SPOILERS AHEAD
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The last time I reviewed a season of “Cobra Kai” was May 9, 2019. Those were my thoughts of the show’s second season. For a while there, I wasn’t sure the series was going to return (despite being renewed for a third season by YouTube).
My reviews of Season 1 and Season 2 of “Cobra Kai” sit among my top 10 blog posts of all time (out of 336 total posts since 2016).
Fans were left waiting with bated breath as the future of the “Karate Kid” sequel/reboot series stood in the balance. YouTube had decided to shift away from cultivating Netflix-like scripted series, and parent studio Sony had to find a new “streaming dojo” to host the show.
Thankfully, Netflix swooped in and saved the series. The long-awaited third season of “Cobra Kai” just dropped on the streaming service, and I’m ready to share my thoughts.
Remember, “Cobra Kai Never Dies.”
“Cobra Kai's” second season ended with a big cliffhanger.
An in-school “karate brawl” between students from the Cobra Kai dojo and Miyagi-Do Karate left the fate of fan favorite Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña) in doubt after his body hit a stair railing when he plummeted off a balcony in West Valley High School.
(I can still hear my wife Bridget uttering “Oh my gosh...” in stunned disbelief as Miguel fell during the finale.)
While the brawl was sparked by teen romance and angst sizzling to the surface, the revival of the Cobra Kai dojo had already turned dark when original honcho John Kreese (Martin Kove) came back in the picture.
As the second season closes, the Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) redemption arc — and his unorthodox ability to bring confidence to a group of geeks, nerds, and outcasts — is in limbo.
“It’s just an insane karate cult that’s brainwashing half the school,” Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) told her father Daniel (Ralph Macchio) during the course of Season 2.
Die-hard fans of the series (the OG fans who watched the series before it landed on Netflix) were left waiting an awfully long time to find out what happened to Miguel.
I don’t think any of us thought he’d die, but we all wanted to know where he (and the rest of the cast) would go in the future.
With all 10 episodes of Season 3 now available on Netflix, fans have answers. The first three episodes deal with the lingering aftermath.
Because of the dark ending to Season 2, there were fewer moments of “levity” as the third season began.
Johnny is suffering emotionally after Miguel’s fall. He’s also having an identity crisis without the structure provided by Cobra Kai.
At the same time, Daniel is dealing with a PR nightmare for his auto dealership business in the aftermath of the fight at the high school — he’s about to lose his contract with Doyona International (the fictional fill-in for Toyota).
Lawrence’s son Robby Keene (Tanner Buchanan) is on the run from the law after his duel in the school with Miguel.
Tough girl Tory Nichols (Peyton List) has been expelled from West Valley after the brawl (since her actions instigated it). She is trying to obtain her GED, works two jobs to care for her ailing mother, and has left Cobra Kai behind.
Samantha LaRusso is dealing with PTSD after her fight with Tory.
John Kreese is still an @sshole, but they try to explain the underpinnings of his cruelty via a series of Vietnam War flashbacks.
(By the way, the bully who terrorizes young John Kreese in the flashback scenes is played by Kove’s son, Jesse.)
Add in the fact that ex-geek Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz (Jacob Bertrand) has twisted down a darker path, and things aren’t looking too bright in the karate universe.
I want to commend series creators Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, and Hayden Schlossberg (and their team of writers) for capably navigating a dicey setup for the third season.
Part of what makes “Cobra Kai” so enjoyable is the chord it strikes between cheeseball comedy (the creators are the brains behind comedic franchises like “Hot Tub Time Machine” and “Harold & Kumar”) and poignant dramatic moments.
The writers had to untie a lot of narrative knots as the season began. As a result, the first couple of episodes didn’t quite have the charm of earlier seasons. I was a tad bit worried since the “comedy/drama balance” is what makes the series special.
The good news is that my concerns subsided during the season’s fourth episode. I’ve had a number of friends (including my brother-in-law) who found that episode to be the season’s best.
Titled “The Right Path,” the episode gets the season (and series) back on track. The narrative centers on Daniel traveling to Japan as he attempts to salvage his business relationship with car company Doyona.
“I’m coming home with a yes, don’t worry,” Daniel tells his wife Amanda (Courtney Henggeler) after getting rebuffed by Doyona executives early in the episode.
In order to salve his negotiating wounds, LaRusso decides to visit Okinawa — the setting for 1986’s “The Karate Kid Part II.”
He visits Tomi Village, a place that has shed many of its old-school trappings in favor of modern amenities such as a shopping mall with western staples like Red Lobster and Forever 21.
The entire sequence in Okinawa was enjoyable, and took me back to 1986.
