Jump to content

Cobra Kai


The Choc
 Share

Recommended Posts

I was just venting, my actual point was that in one thread people are trash talking Star Wars fans for being to invested and yet in this thread there's a little over-love for Cobra Kai. I get the irony of dropping Breaking Bad and saying WHY COMPARE. I could have just said Cobra Kai wasn't the most critically acclaimed and widely accepted best show EVAR.

It doesn't matter.

This place seems excessively negative lately.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The irony of you saying that is astounding. Hahahaha.

I'm not talking about the Mandalorian. At all.

I'm referring to a site-wide tendency lately for joy-killing. Like more so than our usual level of fun joy killing.

And the irony of ME saying that is noted.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m definitely fighting negativity and depression right now. If you only knew how many posts I’ve scrapped.

But in my defense, I’ve been sick and in intense pain for weeks. COVID really sucks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I mean if I or anyone else makes a post and it makes someone else enjoy something less or kills their joy or whatever then thats on the other person. I can only assume that on some level they think the other person is at least partially right. I love TLJ and I love the prequels and you cant remotely compare the negativity towards anything recently to either of those. People hating it never affected my love for those things though. Why would it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don’t think it’s that so much as “I really like something” being followed up with “I’m going to poop on what you like so the conversation has to be about that.”

Which, ironically, is what happened in this thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back on topic, I was pleasantly surprised by Ali’s appearance and how it resolved. It was set up for it to be Johnny ruining his relationship with Carmen. But instead it was very adult and was handled perfectly. 
 

The thing that I didn’t feel was

Hawk’s redemption. It didn’t feel natural or earned. The seeds were there, but there wasn’t enough growth for that end result,

but as Johnny would say, it was bad-ass, and that’s what really matters.

It’s in the DNA of the series to be a little cheesy, and that’s fine. I’m not watching this show for perfection, I’m watching it because it’s fun. And as far as that goes, it’s pretty damn near perfect for what I want from it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, The Choc said:

Turns are very hard to nail. If you plant too many seeds then its obvious when it happens. If you dont plan enough then it feels unearned. 

In this case, it was a combination of both. There were a bunch of seeds and it was obvious it was going to happen, but it went straight from seeds to full growth. 
 

But, like I said, it was still bad-ass in an appropriately 80s way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On topic.. YAY

Agreed on Hawk, but since it happened in the zero hour of the season they could make him work for it a bit at the top of the next season.

Seeing Elizabeth Shue was great— I’m glad they never tried to make us assume that high school relationships make it to adulthood. I know it happens, but it’s rare. Johnny pining over her, but also not going for it was great.

I hope Zabka gets more work as a result, he’s great.

And for the record, I live in the Valley, and we’re not actually obsessed with Karate.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Tank said:

On topic.. YAY

Agreed on Hawk, but since it happened in the zero hour of the season they could make him work for it a bit at the top of the next season.

Seeing Elizabeth Shue was great— I’m glad they never tried to make us assume that high school relationships make it to adulthood. I know it happens, but it’s rare. Johnny pining over her, but also not going for it was great.

I hope Zabka gets more work as a result, he’s great.

And for the record, I live in the Valley, and we’re not actually obsessed with Karate.

You are the one who took it off topic! LOL 

But yeah I agree with pretty much everything you said here. The thing witih Ali coming back is really why I used the word "miracle". They find ways to bring these old characters back and all play legit interesting roles that push the story forward and affect the main characters in interesting ways. They don't say "hey having Ali back would be cool, lets have her be in a scene." They figure out, almost universally, how to do it in an interesting and useful way. 

The same could have been done with the Okinawa stuff. It so easily could have been "hey have Daniel go there, the village is the same and he meditates along the ocean and remembers whats important." But the way they have the village be changed and then challenge Daniels perspective of it being a bad thing. They way Yuki invokes Mr Miyagi, the way Chozen teaches a new Miyaga lesson and one that feels right and another legit extension of what Miyaga taught. 

