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Cobra Kai


The Choc
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Watched the first two episodes. I liked them both. Thinking about signing up for YouTube Red to watch the rest.

 

Some thoughts about Johnny's character:

 

1. I liked seeing him stick up for that kid in the strip mall. Kind of reminds me how Miyagi came to Daniel's defense in the Karate Kid.

2. That being said, some things about Johnny's character still strike me as being a jerk.

3. However, after he got berated for hanging the television on the wrong wall, I do agree with calling that lady a B-word. :D

4. Man...can he hold a grudge! Over 30 years?? Why is he still holding on to that?

5. I don't agree with the Cobra Kai view of karate (i.e. strike first, show no mercy). I liked the flashback of Daniel teaching his daughter karate and saying it is in the mind and heart and should be used for self-defense (kind of like ESB Yoda's view of the Force). I hope the lessons of Miyagi still stay with Daniel after all this time.

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It gets better from the first two episodes even. Sign up for YouTube Red, you can get a 30 day trial. Then just cancel when you finish watching. As for Johnny, yes he is a jerk still. But he is slowly still moving towards redemption. Im only 6 in out of the 10 so I don't know if he gets there.

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Show just kept getting better really. Just a great job, great ending. All the characters are just about perfect. Amazing you can take an almost 35 year old movie that Tex correctly called "Rocky Lite" and make this good of a tv show.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The problem with series being released like these is that it makes binge watching almost mandatory. I started watch this when it came out and didn't have(make) time to watch the rest. Now I just finished them and what amazes me is how they adapted the overall story for 35 years later.

 

If I have one complaint, and it's a geek complaint, is how everyone is good at karate so fast. In the original Karate Kid it was just Daniel that had to learn karate over the course of a school year. The Cobra Kai guys had been in it for years. You can kinda defend how Daniel got to the tourney finals. Outside of the first guy he fought everyone else was Cobra Kai whose main goal was to get him out. He fought a defensive stylr and really only fought the of their best guys. One who got disqualified. In this one EVERYONE is a noob. And two of the noobs make it to the final. That's my only real grioe though.

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  • 9 months later...

I binged it over two days. I’ve been bedridden and in a lot of pain, so shows with short episodes have been great for my ability to pay attention.

 

It’s one of the better sequels/remakes/reboots that I’ve seen. It changes how you look at the original without disrespecting it. It just gives more nuance and shows how right Miyagi was about everything.

 

One thing that was a little stupid was everyone excited to talk about Daniel being “the champ “ when Johnny also won the tournament twice and came in second once.

 

As for people learning quickly, it really seemed to me like it wasn’t a huge field to begin with, and the way they talked it sounded like there wasn’t much karate going on until Cobra Kai came back. So I think that the issue may have been that the kids in the tournament weren’t good. Plus it had to end with Johnny versus Daniel.

 

All in all, the most important part is that you have two guys who peaked in high school and can’t get over it, but had very different father figures who got them on different trajectories in life.

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I was surprised how well done it was. Great performances from everyone, really.

 

One bit I especially enjoyed is Johnny's recollection of the first film, and plays on the fan theory as him being the real Karate Kid.

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  • 1 year later...

If I have one complaint, and it's a geek complaint, is how everyone is good at karate so fast. In the original Karate Kid it was just Daniel that had to learn karate over the course of a school year. The Cobra Kai guys had been in it for years. You can kinda defend how Daniel got to the tourney finals. Outside of the first guy he fought everyone else was Cobra Kai whose main goal was to get him out. He fought a defensive stylr and really only fought the of their best guys. One who got disqualified. In this one EVERYONE is a noob. And two of the noobs make it to the final. That's my only real grioe though.

I'm watching Karate Kid right now and I just noticed on the All Valley Tournament poster it says December 19th. So he goes from a kid who took a couple of lessons back in Jersey to winning the tournament.

 

Season 3 of Cobra Kai should be full of sub plots. Daniel supposedly going back to Okinawa. Allie is supposed to be back. And the kids.... Good Lord after that fight to end the season. Will Miguel even be able to walk?

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Overall I loved it-- I watched both seasons in one binge.

 

I rather like how both Johnny and Daniel are jerks and yet virtuous. It really does sound a lot of great messages about bullying, and how point of view and perspective is so important. Hearing Johnny talk about the events of the original film from his POV are some of my favorite bits.

