Rivalry never dies. Return to the mat and let your nostalgia run wild. Cobra Kai never dies! Nostalgia is usually a good motivator for creators to play on. This also applies to the iconic The Karate Kid film series. They are repeated every year because people grew up with them and still enjoy them. Initially, YouTube had the brilliant idea to revive the franchise 34 years later. And so the series Cobra Kai was born. Netflix quickly realized that this could be a potential goldmine and acquired the rights after two seasons. They were right, because it eventually became a successful and long-running series.
Cobra Kai is a series that perfectly combines the nostalgia of the 80s with modern storylines. The series is a direct continuation of The Karate Kid film series. The return of Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso and William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence is reason enough to get excited about this series. You immerse yourself in a dose of bitter enemies, warring dojos and in addition to the veterans there is also room for a new generation of fighters. Johnny is a man whose life has not improved since his defeat years ago. He is bitter, divorced, has hardly any contact with his teenage son Robby and he still can't stand Daniel after all these years. Especially because Daniel has built a successful life for himself since the tournament. Daniel is now happily married, has two children and is the owner of a successful car garage.
Strike Hard, Strike First, No Mercy
What I like about this concept is that Cobra Kai tries to offer you as a viewer a new perspective compared to the film series of the past. The focus was very much on Daniel with Mr. Miyagi as his mentor. In those films Cobra Kai was only portrayed as evil and Miyagi-Do was the holy grail. In the series Cobra Kai the other side of the story is highlighted which can lead to new insights. Is Cobra Kai only bad or does Miyagi-Do also have its flaws?
One of the biggest assets of Cobra Kai is its nostalgic value. The series not only brings back the characters Daniel and Johnny. Martin Kove also returns as the ruthless John Kreese, and Thomas Ian Griffith reprises his role as the cunning Terry Silver. They are not the only veterans who reprise their characters, because during the seasons more and more well-known and lesser-known characters appear around the corner. It would be a shame to reveal them all here. The makers know how to make connections with the events of the past in a good way by means of flashbacks.
For those who are not familiar with the Karate Kid phenomenon, so the nostalgic aspect does not play a role, it is still a fun series to follow. You do not need to know the film series, because as indicated, the series offers enough information by means of flashbacks to understand the mutual ties. In addition, you get to know a younger generation of potential fighters who compete during the various tournaments throughout the series. Of course, the children of Daniel, Samantha and Anthony LaRusso, and Johnny's prodigal son, Robby Keene, cannot be left out. In addition, Johnny sees Miguel Diaz as a second chance to tackle his failed parenting properly. The tensions and rivalry between the young people towards a tournament run high every time, which then comes to a climax.
The funny thing is that the concept remains the same, but somehow it never gets boring. The makers continuously come up with new angles that can lead to fights. However, not every season is equally strong. As the seasons progress, the focus on Cobra Kai fades more and more, while that aspect is what makes the series so interesting. Fortunately, the makers know how to recover in time. In the last season, everything comes together nicely and they know how to round off the series in a great way. The training sessions that are accompanied by rousing music and the tournaments that end with a great apotheosis while you can already guess the outcome, when I watch it I still get goosebumps, just like with the films of the past.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
Nice review, Pascal. I recognize a lot in what you say. I often found the acting performances quite stiff, some scenes were really hard to take seriously. The storylines are thin and predictable, and sometimes feel like they were plucked from a mediocre teen series. And yet… I kept watching. Not because of the quality, but because it triggers something nostalgic. It is simply special to see those familiar faces from my youth again. That sentiment keeps things going.
