I heard about Cobra Kai last month from some YouTubers that I watch. They were all praises for this show, but I was just so skeptical about it. I thought that it was just another bad 80’s remake like all the bad ones that we’ve been getting lately.
Well, because my usual TV shows have had their season finales and I’ve got nothing else to watch, I decided to finally give Cobra Kai a try. And oh, my gracious goodness, it is FANTASTIC!
I want to thank Jeremy from Geeks and Gamers, and SC Reviews for bringing this amazing tv series on my radar. I rarely talk about TV shows & movies here on the blog unless I am really pissed off (The Last Jedi), or really happy about it, and I am really happy about Cobra Kai.
So here I am, paying it forward and telling you that this show is absolutely badass! Go check it out!
COBRA KAI REVIEW – NO SPOILERS
It is the continuation of the Karate Kid story 30+ years later. I am talking about the original Karate Kid movies, and not that terrible Jaden Smith one 
Ralph Macchio and William Zabka reprise their roles as Danny LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence – this time, it’s their turn to mentor young karate students, but the rivalry still burns deep!
While it’s set in the present day, it still has that 80’s vibes going on! It is slightly cheesy, but it’s the heartwarming kind of cheesy. It is funny without making the comedy obvious. Johnny Lawrence’s straight-talking, stuck-in-the-80’s, Iron-Eagle-loving, does-not-give-an-eff-about-political-correctness character is just so refreshing. The characters feel true. I went from hating him in the original Karate Kid movie to rooting for him in Cobra Kai! I am proudly #TeamJohnny ! 
Billy Zabka deserves some sort of award just because he’s awesome.
If you watched How I Met Your Mother, remember when Barney Stinson sees Johnny Lawrence as the hero in The Karate Kid movie? It’s crazy, but Barney would be so happy with Cobra Kai.
The show also did a good job of making me care about the young kids, without compromising the original characters. Cobra Kai treats the original movies with respect. While some of the plot is predictable, I didn’t mind because it was such an homage to the source material. The story is straightforward, plot points tie together towards the end but also set up Season 2, and there is none of that “subverting expectations” crap that I am really starting to hate. Cobra Kai feels very sincere in its storytelling.
Right from the first episode, the story sucked me in. It was a fun watch and I never felt bored or felt like I was just slogging through it. If anything is wrong with Cobra Kai, it is that there isn’t enough of it! 
I would gladly watch more. I also feel that Cobra Kai has good rewatchability, especially since some of Johnny’s lines were just over the top campy, they’ve become gold: Lines like “Your peanut allergies don’t exist in this dojo!”
For the negatives about Cobra Kai – I can’t think of anything important, really. There are a few minor things I noticed but they don’t break the show for me:
- some of the action sequences were not that good – well, they’re teenage actors, they’re not Jet Li, so I’m giving them a pass
- I’m just not feeling the actor who plays Robby. He played Keifer Sutherland’s son on Designated Survivor. I didn’t like his character then, and I felt like he was more of the same here
More people should learn about this fantastic show! I don’t want to give too much away about the show. Go in with no or little expectations, just check it out.
COBRA KAI IS A YOUTUBE WEB SERIES
Cobra Kai is available on YouTube. It has 10 episodes of about 30 minutes each. The first 2 episodes are free, and the next 8 episodes are available on YouTube Premium. Unfortunately, YouTube Premium is not available in the Philippines. YouTube really should make it available here already because I love Cobra Kai so much that I am willing to give them a little bit of money to encourage them to make more shows like this!
It’s totally nuts that a web series is better than most TV shows available now.
