Netflix’s purchase of ‘Cobra Kai’ has helped skyrocket popularity of a series that actually premiered YouTube Red back in 2018. Already then it had a very positive reception, but it is now that this sequel to ‘Karate Kid’ has reached another level and I’m sure I’m not the only one who is looking forward to it. the day we can see his third season already shot.
However, today I have not come to tell you about the future of the series, since my objective is to explain why I think that ‘Cobra Kai’ is better than any movie in the ‘Karate Kid’ franchise, including the legendary installment that first introduced the characters of Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence.
A more challenging approach
The article contains some spoilers for the first two seasons of ‘Cobra Kai’
Let’s be honest, the story that ‘Karate Kid’ told, which is also the best of the franchise by far, we have seen it countless times and the film directed by John G. Avildsen it is far from being the one that did the best. An endearing loser who exceeds his limits to end up taking victory against that person who was making his life impossible. In fact, even Avildsen himself had been more inspired years earlier by a similar tale that shaped ‘Rocky’.
On the other hand, ‘Cobra Kai’ allows us to know the other version of the story, since in ‘Karate Kid’ everything was black or white, but the Netflix series now makes it clear that it was far from the case, since then Lawrence was relegated to the role of the protagonist’s nemesis without bothering to really understand his motivations, making it clear here that his situation was not so different from LaRusso’s.
In fact, the series has the best of two worlds, as it tells the story of a loser in his lowest hours who tries to set the course by opening a dojo in which he wants to keep the best of the original Cobra Kai but without falling into all the mistakes that were made then, but that does not mean that he sells Lawrence to us as a typical hero. Defining him as a normal person may sound excessive, but he does have the imperfections of one and his position oscillates throughout the series rather than telling us that he was actually the good guy and LaRusso the bad guy.
That also applies to the case of LaRusso, who in the movies was little less than the representation of all that is good and honorable and who here has a much more credible attitude. He is also capable of the best and the worst, the latter usually associated with his strained relationship with Lawrence, where the series often explores the possibility of a friendship between the two so that something ends up happening that separates them even more than before. This reaches its peak with Miguel’s serious injury at the end of the second season. Maybe they don’t even cross a word in the elevator, but the scene could hardly be more eloquent.
A more varied story
In addition, ‘Cobra Kai’ takes advantage of the fact of being a series to offer a much greater variety in what you are telling us, since it is not all reduced to the antagonism between Daniel and Johnny. That is where the first season is especially inspired by giving a capital importance to Miguel and Robby, both for the way they understand their characters and for everything that derives from that situation.
And it is that Johnny finds with Miguel that connection that he longs for with his own son, a Robby who does not stop rejecting him and who finds the balance in his life training with Daniel. This could have been perfectly reduced to the function of a mere complement of the tensions between the two protagonists, but ‘Cobra Kai’ lets these characters breathe, thus enriching the series itself
It is true that ‘Cobra Kai’ maybe he has abused that dual component in the second season, where the idea of the opposition between two characters who could perfectly be friends is pushed to the limit -in fact this is what happens with several of the members of both dojos-, but for now they have managed to keep it under control so that the series does not derail .
The growth of the acting level
It may seem like a no-brainer, but both Ralph macchio as, above all, William zabka They are now much better actors than in ‘Karate Kid’. It certainly helps to have better-constructed characters with a longer life span, but the first thing that seduces the series beyond its curious premise is the fact that the sympathetic occurrence of its creators has a solid foundation in its two protagonists.
Part of the success of ‘Cobra Kai’ is due to the fact that one understands both and that is where what Macchio and Zabka contribute is vital. It is true that not being able to have the late Pat Morita as Miyagi is a shame, but also that the series would have been very different. Now it could be said that the two of them are the two great vital references and that the rest of the characters orbit around them, where no other interpreter may shine so brightly, but there are not a few who have their individual plot to demonstrate their abilities and skills. So far I see no reason to complain about the contribution of any of them.
Nostalgia well understood
Surely he was not the only one who feared that a series like ‘Cobra Kai’ would end up limiting itself to cannibalizing what made ‘Karate Kid’ a blockbuster at the box office, thus becoming an empty exercise in nostalgia. Fortunately, this has not been the case, since that is something that the series has been able to read very well, using it only so that the series progresses or to give something more background to the motivations of its characters.
That does not mean that it is possible to fly through the series at all times – the fact that Daniel is going to visit Okinawa in season three is something that could go very wrong, but ‘Cobra Kai’ has given us reason to trust that is not the case– but so far no complaints. Even the occasional mentions of Miyagi or the reappearance of Kreese have been handled with enough ease.
And yes, obviously we are taken back to the mythical film at various times, but never feels like a dose of fan service or its only reason for being. Here there really is a progression in the history of Daniel and Johnny, and how it is impossible not to return from time to time to ‘Karate Kid’ as the foundations of their relationship have been laid there.