Amph The Karate Kid Saga & Cobra Kai

New trailer just dropped...



...Definitely looking like Kreese is very involved. And Johnny vs. Daniel 2? April 24th can't come soon enough.

 

So, I watched S1E2 & 3 "Strike First" and "Esqueleto". The big takeaway from these episodes is that Kyler is confirmed to be a piece of ****, attempting to manipulate Samantha LaRusso's feelings to have sex with her in the third episode. That whole dinner scene was awkward. I don't remember if that happened in 2 or 3 as they kind of blended together.

I don't know why Daniel's son is an *** ****. It seems he did a good job raising his daughter so not sure what happened there. I also don't get the point of the wife character yet as she hasn't really added anything important or of consequence to the plot. I don't understand why she isn't mad that her daughter threw a party at their home when they were gone like Daniel / a normal parent would be.

The references were pretty on point. The repeated lines and then Daniel's skeleton costume "PTSD". Seeing Miguel not get saved by Johnny was particularly heartbreaking.

I'm not digging the mean girls side story at all.

 

It works for me in the sense that it goes against expectations. You'd think any son of Daniel's would be steeped in the lessons of Mr. Miyagi, but instead he's a soft, doughy spoiled brat. We see that after Miyagi's death and the demands of his career, Daniel has gotten away from those lessons himself, so it adds up. What I was hoping for was that as Daniel rediscovered those lessons himself, that it would start to trickle down to the son, but that never happened. Not that he'd become the student, as that role (roles, w/Daniel's daughter gradually growing into it as well), but that we'd see some changes. It's clear that he was meant as comic relief, and that's fine.

And [mild spoiler alert] she never really does. She's the spouse and the sounding board. That's her function; at least in S1 (though by the looks of the trailer that's her function in S2 as well). It's a 30 min. per ep. series and w/a pretty large cast of characters, there's just not enough dramatic pie to go around.

 

Episodes 4 and 5 of Season 1 were very good. I really liked Johnny fighting for Miguel when his fight for his son didn't work out well. It was a little too convenient for the plot that they were hugging just when Johnny's son shows up and then walks away without being seen. Sometimes you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. Conversely, it appears Sam was in the right place at the right time to learn Kyler is confirmed *** **** with the library scene. I loved the back to back scenes of the LaRusso's kicking butt, Daniel at his competitor's dealership and Sam at the movies.

Daniel's son is a waste of space, and like you said @Juke Skywalker I guess he's there for comic relief, but I don't find it funny. If Daniel doesn't do something he's going to end up with a little Johnny. Also, when the graffiti is sprayed on the billboard Daniel's wife is like "it's no big deal". Who is this lady? She should either be mad or commiserate with her husband. But she's just like whatever. I guess it explains why Daniel is the way he is. He has surrounded himself with morons.

Thankfully, Daniel realizes that in hurting Johnny with his clever scheme to jack up his rent, he may have inadvertently hurt the other business owners of that property. I loved the scene at the graveyard and then back at his home. It was cool seeing him doing the KK3 kata. Daniel is finally back! (I hope).

The scene with Miguel at school sticking up for Sam was a high point for the series. It's pretty obvious she's now interested in him. And now with Johnny's son applying for a job at LaRusso's Dealership, the children of Johnny and Daniel are setting themselves up to be supportive/sympathetic towards their father's respective enemy. I assume this is going to fuel the fire of drama for the rest of the season.

 

Season 1 of Cobra Kai is in the books.

In terms of overall arcs,
Johnny - I believe this was the highlight of the series and the one I'm most looking forward to in the 2nd season. Johnny is a jerk, to put it lightly, due to his poor home life as a child. His step father used money instead of parenting to solve problems and as a result Johnny doesn't know how to cope in the real world. He drowns his own problems in alcohol. His relationship with his own son has been damaged, possibly beyond repair. All he wanted to do was win that karate tournament and beat Daniel in the 80s, and his life would have been better, or so he thought. When he finally gets that win in the present, it doesn't feel as good as the thought, because of the way it was earned. That inner turmoil of finding that balance is something that he has yet to achieve and that journey is the one I'm most interested in seeing.

Daniel - While it was mostly fun watching his story unfold and waxing nostalgic, the story I'm most interested in is his role as sensei to Robby. Also, back to Johnny, I can't imagine how hard it must have felt for him to watch his son being close with and taught by his enemy, Daniel. Johnny reveals to Miguel that John Kreese was a father figure in his life so seeing Daniel in that role will hopefully add to Johnny's journey to improve himself. I did love seeing Daniel and Johnny rock out together to REO Speedwagon in the penultimate episode. If things had been different in the 80s, they might have been friends. And I still stand by the line in KK1 when Johnny says, "You're all right, LaRusso." validating the audience that he has earned the respect of his enemies by standing up for himself. Obviously, with John Kreese choking out Johnny and destroying his trophy and then Johnny leaving the Cobra Kai had a profound impact on his life but we didn't get that story until now.

Miguel / Robby / Samantha - These three were the highlight of the children as the rest were pretty much "comic" relief. It was great seeing Miguel rise from loser to winner and get that confidence they needed in their life, similar to Daniel in KK1. It's sad to see Miguel take a turn towards the "dark", but as we know, there's no such thing as a bad student - just a bad teacher - and IMO Johnny isn't bad, just misguided for the time being. I'm glad Robby found a teacher/father figure in Daniel which prevented him from turning to a life of crime. Sam is wise beyond her years, and based on the Season 2 trailer, will add herself back into the narrative of the karate world which is better than the snooty rich mean girl world.

