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Cobra Kai

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cobra kai
5K views 46 replies 17 participants last post by  Naren 
#1 ·




Has anyone else watched this? I was home sick a couple of days this week, so I signed up for a free one month trial of YouTube Red and binge watched all ten episodes. It's absolutely fucking awesome. I love how they flipped things around, since you now get to see things from Johnny's point of view. Both Johnny and Daniel wind up being far more complex than the simple good guy/bad guy dynamic of the first movie, and it strikes a great balance between corny nostalgia jokes and modern relevance. Absolutely worth the watch. :yesway:
 
#2 ·
They did publicity shots in my dojo in Manhattan 2 weeks ago, but the students weren't allowed to be there.

All these pics are in the Seido Honbu on 23rd St. in Manhattan. If you scroll down to the video, you can see Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura in the background at about the 0:42 mark :) 9th Dan, founder of the style, living legend :)
YouTube Red Hopes This Karate Kid Revival Series Becomes Its Own House of Cards - Adweek

Everyone I've known in my karate life has wanted one of those cobra Kai gis too :) No one rooted for Macchio lol
 
#5 ·
I watched the free episode they were pimping and it was alright but i'm not paying for Red for that :lol:

I've got to many damn subscriptions as it is with Prime and Netflix....plus cable TV...FFS
 
#9 ·
Hey, Captain Reading Comprehension, sign up for the free one month trial and cancel before the month is up. :lol:
 
#14 ·
I'm through the first 8 episodes, after I broke a string on my Strat on Friday night and figured I may as well watch the first episode before bed. 6 episodes and way too much gin later... :lol: Johnny makes an unexpectedly good anti-hero, but I think where this really excels is in the way both characters' motivations become increasingly complicated - Johnny is doing a lot of good, but also in some ways being a clearly negative influence, whereas Danny is solidly off the pedestal the first movie places him on, yet at the same time is still the more positive role model. It's a very grey movie, in ways that work surprisingly well.



It's inconsistent. Some characters are very well acted (the kid Johnny takes under his wing, for one, has been pretty good, Danny's mother seemed very natural, Danny's daughter is pretty good, etc), however unless I'm greatly misstaken neither Ralph Macchio nor whoever played Johnny have done much acting since the 80s, and in a few places it shows, probably more so for Johnny than Danny. Not across the board, they both are strong in certain spots or with certain emotions, but they got the job because they were the original two actors, in a movie that probably didn't place much in the way of demands on them as teenagers, so it's probably unavoidable.

I think if you're watching something and find yourself thinking about the acting, that's a bad sign. :lol: But, at the same time, it's not like its really across the board terrible - there are just moments where something jumps out at you as being stiff and awkward and unnatural. :lol:
 
#23 ·
Yeah, the REO Speedwagon scene ruled, and that whole thing was kind of a missed opportunity for a happy resolution. :lol:

Finished season 1 last night. Hated the ending, for all the right reasons - moral ambiguity through the roof, the blurring of good and bad itself becomes blurred, and you don't like any of what you see happening. It sucks... But, it all makes sense and feels "real," and I can't argue for any of it.

I doubt I'll keep my YouTube Red subscription between now and then, but I'm looking forward for Season 2. This was way better than I expected.
 
#24 ·
Finished season 1 last night. Hated the ending, for all the right reasons - moral ambiguity through the roof, the blurring of good and bad itself becomes blurred, and you don't like any of what you see happening. It sucks... But, it all makes sense and feels "real," and I can't argue for any of it.
I love how the end of the tournament was a total letdown, the complete opposite of the same moment in the original film. Johnny finally started to figure it out when his prize pupil was standing across from his son, and trying to get Miguel to back down showed him exactly where his tough guy ideology goes wrong. I hope Miguel figures it out before it's too late for him, which you started to see hen he was walking around after the tournament, looking for his ex.

The whole Miyagi-Do dojo thing was just awful cheese, and it doesn't really track. How is Daniel going to have time to teach a school full of students while running a large business? It's not like he has other adults to turn to for help. If they ended it there, I'd have been royally pissed. I'm just not that invested in Daniel at all at this point. I think it would have been more interesting if the whole Daniel gets his groove back visit to Miyagi's grave led to him trying to reform Cobra Kai from within--I honestly expected a post-tournament conversation between Johnny and Daniel, considering Daniel had to see the pain on Johnny's face--but instead it was left lying on the table.

However, ending number three with Kreese walking back into Johnny's life was aces. It was one of the few things I didn't see coming (at least until the Daniel scene cut to Johnny drowning his sorrows), and the look of horror on his face was priceless. It would be cool if they pull a Luke in The Last Jedi thing and have Johnny kick him out for good at the beginning of the first episode of season two, but I don't really see that happen. As long as they don't suck the life out of the story by making it a fight over legal ownership of the name, though, it should be interesting.

There are a lot of different ways they can go with season two, and I can't wait to see what happens.
 
#25 ·
I mean, in some ways, the fight in the original was a tacked on happy ending that just isn't that plausible - the badly injured Danny holds to a draw and then dispatches the bad guy with a single kick. It's the classic ending of its era, whereas this ending is the classic ending of ours - Johnny sees, suddenly and abruptly, the danger in his own ideology, and the good in Danny's, but it's too late - Miguel's "remember? No weakness?" doesn't even give him time to say anything in response before returning to the ring.

