Why Cobra Kai Is The TV Show You Need In Your Life Right Now

Daniel LaRusso Johnny Lawrence
Sony Pictures

The Cobra Kai reboot recognises the ending and uses it to inform a show that has no goddamn right to be as fantastic as it is. The magic of the show means you can go back. Those times don't seem so unrecoverable in the hellscape viewed from every window on what has become of this planet.

And it has no right. Everything about the show feels so cynical. An upstart streaming service designed to extract yet more money where there was already so much seemed to wrap a blindfold around itself, turn around in circles, and point at whichever 1980s property hadn't yet been cannibalised before settling on the Karate Kid franchise. "Karate Kid?" as Monkey Tennis for lazy execs, basically. It felt, as these things so often do, like grim desperation: the death of originality slain by cynicism.

The plot is simple: Lawrence, drawn to LaRusso's fancy car dealership in his later years, is driven by his failures to reboot the Cobra Kai dojo in a bid to turn his life around. How that plot mutates into such layered and sophisticated drama is something else.

The Karate Kid isn't a particularly funny film, beyond Mr. Miyagi's delight at his own mischievous riddles. Its eternal magic lies in how earnest it is. Cobra Kai in contrast is genuinely hilarious. Johnny Lawrence, now a dual protagonist, is an almost unconscionably cruel sensei. He berates his students for their physical appearance and their pathetic mentality. A lot of kids get punched in the face and more get verbally incinerated. Undercutting the cheese the show otherwise embraces, the black comedy element provided by the revelation that is Zabka is sublime.

CONT'D...(2 of 6)

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!