I’ve posted about this before, but Cobra Kai is one of the most fun shows I’ve seen in a long time. It gets super cheesy and very corny, but honestly the COVID situation has me in the mood for that kind of earnest, wholesome vibe. The characters are all so endearing right from the get-go. I don’t know why Ralph Maccio never became a star after Karate Kid? He’s just perfect as a classic sitcom dad.
I resisted watching Cobra Kai at first because I thought it was just another dumb Gen-X nostalgia cash grab like the Transformers movies or whatever, but really the strength of the show is with the characters and the situations they’re in. I think you could very easily watch this without ever having watched the Karate Kid movie and still enjoy it thoroughly.
I think he said in an interview that it was a choice he made. He wanted to have a family.
“If I’d been trying to grab that gold ring every chance, maybe I would have had more (jobs), but I couldn’t get to them because I was watching a baseball game back in my home town,” he explained.
“I wasn’t the biggest risk-taker, and I’m sure there were lost opportunities because of that. But also, maybe my caution helped me to stay grounded, so I’m at peace with the choices I made,” he added.
He’s had a surprising amount of small appearances over the years.
Just finished Cobra Kai and it was phenomenal. OG Karate Kid + TMNT + Power Rangers got me interested in Martial Arts when I was 5. 12 years later I became a 3rd degree black belt and world champ in Tae Kwan Do. I don’t practice anymore, but the I contribute half of the person I am today to the discipline and respect I was taught during my youth in martial arts. Can’t wait for season 3.
Same. Brown belt only though in ryu te. Actually, not even brown belt but I would have passed. The testing price went up a lot for brown and black belts and my parents were broke af. The Cobra Kai series has been great imo.
Ryu te is actually the same gosuku-ryu style as Karate Kid, or pretty close or a derivative of it or something. Our 10th degree black belt master, Seiyu Oyata, used to claim 1 touch knockouts and did it at a seminar in our town. LOL.
I gave this show a second shot based on all the love it gets here. Do you really think it’s phenomenal, or is it really all about nostalgia? I don’t get it.
Taking a villain and turning them into a hero has been done from movie to movie (Godzilla) and TV show to TV show (Xena), but shifting from a movie villain to a TV hero and with this large of a time gap have probably not been done.
I think it’s a product of right time right place, nostalgia, and it’s self awareness. I can easily see how someone doesn’t enjoy it as much because it’s definitely cheesy.
10 years after LaRusso met Miyagi, his sensei took on a new student: Julie Pierce (Hilary Swank), who starred in The Next Karate Kid.
Rumors persist that Chozen will return in Cobra Kai season 3, possibly to reveal heretofore unknown secrets about Mr. Miyagi to Daniel when LaRusso returns to Okinawa for the first time since the summer of 1985.
Would be awesome for both characters to show up at some point.