There's a couple ways that Miyagi-Do could go, one of the most plausible ones being the dealership business starts to suffer for it as Danny pursues his passion. I could also see his cousin being brought back in, with predictable bad impact. I'm less worried about the investment in Danny, though, than you are - at the start of Season 1, Johnny was the one we had no reason to give a shit about, and Danny was the good guy. Over the course of the season, Johnny is rehabilitated, to the point of even questioning his own teaching in the finale, whereas Danny is systematically cut down, from the white knight of the original to, at best, a good hearted guy letting his emotions get the best of him, to at worst kind of an asshole. Honestly, the best we see him is singing along with Johnny in the car and then getting drunk talking about their childhoods - that was a frustrating (again, not in a bad way) missed opportunity, as hhad they then not run into Robby in the dojo they very well might have buried the hatchet then and there.

Even then... I thought Johnny was going to apologize to Danny and Robby at the end, and I think we as viewers were supposed to feel like he very nearly did. He clearly wasn't happy, and if you'd asked me at that moment which man was going to tell Robby he fought with honor, I'd say it would have been a coin flip.

Kreese showing up, again, is one of those things you didn't WANT to happen, but totally works.

Plot points I could see going forward - Kreese muscles Johnny out of Cobra Kai and takes over the studio for himself, veering further into "the dark side," if you will, and pushing Johnny and Daniel closer to a reconciliation (Daniel clearly still blames Kreese more than Johnny). If Kreese does take control of the studio, Hawk clearly goes with him, though he went so far and so fast onto the dark side here that there almost has to be a snap-back of sorts. Daniel's business struggling as he dedicates more and more time to Cobra Kai. Sam clearly begins to train and compete, and I could see her facing off with and beating Miguel in the next tournament. If there's any chance for Miguel to abandon the dark side (I'm just blatantly using Star Wars metaphors here), it's probably through Sam more than it is through Johnny, even if he atones for his past mistakes. Daniel has to get students from somewhere, and while a few Cobra Kai defections would make sense (and would fan the flames of a Johnny/Daniel rivalry) I could see Miguel's nerdy friend who didn't join Cobra Kai being one of the early ones. A Sam/Robby romance is definitely being hinted at, and would be true to the original story arc - it's a tossup if they'll go for that, or just fuck with expectations, I think.

Thinking out loud here.

Looking forward to season 2 as well. Any idea when it airs?
 
#30 ·
:bump: Because these past few weeks have been nothing but a barrage of pop culture.

Season 2 is out and after smashing through it, Cobra Kai hasn't lost any of it's edge. It's still morally grey, complex and hard hitting as ever and goes even deeper with each character. Already have heavy speculations on what will happen in season 3.

Also one of the best high school fight scenes I've ever seen. It's almost on par with classic kung fu and big budget superhero movies.
 
#35 ·
Season 2 didn’t do it for me until the very end. It lost a lot of what made it fun in the first season. Season 3 was way darker, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. The acting of Machio and Zabka have definitely gotten better.
 
#36 ·
Season 2 didn't do it for me until the very end. It lost a lot of what made it fun in the first season. Season 3 was way darker, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. The acting of Machio and Zabka have definitely gotten better.
That's cool to hear. I enjoyed Season 2, but I thought it was a big drop in quality from Season 1. I added Season 3 to my list earlier today, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. Hopefully sometime this week. The trailers definitely look way darker, which is intriguing.
 
#37 ·
Season 2 is the weakest of the lot (save the amazing finale). The lack of self awareness that oozed in Season 1 was to it's detriment, one of the most substantial storylines (relation between Johnny and Miguel) gets sidelines in favour of teen drama and the Miyagi Do kids (who take a ton of screen time) are all insufferable and a lot less interesting than the Cobra Kai kids (thought that's a minor quibble). Still a bad season of Cobra Kai is still strong and better than a lot of TV shows at their best.

I'm glad season 3 addresses a lot of season 2's issues and I agree that Zabka and Machio's acting have really stepped up.
 
#40 ·
I wasn't the biggest Karate Kid fan growing up, and I can only remember seeing the first film, but I watched it again with my boys a few months ago before I was aware of Cobra Kai. Then I started watching the series.. I really liked things from Johnny's perspective and watching him teach Miguel. I also liked that Daniel comes off as a real douche. Season 2 got a bit off the rails with too much high school drama, but the season finale cliff hanger was amazing. I couldn't wait for season 3. I'll say 3 was good and seemed to refocus on the adults more. I'll withhold final judgment until season 4, which I assume will wrap it up.
 
#42 ·
So, finished the last episode. Really enjoyed it. Glad Johnny didn't fuck things up, and the fight was awesome. The "super hero team-up" was predictable, but with what they allude to for season four, I think it'll be really cool. I don't know how much people that weren't really into the Karate Kid series would enjoy this (my wife's got zero interest) but I'm still really digging it.
 
#43 ·
I started watching this tonight. I'm only 3 episodes in, but I can already tell it's gonna be way better than Season 2. Hell, it might even be better than Season 1. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

Although I enjoyed The Karate Kid when I myself was a kid, I hated all the other movies in the series back then (seriously, The Karate Kid Part II is pure garbage and Part III is even worse -- and is Part IV even worth mentioning?).
 
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