they're really milking it. Which... is totally fine with me, since I enjoy it so much.
Kinda of feel the same way, the whole series kind of captures that goofy charm of the 80s movies perfectly. I haven't looked up how much real life time passed between season 2 and 3 but did Peyton List have a slight growth spurt? Season 2 Season 3
One criticism I've read of Cobra Kai was that there is little diversity in the show. For a show about an Asian martial art it is centered around two white men and starting in Season 2 a third white man. The only regular character that isn't white is Miguel. Apparently Ralph Macchio pushed the producers to bring in Tamlyn Tomita (Kumiko) and Yuji Okamoto (Chozen) to make the show more diverse. I personally am not that bothered by it as the story is based on the 1980's story when roles for minorities particularly Asians were scarce. The Karate Kid was notably for giving an Asian American a prominent and sympathetic role. I am glad they didn't retcon the story to change the race or ethnicity of any of the characters from the past. That said in 2021 I find it interesting that they haven't diversified the cast especially since it's set in Southern California.
Miguel, Aisha, the little indian kid in Miyagi do, the large black kid that switched from Cobra Kai to miyagi do, there's the latin family dynamic with Miguel's mom and his yaya, you have an entire story taking place in Okinawa where Daniel goes to find balance, the arab landlord, the head bully Kyler is asian. I think the way they have things laid out is a pretty good cross section of how things would look in Encino and Reseda. Not sure what people could be complaining about.
All of those characters except for Miguel aren't regular characters. As I said I'm not really bothered by it and am just pointing out some of the rare criticism I've seen about the series. I wouldn't call the series diverse as a selling point but not everything has to be about diversity and I think it is better for the series to stay true to the original movie series than to retcon it for current sensibilities. I'm glad to hear that Macchio got Tamlyn Tomita in and that must've required story changes to get her and Yuji Okamoto in. I though the part with Chozen was one of the highlights of the Season 3 especially how Chozen's whole demeanor changed when he 'Honked" Daniel's nose. Also glad they didn't just put that in as one off but tied his trip to Okinawa back into the rest of the story.
Regarding Cobra Kai adjusting to the times one thing I noticed that is different about original movies and the current show is that Kreese isn't a racist or a misogynist in the current show while he was in the original. In the original Karate Kid he called Miyagi a "slope" and there were no women in Cobra Kai. In the current show he's gone out of the way to recruit people of all races and women.
