Tag Archives: Cobra Kai

If We Controlled Your Remote… 4/24/19

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

Today, YouTube Premium released the 10-episode second season of the highly-entertaining Cobra Kai, a follow-up series to The Karate Kid, taking place 34 years after the original film and finding former enemies Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) rekindling their old rivalry. Johnny blames all of his life’s misfortunes on Daniel and the way things played out at the All Valley karate tournament three decades earlier. So as a way to find redemption, he decides to reopen the Cobra Kai karate dojo, taking in other social outcasts, toughening them up, and teaching them the No Mercy motto of the Cobra Kai. His top student is Miguel Diaz, who happens to be Daniel’s daughter Samantha’s boyfriend. Meanwhile, Daniel has become a successful businessman, turning his All Valley fame into a way to sell cars. As a way to find balance in his life, Daniel decides to mentor a karate student Robby Keene – who, unbeknownst to him, is Johnny’s estranged son – teaching him the much more peaceful methods he learned from his own mentor, Mr. Miyagi. After several personal clashes throughout the season, things came to a head at the 50th Anniversary All Valley Under-18 Karate Championship, where once again the Cobra Kai utilized unethical methods, with Miguel exploiting Robby’s injured shoulder in order to win the match. As the season ended, Johnny found a shadowy figure waiting for him back at the dojo – his former mentor John Kreese (Martin Kove), who was thought to have been dead.

The second season picks up right where that jaw-dropping moment left off. Where has Kreese been all these years, and why has he returned now? What are his plans for the Cobra Kai dojo he created, and is he going to sit idly by and let Johnny run things? Meanwhile, Daniel decides to open his own dojo in order to fight back against Cobra Kai. However, he’s having trouble finding new students for his less flashy form of Miyagi-do karate, leaving him just two students – Robby and his daughter Samantha (though that’s one more than he had last season!).

The second season is one about love, forgiveness, redemption, and good versus evil. The series does an excellent job of making you question who is the real bully in this story – Johnny or Daniel. Johnny is in a constant struggle to better his life and do the right thing, but nothing ever seems to go as planned, and when he tries to do the right thing and things go wrong, he never gets credit for it. So why does he even bother? Why not just be the villain everyone seems to think he is?! Meanwhile, Daniel may seem like the nice guy, but when Johnny’s around, he turns into a bit of jerk. He’s also letting his obsession with the dojo take over the other aspects of his life.

I thoroughly enjoyed this second season – once I started, I binged my way straight the way through all ten episodes. Throughout the series, there is this nice parallel and contrast between the Miyagi-do and Cobra Kai training methods. While the ultimate goals and lessons are the same, the way these two dojos go about their training is vastly different. Over the course of the season, there are some really nice character arcs and growth, both for the adults as well as their students. As with the first season, the writers have done an excellent job of weaving in footage from the original film as a way to provide both backstory and to explain motivations and actions in the present. While the first season focused on the rivalry between Miguel and Robby, this season we get more of Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) and his former (pre-Hawk) nerdy best friend Demetri (Gianni Decenzo). Plus there’s some fun new students and additions to the cast, including Paul Walter Hauser (Kingdom). The second season also sees the return of several characters from the film. It is another great season that culminates in an exciting, action-packed finale that will have you screaming at the TV for a third season.

Check out the entire second season now on YouTube!

I’ll also be watching/recording Whiskey Cavalier, The Amazing Race, What We Do in the Shadows, and Happy!.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 5/2/18

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

In 1984, audiences cheered as Karate Kid underdog Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) executed his iconic crane kick to take home the trophy at the All-Valley Under-18 Karate Championship, stealing the title away from despicable Cobra Kai student Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). YouTube Red’s new series Cobra Kai revisits these characters nearly 35 years later, as their bitter rivalry is reignited. Since he won the karate tournament decades earlier, Daniel LaRusso has made quite a great life for himself. He has a loving wife and two children and owns a successful auto shop/dealership franchise. He gives out bonsai trees to every customer (in honor of his late karate master Mr. Miyagi), and uses lots of karate metaphors in his TV ads and billboards. Meanwhile, life hasn’t been so kind to Johnny – he is a far cry from being the popular kid in high school. He works a crummy job as a handyman for thankless rich people, doing odd jobs such as cleaning dead rats out of their gutters. He still drives an old Pontiac Firebird from the 80s, has a teenage daughter he never sees, lives alone in a messy apartment, and doesn’t even get a second glance from the women he tries to hit on.

Today, YouTube Red has released all 10 episodes of the first season of Cobra Kai. I have checked out the first two, and while the acting isn’t likely to win any Emmys, I did find the series to be a lot of fun and filled with nostalgia. The show has this nice mix of humor and drama, with lots of callbacks to the original movie. I had re-watched the film before checking out the series, but there’s really no need to, as the first couple of episodes include a lot of clips to refresh your memory.

The series twists things up a bit in a fun way, changing the roles of the characters from the movie. This time Daniel is more of the villain, and Johnny takes on the Mr. Miyagi role. Johnny blames Daniel for the state of his life, and every time he sees one of his TV ads or billboards, he grows more and more angry. Daniel has become a bit obnoxious in his success, and Johnny wants to take him down. So when his new neighbor, Miguel (Xolo Maridueña, Parenthood), asks him to teach him self-defense, Johnny decides to start his own school and bring back ways of the Cobra Kai. It is a lot of fun to check back in with these iconic characters decades later, and I look forward to seeing how the first season plays out. Will these two always be at odds? Will Johnny teach his students the same dirty tricks his Sensei insisted on? What kind of revenge does Johnny have planned? And is Daniel truly the villain now, or will things go back to more familiar territory?

I’ll also be watching/recording The Goldbergs, Alex, Inc., Modern Family, American Housewife, Designated Survivor, Survivor, The Blacklist, The Americans, Archer, The Expanse, Krypton, and Colony.
 
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