 

My only complaints are sometimes it is a bit cringey on the acting front. And I can pretty much tell that no one under the age of 50 is writing for this show. The way teens are portrayed is really on the nose. I don't love the kid playing Johnny's son. I hate his 90s hair. And his stupid face.

 

The actor playing Lip/Hawk did a great job of really showing the difference in persona once he found self confidence. I don't know if it needs another season beyond 3-- I just need to see Johnny and Daniel hug it out and run a school together, realizing they both have valid POVs on Karate.

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Maybe this has to do with my age group. Cobra Kai in the original movie was a bunch of jerks, but redeemable. Johnny gave Daniel his due after their match. Bobby thought they were too rough on Daniel the entire movie and didn't want to hurt him during the tourney. Afterwards everyone but Dutch pretty much dumped on Kreese. In Cobra Kai they reflect being young and dumb and following Kreese. Tommy dying of cancer had some weight to it. The current Cobra Kai are a bunch of little shits. Had the cops not showed up when they did someone might have died in that fight. Miguel looks to be paralyzed. You mentioned Hawk, he does change when karate gives him confidence. He also is the one of like to take a belt to the most. Other than Miguel, mine of them seem redeemable.

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Really? I think they are all redeemable. Johnny made the misfit kids into the bullies, while Daniel took a criminal and a brat and made them virtuous. The are all confused kids, so I think they can be redeemed.

 

Kreese is the only real monster.

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I agree with Tank. Theyre still kids, and everything has happened very quickly. Hawk went from being an angry, scared, bullied kid to being an angry, violent, bully. If that can happen, Cobra Kai saved him from shooting up the school.

 

The great thing about The Karate Kid was that it was black and white morality. The great thing about Cobra Kai is that it is all shades of gray. The only definite thing is that Kreese remains a monster, but it even gives him a bit more backstory as to why hes a monster.

 

Trauma messes people up. Johnny. Kreese. Daniel. They have all experienced some type of trauma, from bad home life to war to being bullied and beaten. Johnny and Daniel are going to end up rising above their trauma. Kreese has no desire to do so.

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I'm talking from a viewer's standpoint. That's why I prefaced the age group thing. I can understand their issues, I just want them to get off my lawn so to speak.

 

To be fair, the current group of Cobra Kai's have the disadvantage of being more fleshed out. You see more of their warts. Other than Johnny, the only other guy that got some development was Bobby. Dutch was just an ass and Tommy was the "body bag" guy.

 

Miguel- he's more of a bad luck case. He means well. Her lets his emotions and hormones get the best of him.

 

Hawk- like you said Brando the billed kid that turns bully. He's got resentment in him, I don't know if would go full on school shooter. He did turn violent though.

 

Aisha- tough one because she's a nice person. I want her to dump Cobra Kai, she seems to want to do her own thing though.

 

Raymond- I put him in as a joke. He's the comic relief right? The old guy hanging with the young kids.

 

Tory- omg I hate her guys. I've always cringed at the fight at school, but that was a girl fight that she started.

 

Tory and Hawk really tip the scales for me.

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I actually like Tory, even though her trauma to bully ratio has not fully been explored.

 

Full douche bag disclosure, I like her because I like the actress Peyton List. She was on my show and while she always seems to play bitchy, she is very humble and sweet in real life.

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I am a few episodes into S1 and I love everything being a bit more gray.

The way teens are portrayed is really on the nose.

 

I disagree. I think bullying itself has changed due to the soc-meeds. For example, I just saw the episode where the mean girls send the augmented reality video of that one girl as a pig to the whole school. I am not saying that wouldn't happen, but that kind of bullying is rare. What is more likely to happen is if it were a girl that fell out of their friend group or whatever. That is where the real bullying happens. But I get it, they are trying to set her character up in a certain light.

 

Another trope I dislike is the group of nerds ogling the popular girl table. I was one of those nerds at the nerd table and trust me, we all thought we were way better than the popular girl group. And again, there really wasn't/isn't much bullying between the two groups. The popular girls just ignore the nerdy boys.

 

I haven't seen it in a long time and certainly since I have been in education, but I remember the TV show "Freaks and Geeks" came the closest of any show of nailing the teenage experience.