I have a few fond memories from the summer when that movie was released.
Prior to the theatrical release of “The Karate Kid Part II,” my mom purchased the novelization to read out loud to me and my dad during a two-day car trip to Texas (to visit my brother).
I recall having a great time listening as she read aloud about Daniel LaRusso’s continuing adventures (I guess we were less concerned about “movie spoilers” during that era).
Fast forward 34 years... It was fun watching as Daniel reunited with “Part II” love interest Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita) and former enemy Chozen (Yuji Okumoto).
The fourth episode — along with the fifth (titled “Miyago-Do”) — brought things back into balance. It was nice to see Daniel get some closure on the events in “Karate Kid Part II” and also gain some new insights into Mr. Miyagi (I also enjoyed the writers’ clever solution to LaRusso’s Doyona problem).
From the Okinawa trip forward, Season 3 started to gain momentum — and recapture the spark we saw during the first two seasons.
Not only was it nice to see Daniel achieve a sense of renewal, it was also nice to see Johnny’s relationship with Miguel rekindled.
The engaging aspect of the first “Karate Kid” movie was the sensei/student dynamic between Miyagi (Pat Morita) and Daniel.
By the same token, the dynamic between Johnny and Miguel was what made the first two seasons of “Cobra Kai” so special.
There’s something inherently interesting about the juxtaposition between Johnny’s Reagan-era sensibility and Miguel’s Millennial mindset — and how the two influence one another.
The second half of Season 3 finds our protagonists reorienting themselves as they begin to focus on foe John Kreese and his cult-like Cobra Kai dojo.
There were a number of fun moments in the final five episodes.
The sequence where Lawrence starts a new dojo called “Eagle Fang Karate” (for students who had become disenchanted with Cobra Kai) was pretty entertaining. The unveiling of the dojo name featured a funny exchange between Johnny and one of his students:
Johnny: “There’s only one animal that can kill a snake.”Bert: “A mongoose?”Johnny: “A real animal, Bert.”
Heading into this season, there was considerable speculation as to whether there would be a guest appearance by Elisabeth Shue, who played Ali Mills in “The Karate Kid” (the source of contention between Johnny and Daniel in that movie).
Shue had a bit part in the recent Tom Hanks movie “Greyhound” (read my review), but hasn’t appeared in much recently.
Shue did indeed make her first “Cobra Kai” appearance this season. “Ali Mills Schwarber” (recently separated from her husband) is featured in the final two episodes.
It was nice to see her reconnect with Johnny via Facebook. I enjoyed it when they got together for dinner, and thought it was fun to see them hang out afterward. The banter between the two characters seemed fairly natural and relaxed.
“I love, after all these years, you can still make me laugh,” Ali says to Johnny as they catch up on life after high school.
I also liked the dynamic between Ali, Johnny, Daniel, and Amanda at the Christmas party at Encino Oaks Country Club during the final episode of the season.
The only downside is that it appears Ali won’t be back next season (the writers didn’t make any obvious overtures in that direction). If this was a “one-off,” it was still nice to have her back.
The tenth and final episode (titled “December 19”) is certainly not your typical Christmas episode, but it set up things nicely for Season 4.
I continue to enjoy the show’s instrumental music stylings from Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson. There are little moments when the vibe feels like a synth-heavy score from the 1980s (which is on-brand for this series).
I did miss teen Cobra Kai member Aisha (Nichole Brown) this season (the character apparently transferred to a private school).
I was also surprised that Raymond/Stingray (Paul Walter Hauser) wasn’t back for another go-round. That said, the character’s sophomoric humor likely would have felt out of place this season.
With the Miyago-Do Karate and Eagle Fang Karate students teaming up to take on Cobra Kai at the All Valley Karate Championship in Season 4, there should be some entertaining moments ahead.
It was also interesting to see Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz join the “good guys” in their mission against Cobra Kai. I’ll be fascinated to see where his character goes next season, and what sort of redemption arc the writers have in store for him.
Near the end of the episode, we see Kreese calling what appears to be one of his former Vietnam compatriots. I can only assume it’s the Terry Silver character from “The Karate Kid Part III” (and that he’ll team up with Kreese to get Cobra Kai ready for the tournament).
Overall, I had a good time watching the third season of “Cobra Kai.” I'm just bummed we’ll have to wait another year to visit these characters again.
The closing moments of the finale make that wait all the more difficult. Seeing Johnny and Daniel unite to train the students — as The Protomen’s cover of “In The Air Tonight” plays — felt pretty darn epic.
As the scene ends, Daniel says, “You ready?”
Yes... yes, I am!
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