Cobra Kai (2018)

An 80s nostalgia fest that picks up The Karate Kid story 30 years later: a down-on-his-luck Johnny (William Zabka) decides to open a new Cobra Kai gym, to the horror of embarrassing middle-aged weeb Daniel (Ralph Macchio), who sees it as the root of all evil.

John is insensitive and out of touch but has a better heart than Daniel gives him credit for, and Cobra Kai is transformative in the lives of various young losers, including Johnny's neighbour Miguel Diaz (Xolo Maridueña). Daniel, meanwhile, ends up training Johnny's estranged son Robby (Tanner Buchanan).

All this is set to an incongruous score of synthwave and 80s rock.

Clever and technically competent rather than soulful or inspired, it's all pretty cynical by-the-numbers writing, but it works well enough and some of the twists -- such as the emergence of Hawk -- are a lot of fun. Zabka and the kids are great; Ralph Macchio is also present.

Much better than the original film.

Tensions explode between rival Cobra Kai and Miyagi-do dojos, fuelled by the return of Johnny's cartoon villain sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove). While it's even more of a teen relationship drama than the first season, it does do a thoughtful job of illustrating the way that the kind of aggressive life philosophy that can sometimes be transformative inspiration for the downtrodden can also ultimately be toxic. Karate skills plus stupid teen hormones makes for bullying and relationship drama with an atypical level of violence.

Cobra Kai started out as a pleasant riff on The Karate Kid's story, showing the ways in which a teacher-student relationship can be rewarding for the mentor as well as the mentee; its twist on the original film was the hook but not the substance.

By this point, that's all dead. The descent into teen melodrama continues as karate fights and karate feuds break out over town, Johnny and Robby just can't communicate and Hawk goes full-on asshole. Any hint of humanity or vulnerability previously afforded to Kreese is replaced by embarrassing Vietnam flashbacks and metaphorical moustache-twirling. Daniel-san returns to Okinawa to revisit the friends/enemies he made in the execrable Karate Kid 2, because we've gotta cram those cameos in somewhere. Elisabeth Shue pops back too.

Absolute nonsense, but somewhat entertaining nonsense. I wonder if they'll somehow talk Hilary Swank into an appearance!

Continuing the strip-mining of the original films, season four of Cobra Kai turns to the hilariously terrible Karate Kid 3. The best reason to watch that film is cartoon supervillain Terry Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith), a piano-playing, toxic-waste-dumping billionaire who owes Kreese his life. Guess who's here!

It's probably the best season since the first, giving up on much of the teen romance for a return to mentor-mentee focus. Hints at a rehabilitation of Kreese after his heel-turn in season three are cynically obvious foreshadowing, but his relationship with Johnny nevertheless feels more genuine. So too do relationships between Johnny and Miguel, Johnny and Robby, Daniel and Samantha. New character Kenny (Dallas Dupree Young) is needed to once again retread the embrace of karate in the face of bullying.

Endlessly derivative as it is, it's an easy and enjoyable watch.

A few more new cameos from Karate Kid 2 and Karate Kid 3 and a whole lot more nonsense as Silver (Thomas Ian Griffith) continues playing karate Machiavelli. A weak and overstuffed season that does at least build to a satisfying climax.