By Geno McGahee
(Warning: There are spoilers here. Read at your own risk if you have not seen this season of it yet.)
I’m convinced that there’s not another series that is more addictive than COBRA KAI and it’s great to see it back. Now appearing on Netflix, season 3 of the hit show has been put out in its entirety and it’s just as binge-worthy as the first two seasons with continuations of storylines and continued character development.
Miguel (Xolo Mariduena) was badly injured in season two, falling and hurting himself, ending up in a coma. Johnny (William Zabka) has not taken it well and has fallen back to his old ways of drinking to excess and giving up on life. He gets arrested pretty quickly after fighting two guys in a parking lot.
In the meantime, Daniel Larusso (Ralph Macchio) has also had it very rough, losing a lot of business at the car dealership. His daughter, Samantha (Courtney Henggeler), is still going through an emotional rollercoaster over the condition of Miguel and her broken relationship with Robby (Tanner Buchanan). She also wants revenge on Tory (Peyton List), the girl that injured her and was partially responsible for the big brawl that left Miguel hurt.
Robby, wanted by the law, is finally picked up with the help of Daniel. Johnny starts getting himself together and starts visiting Miguel with the hopes that he will come back to life. As this goes on, John Kreese (Martin Kove), has rebuilt Cobra Kai into his image and has made the group more vicious than before with Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) leading the charge. We learn about Kreese’s past and military experience and what went into making him who he is and it’s very compelling stuff. COBRA KAI is so well-written.
With Larusso’s business failing, he flies over to Japan to meet with the manufacturer of the vehicles and it doesn’t go well. He decides to head over to Okinawa to see if Miyagi memories can help him solve the situation. When he gets there, he meets up with Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita), from KARATE KID, PART II. She’s still hot and the two seemed to hit it off, but Larusso is a good guy. He wasn’t going to be creeping while his wife was sleeping.
While in Okinawa, Kumiko sets up a meeting with Chozen (Yuji Okumoto), the man that he fought all those years ago in KARATE KID PART II and that fight was supposed to be to the death. Larusso let the guy live and the scenes with Daniel and Chozen having drinks is hilarious. Okumoto is so funny in this.
Chozen trains Larusso with some new tactics and gets a little revenge on his old adversary. While this is happening, Cobra Kai is causing all sorts of trouble and waging war on Miyago-Do Karate. Miguel is also out of the coma and Johnny finds new purpose. He is going to help Miguel recover and do it in his own special way that doesn’t always have the best results.
As Miguel recovers, he helps Johnny with his social media presence to impress Allie (Elisabeth Shue) as they talk on Facebook. This leads to some other great moments with Miguel trying to help his sensei that is lost in time. Remarkably, Shue does return to her role as Allie and it’s just great. She becomes the bridge between Johnny and Daniel to bury the hatchet and kill their feud.
All hell breaks loose again with another Cobra Kai attack, forcing the unlikely union of Larusso and Johnny and the return of Hawk into the fold when he has enough of Kreese and the carnage that comes with him. We also see Robby joining Kreese, complicating things further. There is so much interweaving storylines and conflict in this series. What an addictive series this is.
The season ends with the most exciting moment. Kreese makes a phone call and I KNOW WHO HE CALLED! We are going to see the return of Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) from KARATE KID, PART III. He went through the war with Kreese and has a boatload of money because he specializes in dumping deadly chemicals overseas. With Johnny and Daniel teaming up, Kreese teaming up with his old friend is going to make season 4 a must watch!
COBRA KAI Season 3 is tremendous. It is well written, faithful to the source material and constantly evolving and building on the characters. It’s impossible not to get invested into this show. I cannot recommend this enough.
Rating: 10/10
