Every one who was born during the VHS era has a memory of the Karate Kid. It was the type of film they use to show in film nights at summer camp between E.T and back to the future. With all that love for that film I started watching Cobra Kai with slight fear like " I hope they are not gonna spoil the memories I have from this film" and thankfully they did not. The Karate Kid remake was a failure in my eyes because it just followed the exact same beat of the original, only in a different setting. Cobra Kai take the essence of the film and flip it on the other side so it feels different from the film yet very familiar at the same time. Now we follow Johnny Lawrence (Played masterfully by William Zabka), a down on his luck, failed husband, failed father drunk still haunted by that crane kick he received from Daniel Larusso at the end of the first Karate kid. He barely lives day to day until he becomes an unlikely hero to a neighborhood kid who is very reminiscent of Danielle Larusso, this meeting along with faith making him cross path with his arch nemesis reawaken in Johnny a sense of purpose and he reopens the Cobra Kai Dojo much to the dismay of Danielle Larusso. We spent 3 film with Daniel now it's Johnny story and man does it flesh out his character. He his no longer the two dimensional bully of the first film, we get to know his background through childhood flashback and yeah it's crazy but by the end I liked Johnny better than Daniel! I love a good redemption story and this is the best one I have seen in a while. The younger cast that populate the Cobra Kai dojo are also quiet good, they feel like real kids that were put through the ringer. One thing I appreciate is that the show does not adopt that PC attitude of "Fight your bullies with love" , Johnny tell these kids stop being the victims and be proud of who you are and it's awesome! Without spoiler another thing I liked about this show is that it avoid a perfect ending, it's not a bad one nor a good one it just address the negative side of Johnny teaching as well and the no mercy rule. It is a fantastic reboot done right and the easiest show to binge watch in a while. Well done to all involved.
Review of Cobra Kai