 

I was a pretty big nerd and I got bullied most by people in the groups I was close to breaking into...

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I am a few episodes into S1 and I love everything being a bit more gray.

The way teens are portrayed is really on the nose.

 

I disagree. I think bullying itself has changed due to the soc-meeds. For example, I just saw the episode where the mean girls send the augmented reality video of that one girl as a pig to the whole school. I am not saying that wouldn't happen, but that kind of bullying is rare. What is more likely to happen is if it were a girl that fell out of their friend group or whatever. That is where the real bullying happens. But I get it, they are trying to set her character up in a certain light.

 

Another trope I dislike is the group of nerds ogling the popular girl table. I was one of those nerds at the nerd table and trust me, we all thought we were way better than the popular girl group. And again, there really wasn't/isn't much bullying between the two groups. The popular girls just ignore the nerdy boys.

 

I haven't seen it in a long time and certainly since I have been in education, but I remember the TV show "Freaks and Geeks" came the closest of any show of nailing the teenage experience.

 

I was a pretty big nerd and I got bullied most by people in the groups I was close to breaking into...

I went to a very large High School, graduated 1300 a year, so the dynamics were always a bit different I've found than in smaller schools. But in my school all the boys lusted after the group of hot, popular girls.

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My school was closer to 2000 and was big enough that there wasnt necessarily any popular group. The preps (preppy kids) were the closest, but it was more that there were multiple groups with popular people in each group. It would never work in media, though.

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I was speaking more to dialog/interests I think.

I dunno. So far, and I am sure this changes, but the students are one-dimensional. They are all defined and acting towards their archetype. I would like nerds to be portrayed in a manner that the audience gets to know them before showing them picked on...or at least being picked is not the reason for their existence in the show.

 

 

I am a few episodes into S1 and I love everything being a bit more gray.

The way teens are portrayed is really on the nose.

 

I disagree. I think bullying itself has changed due to the soc-meeds. For example, I just saw the episode where the mean girls send the augmented reality video of that one girl as a pig to the whole school. I am not saying that wouldn't happen, but that kind of bullying is rare. What is more likely to happen is if it were a girl that fell out of their friend group or whatever. That is where the real bullying happens. But I get it, they are trying to set her character up in a certain light.

 

Another trope I dislike is the group of nerds ogling the popular girl table. I was one of those nerds at the nerd table and trust me, we all thought we were way better than the popular girl group. And again, there really wasn't/isn't much bullying between the two groups. The popular girls just ignore the nerdy boys.

 

I haven't seen it in a long time and certainly since I have been in education, but I remember the TV show "Freaks and Geeks" came the closest of any show of nailing the teenage experience.

 

I was a pretty big nerd and I got bullied most by people in the groups I was close to breaking into...

I went to a very large High School, graduated 1300 a year, so the dynamics were always a bit different I've found than in smaller schools. But in my school all the boys lusted after the group of hot, popular girls.

 

I agree. I think what I meant to say is that in shows like this, that is often all they do. Being awkward and ogling after the hot girls defines them and is the center of the plots.

 

My school was closer to 2000 and was big enough that there wasn't necessarily any popular group. The preps (preppy kids) were the closest, but it was more that there were multiple groups with popular people in each group. It would never work in media, though.

Yes...I think that is what I am kind of getting at. Social circles just stick to themselves for the most part.

 

I never went to a school where the cliques were based in income. It was always broken down by interests/sub-cultures and their accompanying fashion.

Agreed

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I was speaking more to dialog/interests I think.

I dunno. So far, and I am sure this changes, but the students are one-dimensional. They are all defined and acting towards their archetype. I would like nerds to be portrayed in a manner that the audience gets to know them before showing them picked on...or at least being picked is not the reason for their existence in the show.

 

Yeah-- that's what I meant by on the nose.

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I never went to a school where the cliques were based in income. It was always broken down by interests/sub-cultures and their accompanying fashion.

For us, the preps werent necessarily the rich kids. They were the kids who wore Abercrombie, listened to DMB, and ended up drinking cheap beer at the same few houses every weekend because the parents decided it was better if they were doing it there - even after one of them died in a car accident after leaving one of those parties.

 

The richest kid in my class was a drama/punk kid who was one of my closer friends.

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