By Geno McGahee
In 1984, a classic was born with THE KARATE KID. It would be followed up with two sequels and was responsible for many memorable characters. For the record, I do not count THE NEXT KARATE KID as part of the series, and I consider the third entry highly underrated. I considered the story dead after the third but, amazingly, YouTube Red launched a TV show that brought Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) back and they could not have done it better.
After binge watching the first season, I looked forward to the second season, especially when John Kreese (Martin Kove) back in the last episode. Remarkably, the producers and cast captured the same magic in the second season as they did in the first and after spending 2 days watching all of the episodes, it certainly left me wanting more.
Johnny is riding high after winning the All Valley with his star pupil, Miguel (Xolo Mariduena), defeating his own son, Robby (Tanner Buchanan), in the finals. Despite the joy from the victory, Johnny is conflicted that his students used some dirty tactics to secure victory. The celebration turns into punishment for Miguel and Hawk (Jacob Bertrand), and the message is changed from no mercy to mercy in certain situations. With Hawk hitting Robby with his back turned and Miguel focusing on an injured arm, Johnny didn’t see the honor in it. He is deeply concerned that his students will turn out like him.
Kreese is not a nice guy, but he still has a certain hold over Johnny. With the lack of a father figure in his life, Johnny still sees Kreese in that position. Kreese is a master manipulator and knows what to say to Johnny. Considering that Johnny has been given a second chance in life, he is eager to give the same to his old teacher and invites him in into his dojo as backup. Initially, Kreese is very supportive and complimentary, but starts working behind the scenes to take over. He finds the perfect student in Hawk, who is getting angrier and more aggressive by the day.
As Cobra Kai is transitioning, Daniel starts his own dojo and has two students right away: his daughter, Samantha (Mary Mouser), and Robby. Despite the lack of students, they forge on and the two start to learn about balance and the usage of karate for good. LaRusso makes the decision to try to mend fences with Johnny, but runs into him while he’s hanging out with Kreese and it gets ugly. Kove is tremendous in this. I always loved Kreese in this series, but he has never been this good and his immediately pokes at LaRusso and the death of Miyagi and then starts rekindling the war. LaRusso storms off and makes a commercial, taking a jab at Cobra Kai, leading to a bigger mess and a bigger feud.
Amanda and Robby begin finding romance as her former man, Miguel, finds some love with Cobra Kai new student, Tory (Peyton List). Tory knows karate and she is very possessive, leading to an immediate violent conflict with Samantha. This adds fuel to the fire with the rivalry between Robby and Miguel, and keeps the Cobra Kai – Miyagi-do Karate feud going.
Lawrence starts to see Kreese and his true intentions and he’s not the only one. Miguel realizes that some of the war stories of Kreese don’t add up, which was really interesting. Learning that Kreese was a fraud added a lot to his character and there is still a lot that we don’t know about him. One of the best things about this series is how they develop these characters, staying true to the original movie, while adding new elements that are equally interesting.
Daniel and his wife, Amanda (Courtney Henggeler), go on a date when she feels that her hubby is neglecting her because of the dojo feud. There, they run into Lawrence and his date, Miguel’s mother, Carmen (Vanessa Rubio), and the guys are forced to sit next to each other and have the meal together. The love/hate relationship between Lawrence and LaRusso is a tremendous part of this show. It’s great to see them fight, but it’s as good to see them get along. You get the feeling that they will eventually team up to take on Kreese and that will be epic.
The evolution of Hawk is tremendous as he becomes what he hated the most, a bully. Trying to ground him is Demetri (Gianni Decenzo), but it doesn’t go over well. I wasn’t a huge fan of Demetri and his whiney and wimpy characteristics, especially early on. Hawk starts beating up his old best friend, leading Demetri to gravitate to learning how to fight himself. Going to Kreese first, Demetri learned that he wasn’t Cobra Kai material as he left with a broken nose. He would then go to LaRusso and a lot of this process of training was painful and took away from the show. Demetri just wasn’t believable, but he sort of came together toward the end of the season.
The worst character in the show, BY MILES, is Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser), an overweight older guy that joins Cobra Kai and is only there for comic relief that falls flat and stops the drama and intensity whenever he is on the screen. This show is so amazing as Samantha and Tory, Johnny and Daniel, Hawk and Demetri, and Robby and Miguel battle, and then we get this shit. Stingray kicking ass in the final battle in the school made it that much worse. The fight choreography was so good and compelling and then we have this guy using his ass to knock somebody out. What the hell were they thinking adding this character? It’s my biggest complaint.
COBRA KAI: SEASON 2 is awesome, despite my minor complaints with some of the characters. My biggest complaint is that I have to wait a while for season three. This is the best show going today, mixing drama and action and nostalgia into an epic series of shows that speed by incredibly fast.
THE GOOD AND BAD
THE GOOD
-The return of John Kreese
– Hawk’s evolution
– Tory/Miguel – Samantha/Robby war
– Lawrence – LaRusso love/hate relationship
THE BAD
– Demetri, most of the time.
– Stingray, ALL of the time.
Rating: 9.5/10