Honorable mentions: Aisha and Hawk. I liked their mini arcs of gaining confidence. Hopefully they don't lose themselves like Miguel has started to.

Small nitpicks aside with some of the corny dialogue, plot holes, and characters like Anthony & Amanda LaRusso, Kyler, Moon & Yasmine, and Daniel's cousins, I think we have a pretty good foundation to the Cobra Kai series and I look forward to what we get in Season 2.

 

Once in a blue moon, the internet spits out something great!

 

We're back, baby.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe9DTWmhhxeKyYHL4mldGcA

 

Just finished Ep. 1 of S2. I'm pleased to say things pick up where they left off, both in terms of quality and story. Really looking forward to see where this leads.

 

A lot of S2 trailer is from that first episode so while I appreciated the return to form, it almost feels like I've already seen it. So even though everything is consistent, I was just a little bored and kind of wanted to see something new.

In terms of the second episode,

Spoiler

I don't know where Daniel learned the circle technique so that came out of left field. (I guess I could say the same about the tree thing from last season. I guess what bothers me is I don't see how that is going to pay off in a tournament setting since you're fighting one on one. My guess is that Daniel's daughter and Johnny's son are going to face a group of attackers at some point, and working in sync, they'll be able to protect each other's back and win the day. That'll be cool to see, I guess, but the only other lesson learned is to keep moving i.e. best way to avoid a punch - don't be there. Speaking of which, the drum technique was touched on for half a second and then not mentioned again, so not sure where that will go if anywhere.

I did appreciate the jumping back and forth between the Cobra Kai concrete truck training and Daniel's balance training. That was well done.

I was going to watch the third episode, but couldn't get in the mood to do so. I hope we get a little more pizzazz in future episodes.

 

Cobra Kai Season 2 review

Spoiler

Johnny - I appreciated what we got concerning his growth and his path, unfortunately, the show decided to put a little more focus on the children this season and of course John Kreese's underlying arc was always looming in the background and ultimately bit him in the butt in the end. He's now lost everything - his best student, his potential girlfriend aka Miguel's mom, and even his dojo. The little tease on the end with Ali was fine, but this tiny seed won't grow unless we get a third season and if Elisabeth Shue is on board which both are uncertain at this time. I wish we had gotten a little bit more. We know he's trying his best, but it just wasn't enough this season. So we got to see his rise in Season 1 and I guess Season 2 was about seeing his fall.

Daniel - He also falls and fails this season. He fails his wife and business, but fixes that, at least his wife. He loses a salesman, but overall it's family that's most important so that's what he focuses on. Unfortunately he ends up failing his daughter and his dojo. He's forced to put it all away...for now.

Miguel / Robby / Samantha - I was really hoping Samantha was going to move on, but she still had feelings for Miguel as her feelings for Robby grew. The love triangle turned into a rectangle when they introduced Tory. She was very one dimensional, so I didn't care for her. I did hate Yasmine from Season 1, and I kind of wondered why they didn't develop her role, but I guess the writers didn't want a "rich" girl turned villain, and decided to have a new character that was "less fortunate".

Honorable mention: The Anthony Russo character had two scenes I believe. Thank you, writers, for including him sparingly.

Overall, everything else with Cobra Kai was a little disappointing. Johnny tried to put his students on the right path following the events of the tournament, but John Kreese was manipulating from the background, so they didn't grow. They became a bunch of bullies, and now they're back in the hand of Kreese so Johnny giving up and walking away was also disappointing. Obviously, it'll be a fight for another day and with the loss of Miguel (for now), I guess Johnny just didn't have the heart, which broke mine. Miguel was the only one to learn from Johnny, but his moment of weakness put him in his coma, so I feel he's just going from good, to bad, to worse.

 

Good news! I was hoping it would get renewed.

For those who haven't watched it yet, I found this tidbit to be interesting:
"From August 29th to September 11th 2019, YouTube plans to make Season 1 of “Cobra Kai” available to all users globally for free (with commercials). Season 2 gets the same treatment from September 11th but with it, episodes will be released weekly."

 

Yesterday I binge watched Season 1. Today I binge watched Season 2.

This show is so freaking good. The Season 2 finale was just...wow. So intense. Great song at the end, too.

Spoiler

Miguel

My favorite YouTube comment under the Season 2 finale episode:
"That went from Street Fighter to Mortal Kombat pretty fast."

 

Has anyone else finished Season 2? I've now convinced a few friends and my brother to start watching this, but they're all on Season 1.

 

Finished season 2 last week, another great season. Wasn't calling that ending though. I think this is where Ali will come into it.

 

That ending.

 

My daughter just finished Season 2. Watching her react to the finale was delightful. She seems to have a crush on Miguel. It was amusing to observe. Well, not in a sadistic way (considering the finale).

 

Recently posted image of Tamlyn Tomita and Yuji Okumoto recreating their image from 33 years ago in KK2.

 

Sounds like most major plot points will be resolved in Season 3.

If that’s the case, then as much as I enjoy the show, I’m not sure how it would be to make a fourth season without dragging the show out.

 

Seasons 1 & 2 of Cobra Kai coming to Netflix on August 28th. Season 3 coming in 2021 (to Netflix).