Cobra Kai (Season One Review)

Cobra Kai
2018 YouTube Red
Season One
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence still haven't recovered from the trauma they inflicted upon one another 34-years ago. Johnny and his friends from the cruel karate dojo, Cobra Kai, bullied Daniel to a terrifying degree. Likewise, Daniel not only won over the heart of Johnny's ex-girlfriend, Ali, but humiliated Johnny on a major stage, defeating him for the All-Valley karate championship. Ali may be long gone, but Daniel and Johnny are still in the valley. Johnny seems to have the worst of it, barely making ends meet, keeping his ex-wife and son at a distance, as he drunkenly relives former glories in his mind. Meanwhile, Daniel is a seemingly successful car dealership owner, with a loving family, trying to live the high life he once envied and perceived his former tormentors to have. One reference to Cobra Kai, or to the bullying he experienced in his youth, though, and Daniel is right back in 1984, like it all happened yesterday.
Luckily for Daniel, Cobra Kai is dead. Or at least...it was dead. Through a chance encounter, Johnny not only remembers how much he loves karate, but finds a protégé in the young and bullied Miguel. With some money from his awful, but loaded stepfather, Johnny brings the Cobra Kai dojo back to life. Though a horrified Daniel can barely believe what's happening, he also begins to find his passion for karate reawakening. Lucky for Daniel, a promising protégé has also seemed to fall right into his lap...a protégé with a very special connection to Johnny.
Look, I'm not going to sweep the leg it under the rug for this review: the original 1984 Karate Kid film has a special place in my heart. Just like Daniel LaRusso, in the 80's I went from a place where I fit in, to a new one where a group of rich blond kids immediately beat me up and threw me in a ditch (look, I'm sorry blond guys, it's not your fault that you were the villain of the 80's!...but it is your fault that you beat me up). Just like Daniel's mom, my Italian mother was pissed, and just like Daniel, I learned to fight back. In fact, after that day, I never got beat up again. In fact, I even used the crane-kick from the Karate Kid in a fight...AND IT WORKED! It worked so well, I was scared I killed the kid who was picking on me. He was fine, but he never messed with me again. Anyway, I have an extreme bias here, and a very personal connection to the source material, so you can take this entire review with a grain of salt.
Cobra Kai's first season nails a delicate balance of comedy, drama, and melodrama. The show's tongue is almost always firmly planted in cheek, but when things need to get serious, it doesn't undercut itself, and pulls off those moments without tonal issue. Cobra Kai is also quite purposely melodramatic, with misunderstandings, coincidences, and rollercoaster teenage romances often driving the story. Thankfully, the show is at once able to be in on the joke, yet not so flippant that it can't land its dramatic moments. The presence of the two original actors, Ralph Macchio as Daniel, and William Zabka as Johnny, also give this tale more weight. We haven't seen a ton of the two actors since the 80's, so their storylines here have an almost subconscious feeling of authenticity, even if the two are far from the characters they're playing in their real lives. However, what really makes this show is the attention to detail.
Obviously, the moments meant to invoke nostalgia show a love for the source material. From the music cues, to flashbacks, the reverence for the source material is obvious. However, the show also invokes the intricacies and philosophies of the film in subtle details. The season finale repeats the "There is no such thing as a bad student. Only a bad teacher." line from the film. Likewise, the astute viewer can see the styles and teachings of Daniel's sensei, Mr. Miyagi, and Johnny's sensei, John Kreese, come through when Daniel and Johhny's respective pupils are forced into muscle memory battles with bullies. Miguel's fighting is visceral and brutal, while Daniel's student flows like water, thriving on defense and redirections. Given its source material, Cobra Kai is deftly able to lean into themes about not only the past's effect on the future, but the negative and positive effects of nostalgia...all while invoking nostalgia in its viewers. It's also very honest about its characters. In an episode titled "Different but Same," Daniel and Johnny begin to see that maybe their backgrounds and motivations aren't so different--but the episode also nonverbally suggests that these two are the same because they are both men who solve their problems with their fists. These types of observations not only show respect and understanding for the source material, but recontextualize it in special ways. Also, who knew William Zabka could be this funny? His comedic chemistry with Xolo Maridueña as Miguel is pitch perfect.

Overall, I must say I am ecstatic about this first season of Cobra Kai. I've got two more seasons to binge. I think the show's tone will be a tough one to balance over an extended period of time. Shows like this that have shown early promise often end up betraying their characters just to keep up some kind of dramatic tension...which ironically destroys any sense of belief in the characters and sabotages the dramatic tension. I hope Cobra Kai can stay the path.