Season 3

At this point, it's my guilty pleasure show. The first season felt so toned down and slightly, and I mean super slightly, like a slice of life series. The story to me always seemed like it was dedicated to Johnny Lawrence and Miguel Diaz, similar to the original film being about Mr. Miyagi and Daniel LaRusso. That being said, S3 is an overdose of the final episode of S2, where we get more of the High School all out karate fight. It's bonkers and you know what it becomes tolerable when you get the best bits of Lawrence helping Miguel get out of his wheelchair. The Karate Kid was an underdog story, one where two misfits find meaning through one another. Cobra Kai is Degrasse+ Kung Fu (the TV series) and it's not in anyway in the same spirit as the original movie or its terrific freshman season.

That being said, considering the series is now a hit on Netflix, I do hope the Emmy's recognize William Zabka for his amazing performance on this show. The guy embodies every middle aged man who didn't understand high school ends. He also balances a terrific form of tragedy and humor (a talent not every actor can balance but Zabka does in a series that could've been an SNL bit). Anyways, I'm going to buy an Eagle Fang Karate T-Shirt. This is my guilty pleasure TV show.

An already silly show gets pushed into extreme cheese territory here, and it's honestly all quite welcome. Cobra Kai uses nostalgia as a weapon to hook us in and it works brilliantly. I can forgive the ridiculous dialogue, the never-ending plot contrivances and some of the really weak acting because the characters and the story being told are so much damn fun.

The show has managed to give us rounded, interesting heroes and villains on all sides. It pulls off the magic formula of making you root for almost everyone involved. The two characters I wanted to hate most - Kreese and Hawk - now both have enough back story and individual motivations to make me feel for them. That's impressive.

I also particularly love the continued use of flashbacks and footage from the original films, they integrate them so well.

There is a question of whether the show can continue with this level of silliness before it begins to feel too much. How many times can we see two characters begin to make amends when some perfectly timed disaster conveniently interrupts them? It's clear that the show isn't interested in being too grounded or presenting any realism (Miguel sure did relearn to walk - and fight! - easily after being paralysed), and part of me feels that the show is going to need to reign it in and commit to some new directions. There's no denying it's very repetitive.

The good stuff here comes from Johnny and Daniel. When it switches over to the kids, it's noticeably how they aren't quite sparking in the same way. In this season particularly it's Tory, Samantha and Robby who feel like they haven't had much to do and anything involving them lacks much energy.

Does it matter? Nah. I'm all in. Hopefully season 4 will let us see Daniel and Johnny team up properly, and not fall out within an episode or two. And if we somehow get Thomas Ian Griffith back as Terry Silver then that would be a treat!