We open with Johnny in the modern day, having grown up physically but not emotionally; he's a racist, misogynist loser whose toxic personality makes it hard to hold down a job. Even all these years later, he holds a grudge against Daniel for ruining his life by beating him at the tournament and "stealing" Ali, and even keeps his old high school karate trophies. Daniel, meanwhile, has a lovely wife and a family, a successful business, and generally a pretty great life.
When Johnny hits rock bottom, he decides to fight back. He takes the last money he can get his hands on, rents a building, and decides to re-open the Cobra Kai dojo, to teach a new generation the Way of the Fist. He tries to make it look respectable, calling it life lessons about working hard, etc, but... it's not fooling anyone, especially when the training itself is a long string of physical and emotional abuse that would get any real-world dojo shut down and also result in criminal charges. (Especially when the victims are underage!)
Daniel is understandably horrified to see Johnny resurrect the philosophy of the Cobra Kai and start teaching it to kids at his daughter's high school, but enough time's passed that none of the folks active in the local karate scene remember Kreese & co, so his warnings fall on deaf ears.
Johnny pretends he's doing something noble, taking bullying victims as his students and teaching them to stand up for themselves, but it's still the same no-mercy philosophy that previously led him and his gang of thugs to try to murder Daniel. He Who Fights Monstersis in full effect here as his students learn karate without also learning restraint and wisdom, leading up to the climax where his prize student, eager to win this year's tournament no-mercy style, ends up injuring his opponent, who just happens to be Johnny's son. Only now does Johnny seem to notice what a big mess he's created.
The best parts of Cobra Kai are the parts without any Cobra Kai. Daniel and his interaction with his family, his mentoring of Robby, the students' interactions with one another at school, the car dealership... this is pretty good stuff. Though it's a bit weird seeing grown-up Daniel. As a kid, he didn't look like Ferris Bueller, so how come he grew up to look so much like Matthew Broderick? But watching him struggle with how to effectively resist an evil he's powerless to stop, without abandoning the principles that made him into a good person, that part actually makes for good TV.
It's just a shame so much of the story is centered around the villain's POV.
Series Quite an interesting villain story
Cobra Kai makes more sense if you see it as a Villain Protagonist story. At the end of The Karate Kid (1984), it looks like Johnny is starting to see that Miyagi's philosophy is the better one, but it looks like it didn't take.
We open with Johnny in the modern day, having grown up physically but not emotionally; he's a racist, misogynist loser whose toxic personality makes it hard to hold down a job. Even all these years later, he holds a grudge against Daniel for ruining his life by beating him at the tournament and "stealing" Ali, and even keeps his old high school karate trophies. Daniel, meanwhile, has a lovely wife and a family, a successful business, and generally a pretty great life.
When Johnny hits rock bottom, he decides to fight back. He takes the last money he can get his hands on, rents a building, and decides to re-open the Cobra Kai dojo, to teach a new generation the Way of the Fist. He tries to make it look respectable, calling it life lessons about working hard, etc, but... it's not fooling anyone, especially when the training itself is a long string of physical and emotional abuse that would get any real-world dojo shut down and also result in criminal charges. (Especially when the victims are underage!)
Daniel is understandably horrified to see Johnny resurrect the philosophy of the Cobra Kai and start teaching it to kids at his daughter's high school, but enough time's passed that none of the folks active in the local karate scene remember Kreese & co, so his warnings fall on deaf ears.
Johnny pretends he's doing something noble, taking bullying victims as his students and teaching them to stand up for themselves, but it's still the same no-mercy philosophy that previously led him and his gang of thugs to try to murder Daniel. He Who Fights Monsters is in full effect here as his students learn karate without also learning restraint and wisdom, leading up to the climax where his prize student, eager to win this year's tournament no-mercy style, ends up injuring his opponent, who just happens to be Johnny's son. Only now does Johnny seem to notice what a big mess he's created.
The best parts of Cobra Kai are the parts without any Cobra Kai. Daniel and his interaction with his family, his mentoring of Robby, the students' interactions with one another at school, the car dealership... this is pretty good stuff. Though it's a bit weird seeing grown-up Daniel. As a kid, he didn't look like Ferris Bueller, so how come he grew up to look so much like Matthew Broderick? But watching him struggle with how to effectively resist an evil he's powerless to stop, without abandoning the principles that made him into a good person, that part actually makes for good TV.
It's just a shame so much of the story is centered around the villain's POV.