User Reviews

From the trailers it was clear that there was a comedic slant to the material (and I got half a dozen solid laughs from it), but the humor doesn't undermine the dramatic aspects. The balance is just right, delivering something that's at once fresh and familiar. This first episode is very Johnny-centric, and Zabka is very good at being likeably gruff. It sets the stage for an interesting character study. In this case; the lifelong fallout from a single event and its effects on those involved.

I was skeptical of the new series. The 84 classic is hard to replicate. My prof told me once about changing social forces in society , and the best way to check the public's temperature is with entertainment. After years of watching Politically correct cookie cutter entertainment which has complaints of getting old and changing. The old flat characters of rich, blond, bad guys (Raiders, Diehard etc) with a lecture of good against evil scripts have been turned upside down. In the age of Trump, we now have fresher, but harsher entertainment similar to the Sopranos. Ace Degenerate breaks all the rules and is ugly. There are racial, political, sexual stereo-types, miss conceptions, realism and characters which have depth. The Johnny Lawrence character is lost in the 80's, a bit of a jerk, but there are reasons why, and sometimes Johnny needs to be, and yet Johnny is his own worse enemy. There are shots at P C culture, millenniials, and we find out Daniel Larusso is a nice guy with character faults (temperament arrogance etc). Audiences have a hunger for real life and depth, not social lectures which gets across as self-righteous and Ace Degenerate delivers. There is a convenience store scene which had to happen in real life. One cannot write such material. Lawrence only gets involved with characters out of selfish reasons when Lawrence's car get involved. Many friendships start out like Lawrence as a protege for a younger version of himself. The viewer sees what happens when an alpha male loses his alphaness, becoming a wreck. We see the home environment which helped create the flawed hero with the viewers help. There is a clash of the two schools of Karate one offensive/military (Lawrence), and the reasons, qualities for it. There is the arguments for defensive karate which Larusso represents with the spiritual side of, balance/peace and examples for it. What I thought would be a cheesy spin off turns into a deep series about people and society.

The adversaries of the classic 1984 martial arts drama "The Karate Kid" are re-united 34 years later for this interesting series which gets off to a fine start with this debut episode. It sees a reversal of fortune take place, as Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is now living the life, owning & operating a series of car dealerships in Encino. Meanwhile, his high school / tournament nemesis, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) is having it rough. Johnny loses his handyman job after mouthing off to a snippy customer, and gets his car badly damaged by a hit-and-run driver. He's also living in a rather seedy complex.

But, inspired by the movie "Iron Eagle" of all things, Johnny is motivated to get his life back in order, and thanks to a cheque from his crusty stepfather (an amusing cameo by Edward Asner), he has the funds to re-open the infamous Cobra Kai dojo. Initially wary of his chatty, friendly teen neighbor Miguel (Xolo Mariduena), he decides that he will teach the put-upon kid some karate and begin looking out for him.

Sometimes trading on 80s nostalgia (with a soundtrack including Poison and Foreigner tunes), and utilizing unused footage from the original movie, 'Ace Degenerate' does a very good job of getting us to invest in Johnny as a reasonably sympathetic character for whom to root. And it also commendably turns Daniel into a not-so-sympathetic person, who's become fairly obnoxious, with a couple of truly hilarious TV spots for his business. Johnny understandably still resents him, especially when he seemingly can't turn on his TV without seeing one of those ads.

A likeable supporting cast and a compelling story have given this viewer hope that this series does indeed build on the original film series & its characters in interesting ways. It really is fun to see the various unused footage from the 1984 film, including a scene where the unforgiving Kreese (Martin Kove) *severely* admonishes Johnny for losing the tournament.

One may indeed miss the late, great Pat "Mr. Miyagi" Morita a lot, but I have no doubt that 'Cobra Kai' will do a fine job of honoring his memory.

Eight out of 10.

COBRA KAI seasons 1 and 2 and parts of season 3 are a great mix of 1980's nostalgia and with the heart of what made the 1st 3 KARATE KID movies fun to watch and even THE NEXT KARATE KID movie which was the last onscreen appearance of PAT MORITA .R. I. P. As Mr MIYAGI , but this series shows him respect by including footage of him teaching DANIEL how to grow as a person without becoming the thing he's fighting against -- seeing JOHNNY'S FRIENDS return was a great tribute to their enduring legacy and sad that it was the last acting performance of ROB GARRISON .R. I. P. , as TOMMY , and the deleted scenes with them are funny and worth watching -- but after season 3 it kinda goes too far by bringing back TERRY SILVER who it seems has split personality issues because at first he's NEW and IMPROVED and at peace with being a businessman but after JOHN KREESE basically bullies TERRY SILVER he seems to revert back to his KARATE KID 3 personality of NO MERCY which makes him seem like Dr JEKYLL and Mr HYDE in a way that's disturbing to watch especially when he sets out to CONQUER the VALLEY with COBRA KAI DOJOS everywhere -- the unnecessary characters are : KYLER his arc ended when MIGUEL beat him up , KENNY is COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY, STINGRAY his arc ended in season 3, and the various TERRY SILVER SENSAIS that he brings in that seem like they're going to be the focus for season 4 and 5 and maybe more -- my SCORE for seasons 1 , 2 , 3 is 10 STARS ⭐ -- my SCORE for season 4 is 8 STARS ⭐ --