Thats whats amazing about this show. Its not trying to be breaking bad and be this incredibly tight, perfect show. If it did it would almost certainly fall on its face. But the fact that it even has that extra level of character and flipping perspectives on a show that so so easily could have been lets just show Daniel and Johnny fight again is really amazing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What makes the show work is that they know what they want to do thematically, and they stick to it.

Ali’s whole bit about YOUR version and HIS version and THE TRUTH has been the core of the show. whether cringy or not, they are really good about sticking to this core idea. The fact they use a cheesy 80s movie as the past is even more genius. They didn’t change the tone of the original, but they are highlighting how nostalgia can alter our point of view— be it is thinking The Karate Kid was a work of art, Johnny pining for his youth, or Daniel’s refusal to see he could have done anything wrong.

Also, I saw Chozen honking his nose coming, but I was so glad they did it— and that they didn’t ruin it by showing that part of Kk2 in the flashback.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great mini-swerve early on with Kreese being picked on at the diner. Both because you think he’s the jock and then because you think he’s just a geek but instead beats both of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kreese was really interesting this season. Another great job in that they make him understandable but still clearly and wholly a villain. His little speech to the kids about how their enemies will think they are the heroes. How his showing that moment of mercy in Nam led to disaster and then we can compare that to Miguel's similar situation at the school. Its a bit on the nose but it works still. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that was a bit much and fell victim to the thought process of wanting to give some sort of explanation for everything. If they wanted to do that maybe just make a cobra like the insignia or patch of that special ops team in the army. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, The Choc said:

Yeah, that was a bit much and fell victim to the thought process of wanting to give some sort of explanation for everything. If they wanted to do that maybe just make a cobra like the insignia or patch of that special ops team in the army. 

Not only that, but the effect itself was ridiculously cheesy. It easily couldve been from an 80s movie itself. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 hours ago, Fozzie said:

Great mini-swerve early on with Kreese being picked on at the diner. Both because you think he’s the jock and then because you think he’s just a geek but instead beats both of them.

I also thought the kid with the slicked back hair was Silva.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The thing that tears at me is the amount of call backs. In some ways it works. Daniel seeing Ali and her going "is that Daniel with an L?" Then you have the soccer game which is sequel level rehash of the soccer game from the original. Even down to Sam screaming "This school sucks!!!" When Johnny shows up to the country club with a white jacket I'm thinking spaghetti. The writers were one step ahead of us and had Johnny call out the server for almost bumping into him. The call backs were intentional and almost South Park levels of trolling. That's probably why i didn't mind too much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The call backs don’t bother me. Obviously some work better, like the Ali thing was very natural and realistic. The soccer game was forced and cheesy, but I’m also okay with cheese from this series. In fact, this show REQUIRES cheese. The Karate Kid movies are great 80s cheese sports films. Trying to make a sequel that doesn’t embrace that would suck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the record i only brought up the Mandalorian because it was the most recent streaming show I've watched. I want to put it into the sort of light that Tank was talking about. For fun. The last scene b with Daniel and Kumiko, i tried getting who the other woman was. My guess was one of the girls that she taught the Obon dance to that was giggling. I forgot about the girl he saved during the storm. But only that she is a high up in Doyona and is able to return the favor to Daniel. I liked that. In Star Wars land that would be grounds for a flame war. "That's too convenient!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There had to some coincidence. I think we were originally supposed to think it would be Chozen, but that thought never really occurred to me. But it had to be Daniel, and it had to involve him putting good into the universe, or whatever the quote said. There were limited options, and the point was that it wasn’t coincidence - it was something more like karma. 
 

Questions leading to season 4:

How much trouble are Daniel and Johnny in for attacking a 75 year old veteran and vandalizing his business? Kreese filed a restraining order against Amanda for slapping him.

Is Hilary Swank going to show up? It’d be a great cameo if someone from another dojo won the tournament and at the end you see that she’s the sensei.

If Silver is back, will Daniel teach Sam to sweep?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.