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

Johnny wants to be a better person, but he was once something worse than the rich kid who beat up the poor kid because he thought that's how it had to go in his formative years. He was a deadbeat dad. Everything you come to admire about his redemption story is brutally undermined by the spectre of his real son. You come to resent the good emerging from him because it is at the expense of Robby Keene.

In a magnificent twist that tears Johnny and Daniel apart - or delays their extended buddy movie - Keene comes to study under LaRusso to torment his father, or earn his approval. It's all out of order - Diaz is a LaRusso, Keene literally a Lawrence - but various dramatic permutations keep the characters from recognising this.

It bears a powerful anti-wealth message. There is balance between wealth and achievement. Deepening the heft of the characters, LaRusso at times walks beyond it. He is, fundamentally, a good man. He loves and wants to connect with his children. He is as warm and avuncular as his own surrogate father.

But the wealth he has created for himself comes with an attendant snobbery and spite.

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