Cobra Kai Seasons 1 and 2

Cobra Kai brings back our favorite characters from the beloved Karate Kid franchise and brings them alongside a modern day cast to bring us two explosive and entertaining seasons that serve as the perfect sequel none of us knew we needed.

It’s 1984. The All Valley Under-18 Karate Tournament is here. The defending champions of John Kreese’s Cobra Kai dojo are ready to defend their throne with their best student, Johnny Lawrence, leading the pack. It seems like no one can match their pure aggression, strength and skill. That is, until a young teenager with a chip on his shoulder named Daniel LaRusso from a mysterious dojo shows up to challenge their claim. No one has seen this kid fight before, but he exceeds expectations and takes on his opponents one by one, impressing both his sensei and his doubters. Before we know it, he’s in the grand final and ready to battle King Karate himself, Johnny Lawrence. The crowd doesn’t realize it, but these two have become bitter rivals with nothing but bad blood between them.

The fight begins, and the two young rivals waste no time in engaging in combat. LaRusso lands a quick punch on Lawrence’s stomach and earns the first point. They go again, and the fight goes to the ground. LaRusso lands another point on the back of Lawrence’s head. 2-0 LaRusso, and with another point there will be a new karate champion in the Valley. Johnny goes to the sideline towards his sensei John Kreese after suffering a bloody nose, who privately tells him to take advantage of Daniel’s injured leg. No mercy. This is the way of Cobra Kai. There can be no weakness. Lawrence is hesitant, but doesn’t question his sensei’s wishes, earning himself two questionable points to even the score. The next point wins. We all know the outcome by now. Daniel LaRusso unveils the legendary crane kick technique and lands a kick on Johnny’s face, ending his championship run and becoming the new karate champion of the Valley. But what became of Johnny Lawrence after this legendary battle against his hated teenage rival?

This is where the show Cobra Kai comes in. Cobra Kai is pretty much the perfect “where are they now?” story that could have happened to the Karate Kid franchise. As we see throughout the show, the feud between Johnny and Daniel is far from over. How could it? There’s simply too much history between the two. Thirty four years may have passed since that fated day, but the scars are still there. What Cobra Kai does so well is subverting expectations in a franchise that desperately needed innovation. Ralph Macchio had an entire trilogy as Daniel LaRusso, starring alongside the great Pat Morita. So instead of focusing on him, we get Johnny’s side of the story, and we now have a fleshed out anti-hero on his path to redemption who was a hated villain in the 80s. William Zabka is absolutely brilliant as the focus of the show, and he portrays a character that’s down on his luck so well. We want him to succeed because he’s the underdog now, and the world hasn’t been kind to him since that day in 1984. Mr. Miyagi once said that there are no bad students, only bad teachers, and we can see this is clearly the case with Johnny Lawrence. We see the abuse he took from his sensei John Kreese, and how that shaped him in his teenage years. He was never an evil person, just a complicated character with a terrible teacher.

This is one of the beautiful themes of Cobra Kai. The world isn’t black and white, it’s mostly grey. And in the case of Johnny and Daniel, there is certainly A LOT of grey. It’s very easy to see why the two despise each other, but in the case of us, the audience, this makes for an incredibly entertaining story. Our allegiance changes throughout because the characters are so brilliantly fleshed out but have many faults as well. Sometimes we don’t really know who to root for because both are in the right, and that’s just great storytelling.

Not only do we get our old beloved characters returning, but we also get a great new cast of exciting next-generation characters who are training in the ways of Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do to carry on the legacy of these two dojos. The show subverts expectations by giving power to the “nerds” and “losers” and showing that the ways of Cobra Kai can have a positive effect on kids who need a little confidence. Johnny isn’t Kreese, but we soon realize that the old ways of Cobra Kai can have a negative effect because of his teachings. His actions have consequences, and because of these consequences the show continues to build and escalate, to the point where there is no return for these characters.

So far, Cobra Kai has released two of the greatest seasons of television I have ever seen, and I’m sure many of us who watched the show are eagerly anticipating the release of season 3 on Netflix. Whatever happens in season 3 due to the events of season 2, one thing is certain: Cobra Kai never dies.

Final Score: 10/10