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

The nostalgia element is there, but it's not suffocating, nor does the show rely entirely on it. Crucially, it's unashamed. Lawrence, when an echo of the past is just about to reveal itself, wears a beaming smile before the cut. There's a meta quality to these transitions - he knows that we want to see his students decked out in the black and yellow - that also positions him as an audience surrogate, thus further connecting the character to them.

Cobra Kai balances comedy and drama, and nostalgia and depth perfectly, but it also achieves a far trickier feat - quite appropriately, thinking back on Miyagi's teachings.

The entire show is themed on balance, in what is its true thematic masterstroke. Cobra Kai takes the most obvious first pitch - Johnny and Daniel train young students to continue their rivalry into adulthood! - and subverts it magnificently. It's really about the balance in the lives of the characters.

Johnny Lawrence was a school bully who surveys his life, drinking from the bottle, in a state of remorse. The empathy that flickered in the closing shot of the Karate Kid is switched on fully when he sees the plight of bullied Miguel Diaz. They become better together - Johnny pities the bullied child, the bullied child learns not to take sh*t from people he shouldn't - but also worse. Miguel can't achieve the balance in his life because the teachings of Cobra Kai are outdated. Diaz and fellow student Hawk become too overpowered by their newfound strength and confidence in the end. History is cyclical in a devastating late-season blow the wry nods to the past foreshadowed so effectively.

This strive for balance is further thrown askew by the skilful plotting, all of which is driven organically by the motivations of characters with far greater depth than the archetypes of 1984.

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